Tim Bryan Email & Phone Number

My police role in child protection was a profound experience in many ways for me and began an insight into how we could work collaboratively with social services and other agencies to gain a fuller understanding of children and their circumstances in order then to fashion the best possible solutions, with others. That work and thinking continued in the setting up of MAPPA and the collaborative framework with probation, prisons and other agencies, for managing sexual and violent offenders returning to the community. I was an integral part of devising and implementing MAPPA across the country for a number of years and am proud that it has helped, and continues to help, prevent considerable further serious re-offending, more than we will ever really know. My move to prison chaplaincy brought together my faith and much of the life experience I acquired during my career in the police. Being an ex-Met detective, even with a clerical collar, wasn’t always a great introductory line to the residents of HMP Wandsworth. But what happened was something quite remarkable. Gradually I got to know people not for the crimes they had committed but for who they were in relation to other stuff; family issues, addictions, mental health, kids, anger and, for some, faith. And I was there to serve, to listen, to offer compassion when required and to be a sort of buffer with the institution. I wasn’t required to judge, there was plenty of that, as you might imagine. In that role I was able to come alongside people hearing something of their own ‘life experience’ ( aware of the over representation of people from the care system in prison, mental health and addiction issues – none of that child protection experience was wasted and while it is not an excuse for behaviour, sometimes it gives a powerful insight into what has shaped attitudes and choices). That’s why building relationships with people in prison is so important. And now as I leave the Prison Service, there is no sense of wanting to leave these issues, the Gospel and the call to be involved wherever possible with others, in supporting transformational change is too important.