Andrew Craig
Andrew Craig, born in the USA and educated in Scotland, has been a consultant for over 20 years specialising in areas such as food and health, physical activity and user involvement in health services.
ACTIVIST
He is a patient participation activist as a member of the Balham Park Surgery Liaison Group in Wandsworth and devised the group's winning application for the 2002 Patient Participation Award from the Royal College of General Practitioners.
PRIMARY CARE LAY EXPERT
He has extensive NHS experience in primary care settings gained through membership of London Health Authorities, Primary Care Groups and Primary Care Trusts since 1988. In 2002 he was appointed to a unique role as a paid Lay Member on the Professional Executive Committee (PEC) of Wandsworth Primary Care Trust.
UNDERSTANDING OF COMPLAINTS
He was a complaints convener for various London NHS Health Authorities, Trusts and PCTs from 1996 to 2004 and active in the London Primary Care Complaints Consortium. He was involved in mental health issues in South West London and chaired the Mental Health Hospital Managers from 1989-1995 at Springfield Hospital in Tooting.
MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
His management experience includes six years as Head of Education and Training with the British Epilepsy Association and 14 years as a senior manager with the Royal College of Nursing before leaving in 1996 to pursue full-time consultancy. From 1996 to 2000 he was a consultant for the Sports Council governing body Exercise England combining the roles of Chief Executive and Registrar. As a result of this, he led the project team for the Department of Health's National Quality Assurance Framework for Exercise Referral Systems (DoH, 2001).
ANDREW AT M-A-C
Andrew has led many projects for the Partnership - he co-wrote the NHS Wales guidance on complaint handling and prepared much of the training material for that project working with Christine Hogg. He was a member of the M-A-C team in the Foundation Trust projects where he has developed the "beliefs and values" prioritisation tool for Governors to use. He researches and writes the M-A-C public involvement blog, keeps the essential guide to UK online PPI resources up to date on the website and contributes occasional articles for publications.
Andrew also has collaborated for many years with Healthcare Productions Ltd a specialist production company in health, health promotion and social care. M-A-C is working with Healthcare Productions to prepare complaint handling training for primary care staff in Wales.
ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS
From an academic (First Class MA Hons, St Andrews, 1971) and research background (Carnegie Scholarship, PhD, Edinburgh, 1980), he gained professional qualifications as a further education teacher (University of London, PGCE (Technical), 1977) and in health education (London South Bank University, DipHealthEducation, 1982). He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.