Our People

Colin Imrie

Colin has spent 26 years in social care, working with children and young people and their families. He worked for the first seven years in a variety of residential children’s units as worker and manager for Somerset, Manchester and Stockport Local Authorities. This was followed, by 5 years as children and families team manager for Stockport Local Authority working predominately with Child Protection. Following that he had 10 years as owner and director of Turnaround (a small independent organisation with three homes and 10 beds) offering crisis intervention for hard to place young people. Colin has a first degree in Outdoor Education, a post graduate Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW) and a Master’s Degree in Philosophy (Ethics of Social Welfare). Colin has completed numerous short courses in social care and management and is a qualified NVQ assessor and verifier.

Colin has been training in social work and social care for over 18 years and has been doing this full time since establishing Aquila Alternatives. Colin’s particular training interests are around safeguarding children, working with children who have been abused, children who self harm and around working with young people who are abusive to others.

Colin is  currently expanding his work around helping residential units develop a more pedagogical approach to social care, using therapeutic adventure and developing staff teams through a mixture of experiential adventure and social care training. 

 Ann Gaffney

Ann has worked in residential care with children and young people for over 30 years. She worked as a Residential Manager in the Private Sector before concentrating on a Training and Development Role from July 2005. Prior to that, she worked for Cheshire Social Services for the bulk of her career where she managed an adolescent secure facility for several years. She gained the Diploma in Social Work from Salford University in 2000.

Ann is an experienced and skilled trainer, NVQ Assessor and  Internal Verifier.

Ann currently works in both Children’s and Adult care arenas and is au fait with both sectors’ current legislation, regulation and practice issues. Her interests include work and evidence based practice and she has particular interest in the induction and retention of care staff.

Her belief is that if recruitment and induction are undertaken well, then the service will more likely retain the worker. Ann writes and delivers motivational and inspiring training and development events.

Ann is a Practice Assessor with the University of Chester, working with BA and MA routes in a variety of practice placements.

An avid reader of practice issues, Ann will use the most current research and findings as the basis for her training delivery.