Mick Ward joined Nurture Development as Senior Associate after retiring in June 2020 as Chief Officer, Transformation and Innovation, Adults and Health, in Leeds City Council. He led on LCC’s ground breaking work on proliferating ABCD at a strategic level within a Local Authority as well as leading work on Creative Arts and Health & Wellbeing, Service Transformation, Digital HWB and Equality.
Mick, on behalf of Nurture Development, will be providing training, mentoring, leadership coaching and consultancy to organisations interested in shifting towards an ABCD-Strengths-based way of working. He has co-developed and is now co delivering the Commissioning and Service Transformation Through the Lens of ABCD course developed for organisations looking to commission ABCD at a strategic level and/or to transform their organisation to work in more community centred ways including practical sessions on: Development of a localised commissioning framework, development of a business plan and an evaluation framework. Mick’s on the ground experience and his skills as a thoughtful companion to others on this journey will prove invaluable to change makers who wish to effect enduring and authentic change.
He is from Leeds and worked for social care for 42 years. Starting as a Care Assistant his career developed into becoming Deputy Director of Adults and Heath, a joint appointment between Leeds City Council and Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group, leading on to commissioning across a wide range of health and care services.
Mick has a strong commitment to the social model of disability, citizenship, communities, innovation, culture, equality, and partnership working.
In addition to working with Nurture Development, Mick is an Associate at the Health Innovation Lab (part of London South Bank University), a Trustee of Leeds Based charity PAFRAS which supports destitute asylum seekers, a board member of Marching Out Together (the Leeds United LGBTQ+ fan group) and is a Shared Lives Carer.
Tweet @mickmodern