Adam Payne has worked in health and social care since 2001, beginning his career as a support worker supporting people with learning disabilities who had complex needs and behaviours that challenge.
Early in his career he moved into community outreach services supporting people with mental health needs, personality disorders and learning disabilities to live independently within the community. This work involved supporting people to maintain tenancies, develop independence and access their local communities.
Over time Adam progressed into service management roles, leading staff teams and overseeing the delivery of supported living and community-based services. He later moved into operational leadership roles responsible for multiple services across several regions, supporting managers, overseeing service quality and ensuring services were delivering safe and effective support.
Throughout his career Adam has worked across a wide range of services including learning disability services, autism support, mental health services, personality disorder services, supported living and community outreach services.
In addition to operational leadership, Adam has also led workforce development and service improvement work, supporting organisations to strengthen staff practice, develop clearer systems and improve the quality of support being delivered.
This has included developing Positive Behaviour Support approaches, mentoring managers and leadership teams, supporting investigations and safeguarding work, and helping organisations strengthen support planning and risk assessment processes.
Since 2018 Adam has also delivered workforce training across the sector and has now trained over 6,000 staff working in supported living and social care services. In 2018 he received the National Care Award for Care Trainer in recognition of this work.
The consultancy work delivered through Innovative Pathways draws on this broad experience across frontline support, service management, operational leadership, workforce development and consultancy.
This means the support offered is always grounded in the realities of how services operate day to day.