My training and qualifications

I am a medical doctor who trained, as all doctors do, initially in anatomy. physiology, pathology and psychology at Cambridge university (MA) then medical school at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, returning to Cambridge for my final medical exams (MB, BChir). I also did a year in German literature at Cambridge.

For the first years of my medical life after qualifying in medicine, I worked in a range of ordinary and teaching hospitals around London. My training there led to experience in all aspects of general hospital medicine as well as in children’s medicine. I took higher specialist exams and was elected to membership of two Royal Colleges: Medicine and Paediatrics and Child Health. I was later elected to Fellowship (the highest honour) of these two colleges and this is recognised by my FRCP and FRCPCH titles.

Then I worked and trained in general, mainly adult, psychiatry for three years moving to four years of specialist training in child and adolescent psychiatry, including paediatric neurology. I took exams to become a member, then was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (FRCPsych).

That means that I am one of a very few doctors to be a fellow of three Royal Colleges of Medicine. It would not be possible to achieve this today as training has become shorter and narrower.

I have received specific training in EEGs (brain wave tests), cognitive behaviour therapy, family therapy and individual psychotherapy.

I have been trained as an Appraiser of doctors who are all assessed each year to make sure they are as professional as they should be

Some of my previous advisory posts

  • Specialist Advisor to the Health Advisory Service

  • Advisor to the House of Commons Health Committee

  • Specialist Advisor the Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Unit

  • Consultant Civilian Advisor to the British Army/British Armed Forces

  • Visiting Consultant: Brain Injury Unit, The Children’s Trust, Tadworth Court

  • Visiting Consultant to Moor House School for Children with Specific Speech and Language Disorders

  • Consultant to the National Autistic Society working in several of their schools and on their Central Council.

  • Consultant advisor Tourette’s Association/Tourette’s Action

  • President: Union Européenne des Médecins Specialistes (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)

    Vice president European Board of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists

  • Honorary Consultant to the Attachment and Trauma Team, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

  • Various advisory boards on children’s medicines in both the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the (then) Committee on the Safety of Medicines, the European Medicines Agency, and for pharmaceutical companies. I have a special interest in the safety of medicines.

My clinical experience

I have been a practising doctor since 1969, a psychiatrist since 1972, and a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist since 1979. My first university appointment was as a senior lecturer in child and adolescent psychiatry. Subsequently (1992) I was appointed Professor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the University of London.

Initially I worked in child and adolescent psychiatry at St George’s Hospital, and Medical School, London but in 1998 I moved to work only in the NHS at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. I left paid employment there in 2003 (though continued on an honorary basis for six further years) in order to concentrate on my own private practice, initially in Wimpole Street, then Harley Street, later in Great James Street, Bloomsbury, close to both the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and to Great Ormond Street.

I have, in the past, been elected to various posts in the Royal College of Psychiatrists

  • Chair: Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

  • Chair Specialist Advisory Committee (Higher Specialist Training) in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

  • Chair: MRCPsych Examinations MCQ Groups

  • Chair: President's Working Group on Manpower

  • Chair: Mentally Ill Parents Working Party

  • Secretary: Manpower Committee

  • Member of Council, Examinations s/committee and numerous other committees and working groups within the Royal College 

  • Examiner for the MRCPsych

Academic experience

I have taught on psychiatric topics to undergraduate medical students, a large range of qualified doctors and psychologists in training, and consultants/specialists in children’s medicines across the world. I have been invited to teach in all continents except Antarctica. Currently I have been invited to lecture at forthcoming meetings of the George Still Forum and Gresham College.

I have published x papers and y books. Most recently I have written

  • The Parents’ Guide to ADHD Medicines (Jessica Kingsley 2021)

  • The Art of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with Dr Jonathan Williams (Royal College of Psychiatrists/Cambridge University Press) in press 2023

I continue to publish papers, mainly through The UK ADHD Partnership whose Board I sit on, on topics to do with ADHD. 

I have been an appointed examiner for the DCH and MRCPsych

A list of my publications is available on request, and which are: 12 books, 56 chapters and 57 papers.

My reputation

I am regarded as a very senior and experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist. I am listed in Who’s Who, Who’s Who in the World and (when it was current) Debrett’s People of Today.

What I’m good at

  • Second or further opinions on diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues in the young.

  • Risks or adverse consequences of psychiatric medicines in childhood and adolescence

What I’m less good at

  • Recommendations on relationships between child and separated parents

  • Care and custody