Chris is a Registered Forensic and Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council, a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Chris has worked as a forensic psychologist for over 15 years in prisons, high secure hospitals and in National Offender Management Services (NOMS) headquarters.

From 2008 - 2015 he was a member and then head of, a specialist team in NOMS, who have pioneered the development of innovative,  psychologically-informed assessments and interventions to counter extremism and group-based violence. These include the Extremism Risk Guidelines (ERG 22+), Extremism Risk Screen (ERS), Healthy Identity Intervention (HII), Developing Dialogues (DD) and Identity Matters (IM). A number of these products have been adapted by the Home Office for use in the community.  

He has developed and informed policies, processes and research to identify and address prison radicalisation, effectively manage extremist offenders and successfully reintegrate them into society. He has provided consultancy nationally and internationally to government departments, agencies, correctional services and academia. This includes being a member of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism’s expert committee on the role of psychology in the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremist offenders.  He has also consulted with the Home Office on various projects including the Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP).

He has trained professionals in the UK and internationally in assessments and interventions to prevent extremist offending and group-violence and has authored a number of papers and book chapters in his areas of expertise.

His roles have included being a practitioner, trainer, supervisor, consultant, researcher, policy developer, project manager and senior manager.

He is a Senior Fellow at the Global Centre on Co-operative Security (UK) where he is currently acting as a consultant to develop and deliver training to support prison services around the world in their response to countering violent extremism.  

Karen is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. She has a BSc in Behavioural Sciences, a MSc in Methods of Social Research and Evaluation and a 25 years strong and extensive track record of leading effective strategic and operational delivery in community safety. Up until October 2010 she was North West Lead on Serious Violent Crime Prevention and Reduction, working via the Government Office. 

Karen worked with the Home Office’s Tackling Guns and Gangs Action Plan Team which was led by Chief Constable Murphy of Merseyside Police, the outcome of which was the development of a dedicated gang strategy for the core cities on addressing gun and gang-related violent crime. 

Karen has led a number of Peer Reviews on community safety new ways of working, addressing serious organised crime, piloting of integrated offender management and also strategic planning and delivery around counter terrorism all with clear and agreed recommendations.

In 2011, Karen was a Member of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Professional Development Group for Public Health and Domestic Violence.  Karen was appointed as a core member of the Ending Gang and Youth Violence Team as a Peer Review Manager in March 2012 to March 2014 and is now working independently as a peer for the Home Office on EGYV and as an independent advisor on crime prevention, reduction and community safety. Karen is an Associate of MAC-UK which works on transforming mental health service delivery for excluded young people who offend or are at risk of offending. Karen is an Expert Reviewer for the National Institute for Health Research.