Jo Sutherland

Jo Sutherland brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the role of Technical Director at Reed. A qualified and highly accomplished social work manager and former principal social worker, Jo is also approved mental health professional (AMHP) and best interests assessor (BIA) qualified and continues to practise in these areas.

Her extensive skill set spans multiple domains, including:

• Quality assurance and support

• Adult social work governance

• Service, care and support

• Mental Capacity Act and Court of Protection

• Innovative strategy development

• Service model design

• Operations management

• Mental Health Act

• Safeguarding adult reviews

• Policy development

• Legal and regulatory compliance

• Team leadership

• HR processes including reasonable adjustments passports

• Learning and development including training delivery

Jo’s career began as a care assistant, where she developed a deep understanding of the importance of listening to and engaging with people drawing on services. From there, she progressed to residential social work and later worked with carers, receiving the support to undertake her social work training. Her passion for adult mental health shaped her early career, leading to her first management role as service manager for an assertive outreach service, during which she completed her approved social worker training (now AMHP).

Jo then advanced into an AMHP lead and policy lead role, gaining significant experience in developing meaningful policies to underpin social work practice. Her career continued to evolve as she worked within an older-age disability service, completing BIA training and practising as a DoLS authoriser.

Committed to professional development, Jo qualified as a Level 3 trainer and later as a mental health first aid trainer - train the trainer, as well as in managing mental health in the workplace. She further expanded her expertise by becoming an accredited chair for domestic homicide reviews, deepening her knowledge of safeguarding and governance.

Today, Jo continues to undertake Court of Protection assessments for an Integrated Care Board (ICB) and practises as a BIA for multiple local authorities, ensuring her technical knowledge remains current and applied.

One of Jo’s favourite aspects of working at Reed is the opportunity to collaborate with like-minded professionals in pursuit of excellence and innovation. She values the freedom to connect with experts from her wider career network to support Reed’s commitment to co-production with people drawing on services and their careers.

Jo is passionate about legislation and remains an avid reader of legal updates, regularly sharing insights and briefing colleagues to ensure best practice across the organisation