She was a Police Officer for 24 years, approx. 17years as a sergeant, she has had a variety of roles including patrol, sex offences, custody sergeant, patrol sergeant, tactical support group sergeant (i.e riot & public disorder), training department sergeant & civil contingencies / emergency planning sergeant.

Joanne is an awarding training provider for a variety of first aid and Health & Safety training requirements and a licensed centre for The National Federation For Personal Safety (NFPS) to deliver courses in Use of Force, self defence, conflict management etc and Safer Handling of vulnerable people such as children, the elderly and custodial.

She is an NSPCC trained trainer for child protection and safeguarding.

Joanne is currently performing as a national Expert Witness for criminal & civil court cases.

She owns Total Train

and Safer Handling Training

She has achieved the following awards:

2012 International runner up for ‘Excellence in Performance'

2012 Winner of the British Association For Women in Policing ‘Excellence in Performance' award

2011 runner up National Business Continuity Awards for innovative training design & delivery for major incident management

2010 Assistant Chief Constable award & National Police Improvement Agency ‘commended' for Safer Detention & Handling of Detained Persons program design & delivery.

2009 UK Training Awards winner for Professionalising Investigation

2008 National Training awards winner for Professionalising Investigation

2007 Deputy Chief Constable certificate of merit for evaluation & quality assurance systems designed and implemented which resulted in HMIC (Her Majesty Inspectorate of Constabularies) describing the impact as ‘a sizematic improvement' in the management of the force training function

2006 Deputy Chief Constable certificate of merit for design & delivery of Professionalising Investigation. This entailed the investigation of offences against vulnerable people.

Joanne represented the Constabulary, and chaired, the multi agency Local Resilience Forum groups in Learning & Development, Business Continuity Management (including Counter Terrorism incidents) and Risk Assessment. She then represented Cumbria at regional and national government group levels.

She worked on the regional & national planning groups which included:
2012 Olympics and 2012 Olympic torch relay and 2011 National riots; Prison strikes; etc

Joanne designed and delivered the debriefs and evaluations on behalf of the Cumbria Resilience Forum for major incidents such as the Derrick Bird mass shootings, 2009 severe floods, major incidents & major crimes.

She operated Gold Command for all Cumbria major incidents between 2008 - 2013 and acted as an advisor to strategic managers from across the multi agency spectrum. She brings to the classroom a wealth of professional and personal knowledge & experience which is unique and much sought after on a national basis.

Joanne is currently working on some national training packages for safer handling, safeguarding and mental illness at work and school.

She is available for public speaking and training throughout the UK and is currently working on a Diploma in the management of violence, and a diploma in counselling and psychotherapy.