John Cross

From PETT-Wiki

John Cross trained as a psychotherapist and teacher. He began his professional career in residential work with emotionally deprived and disturbed children and young people at Bodenham Manor School with David Wills. Following a period as deputy head of a Centre working with delinquent boys, he became head of a Children's Observation and Assessment Centre in Liverpool. He was co-founder in 1965 of New Barns School, a therapeutic community for both boys and girls, where he was Principal, and latterly Therapeutic Consultant. For over thirty years he has served on the Council of the Association of Workers for Maladjusted Children, now the Association of Workers for Children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, formerly being its General Secretary, and now a Vice President. He is Consultant in the residential treatment of emotionally deprived, disturbed and delinquent children and young people.

Alongside his work and involvement with children with special needs, he has a lifetime interest in penal affairs. As a Quaker, he served on the Friends' Penal Affairs Committee, and was co-author of the groundbreaking monograph "Six Quakers Look at Crime and Punishment". For many years he served as a magistrate, and in this capacity was Chairman of the Youth and Family Courts, and Vice Chairman of the Gloucestershire Probation Committee.

Among his current commitments, he is Chairman of the Special Educational Needs National Advisory Council, on the Council of the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities, and on the Council of Management Committee of Young Minds, the national charity for child and family mental health.