The Blue Light Leavers Podcast

Today I'm speaking with Abi and Louise from Protective Care Group. Protective Care Group (PCG) was founded from lived experience and a genuine passion to give robust, consistent and therapeutic care to young people across the UK who are extremely complex and display challenging behaviours. These behaviours are vast, but often include aggression, self-harm, suicide risk, absconding, CCE risk an...

In this episode I am talking to Andy Robins. Andy who is director of Affinity Fostering Services. He’s a really nice guy and ex-cop. We talk about his policing career history and the why he left policing to go into the fostering services and working with a family member. We talk all things fostering including what make a really good foster carer. Those key skills and behaviours and what makes it a...

In this episode I've got the absolute pleasure of talking to Cheryl   Thornley. Cheryl is the director of Puzzle Piece Law, they are an independent legal consultancy that advises and support individuals on all family law matters that includes separation, divorce, child contact and access to education, including special educational needs.   Cheryl is a former military veteran and an ex-cop. She...

This bonus episode is taken from a Live Session that was held to introduce our partners Frontline Financial Solutions. I was deeply honoured to have Howard Reuben and Victoria Bennett join me on the session. Founded by Howard, Frontline are a division of HD Consultants. Offering advice on Mortgages, Insurance and Estate Planning (including a FREE basic will writing service) specifically tailored t...

In this episode I'm talking to Eddie Whittingham. I'm not going to give too much away; however, this is an incredible story. So inspirational. Eddie is a serial entrepreneur and he's a former cop and he's just gone on to do some amazing things. He talks us through his policing career and why he left and what he left to do and how he felt about leaving. He went on to create his own...

In this episode I'm talking to an incredible human being, Shirley Kennett. Shirley is an ex-cop and a former police cadet like me, and she's gone on to do some incredible and amazing things. She talks about policing career and what caused her ill-health retirement, and then what she's gone on to from that point. She's doing some amazing things, and I promise you will not regret lis...

This bonus episode is a Blue Light Leavers Live Session that that we ran with Dominic McVeigh. Dom is a former cop and is now a lecturer with the University of West England. The university starts is new course in September 2024 'The BSc(Hons) Applied Criminal Justice Top-Up degree' It is specifically designed to offer you the chance to gain academic recognition alongside your invaluable on...

This episode is an Academy Live Session that we ran with John Edmunds.   Many of you will know, John is my right-hand man in the group. He really helps so much and does his utmost to keep me organised and on track.   What you may not know is that John retired from the police as a result of ill health in 2022!   Over the years, his mental health deteriorated significantly, which resulted in him suf...

In this episode, I'm talking with former police officer, Paul Rowland. Paul is a Deputy Manager in the care sector, predominantly caring for young people who are no longer within the family environment, whether through behaviour or because of specific learning requirements. Much of this is on a 1:1 basis and is incredibly rewarding and utilises so many of the skills we pick up in our policing...

In this episode, I'm talking with Simon Chicken who is the Event Director of the International Franchise Show being held at the Excel in London, on Fri 12th and Sat 13th April 2024, and Daniel McCarthy who is the Director of Business Development. Today we're talking about why franchising is a really good fit for cops, military and other emergency service professionals, whatever their lengt...

Tina is the owner of Safe and Sound, who are a First Aid Training provider. They also deliver health and safety training, conflict management and numerous other training programmes to public and private sector organisations. Phil is a former cop who's now delivering first aid training on behalf of Safe and Sound and in this episode, we talk through his policing career and what he's done si...

Welcome to Episode 82 of the Blue Light Leavers podcast. In this episode I'm talking to Simon and Angela Barry. In our first call, Simon really was genuinely pretty broken. He was lacking self-confidence, self-esteem, and he'd clearly been through a really tough time. They'd applied for a load of jobs with no success getting through to interviews, so we ended up working one to one. Why...

Welcome to episode 81 of the Blue Light Leavers podcast which is a little bit different. This episode features Hannah Bailey, Fraser Bishop, John Edmunds and Andy Labrum. This is an audio recording of our first New Year, Live session in ⁠The Blue Light Leavers Academy⁠ , which is our low-cost monthly membership. In this session, we share the successes of our Academy members who moved into new role...

Ep.80 From Policing to Investigative Consultancy and Training Provider with Sukie Madahar Sukie is a former Detective Sergeant, and he is the founder of Swift Investigations Limited and Swift Edification. They offer specialist education and consultancy services and they also provide training courses to businesses globally and they're accredited to deliver trainer sessions for Level 3 and Level...

Ep.79 Why So Many Police Officers Are Leaving - with Professor Sarah Charman and Dr Jemma Tyson. Professor Sarah Charman is a Professor of Criminology, and Dr Jemma Tyson, a senior lecturer in Criminology, both work at the University of Portsmouth. You may be aware that they conducted a study entitled ‘Voluntary resignations from the police service: the impact of organisational and occupational st...

From Policing to Senior Project Manager at Turner Townsend Consultancy. In this episode I talk to former firearms sergeant and 1:1 client of mine, Josh Penwill. In this interview, we talk about why he left policing, the steps we took to identify the type of roles and what was going to suit him best and his salary expectations, and we talk through the right courses that would help him. We also talk...

From ill-health Retirement to Published Fiction Author with Tracy Earl. Tracy is a former police officer who served for 26 years before having to retire through ill-health, due to a diagnosis of PTSD. She has since gone on to become a published author of a book called Darkness Rising in a series called Children of the Light and signed by a US publishing house for a trilogy. In this episode we cove...

Welcome to Ep. 76 of the Blue Light Leavers Podcast. Hope you've all had a fantastic summer, despite the weather! We've had a few weeks away and we're back with an amazing interview with Jim Bishop and Gavin Crowther who are the founders of Red Air Media. Red Air Media are a specialist drone company, and they use drones for filming, surveys, photography, inspection works and more. In t...

Welcome to Episode 75 of the Blue Light Leavers Podcast Today, I've got the absolute privilege of talking to Anna Allerton.  As a former journalist and producer, she enjoyed a 17 year career at Sky Sports in varying senior roles with the most prominent in founding and producing the sportswomen program.  An industry leader in women's sport journalism throughout her career, she's been hu...

Welcome to Episode 74 of the Blue Light Leavers Podcast So today I'm talking with Lewis Willcox . Lewis is a consultant with a really highly sought after, well known recruitment company called Investigo and deals predominantly with change and transformation programmes in policing, public sector and government organisations. He's really highly respected and a really good guy. I've known...

Welcome to Episode 73 of the Blue Light Leavers Podcast Now, what we wanted to do was give you a bit of an insight into the type of live interviews we do within The Academy from Blue Light Leavers . The Academy is a no tie in, really low fee monthly membership, and we have loads of guest speakers, including lots of cops that have moved into new roles and we talk about why and how they've gone...

I'm incredibly proud to be able to announce another collaboration with a partner offering employment opportunities to Blue Light Leavers .   Career Forces , is the brainchild of Military Veteran Andy Howe , who spent over 4 decades serving in the military and civil service. He and I met a few weeks back at an event organised by Forces Transition Group and we immediately hit it off. Career Forc...

Welcome to Episode 71 of the Blue Light Leavers podcast. Luke Chadwick is a former professional footballer who made his mark as a talented midfielder during his time at Manchester United, going on to play for numerous clubs, including West Ham, Norwich City, MK Dons, Cambridge Utd and others. Known for his dedication and perseverance, he was hugely admired for his work ethic, versatility, and abil...

Welcome to episode 70 of the Blue Light Leavers Podcast In this episode, I've the absolute pleasure of talking with Amanda Whittaker. Amanda is the founder of Super Simple Sleep and the Baby Sleep Support Facebook Community. In the episode, she talks us through her policing career history and some of the challenges she had being, balancing being a new mum and a police officer. She goes on to e...

Welcome to episode 69 of the Blue Light Leavers Podcast In this episode, I'm incredibly honoured to be speaking with Donna Ohdedar. She's the Managing Director of Review Consulting , she's a keynote public speaker, she's previously been the Head of Law for a large Metropolitan Authority, she's a safeguarding advisor and mentor, and she delivers a University Accredited programme...