Colin has an Honours degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Social Work (Queen's University Belfast), qualifying as a social worker in 1987. He went on to obtain a postgraduate certificate in Social Welfare Law and spent the first part of his career working in local authority statutory family and childcare in several roles and was a social work team leader for 5 years.  He is a SW  practice teacher.

Colin moved to NSPCC in 1999-2019 in a policy and public affairs role and worked on a wide range of policy and legislative issues. He did a part time secondment for a year to the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers’ (OFMDFM) Children’s Unit in 2010. He authored the NI Executive’s statement on child protection.

Colin has a longstanding interest in regulation and served as a Board member of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) 2005-2013 and as a member of the Authority’s Audit Committee. He subsequently was appointed to the NI Food Advisory Committee of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for 2 terms. He was a member of Northern Ireland Social Care Council’s (NISCC) Fitness to Practice for 8 years was a Ministerial appointment to the Optical Regulators Board CORU in the Republic of Ireland from 2023-2025. Colin was also a school governor.

Colin was Deputy Chair and Chair of British Association of Social Workers in NI from 2014-2019 and recently retired as Head of Safeguarding Services at the Education Authority after 6 years in the role.

Colin is registered with NISCC SCR 1048386 and is a member of BASW.