It’s been quite a journey to here… will you help take the next steps?

The Compassion Practices have been developed since 2003 when Andy Bradley’s experiences of the health and social care sector suggested that they were driven by the forces of compliance and competition rather than those of compassion and humanity. Andy founded Frameworks4Change and worked with clients to create a more stable field of compassion in health and social care settings.

Andy is recognised by NESTA and The Observer Newspaper as one of Britain’s ‘New Radicals’. The compassion work is covered by the BBC and featured in a series of articles by The Independent newspaper that responded to concerns around the culture of the NHS highlighted by the Francis report and the Winterbourne View enquiry.

One Leadership support Andy’s leadership; Frameworks4Change and One Leadership offer Compassionate Leadership insights together at conferences and with leadership teams.

The first compassion circle lasting 2.5 hours is offered to a senior group of clinicians and NHS leaders in South Tyneside. A script for a one-hour compassion circle is developed, tested and evaluated.

The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board adopts compassion circles as an integral element to its work on employee wellbeing as part of a response to the Mid Staffordshire and Winterbourne View inquiries, changing the name to Taking Care, Giving Care rounds.

The work becomes increasingly influential both nationally and internationally, including:

• 2017, a year-long compassionate leadership inquiry across the West Midlands, led by Laura Simms in the context of loss and grief, sees Compassion Circle training by Andy Bradley & Paul Johanson, with practice an important feature


• 2019 Public Health Wales make Taking Care Giving Care rounds an integral part of their approach to the Mental Health Outcomes Collaborative and in 2020 together with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, host a conference on the practice. Benna Waites tells the five year story of implementation and presents data showing over 1000 staff have attended rounds since 2015 with highly positive evaluation data.

• 20 Minute Care Space is designed and rolled out in Bristol as a response to help care for frontline staff who are responding to the Covid 19 public health emergency, with a collaboration with UCL to evaluate the practice.


• 10 Minute Pause Space and 5 Minute Me Space are endorsed by the NHS Mental Health Taskforce and made available on NHS digital platforms.


• The Compassion Practices Collective is convened by The One Leadership Project with a view to making the compassion practices available to everyone working in health and social care – and beyond.

This CompassionPractices.net website is launched, with the aim of ‘liberating compassion globally’.

The rest – is partly up to you! Welcome…

Regular compassion practices hosted by Compassionpractices.net with global uptake.