Sparring Partners provides a range of disability consultancy services, including:
Training: disability equality, user empowerment, committee skills
Research: user consultation, user-led projects, reviews, feasibility studies
Facilitation: meetings facilitation, user group support
Presentation: full report preparation, video and photographic services

We bring together:
practical experience with academic rigour
commitment to disability rights with a track record of working with statutory agencies and the private sector

We have all the advantages of a small cost-effective organisation, but over our years of working in disability consultancy we have built up excellent contacts with collaborators. When necessary, we partner with these consultants on a project by project basis to provide a comprehensive service to our clients.

Sparring Partners Productions Limited was formed in 1995 when we were asked to make a short television report for the BBC. Now, while retaining our interest in the media, we are increasingly involved in disability consultancy and research coverning the south and west of England.

Angie Carmichael: Principal Consultant

Angie started her career in the media but has worked in disability consultancy for the past 14 years. Initially a researcher and associate producer for a disability magazine programme airing on Channel Four, she went on to work as a freelance on documentaries for the BBC and C4. In 1992 she moved more directly into the field of disability rights, including advocacy, user involvement and disability equality training. Since co-founding Sparring Partners, Angie now concentrates on consultancy and research: for Wiltshire County Council she co-ordinated a ground-breaking user-led Best Value Review and is part of the team which enabled WCC to gain Beacon Status for its services for people with learning difficulties. She is a consultant to the Social Work department of Wiltshire College and lectures at the University of Bath. She is also manager of Wiltshire People First and is often in demand as a trainer (all over the south-west and beyond), covering topics like User Empowerment, Assertiveness, Committee Skills, Disability Legislation, Staff Recruitment, Community Care and Disability Rights. In 2002 she completed an MA in Disability Studies.

Alison West: Editor/Administrator

Alison graduated in English from the University of Durham and worked in the oil industry before moving into television. She was a founder director of an independent production company that made eight series of programmes for Channel Four .

She then changed course into conference management, where she organised medical events in the UK, Europe and the USA. Developing her interest in IT, she built a delegate handling system to speed up administration; she also wrote and produced graphics for presentations. For Sparring Partners, Alison concentrates on the editing and production of reports, videos and other material, and she also manages the money!