John Grounds

John Grounds is director of child protection consultancy for the NSPCC. He leads the Society’s work to influence organisations to make themselves safer for children. The work covers social care, health, education, sport, not-for-profit and commercial sectors and includes the development, marketing and delivery of training, consultancy, learning resources and a range of partnership programmes.

From 2002-2009 he was director of communications for the NSPCC. His responsibilities covered all aspects of the society's public relations, advertising, new media, marketing communications and internal communications. He also led the NSPCC’s work on involving children and young people.

John's earlier career took in both commercial and charity roles. Prior to the NSPCC he was director of campaigns and communications at medical charity Action Medical Research. His last task at Action Research was to launch the charity's 50th anniversary year, with the help of its long-time mascot, Paddington Bear.

Other past roles include responsibility for communications at Barnardo's, five years at The Body Shop as international PR manager working closely with Anita and Gordon Roddick and a PR and campaigning role alongside Bruce Kent at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Alongside his current role at the NSPCC John is also a trustee of the Foundation for Social Improvement and a member of the board of CharityComms, the professional development body for communicators in the not-for-profit sector. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a former member of the board of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. A regular member of judging panels for industry award schemes, his teams have also won over 100 awards across all aspects of marketing and communications.

On behalf of the NSPCC John is also a member of the boards of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

John is the author of a book, London: A Living Guide as well as numerous articles in both professional and mainstream publications. He is a regular speaker at conferences and events in both the not for profit and wider industry sectors and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Marketing.

Born in Braintree, Essex, John went to university in Cambridge and Reading before moving to London, where he lived until moving to his current home in Horsham, West Sussex, after the birth of his son, Tom in 1990.

Outside work music is a consuming passion, as well as a love of food (cooking and eating), travel, film, theatre, art, comics and literature and a 45-year devotion to Arsenal FC.