As well as working as a consultant with Mutuo, Cliff Mills is a consultant at Cobbetts, solicitors in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. He is a leading expert in corporate governance and the law of mutual and co-operative organisations.

With a background acting for the large retail co-operative societies on mergers, constitutional and governance issues, with Mutuo he has argued the case for the development of new models of co-operative and mutual ownership for use across public services.

He led the team at Cobbetts which supported many of the first NHS foundation trusts on establishing their new governance structures, and he works extensively with their boards of directors and governors. He served on the Department of Health’s External Reference Group on governance matters.

He has designed new models of ownership for providers of out of hours primary care services, and a variety of other areas including children’s services (Sure Start), leisure services and social housing.