Sector Specialists profiles

Michael Baxter – Senior Consultant

Michael has a successful background in primary headship, senior LA management and working at a national level with both the Sure Start Unit and the National Strategies. He led on the development of one of the first Sure Start Trailblazer local programmes. Having experienced three LA inspection and Joint Area Reviews, he has a clear record in improving service delivery and raising standards.

Prior to joining Cordis Bright, Michael was working across the Early Years and Sure Start and School Improvement Services in the LB Camden, leading on the LA’s preparation for and implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage across all sectors and providers. 

Lynn Beckett – Strategic Manager Early Years & Childcare (Sandwell MBC)

Lynn’s current role entails working at strategic and operational levels delivering the National Childcare Strategy and ensuring the LA fulfills the duties required under the Childcare Act 2006, as well as acting as a connector for integrated working. Her career spans 39 years and she has worked for the health service, voluntary sector, within education (both schools and FE) and for local authorities for the last 9 years.

Carmel Burton – Sure Start Partnership Manager (Swindon Borough Council)

Carmel is the Sure Start Partnership manager for Swindon Borough Council. The post has a wide remit covering responsibility for children's centres, extended services in and around schools, the development and quality of childcare, childcare training, the delivery of the information duty, parenting and the parent partnership. She has been at the council for five and a half years. Prior to that she was a team manager for Ofsted early years.

Lynnette Chapman – Research and Evaluation Manager (Devon County Council)

Lynnette is Research and Evaluation Manager for the Early Years and Childcare Service at Devon County Council. With a background in research, she has worked in the field of applied research for over 10 years at both national and local government level. Her academic background includes a specialist in research at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Her previous experience includes setting up and leading a team of researchers as part of the Community Evaluation Unit which was established to support the research needs of Sure Start Local Programmes and community regeneration projects.

Chris Forrester – Planning & Commissioning Manager - Sure Start North Moor Children’s Centre (Newcastle City Council)

Ros Hatherill – Manager Early Years and Extended Services (Herefordshire County Council)

With a teaching background and deputy headship Ros was an Ofsted Inspector (National) with HMI for 2 years. She then spent several years with the voluntary sector delivering various aspects of community development management across West Midlands. She was previously the Manager of Sure Start local programme for Herefordshire (rural remit) and is currently Manager of Early Years and Extended Services for Herefordshire.

Alison Hitchins – Head of Early Years and Childcare Services (Worcestershire County Council)

Alison’s current role is managing the Early Years and Childcare Service in Worcestershire. Her previous roles included early year’s teacher, nursery school deputy Headteacher, and lecturer / head of early years (department in FE college). She then moved to Worcestershire in 1998 to take up her current post. Her qualifications include an NNEB, Cert Ed, B.ED and M.Sc (Educational Leadership and Management).

Jo McEvoy – Quality Team Leader (Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council)

Jo McEvoy is the Early Years Quality Team leader for Tameside. Her team supports the development of high quality EYFS practice and leads on the action plan for the Early Years Outcomes Duty. Previously, Jo has worked as an early year’s consultant, a Foundation Stage teacher, a pre-school supervisor, development worker and tutor.

Catherine (Kate) McKenna – Previously Rutland County Council

Kate has over 25 years of experience working in the Children's Services sector spanning local government, DCSF and the charitable sector. The majority of that experience has included responsibility for the Early Years sector including roles as a provider in both education and social care, a trainer, regulator of childcare and early education, a local authority Head of Early Years and Childcare Service, Regional SureStart and Children's Fund Manager and as a retained consultant working for OFSTED, SSAFA, NCB, TDA and a number of Local Authorities.

She has recently left a position as Assistant Director of Children and Young People’s Services in Rutland and is now working as Regional Programme Leader for the Training and Development Agency on a part time basis and as an independent consultant in the remainder of her time.

Robin Naylor – Previously Bradford Council

Robin retired from his role as Head of Bradford’s Early Years and Childcare Service last year and is now an independent consultant, and occasional early year’s practitioner. He has a very broad background in children’s services: initially qualifying as a social worker in inner London he moved into youth work before returning to the north to train as an early year’s teacher. He then worked in nursery classes and units for children with additional needs in West Yorkshire, taking up the role of Early Years Education Officer with Bradford Council in 1999.

Jo-Ann Pringle – Childcare Strategy Implementation Manager (Leeds City Council)

Jo Pringle is currently working as the Childcare Strategy Implementation Manager for Leeds City Council. Prior to this she was a Business Support Advisor for the Pre-school Learning Alliance. Jo is responsible for implementation of the 2006 Childcare Act for the local authority and is currently leading on the Extended Free Entitlement Pathfinder and Early Years Funding Reform.

Tracey Sanders – Head of Unit (Hampshire County Council)

Tracey Sanders is currently Head of the Early Education and Childcare Unit for Hampshire County Council. Tracey's previous experience within early year’s education and childcare has primarily focused around the delivery of best practice in promoting the development of young children and includes teaching in a number of infant schools, working as an educational psychologist and latterly specialising as a consultant educational psychologist for early years.

Jenny Spratt – Head of Early Years and Childcare Services (Peterborough City Council)

Jenny has been head of early years and childcare services for Peterborough City Council since 1998. She has a background in early childhood education and was head of a nursery school for nine years. She represents the Local Authority Early Years Network on the Early Childhood Forum and is on the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes early years advisory group which is steering the Centre's work of early years. Jenny was co-author with Professor Tina Bruce of Essentials of Literacy from 0-7.

Ann Van Dyke  – Deputy Head of Family Services (Cornwall County Council)

Ann is currently Deputy Head of Family Services, responsible for the delivery of Family Services in Cornwall. She is strategic lead for Childcare, Play and Family Information Services in the County.

Ruth Williams – Early Years Manager (Liverpool City Council)

From a background in Training Consultancy and Project Management, Ruth joined Liverpool City Council in 2002 as the Early Years & Childcare Development Partnership Manager (EYDCP). The role has morphed over the years as agendas have developed nationally and she is currently Early Years Manager with responsibility for Childcare Sufficiency, Childcare in Extended Schools, and Childcare Workforce Development.

Catherine (Katy) Barton – Freelance Consultant

Katy is currently a senior executive with recent experience in setting up, developing and directing a UK wide children’s charity. She has experience of working at both local and national level and influencing government policy on disabled children and their families. She was also a former director of Care Co-ordination Network UK (CCNUK) and a fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts.

Lesley Campbell  – National Children’s Officer

Lesley leads Mencaps policy and lobbying work for children. Her background is in service development and delivery for disabled children in the health service and in local councils. She has developed and managed a wide range of services for disabled children. She is a member of the Council for Disabled Children and was a member of the National Service Framework for Children's External Working Group for Disabled Children.

She also led a feasibility study for the DCSF to establish a National Centre for Early Intervention and is now on the Disability Theme Advisory Group for C4EO. She was a founder member of the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign.

Jane Carter – Service Development Manager, Integrated Disability Service (IDS)

Jane is currently a Service Development Manager with Warwickshire's Integrated Disability Service, which brings together a range of professionals and services from Education, Health and Social Care including Specialist Connexions Advisers, Disability Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Child Development Services, Portage, Key Working and Specialist Teaching and Learning teams. Prior to this, she was Head Teacher of a Support Service and previously managed Warwickshire's Statementing Service. Jane is an experienced senior secondary manager, having taught in schools in Birmingham, Staffordshire and Wolverhampton.

Jane contributed to the regional delivery of Disability Equality training for West Midland Secondary Schools in 2007 and has been a Senior European Foundation for Quality Management Assessor for Midlands Excellence. She is also a Director of the Virtual Staff College.

Lynn Fletcher –Principal Educational Psychologist

Lynn began her career as a teacher and then took a masters degree in Educational Psychology, qualifying in 1993. She spent 10 years in this capacity in Sunderland, working in mainstream and special schools with children with a range of special and additional educational needs and vulnerabilities. Having developed skills in working in partnership with pupils, parents, carers, educators and other practitioners at an operational level, she also began to take a strategic role in local authority policy and planning. In 2004 she took up a post with the DCSF.

For the next three and a half years she led the NE Regional Partnership (Facilitating Inclusion North East), focusing on the promotion of inclusion and positive outcomes for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and looked after children and working across children’s services, health and the private and voluntary sectors. She returned to Sunderland in April 2008 as Principal Educational Psychologist.

Steve Fletcher – Strategic Manager (Services for Disabled Children)

Steve qualified in social work at York University in 1982. Since then he has lived in Newcastle and worked as a social worker in health settings, mainly with chronically ill children and their families. He trained as a family therapist and individual counsellor and this still underpins his approach.

In 1994 he took up a position managing children’s disability services for a local authority and has been in this current post since 2000. He is keen to develop innovative practice and led the successful Early Support Programme in Sunderland. He is currently leading the Sunderland Aiming High for Disabled Children Short Breaks Pathfinder and also taking an active role nationally.

Sue Gower – Information Sharing/ CaF Coordinator

Sue has over 20 years of experience working within Children and Young People's Services, strategically and operationally, across local government, the NHS and the Third Sector (locally and nationally). Disability is my primary area of expertise. She is currently project managing the implementation of the Common Assessment Framework and ContactPoint in Bexley. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Bexley Care Trust and an Independent Consultant specialising in change management.

Miranda Parrott – Independent Consultant

Miranda has worked in the voluntary sector for the past thirty years with families of disabled children, young people and adults. The main part of her working life has been with Contact a Family as a member of the senior management team. Since 2001 she has worked independently as a freelance consultant on different projects with many of the major voluntary organisations and undertaken pieces of work in different Local Authorities. She is currently the Parent Participation Adviser for Together for Disabled Children in Yorkshire and the Humber.

This fits well with her overriding interest in parent involvement and innovation and has provided an opportunity to use her skills in team management, strategic development, project development, provision of information and support to parents, group development and training for parents and carers, staff and volunteers.

Other work has included a feasibility study on a Centre for Early Intervention, on behalf of Mencap, commissioned by the DfES (2003-2004) and a study for the Handsel Trust on sleep and children with disabilities, published in 2007. She currently works with Sibs and as a trainer for Scope Strengthening Families and Face2face.

Toby Price – Head of Sutton Disability Partnership for Children and Young People

Toby has a background in social work with children and families. After working for a number of years in statutory and voluntary organisations in the UK and Australia, he joined London Borough of Sutton in 1995. In 2002 he led Sutton’s successful bid to become a pathfinder Children’s Trust, the primary focus of which was improving services for disabled children and their families.

Under his management, Council and NHS agencies, voluntary organisations, disabled children and young people and their parents came together to form the Sutton Disability Partnership. This has proved to be a durable and effective vehicle for transforming services. Sutton became one of the Government’s 21 Short Breaks Pathfinders in 2008.

As first Children’s Trust Manager, and now Head of the Disability Partnership, he have actively contributed to national learning on integration, service user participation and commissioning in disabled children’s services.

Brian Robinson – Service Manager, Integrated Provision

Brian’s background is in social care, he qualified as a social worker over 25 years ago, since which he has worked in a variety of settings, mainly within a multi agency context. For the last 10 years he has been responsible for delivering services to children with disabilities and their families. At present he is responsible for an integrated service of SEN Assessment, Educational Psychology and social work in Lancashire. Brian has an interest and lead responsibility for Parent Carer involvement and is heavily involved in delivering the Aiming High for Disabled Children.

Jill Shaw – Freelance Consultant – The Family Parenting Institute

Jill has worked within a number of Local Authorities, in both the statutory and voluntary sectors, to develop and improve services for children, young people and their families who may have, or experience the challenges of, disability or special educational needs. Her knowledge as an Education Officer, Early Years Advisor and Parent Partnership Coordinator was recognised by the DCSF who invited her to contribute to the revised Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs.

Her understanding of disability is also a personal one, it was this that initially encouraged her to volunteer to advise, mentor and support children, families and peers who may live or work with disability. She is currently a Freelance Consultant working with The Family and Parenting Institute.

Sharon Synmoie – Head of the Early Years Alliance

Sharon currently works as a senior manager within the Early Years sector in Lambeth where her remit is around disability, SEN and inclusion. She has jointly led on developing more integrated services for under fives between Health and Children and Young people’s services. She manages an early intervention service. In addition to this she has the Strategic Lead for Lambeth’s Aiming High for Disabled Children agenda. Prior to this Sharon worked as a Senior Specialist Educational Psychologist (early years) for over seven years.

Lesley Wright – Principal Officer (SEN and Disability)

Lesley has a teaching background with twenty nine years service in special educational needs and disability related posts. Her experience encompasses:

• nine years teaching in special schools (ILEA, Birmingham and Liverpool);
• five years as an advisory teacher in mainstream schools (and pre-school) across Liverpool;
• seven years as headteacher of a special school and eight years heading up services for SEN and Disability (education & social care) as a third tier officer in Liverpool.

She is also a registered School Improvement Partner (SIP) for three special schools and represents Liverpool as co-manager (with Tameside) of the Co-ordinator of the NW Regional SEN Hub.

Barry Young – Service Manager for inclusion

Barry has been involved in special education and the development of inclusive provision for children and young people, both as a teacher and a senior manager, since he began teaching in 1973. Initially he taught in mainstream schools in Hull before taking up an advisory teacher post in Wakefield. He was appointed as the Head of Wakefield’s Special Educational Needs Support Service before becoming the Service Manager for Inclusion in 2007.

Barry led, managed and developed the generic Special Educational Needs Service for Learners with disabilities which involved devising, delivering, monitoring and reviewing service plans. Most recently he was involved in writing, producing and delivering the Inclusion Service five year development plan for 2008-2013. In his work he has been influenced by solution focused practice which proved effective as he built strong partnerships with a wide range of professionals worked collaboratively with different stakeholders.

He has the capacity to share learning and develop others as a result of directing a wide variety of continuing professional development addressing Inclusion and SEN/disability issues.

Jessica Haslam – Head of Integrated Services for Disabled Children

In Jessica’s current role as Head of Integrated Services for Disabled Children, she leads the Local Authority on developing integrated working to improve outcomes for disabled children and young people, 0-19 years. She puts the consultation with children, young people and their families as the foundation for implementing strategies and commissioning services. In York’s recent Joint Area Review, she coordinated and presented evidence for children with learning difficulties and disabilities, where York was judged as “outstanding”. She has worked for 25 years in the field of disability. Jessica originally trained as a teacher of the deaf and worked in specialist teaching teams.

Janet Leach  – Head of Joint Services for Disabled Children

Janet originally qualified as a teacher and subsequently retrained as a social worker. She has over 30 years experience working with disabled children and their families. Her work has focused on developing and delivering innovative services both specialist and inclusive to support families at a local level within their own communities. She was part of a 'change management' team that successfully created a flexible model of community based provision from a former residential unit.

She is currently Head of Enfield's Joint Service for Disabled Children comprising social care, education and the PCT. Janet is the Local Authority Aiming High and short breaks Pathfinder lead.

Dorothy Mitchell – Freelance

Dorothy Mitchell MSc EdMan; BEd Hons(SEN); DPSE (SLD); Cert Ed; Has been involved in special education since 1980 both as a teacher and as a senior manager. In 1994 she was appointed deputy headteacher of an all age special school for children with SLD.

In 1997 she became headteacher of a nursery assessment special school in Blackburn with a focus on early intervention, assessment and inclusion. She led the development of a strong multi agency team approach which enabled effective partnership working at all levels and significantly impacted on positive outcomes for children and families. She had had a leading role in managing significant changes including the development of a virtual school from September 2005.

She also had key role in developing a multi agency panel approach in BwD for children with disabilities from birth to 5, and their families and have chaired and coordinated panel meetings. 

Simon Ashley-Binge – Service Manager – Family Assist

I have worked in the field of social care for 23 years. I am presently a Service Manager in Hammersmith and Fulham Social Care Division and manage a multidisciplinary team to prevent children and young people coming into care. I manage a range of staff including Social Work, Teachers, Youth Work and Health staff. I also manage the borough's respite Foster Care Service and External Placements Team. I have worked in 3 London and 2 shire LA's and my posts have included before management (12 years) Youth Justice Senior, Youth Worker, Equal Opportunities, Development worker, residential worker etc. in my career in terms of children. I have also worked in adult services. I hold a Dip in Community and Youth Work and an MBA from the OU. I have a son of 17 and 15 who are delightful and one day really hope to play the sax well but still lots more practice required. 

Maxine Caine  – Educational Psyshologist

I have been working as an Educational Psychologist in Gateshead for over eight years. Prior to this I was a teacher and taught in the secondary sector. My current post involves me working across primary and secondary schools. I have special responsibilities for Looked After Children, including Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care. I work within a multi-disciplinary team to improve the educational outcomes for Looked after Children. In addition, I am a Vice Chair of Gateshead’s Adoption panel. I have a particular interest in supporting young people experiencing bereavement and loss and promoting resilience in young people. I use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques in my practice and completed intermediate training in this area last year.

Maura Cardy – Group Manager for Children’s First Response  

I qualified as a social worker in 1984 and have worked in and managed a range of children’s social care services, including children in need and safeguarding, fostering and adoption, services for disabled children and children in care. I have been a senior manager in children’s social care for 16 years and am currently the Group Manager of a London Local authority referral and assessment service. I have a special interest in safeguarding through early intervention with substantial experience of partnership working to join up and develop multi-agency services for vulnerable children. 

Douglas Davidson – Independent Reviews Officer, CP Chair & team audit lead

I have been involved in social care since 1981, originally as a special needs carer and trainer for which I undertook specific training. Between 1984 and 1986 I managed a special needs residential unit for children in London before qualifying as a social worker in 1990. I then worked generically for Hertfordshire County Council from 1990 to 1993 after which I specialised in children and families, working as a front line child protection practitioner.

I commenced in social care management in 1997 when I was appointed operations social worker manager of Hemel Hempstead and St Albans hospitals. I managed specialist social workers home care commissioners on the two sites. Between 1999 and 2002 I held team management positions within the children’s department responsible for children in care, children in need and child protection.

From 2002 to 2006 I worked freelance, running my own consultancy company offering and securing contracts across London boroughs and Essex County Council as an Independent Reviews Officer, conflict resolution practitioner, family group conference coordinator and team manager. I secured a permanent job as child protection chair and Independent Reviews Officer in 2006 with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, and am the appointed lead with the in-house file audit incorporating the comprehensive area assessment process.

Lorraine Hansom – Divisional Manager Family Support & LAC 

I qualified as a social worker in 1984 and have worked with children & families social care services for the past 25 years. As a social work practitioner, I worked in intake, then long term child care before becoming a specialist in child protection work. I then moved into the training section, designing and delivered training for both social workers and multi-agency staff groups.

In 1994 I became a Reviewing Officer, and then was promoted to manage the unit. This led me into a management role in the strategic development, planning & performance area of children’s social care. In 2005 I returned to operational management and took on responsibility for family support, looked after children & care leaver services, including responsibility for fostering, adoption and residential placements.

I have led on the development of a looked after children service, the integration of family support services, and the reconfiguration of residential care provision and championed a project to increase children’s participation in their care plans. I am currently seconded to undertake a project to strengthen safeguarding arrangements across services.

Amanda Harris – Team Manager: LAC

I have worked with children for the past 20 years, and been a qualified social worker for 13yrs. For the past 10 years I have managed a variety of social work teams, in social work statutory settings. I have led on and managed changes in organizations and developed services for children on referral (duty) teams, long term teams and for children looked after in public care.

I have good experience of the journey children go through from entering care until they leave the care system. I have experience and interest in safeguarding issues and in the child protection procedures and processes, having worked as an IRO, chaired case conferences and have managing these posts. I have a working knowledge of the challenges faced in inner city London boroughs, and diverse local demographics.

I have been involved in strategic development of duty work in a London borough, setting up Family Group Conferences, and auditing strategies regarding thresholds and implementing and evaluating quality assurance systems, in relation to safeguarding issues. I have run training sessions for social workers and run groups on reflective practice.

Liz Hill – Head of Service - Looked After Children

I qualified as a social worker in 1974, became a team leader in 1978 working with generic children’ services. I took a master’s degree in social work in 1982, spent 6 months working in USA on a social work exchange programme and then became an intake manager for children’s services in Westminster.

After 10 years, I took a policy job responsible for producing the first of the multi-agency children’s plans. I set up a new review unit for looked after children and then spent a year on secondment at DOH as a development worker for ICS. For the last 6 years, I have been head of service in Enfield, responsible for adoption, fostering, looked after children, leaving care and the health and educational support services for looked after children.

John Platt – Assistant Director – Foster Care Associates

Since becoming a qualified social worker in 1991 I have worked in both the public and private sector with looked after children and young people. This has included children and families social work, managing looked after teams, managing fostering teams and assistant director in a private fostering agency. I have also managed 2 public / private partnerships, the latter of which provided a social work service to looked after children for Nottingham City Council.

My experience both within and outside local authorities has enabled me to focus on “what works” for improving outcomes for looked after children and young people. I have recently been promoted to Operational Manager and registered manager for Fostering People.

Suzanne Triggs  – Development Officer LAC

I have over 15 years of experience of working with vulnerable children both as a residential worker, a social worker and a development worker in Calderdale, Leeds and Kirklees. I achieved a Diploma in Social Work and a Masters degree in social work. I have worked directly with vulnerable children and young people from children in need of protection, disabled children, to placing children in care, to inspecting the units in which we place looked after young people.

Currently working in Kirklees, I am responsible for championing and delivering system level changes and training staff across all strands of the child care workforce. I also led the Blueprint Project in Kirklees (a cross sector innovation based project partnered with Voice, to identify the barriers that prevent services from being child centred and support them in overcoming these).

The project has since gone on to win the ‘Highly Commended’ Association of Social Care Communicators award under the category of ‘best campaign’ and is currently shortlisted as a partner with Voice for the Skills for Care Accolade award for 'most effective practice in workforce development across partner agencies.

Brenda Vincent – Assistant Head of Children’s Services

I have been involved in special education since 1980 both as a teacher and as a senior manager. In 1994 I was appointed deputy head teacher of an all age special school for children with SLD. In January 1997 I became head teacher of a nursery assessment special school in Blackburn with a focus on early intervention, assessment and inclusion. I led the development of a strong multi agency team approach which enabled effective partnership working at all levels and significantly impacted on positive outcomes for children and families.

I have had a leading role in managing significant changes including the development of a virtual school from September 2005. I had a key role in developing a multi agency panel approach in BwD for children with disabilities from birth to 5, and their families and have chaired and coordinated panel meetings.

Lindsay Voss – Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children 

I qualified as Registered Nurse in 1981 and following a career in hospital nursing then became a community based school nurse in 1992. Having completed the Diploma in Community Nursing and a Degree in Nursing Studies at the University of Southampton in the 1990s, I became a School Nurse Team Leader in Southampton in 1996 and in 2000 undertook a one year secondment as the Named Nurse for Child Protection at Southampton University Hospitals Trust.

In 2001 I undertook a further secondment as Adviser to the Area Child Protection Committee. In 2002 I returned to the community as Named Nurse for Child Protection, working closely with health visitors, GPs and other community based health services. In 2007 I was appointed the Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children and Safeguarding Children Team Manager and have continued to work closely with health professionals and colleagues from other agencies through membership of the Local Safeguarding Children Board.

I currently manage a team of specialist nurses including the Designated Nurse for Children in Care. I have continued academic study and am currently undertaking a clinical doctorate focusing on the multiagency response to childhood sexual abuse.

Merle Davis MA, MSc – Senior Officer, Policy & Strategy, Blackpool Borough Council

Merle is currently Senior Officer Policy and Strategy within Blackpool Children & Young People’s Department. Formerly DfES National Attendance Advisor, leading on the joint DfES/Home Office “Tackling it Together” initiative, Merle now has lead responsibility in Blackpool for the development of Child Poverty, Extended Services, the interface with the Third Sector, Family Pathfinder and Youth Crime Action Plan. She is also responsible for the integrated children’s agenda through cross-cutting processes such as Common Assessment Framework, Lead Professional, BHLP and Team around the Family. She is also a member of the DCSF Integrated working Group.

Merle is passionate about the need to “Think Family” and worked closely with the Cabinet Office in the development of the ‘Think Family’ reports as well as the development of Springboard, Blackpool’s Family Intervention Project, which works with some of the families with the most complex needs across the town. Merle’s background is in community education and she has worked in Scotland, England, Borneo and Germany in a variety of roles both with the voluntary sector and the statutory sector.

Alison Jackson – Strategy Leader: Multi-agency work and integrated assessment, Bristol City Council

Alison Jackson is Service Manager for the Children’s Trust and strategic commissioning in Bristol City Council, her main role in the last three years, has been introducing the integrated processes of the Every Child Matters agenda – Common Assessment Framework, multi agency working information sharing and contact point. Alison was a member of the benefits Take Up Taskforce which has recently published its finding on practical ways to encourage families in poverty who maximizing their benefit uptake.

Alison also has the responsibility for the Children and Young Peoples plan and to monitor outcomes across the children’s trust. Before Every Child Matters she was Head of Special Educational Needs.

Julian Kenshole – Head of Policy & Performance, Darlington Children’s Services

A graduate of Bristol University, Julian has worked in local government for over 19 years gaining extensive knowledge and experience in many aspects of local authority work at a senior level. Originally a planner, he has expanded his range of expertise to include community and economic development, urban and rural regeneration, corporate policy and performance, education and currently Children’s Services. A firm believer in partnership working delivering results, his career highlights reinforce this; through his successful development and management of SRB programmes and regeneration projects including NRF, and management of the Redcar & Cleveland Strategic Partnership.

In his current role, he has led the development of the Darlington Children’s Trust and supported its’ overall agenda as Lead Officer; been actively involved engaging and involving young people in developing the Children and Young People’s Plans and ensuring the Town’s Member of the UK Youth Parliament has had manifesto pledges included within the CYPP to support agreed priorities. Most recently, the development of a shortlisted Beacon Award ‘Tackling and Preventing Child Poverty’ and the development and co-ordination of Darlington’s Child Poverty Pledge adopted by the LSP in 2008 has expanded his skills significantly to address the Child Poverty agenda.

Fiona Law – Principal Education Psychologist, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council

Fiona has been the Principal Educational Psychologist in Wakefield MDC for 4 years. Prior to this she was a Senior EP with responsibility for early years, a maingrade EP and a teacher in what was then called a Social Priority Area. She has over 30 years experience in the public sector, mainly related to education.

Throughout her career she has worked in multi disciplinary groups (CAMHS, PCT, Social Services), the Voluntary and Community Sector and a range of government sponsored projects including SureStart. Recently she has focused on planning and delivery of strategy in the LA, with key planning groups including developing strategy with the LA and PCT commissioners, sometimes jointly. She is a member of a subgroup of the C&YP Strategy Group which has a focus on Narrowing the Gap. She has delivered training to LA staff as well as the Private, Voluntary and Independent sector, supported and worked with the Children’s Centres and had great success in developing posts through the SureStart programmes.

Currently, Fiona chairs the Narrowing the Gap Group in Wakefield MDC, reporting at a senior strategic level and is the regional representative on the DCSF National Strategies hub theme. She also leads a group (in conjunction with the PCT) to develop a new pathway for the assessment of children with Attention and Behavioural Difficulties. Wakefield MDC is an area with considerable pockets of deprivation and Fiona recognises the profound implications of poverty for child and family development. Narrowing the Gap is an agenda item for all, in all aspects of public service, and if the gap is to be truly narrowed, it is imperative that child poverty is addressed.

Layla Richards – Service Manager Partnerships and Equality, Tower Hamlets Children’s Services

Layla is currently responsible for policy, strategy, research and performance in the Children, Schools and Families Directorate at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. She led the development of the Tower Hamlets Partnership's Child Poverty strategy and is currently leading on the work related to the Council's Beacon for preventing and tackling child poverty. Layla has also had experience in corporate policy and strategy roles.

Paul Woodhead – Self employed, previously Save the Children UK

Paul fulfilled the role as the North East Regional Manager for Save the Children’s operational programme for over fifteen years. He was responsible for managing and developing work across the region including child-poverty initiatives, work with young refuges and asylum seekers, education focused projects and a range of campaigning, advocacy and partnership work.

Previously he was a project manager for SCUK developing a multi-purpose social welfare initiative in Sunderland. Earlier in his career he worked on anti-poverty and economic development initiatives within local government and has experience in the fields of youth work and community development. He has served on the boards of small charities and community projects and has acted as a non-executive director of an NHS Trust. Since March 2009 he has operated as a freelance consultant undertaking evaluation, development and interim management roles with several national and regional agencies.