Bio coming soon!

Carol has worked in social care for 25 years, 23 of those in Barnet. Currently, head of service for older adult and physical disabilities she also leads on strengths-based and quality practice. Her career started working with adults and children with learning disabilities and mental health difficulties, moving on to adults with physical disabilities and then focusing her career on working adults with mental health difficulties. Carol has also spent time in children and families and service development. Starting her career as a support worker, moving her own way through the social care system, qualifying as a social worker. Moving to her first management role in a mental health enablement service, before concentrating on supporting staff to deliver strengths-based quality practice. She has a passion for each and every person having a voice and having a tailored approach that builds on the individuals strengths. This, along with her glass -half-full, solution-focused approach with both adults with care and support needs and the professionals that work with them has been instrumental in supporting her current role and leading on embedding strengths-based practice.

Anna is a professional education consultant with Brighton and Hove City Council, working as part of the South Coast Teaching Partnership. Anna studied psychology, computer science and bio-informatics, gaining her doctorate in 2001 before training as a social worker. She has worked in adult social care for around 15 years, beginning her career as a support worker. Having consolidated her social work experience Anna held a number of team management roles. Working at both practitioner and managerial levels has given Anna experience of delivering new models of practice education; she has a particular interest in translating high-level strategic visions into meaningful practice that can make a difference to the lives of the people we serve.

Steve practises across a broad spectrum of public law, advising and representing individuals, charities, companies and public authorities. He has particular interest and expertise in health, education and social care, with a focus on disability and children’s rights cases. He has appeared in many of the Supreme Court cases on disability issues, either acting alone or as junior counsel. Before coming to the Bar, he worked extensively in the voluntary sector on behalf of disabled children and adults. Steve is co-author of Disabled Children: A Legal Handbook (Legal Action Group, Second Edition, 2016) and Children in Need: Local Authority Support for Children and Families (Legal Action Group, Second Edition, 2013).

Gillian has been in social work for 28 years and has practiced in three jurisdictions, Scotland, New Zealand and England. Whilst policies and legislation differ, practice issues are often the same! Gillian is currently the principal social worker in West Sussex for children’s services. Her background has been in child safeguarding, both as a practitioner and a strategic manager, multi-agency working, learning and development and collaborative practice. When you’ve been in social work as long as Gillian, you find you’ve done a little bit of everything! Despite the length of time in practice Gillian is still learning new approaches and remains constantly impressed and encouraged by the enthusiasm and skill practitioners bring to their practice every day.

Stephen joined Somerset County Council in early 2016 as director of adult social services and lead commissioner (health & care). He has been the ADASS national policy lead for mental health since 2014 and the ADASS south west region co-chair since 2016. Stephen's career began in the NHS initially as a nurse and latterly in several NHS director roles including operating at trust board level. Following a period as a joint commissioner his most recent positions have been within local government in several assistant director and director of adult services positions. Stephen has developed innovative models of adult social care with a focus on earlier invention, partnership and market inclusiveness. He has a passion for co-production, improving quality and has been leading the introduction of #doityourway a model of ‘promoting independence’ within Somerset. Sometimes described as radical, sometimes traditional, he has an absolute focus on leadership with a specific emphasis on the roles that professional leadership plays and the impact this has on everything we do.

Sue is a lecturer at the University of Plymouth, teaching on both the BA and MA social work programmes. Originally from South Africa, Sue has been in Plymouth for 10 years. Sue has a BA (Hons) in social work from the University of South Africa; a MA (health and mental health Social Work) from the University of Pretoria; and a PhD focused on working with families, also from the University of Pretoria. Sue has comprehensive practice experience from working in South Africa, including as a social worker in a psychiatric hospital and, subsequently, a senior social worker with a long-standing national NGO focusing on working with families experiencing a range of challenges from parenting to divorce and bereavement. This involved crisis intervention and group work covering a range of matters such as the management of anger, single parent and divorce support groups and bereavement support groups. Sue’s teaching and research interests centre on family work, human development and wellbeing, as well as contemporary issues such as social isolation. The interaction of systems and multi-systems thinking is a key focus underpinning her social work teaching.

Elaine Dibben started her social work career in residential social work and qualified in 1988. She has 30 years’ experience of working in adoption and fostering in local authority and voluntary adoption agency settings. She joined BAAF in 2004 to become manager of the Independent Review Mechanism, which she set up and ran until 2009, when she moved to take on a wider role in BAAF as a trainer/consultant. She is currently an adoption development consultant for CoramBAAF, alongside acting as a panel chair for both adoption and fostering panels. She currently sits on the National Recruitment and Matching Forum, a sub-group of the Adoption Leadership Board, and the Early Permanence Working Group established by the Department for Education in 2016. She has written several books and good practice guides published by BAAF/ CoramBAAF: The Role of Fostering for Adoption in Achieving Early Permanence for Children (2017) and Adoption by Foster Carers (2016) with Viv Howorth, Completing a Child’s Permanence Report (2014), Devising a Placement Plan (2012), Parent and Child Fostering, with Paul Adams (2011), Preparing to Adopt (2014), with Eileen Fursland and Nicky Probert and Undertaking an Adoption Assessment in England (2010) (third edition 2017).

Karen has worked with people with learning disabilities for over 30 years. Throughout her career Karen has worked to develop new approaches, training materials, policies and guidance with regard to core issues for people with learning disabilities. These include: sexuality and personal relationships; health inequalities; treatment of psychological issues; health and pain; end of life and organ donation; CBT for staff working with people with learning disabilities and improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT). Karen has had a longstanding interest in people with Down’s and dementia. This has included undertaking a 24-year longitudinal study of adults with Down’s Syndrome; developing work with peers of people with Down’s Syndrome and dementia; and developing resource packs and information for staff, families and people with learning disabilities; training and workshops. Karen recently chaired the joint group between the British Psychological Society and Royal College of Psychiatrists Learning Disability Faculties to update the national guidance on the Assessment, Diagnosis, Interventions and Support of People with Learning Disabilities and Dementia (BPS 2015). Karen has been working with the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities on a project to work jointly with IAPT to improve access for people with learning disabilities through reasonable adjustments and joint working. Karen is currently a committee member on the Division of Clinical Psychology Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities, and co-chair of the Learning Disabilities Professional Senate, and has been working very closely with NHS England on the Transforming Care Service model and role of the community learning disabilities teams.

Morag Duff is a former solicitor who currently works as a freelance specialist CHC consultant. She has worked within the field of NHS continuing healthcare for over 10 years providing specialist advice and training for both health and social care organisations Morag is passionate about ensuring the individual is always at the heart of the assessment and care delivery process. In order to achieve this, she believes that partner organisations across health and social care must develop and nurture long-lasting and trusting relationships. This can only be achieved through a shared understanding and acceptance of the principles that underpin the National Framework as well as the processes that are set out in that guidance. Morag has worked closely with ADASS, the Department of Health and NHS England over the years, and was recently involved in the current revision of the National Framework, due to be implemented in October 2018.

Peter is a freelance Care Act consultant and trainer. He has a background of working in many sectors of social care as a social worker, trainer, manager and policy developer. He was a member of the team that developed learning materials on the Care Act for Skills for Care, and has provided Care Act training for local authorities and for the British Association of Social Workers. He is an active member of BASW and was previously a member of the board of Skills for Care (November 2012 - November 2014). He is the author of the Social Worker’s Guide to the Care Act 2014 (Critical Publishing).

Formerly a children and family’s social worker and play therapist, Jo has been a social work educator for over 16 years, and has led a number of qualifying programmes. Jo now leads the professional doctorate in social work programme at the University of East London. Jo has long-standing research interests in issues around suitability for social work practice and has published widely on the topic of failing students. Jo also has interests in radicalisation and the politics of social work education and practice.

Anna joined the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse as the practice improvement advisor for social work in November 2017. This followed 16 years within statutory children’s services as a social worker, advanced practitioner and manager. In this previous role, Anna developed and led a multi-disciplinary specialist child sexual abuse (CSA) team, was an expert witness in the family courts on CSA cases and was the CSA practice lead for the local authority. Anna’s particular area of interest is intra-familial child sexual abuse and the ways in which social workers can effectively identify and respond to concerns. She is currently working with Community Care Inform to build a knowledge and practice hub resource for social workers to support them with this area of their work. Anna is an associate tutor at the University of Sussex and is currently the editor of NOTA News, the quarterly magazine for members of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers.

A qualified social worker with many years’ experience in child protection both in local authorities and at Childline, as well as in teaching and tutoring at the University of Nottingham, Sarah is now leading a Lloyds Foundation-funded project carrying out research into domestic abuse and the experiences of disabled young people alongside Anita Franklin at Coventry University. Sarah has previously carried out practice research looking at CSE and the needs of young people with additional learning needs, and led on a European funded project looking at the voice and experiences of young disabled people placed away from home. Her areas of particular interest are child protection, sexual abuse and exploitation and the development of practice which enables participation and communication. She works for the Ann Craft Trust, a national trust based within the Centre for Social Work at the University of Nottingham carries out practice research and develops policy and good practice in safeguarding and protecting disabled children, young people and adults and safeguarding adults in sport. ACT also focuses on researching the experiences of young people and adults across the lifespan and the needs of those who work with them to support organisations, raise awareness and challenge discriminatory attitudes.

Louise is head of school of applied social studies at the University of Bedfordshire. Louise has been a social work academic for the past 10 years and prior to this had a career as a social worker and team manager in children’s services. She has published widely on the subject of emotional resilience and is the co-editor of the book Developing Resilience for Social Work Practice. For the past 10 years, Louise has worked with Professor Gail Kinman to help develop a systemic approach to enhancing emotional resilience in social work. Recent work focuses on developing and evaluating strategies to enhance the personal resources underpinning emotional resilience at an individual level, developing organisational resilience and designing a competency framework to help social work managers support resilience and wellbeing in their staff.

Sarah qualified as a social worker in 2015 but have been employed by West Sussex since 2008. She works with children and families through child protection and in the Public Law Outline. She is currently completing her practice educator course, enabling her to supervise social work students on her team, which she really enjoys. She previously worked in the fostering recruitment team in West Sussex for four years which sparked her thoughts around applying for the traineeship with West Sussex to become a social worker. She has also worked in Sure Start centres, running activities and supporting children in primary school with their at times challenging behaviour who all came from disadvantaged backgrounds. She was also a foster carer for six years caring for mainly teenagers. Her main passion is direct work with children, and she loves nothing more than being as creative as possible in order to try and gain the voice of the child in whatever means possible.

Sara Kirkpatrick is services development manager at Respect, the UK membership organisation for work with domestic violence perpetrators, male victims and young people. A key aspect of this role is supporting member organisations to deliver interventions with perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse and achieve the nationally recognised Respect Accreditation Standard. Sara is an intimate partner violence (IPV) domestic abuse specialist who has worked in criminal justice and community settings for over 25 years. Starting her career providing support in a women’s refuge she has worked with a range of client groups including male victims, children impacted by domestic abuse, women remaining in abusive relationships and perpetrators of domestic abuse. Sara has contributed to a number of frontline innovative projects with perpetrators of IPV including co-authoring and delivering the award winning CARA conditional caution project with the Hampton Trust, contributing to development of the Drive project to challenge perpetrators to change their behaviour, on behalf of Respect. Her current innovation activities includes the perpetrator strand of the Change that Lasts project, in partnership with Welsh Women's Aid, and the ADVANCE research project with Kings College London, into men on substance misuse programmes who commit domestic abuse. As a national trainer for Respect and a visiting lecturer at Winchester University, Sara continues to enjoy the opportunity to enable practitioners to address domestic violence and abuse safely and effectively.

Barbara has been the director of the Institute of Family Therapy since 2006. Prior to this she was head of training for a national voluntary sector organization where she developed a new national family counselling service. Barbara qualified as a social worker in 1982 and has worked in both adults’ and children’s services, including in mental health fields. She worked briefly in the probation service. Barbara qualified as a systemic psychotherapist in 1997 and a systemic supervisor in 2001. She completed her professional doctorate in 2014. Her current interest lies in the application of systemic practices in organisational change and development and to this end has created a range of courses relevant to strategic teams. She continues to work in private practice offering therapy, consultation and supervision services.

Emilie Martin has 14 years’ experience in the anti-trafficking and modern slavery field. In February 2017, Emilie joined the Salvation Army as operations manager supporting potential victims. As part of her role she manages all the Salvation Army’s direct support safe houses under the national government contract. After a legal degree in which she completed her final year dissertation on this topic, Emilie joined the Home Office in 2009 as a competent authority and asylum case owner. She later specialised in trafficking appeals as a senior presenting officer. Emilie was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in March 2012. In 2015, Emilie joined Hestia, the London based support provider under the government contract, as service manager. There, Emilie managed over 45 staff, overseeing five safe houses and the London outreach service, the largest outreach service nationally. Through her work, she has developed a well-rounded understanding of human trafficking and modern slavery as well as the limitations and challenges faced within these areas.

The focus of Oliver's family practice is on public law proceedings in which he represents local authorities, parents, extended family members, prospective adopters and children via their guardians. He is regularly instructed in cases concerning serious non-accidental injury, sexual abuse and complex mental health issues, as well as general neglect cases. Oliver is ranked as a leading junior for children law in both The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners. He is a contributing author to The PLO Explained, a practitioners’ handbook to the Public Law Outline published by 9 Gough Square, and regularly gives seminars as well as practical court training to lawyers and social workers. In 2018, he was appointed as a Recorder of the Family Court on the Wales Circuit.

JJ  Nadicksbernd is the lead facilitator for Difficult Conversations and co-­led the design and development of its workshops. She has a masters in social work and is currently  working on her doctorate in health and social  care. With 15 years of experience working in end-of-life  care, Ms Nadicksbernd is experienced in direct patient/service user care, management, education and research. Her expertise is in curriculum development, teaching, educational research, strategic planning, programme  development, management and evaluation. Other experience includes being a lead facilitator in primary care with a London clincial commissioning group, implementing the end-of-life care  strategy  and care home initiatives, being an organisational development manager  in  a  large  US hospice, a clinical hospice manager and a hospice social worker.

Neil spent much of his early career with Durham County Council prior to moving to North Yorkshire County Council in 1998, and subsequently becoming executive director in Sunderland in 2007 until March 2016. Neil has been a member of the national executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) since 2008 and currently chairs the ADASS housing policy network. Neil established Revely Consultancy in May 2016 and works with a range of social care, health, and housing organisations, he is an Local Government Association care & health improvement adviser, is a board member of Housing and Care 21, and is also the chair of Disability Action Yorkshire.

Roana Roach began her social work carer in 1984 as a generic social worker for a London local authority and has specialised in adoption and fostering for the past twenty years for a charity and local authority as a supervising social worker and deputy service manager. She has worked for BAAF/CoramBAAF since 2006 initially as a trainer consultant and then as the training team manager since 2016. Roana has facilitated CoramBAAF’s black workers’ practice group since 2005 and is co-author of a CoramBAAF Good Practice Guide: Child Appreciation Days (A.Sayers & R.Roach BAAF 2011) and has contributed to a number of other publications. Roana has been chair of a number of adoption and fostering panels and has chaired other complex meetings including those relating to adoption and fostering disruptions.

Jackie is a professional education consultant with East Sussex County Council working as part of the South Coast Teaching Partnership. Jackie qualified in 1997 with a MA/DipSW from Warwick University She has worked in adult social care for 21 years and has experience at both practitioner and managerial levels. She has been part of the social work education team for the last three years and areas of interest include supervision, critical reflection and digital practice.

Alex is a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers in London, and recommended as a ‘star junior’ in Chambers & Partners for his Court of Protection work. He has been in cases involving the MCA 2005 at all levels up to and including the Supreme Court. He also writes extensively, has numerous academic affiliations, including as Wellcome Research Fellow at King’s College London, and has his own website, www.mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk, on which he publishes news and blogs on MCA law and policy.

Shefali Shah qualified as a solicitor in 1995, and has been a continuously practising solicitor since, with over 23 years’ experience in children law. Shefali has been a member of the Law Society’s Children Panel accreditation scheme since 2003. Shefali is a legal advisor to Adopters for Adoption and was former legal advisor to Adoption UK, and was one of the four legal advisors to the Independent Review Mechanism for England. She is a member of CoramBAAF’s Legal Group Advisory Committee. Shefali is a national trainer and has taught children law academically on the undergraduate social work and law programme and on the postgraduate legal practice course. Through the platform of Kingsley Knight Training, Shefali has developed extensive training courses on public children and social care law. Shefali also regularly writes legal briefing notes and articles on children law. Further information can be found at www.kingsleyknight.co.uk Shefali’s first book is Key Changes to Family Justice, published by CoramBAAF, February 2016. http://www.kingsleyknight.co.uk/key-changes-to-family-justice-england/, a practitioners' guide for social care professionals involved in children proceedings.

Dr Jenifer Wakelyn is a child and adolescent psychotherapist with a special interest in therapeutic work with babies and young children in transition. She is deputy manager and lead child psychotherapist in First Step, a mental health screening and assessment service for children in care, and a lecturer and clinical and research supervisor in the Tavistock child psychotherapy training. She is a co-convenor of the Tavistock Fostering, Adoption and Kinship Care Workshop. She has published articles on sibling assessment, psychotherapy with children in transition, and therapeutic applications of infant observation. Her current research on the Watch Me Play! approach with vulnerable children is funded by the Tavistock Clinic Foundation.

Geese Theatre Company is an internationally renowned team of applied theatre practitioners and group workers, working primarily within the UK criminal justice system and social welfare arenas. The company presents interactive theatre performances and facilitates workshops, specialised training for professionals and consultations for a wide range of social welfare agencies. These include the National Probation Service, community rehabilitation companies, prisons, special hospitals, young offender institutions and youth offending services, local safeguarding boards, clinical commissioning groups and social work teams. Established in 1987, the company has delivered training to over 200,000 people; presented work internationally, most recently in Australia, Sweden, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan; and been the recipient of many national awards, including a BAFTA, a Butler Trust Certificate, and the Arts and Health Award from the Royal Society of Public Health. The session will be led by Andy Watson MBE, the company’s artistic director. Having trained in Paris at the Lecoq School of Mime and Physical Theatre, he joined Geese in 1997, and became artistic director in 2003. His work involves overseeing the artistic integrity of the company’s work, devising theatre performances for use in a wide variety of social welfare settings, and developing creative projects with people in prisons, secure hospitals and in the community. He regularly delivers staff training events for professionals working with vulnerable, marginalised and volatile populations. Andy was appointed MBE in the Queen’s 2018 New Year Honours List for Service to the Arts in Criminal Justice.

Martina Weilandt is a social worker and primary mental health care worker. She works as a deputy manager at First Step, an innovative psychological assessment and health screening service for children in care of the London Borough of Haringey, commissioned from the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust. Martina has over twenty years’ experience of working in the social care field, in Germany and the UK. She has a particular interest in the impact transitions have on children in care and leads on the part of the service which offers assessment and support for children who experience frequent placement disruptions in care. Martina also offers therapeutic and clinical interventions for younger children, their parents and carers; such as therapeutic infant observation, ‘Watch me Play!’, and delivering ‘Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline’ (VIPP-SD).

Miriam works with children and families through child protection and in the Public Law Outline. She also mentors and supports the newly qualified social workers in West Sussex's academy team. She qualified as a social worker in 2015 but has been employed by West Sussex since 2010. Prior to becoming a social worker she was awarded a BSc (Hons) in social policy (2004) and MA social policy and criminology (2009), both awarded by the Open University. She came to social work with 13 years' invaluable experience of working with children and their families, which included special educational needs support in schools and family link work through early help. She has been a foster carer for babies and sibling groups and is also an adoptive parent. She says: "I uses a whole-family approach to social work. This enables me to carry out direct work which captures both the voice of the child and the lived experience of the parent, which helps me to work collaboratively with a family to achieve long-term stability and safety."

Nadine is a lawyer with considerable experience of the criminal and family justice systems. She was a contributing author to the Law Society’s Related Family and Criminal Proceedings – A good practice guide (2007); Working Together To Safeguard Children (2006) and (2010); and the government's guidance on interviewing victims and witnesses and using special measures, Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings. She currently works as policy officer for the Working Together with Parents Network. The network, run from the University of Bristol, supports professionals who work with parents who have learning disabilities. It has over 900 members from the social care (children and adults), health, legal and independent advocacy sectors. In 2016, Nadine updated the 2007 DH/DfES good practice guidance on working with parents with a learning disability. This guidance is increasingly relied upon by courts in care proceedings, when considering applications to remove children and when considering whether the families’ human rights have been breached by the manner in which the local authority intervened in their lives.

Katy Szita has worked for Contact the Elderly - a national charity solely dedicated to tackling loneliness and social isolation among older people - for seven years. First joining as East London development officer, then moving over to develop groups in the East of England, she is now head of service for London & South of England. Her previous roles involved supporting volunteer led groups as well as liaising directly with referrers, new volunteers and service users. Her current role involves raising awareness and engagement about the charity and supporting her team of development and support officers across the region.

Rob's background has included mental health social work, assertive outreach, working in statutory, voluntary and community sector roles supporting people with mental health problems, people who have been homeless and young people. For the last 14 years he has worked in planning and commissioning of community health, social care and prevention including housing support in Norfolk. One of his current priorities has been to build on previous community based initiatives in parts of Norfolk to develop interventions which use social prescribing approaches to tackle loneliness and connect more people to help in their local communities. Enabling communities and community groups to build and strengthen their assets will support the new approaches to social work (Living Well – 3 conversations) which are being introduced in Norfolk.

Trish manages the team at Croydon trading standards. She’s worked in trading standards for over 20 years and is joint lead officer for London on doorstep crime and scams. Trish has co-authored two research papers relating to scams alongside her colleague and co-presenter, Sean Olivier.

Sean Olivier has been a qualified social worker for over 15 years. He holds a masters in social policy and management from the University of Cape Town. Sean currently works as the safeguarding service manager for the London Borough of Croydon's adult social care department. Sean’s research interests include mass marketing fraud, hoarding prevention and fatal fire prevention.

Monica has been a qualified social worker since 1992 and has practised in several local authorities across the Yorkshire region in the last 26 years. She briefly spent some time working in the Republic of Ireland to broaden her experience of working within the health board but missed Yorkshire and returned to take up a team manager post . She has been in her current head of service children and families principal social worker post with Barnsley since 2015. Her background has included youth offending, some forensic social work, child protection, looked-after children's services and safeguarding. She has worked both as a practitioner and a strategic manager, and is keen to remain close to and influence frontline child protection services, casework and practice. Monica is particularly passionate about supporting children to remain within their own families or wider family settings and communities. Supporting learning, social work development and collaborative practice that supports this is a key driver in her role as PSW. She promotes the three Rs – relationships, research and restorative based practice and interaction, both in supporting families and supporting social workers to develop helpful lifelong links. Her motto is “a desk is a dangerous place from which to view the safeguarding world!"

Tony qualified as a social worker in 1995 and has worked in children and families social work throughout his career. He has 18 years' experience in management and has held roles as a team manager, service manager and, for the past three and a half years, as principal social worker. He has worked in a number of local authorities including York, North Yorkshire and Wakefield. He currently works for Doncaster Children’s Services Trust as principal social worker and safeguarding and standards manager. Among other things, in his role as PSW he has been heavily involved in developing learning and professional development pathways and opportunities for social workers, including in partnership with organisations such as Community Care Inform, the local Yorkshire and Humber initiative, Children’s Social Work Matters, and also through teaching partnership arrangements. In his current role in Doncaster he has started to be closely involved in the National Assessment and Accreditation System as the trust prepares for involvement in wave 2 of its rollout.

Catherine started her career in youth justice in 2003, undertaking restorative work with young people in contact with youth justice services, and those individuals affected by their actions. Restorative practice is still something Catherine is passionate about due to the positive changes she saw for those who chose to be involved in a restorative process. In 2010, Catherine moved to a completely different role and began working within a young offender institution to co-facilitate an accredited offending behaviour programme (JETS - Juvenile Enhanced Thinking Skills) and support the resettlement element of the course. This was a one of the most challenging but most enjoyable roles Catherine has undertaken. In 2013 Catherine began her management career, starting off with a team management role and then moving on to project management. Catherine led the restorative justice team in Suffolk Youth Justice Service to accreditation and successfully launched the diversion programme, a prevention and out-of-court disposal project, which was nominated for a Howard League Award. In 2016, Catherine returned to managing a busy youth justice team in Suffolk, where the impact of gangs and county lines was fast becoming of great concern. In 2018, Catherine was appointed as gangs and county lines manager for Suffolk. This partnership role sees Catherine working with a broad range of agencies and services to increase awareness, disrupt the activity of gangs and county lines and ensure that the young and vulnerable are afforded the appropriate safeguarding response.

Hannah Doughty qualified as a social worker in 1998 and started her career in youth justice. She worked in a number of youth offending teams as a practitioner and manager before becoming head of targeted services for Liverpool City Council in 2014. This was an integrated service including the youth offending service, targeted youth service and teams working with missing children and exploitation (child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation). Since October 2017, Hannah has been working in the London Borough of Croydon as head of adolescent services with a wider remit including social work teams specialising in working with 13- – 18-year-olds where there is risk outside of the home. Hannah has a specific interest in adolescent risk, child criminal exploitation and county lines. She is involved in looking at the most effective strategies to address these areas within a children’s services context but also in how to influence and work successfully with partner organisations: working with children experience exploitation but also in targeting perpetrators.

Valerie has worked in social care for 25 years, qualifying as a social worker in 1997 and gaining the post-qualifying Award in child care in 2003. Her experience includes working with adults with a range of difficulties and, primarily, working with children and families. She worked for North Yorkshire and Cornwall county councils as a social worker and manager, and for CAFCASS for 12 years as a practitioner, trainer, enhanced practitioner and manager. In that post, she developed and delivered training on a range of issues including report writing, case planning, court skills, analysis and assessment and domestic abuse. Valerie is a member of the Law Society’s Children’s Law Sub-committee. Valerie has been principal children and families social worker for Devon County Council since October 2015. In this role, she has leadership responsibility for the children’s social care academy and for ensuring social care staff have opportunities for continuous professional development.

Caron Durrance is a senior practitioner in the reunification team within Essex County Council. She joined the team in March 2017 where she began her journey of using solution-focused practice on a daily basis having completed and having on-going training with BRIEF. Caron qualified as a social worker in 2003 having completed the diploma in social work. In 2006 she gained her BA honours degree at The University of East Anglia. Caron has worked in statutory services in an adolescent crisis team, children in care teams, the NSPCC helpline and as a therapeutic supervising social worker.

Luke Goldie-McSorley is a practice supervisor in the divisional based intervention team (DBIT) within Essex County Council. Luke completed a masters in social work in 2013 after which he joined DBIT. During his time with Essex County Council, Luke has undertaken extensive solution-focused training with BRIEF including the solution-focused diploma. Luke delivers solution-focused training within DBIT and across Essex social care and in 2018 began delivering solution-focused training to external agencies including delivering a workshop at Essex County Council's first national solution-focused conference. Luke’s passion has always been and continues to be working directly with families, where he continues to see the difference the solution-focused approach can make to people’s lives.

Tim is a lawyer who specialises in mental health, mental capacity and social care law. He is currently on a secondment to the Government Legal Department (Department of Health and Social Care) where he is working on the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill. At the Law Commission, Tim was responsible for the review of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, which reported in March 2017. Tim was also in charge of the UK Law Commissions’ review of the regulation of health and social care. He led the Law Commission’s review of adult social care which formed the basis of the Care Act 2014. He is the author of the "Care Act Manual" (second edition 2015, Sweet and Maxwell), general editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Services and Child Care Law, and contributes to Cross on Local Government Law. Tim is also a senior lecturer at Kingston University where he teaches on the best interests assessor and adult safeguarding courses.

Bio coming soon!

Jonathan Auburn is one of the top rated lawyers in the country in adult social care law. Last year his top ranking described him as "a real star junior" and "excellent and knows stacks about community care". He is also highly ranked in both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 in the related areas of local government law, administrative and public law, and education law. Jonathan argued the leading case on the Care Act duties, R (Davey) v Oxfordshire CC [2018] PTSR 281 Times, in which he was successful for the local authority. He has also appeared in other important cases recently, such as R (Cherwell DC & Others) v Oxfordshire CCG (2017) (challenge to hospital downgrading), AP v Tameside MBC (2017) (leading case on limitation period for Human Rights Act claims for unlawful DOL of mentally incapacitated P), Nottinghamshire CC v Belton (2017) (case establishing limitation period for s.69 Care Act fees claims), Tinsley v Manchester City Council (ongoing restitution claim for unfunded mental health aftercare), and R (Collins) v Nottinghamshire CC (2016) (judicial review challenge to Council’s urgent suspension of a DP support service provider). Jonathan co-authors the book Judicial Review, Principles and Procedure (OUP), as well as blogging regularly on the 11 KBW community care blog.

Karen Ralston become an area manager at Highland Council in 2016, motivated by its reputation for integrated working in children's services and improving outcomes for children. She leads a team of practice leads, social workers, teachers and other colleagues, and early intervention and prevention is at the forefront of their practice model.

Sir Alan was appointed as founding chair of the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care in July 2018. He has over 40 years’ experience at both local and national level within the children’s sector. Alan was the corporate director of children and young people’s services in Hackney, and chief executive of The Learning Trust, which delivered the statutory education services provided by Hackney Council. As commissioner for children social care in Doncaster, he set up The Doncaster Children Services Trust. He is the independent chair of the Children’s Improvement Board for Tower Hamlets. Alan was president of the Association of Directors of Children Services (ADCS) in 2014-15. In 2016, he carried out a fundamental review of local safeguarding children boards, including serious case reviews and child death overview panels. The legal framework covering these areas has been amended to implement his recommendations. His appointments have included: chair of the Youth Custody Improvement Board; chair of an advisory board to the Department for Education on the role of local authorities in providing services to children; member of the Youth Justice Board; member of the Training and Development Agency for Teachers; member of the Department for Education’s Expert Investment Board; and chair of the national Residential Care Leadership Board.

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Bio coming soon!

An American citizen born in Norfolk, England, not Norfolk, Virginia, Carey Cake is a social worker with almost 15 years' post-qualifying experience. Carey has had various roles working with children and families since 1993, Starting her career in youth work she later trained as a social worker and took up her first management position in 1996 and is currently the head of independent statutory services at Norfolk County Council, responsible for independent reviewing officers, designated officers, child protection chairs and children's participation. Over the last 25 years Carey has worked in a wide range of disciplines within both the voluntary, community and social enterprise and public sectors. These include children’s residential, detached youth work, alternative education provision, youth justice, child and adolescent mental health services and alternatives to care services. Carey first love is the delivery of direct work with young people, especially adolescents, and as a senior manager the needs and wishes of child remain at the heart of everything she does.

Sara joined Norfolk County Council as executive director of children’s services in October 2017, from Dorset County Council, where she held the same role for nearly four years. Sara has 32 years of experience of delivering services to children and young people in both the public and private sector. Sara was an elected director for the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) over a four-year period, and currently sits on its workforce policy committee. Sara has a relentless focus on outcomes and evidencing how we make a difference, and lead a successful bid from the Children's Social Care Innovation Programme to rethink social work using outcomes-focused practice. She was part of the team that published the influential reports, 'Narrowing the gap' and 'Grasping the Nettle', and believes strongly in relationship based social work. In Norfolk Sara led the service through their inspection to move out of intervention and now be judged requires improvement to be good.

Phil has been a qualified social worker for over 20 years, with half of that in senior management positions, leading innovation and improvement not just in social work practice, but across systems supporting children. He was drawn to Norfolk by the scale of its ambition, significant investment in ongoing improvement, and the wide range of initiatives already underway and in the pipeline.

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Bio coming soon!

Ruth has had a varied social work career in Norfolk children’s services, working in child in need and child protection teams, as well as in a children’s centre, where I supported a multi-agency team. She has also been an assistant team manager in a family intervention team, and currently supervises newly qualified staff entering the Norfolk Institute for Practice Excellence programme and works on supporting the development of social work practice across the county.

Kathy Marriott is an area director for Hampshire and Isle of Wight children's services. Kathy has 20 years’ statutory, voluntary and community sector management experience. She has a background in international development work, youth work, youth offending, child protection and looked-after children's services. She has worked, both as a practitioner and strategic manager, in a number of local authorities including Edinburgh City Council and Warwickshire County Council prior to her current role. Kathy is currently responsible for early help, children in need, child protection and looked after children's services on the Isle of Wight and is the strategic lead for performance, quality and commissioning. She has a particular interest in developing strengths-based approaches to support children and families within their communities and in multi-agency, integrated delivery interventions to promote wellbeing and resilience. She has recently led on the development of the neglect strategy for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Safeguarding Children's Boards.

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Richard Baldwin is the new permanent divisional director, children's social care, for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. He has joined the borough at an exciting and crucial point in their improvement journey, which has been underway since May 2017. Richard has previously been a leader/senior manager in the London Borough of Lambeth and Bath and North-East Somerset Council, where he played an important role in delivering improvements and progress. He places an emphasis on the importance of developing a positive organisational culture which values partnership working, valuing staff, above all, focusing on outcomes for young people.

Dr Godfred Boahen is policy and research officer at the British Association of Social Workers. Following a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (Oxford University), Godfred worked in third sector housing before training as a social worker. After working for several years in children’s services, Godfred gained a masters in research degree at the University of York, and a PhD at The Open University in adult services. He was then a senior lecturer in social work before starting his position at BASW. Godfred is an experienced public speaker. He has spoken at international conferences and addressed the Informal Meeting of the Committee of the Whole – a forum of the diplomats of the Commonwealth - held in London this year. Godfred’s second book ‘Professionalism and Self-management’ will be published in November 2018. The book addresses the history of professionalism in social work and explains how the profession developed professional identity. It also shows how professionals can self-manage their career by acquiring skills such as leadership, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence. Godfred will draw on this wide-ranging experience in practice, academia, and as an employee of the social work professional association, in the panel discussion on emotional distress.

Tim joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1988. As a detective superintendent on the Trident and Area Crime Command he had responsibility for reducing gang crime in London through intelligence led activity (diversion, community engagement and enforcement) against priority gangs and offenders. Tim blueprinted the current MPS gang operating model and matrix. Tim sits on Home Office, National Police Chiefs Council and Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime gang working groups. Tim led the MPS response to “county lines" and implemented the use of the Modern Slavery Act to target organisers of county lines who traffic and exploit young and vulnerable persons to support those lines. Tim retired from the MPS and in August 2018 undertook a new role within the newly formed National County Line Coordination Centre

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Rod has been working for Essex County Council in adult social care for 11 years, having gained a BSc in social policy from the Open University. He has been working on various projects within the quality improvement team since 2012 and for the past two years has been a support officer dedicated to the PROSPER project. Rod has a particular interest in using quality improvement methodology and root cause analysis as part of the pressure ulcer, UTI and falls prevention strategies in the care sector.

Dr Lisa Mathews is currently service manager with responsibility for vulnerable adult safeguarding at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. A qualified social worker and probation officer of over 20 years’ experience, she formerly held assistant chief officer posts responsible for child and vulnerable adult safeguarding and dangerous offender management in London and Hertfordshire probation areas, working with the Home Office on the National Public Protection Network and National Recall of Dangerous Offender forums. In 2006 she left the probation service to develop her career as an independent consultant, improving safeguarding systems and practice in local authorities and high brand charities including Barnardos, MIND and the Citizens Advice Bureaux. She has a PhD and is an alumni of Leeds and Exeter Universities. When not at work in Tower Hamlets, Dr Mathews pursues her hobbies of writing and amateur theatre and chairs two Essex-based theatre companies, Pandamonium Theatre Co and Brentwood Shakespeare Company. She has recently written a short play about modern slavery which will be premiered by Pandamonium Theatre Co in Tower Hamlets as part of aafeguarding month in November 2018.

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I am one the Senior Social Worker for the Learning Disabilities & Autism Service Ongoing support team, covering North Essex. I commenced this role in June 2018 and prior to specialising in working with adults who have a Learning Disability and / or Autism, I worked for the Working Age Adults Community Team; this team comprised of supporting adults who had Physical Impairments, Acquired Brain Injuries and adults who had a dual diagnosis. I really enjoy the role within my current team because it allows for a relationship-based social work approach, over a longer period of time and this supports with the application of the Recovery Model when supporting adults.

After qualifying in 2012, Hollie took up social work roles in children and families, and then, for the past five years in adult social care, including a year in Australia working in a mental health team. She's a qualified best interests assessor and has an interest in mental capacity, working with adults to ensure their rights and interests are at the centre of practice. She has a strong interest in the recovery model, transferring the skills and principles across adult social care within the teams, shifting the culture to enable the people the council works with to identify their own assets, whilst supporting their futures.

Having qualified as a social worker in 2005, and after working in various roles within local mental health services, Russell is now a service manager to Essex County Council’s new adult social care early intervention service – this comprises 4 teams, each with a different focus in North Essex. He arrived in post the same day that Essex County Council’s new re-organised service started. Over the following 6 months Russell and his management team have been working to embed the new model, whilst working to ensure that the council changes the way social care engages with Essex citizens.

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Mithran Samuel has worked for Community Care since 2004 in a variety of roles, including on news, Community Care Inform and Community Care Live.

Judi has recently taken up a new post within children services as the strategic commissioner for local services for children and families. Until recently Judi has had responsibility for supervised contact, home-based and therapeutic support as part of a wide range of alternatives to care, led the commissioning and partnership delivery of services including Norfolk’s Boarding School Partnership in order to support families to stay together. Judi has a background in post 16 education and training, worked at a training and enterprise council and the Learning and Skills Council and specialised in vulnerable and reluctant learners. Judi became the lead commissioner for Connexions Norfolk in 2002 and moved to Norfolk County Council in 2010 as a commissioning manager working on placement and sufficiency, alternatives to care before taking her current role in September.

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Bio coming soon!

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