Speakers

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.

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.

William Dean is a barrister who practises from 9 Gough Chambers in Central London. He has a broad common law practice and often appears for local authorities and other parties in public law children (care) proceedings, from first case management hearings and ICO applications to multi-day final hearings. He has appeared at all levels of the Family Court and in the High Court. His broad practice means that he has a rounded knowledge of the applicable law and procedure and an understanding of the overlap with other jurisdictions. He was a contributor to “The PLO Explained” (1st and 2nd editions). He spoke at Community Care Live in 2019 on the 26-week deadline and its impact on social work practice.

Claudia Megele is the Assistant Direct of Cafcass and a Fellow of National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), School for Social Care Research (SSCR). Claudia has published books and articles on relationship-based practice, online safeguarding, social media, technology and social work including her latest book ‘Social Media and Social Work’. Claudia has held various national roles and has led and advised various boards. Claudia was the National Chair of the Principal Children and Families Social Worker Network, member of the advisory board of the National Children's Bureau (NCB), Trustee at Mind, and the Chair of Tower Hamlets Police and Community Safety Board.

Lydia Guthrie BA (Oxon), MSc, Dip SW, Systemic Practitioner, is Co-Director of Change Point Ltd, and works as a trainer and supervisor across social work, criminal justice, mental health, secure forensic and voluntary sector settings. She qualified as a social worker in 1998, and spent ten years working for the Probation Service in practitioner and management roles. She completed an MSc in Attachment Theory in 2014, and is trained in the Strange Situation Procedure and the Adult Attachment Interview. She is the co-author (with Clark Baim) of ‘Changing Offending Behaviour’ (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2014) and (with Imogen Blood) of ‘Supporting Older People using Attachment-Informed and Strengths-Based Approaches’ (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2018). She is in her final year of training as a systemic psychotherapist/family therapist at the Institute of Family Therapy.

I have worked in care since 1988, qualifying as a Social Worker in 1999. I am also qualified to act as an expert witness in court for matters of equality and diversity (Post Grad Dip Applied Sociology: Equality, Diversity and Criminology For the past six years I have worked as a sole trader and consultant chairing and authoring Safeguarding Adults Reviews, advising Safeguarding Adults Boards, acting as national lead for an agency in MCA, DoLs and Safeguarding, writing books and articles. My research into self-neglect and my practical approach to safeguarding has led me to identify methods of support and therapeutic interventions for people who are self-neglecting. Understanding what person-centred safeguarding means is key to ensuring that our responses are effective.

Sass Boucher MSc BA (Hons) MBACP is a counsellor and psychotherapist registered with the BACP, working in private practice, and as an affiliate for an employment assisted programme. Sass is co-founder and a director of SelfCare Psychology Ltd, a start-up with a strong social desire to make changes in human services, creating awareness around the concepts that can impact on those listening to other human beings in distress and experiencing trauma. Following her MSc research project Sass has written for the BACP Workplace Journal, The Law Society, Social Work News, The Counsellors Café, Women in Trade magazine and contributed to ‘SHARE a new model for Social Work’, specifically around self-care from both a personal and professional perspective. She has also co-authored 50 Acts of Professional Self-Care for Social Workers, published by Kirwin Maclean.

Graduate of the Self Care school of experience; as in I didn’t do it, and paid the price with my health. I originally trained as a social worker and have over a decade’s experience in frontline and management supporting women experiencing domestic abuse, addictions, and trauma, in custody and the community, and currently head up learning and employee development for a charity. Previously an expert in not practising what I preached and neglecting my own wellbeing.

Tim is a lawyer who specialises in mental capacity, mental health and social care law, legal editor at Community Care Inform and senior lecturer at Kingston University. At the Law Commission he led the reviews of adult social care, health and social care professional regulation and the deprivation of liberty safeguards. He is currently on a secondment to the Government Legal Department (DHSC) where he is working primarily on the implementation of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019.

Jane Wiffin is a social worker by profession. She has worked in a variety of roles, but for the last 30 years has been involved in policy and practice development. This was initially at Family Rights Group where she worked on introducing Family Group Conferences and the inclusion of families in key meetings. She was also a practice educator providing pre and post qualifying training at University. Over the last 15 years She has been the author of 92 serious case reviews and a number of adult safeguarding reviews. She has developed resources and frameworks around child and adolescent neglect. She now works part time for the centre of Expertise in Child Sexual Abuse on working with professionals to improve the response to CSA and she also continues with Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews.

Alasdair has over twenty years’ experience as a trainer, accredited coach and facilitator working with teams and individuals to fulfil their potential in education, health, criminal justice, social care, the arts and the private sector. With a background in education, Alasdair established the training department for the national charity Release and later developed the first business unit within a local authority (Westminster) winning two major innovation awards. Since 1997, he has built his own training and coaching practice based in Cambridge, specialising in motivational interviewing and management and leadership development.

Sharon is the Principal Child & Family Social Worker (PCFSW) and Service Manager for Surrey Children Services Academy. She is also the new Co-Chair of the national Principal Child & Family Social work network with Farrah Khan Sharon is an enthusiastic, dedicated and experienced manager with over 28 years of direct experience and specialist knowledge of social work/social care practice in relation to children, young people, vulnerable adults and families. She has a track record of delivering and leading complex diverse staff, teams and services within the public sector and the voluntary sector. Sharon has a passion for learning and development and for ensuring the workforce have excellent experiences through the design of modern impactful and innovative learning solutions which ultimately impact on improved safe practice/services for children, young people and their families. Sharon prides herself on managing with compassion, honesty and integrity. Within her role as PCFSW Sharon works hard to support, and appropriately challenge practitioners and managers at all levels, thus helping to create an environment where high quality practice can flourish. Within her role as Service Manager Sharon is responsible for Surrey’s ASYE and Student placement programmes. She also has overall responsibility for the design, creation, coordination, delivery and evaluation of all learning and development activities which meets the CPD needs of the workforce within the Children’s, Families and Learning Directorate. Whilst also supporting the shared learning opportunities for practitioners and mangers working with Children and families across the wider multi agency partnership in Surrey.

Kish is known for her work on social work, race and racism. This includes research on the importance of border controls and information technology in the countries of the European Union, globalisation in relation to social work values and inter-professional working in a culturally appropriate way. Kish has a particular interest in research methodologies sensitive to the needs of black and minority ethnic (BME) populations. Kish has worked on a number of research projects evaluating practice in social work and health settings and used methods such as medical audits and theories such as modern racism to test attitudes and behaviours. In relation to children and young people Kish has researched case data from the USA and the UK which has led to publications on the challenges of placing children in care. Kish has reported on projects evaluating initiatives on troubled families and analysed case data on BME children in care. This has led to a number of reports which have questioned professional understanding of cultural imperatives and beliefs, responses to child abuse by minority ethnic communities, cultural racism, anti-muslim racism and Islamophobia. Current research projects include: child exploitation and race and the impact of sleep deprivation on professional practice. Kish’s book projects include: Anti-Racist Practice in Social Work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) which examines attitudes and behaviours in relation to law, policy and practice on race equality and Diversity, Difference and Dilemmas (OUP/McGraw Hill, 2017) which examines the disproportionate attention paid to immigrants and terrorists in populist policy and media reporting.

Wayne Reid is a Professional Officer for BASW England and lives in Sheffield. Wayne qualified as a social worker in 2010, but the entirety of his social care experience spans nearly 20 years. He has worked in: private fostering; the Probation Service; youth offending; adult mental health; child protection and with care leavers. As a black male social worker, Wayne understands some of the challenges that service-users and practitioners from different ethnic minority groups can face. From his experience, Wayne believes academic and ‘life education’ are essential to improve an individual’s quality of life and life chances. @wayne_reid79 (Twitter)

Dr David Wilkins is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Cardiff University and Assistant Director of the Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE)). David has previously worked on several research projects exploring the use of motivational interviewing in child and family social work and is currently co-authoring a book on the subject, to be published in 2021. Prior to joining Cardiff University, David worked as a senior research fellow at the Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care, an Academic Tutor for the Frontline Programme and a Senior Lecturer in Social Work for Anglia Ruskin University. In his spare time, David tries to play tennis and the piano.

Michael Huggett is currently employed by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to work within SWIFT Specialist Family Service. He is a Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN) with over eight years experience specialising in the treatment and recovery of women with complex and challenging mental health needs stemming from severe childhood trauma in the form of sexual abuse, violence and neglect. Through this work he has gained experiences and knowledge of the effects that childhood sexual abuse has in regard to the mental health of the survivor and, in instances where the service users are mothers, the impact that unresolved trauma has on the care of their children, for example through their choice of partners, their ability to put the needs of their child first and the impact of dissociative states. He regularly undertakes educational intervention work with non-abusing parents to increase there protective capacity in relation to sexual risk and teaches frontline social workers on the topics of sexual abuse within family contexts, working with survivors of sexual abuse and working with non-abusing partners. Michael completed a PhD entitled ‘How women diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder negotiate identity in relation to risk’ which focusses on how women in receipt of a Borderline Personality Disorder (known in Europe by the equivalent ‘Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder [borderline type])’ diagnosis negotiate their way through services in relation to their risk presentations and sense of identity. He has recently completed a diploma in Community and Psychotherapy with the Philadelphia Association.

Louise Toye is an experienced statutory social worker and practice lead. Louise’s current role in Greater Manchester is as Practice Lead for Complex Safeguarding and Achieving Change Together (ACT). Louise was involved in the original design and development of ACT, a research and co-designed response to exploitation. Louise is now responsible for training and supporting ACT’s roll-out across the ten Greater Manchester authorities. ACT’s approach to safeguarding young people who are at risk of, or experiencing, extra-familial harm (child sexual and criminal exploitation and trafficking) is both future focussed and strength based. It aims to work alongside young people in a collaborative manner. Louise’s experience of developing services and supporting the spread and scale of innovation has provided her with unique insights into what works in practice and operational settings. Louise’s current projects also includes supporting the development of an alternative approach to risk assessments in the context of adolescent safeguarding. As part of this project Louise works alongside national and local partners to promote the move from risk-based work to one of safety and wellbeing.

Luke Goldie-McSorley is a qualified social worker of 7 years, all in Essex. Luke is currently practice supervisor in Essex’s famous DBIT service where he has developed his love and skill in solution-focused practice & working with children and families. Luke’s passion is change work, alongside sharing & developing practice – which led to developing and co-writing Essex's children in need guidance.

Ahana Kalluri is a service manager of an assessment and intervention (A&I) & children & young people with Disabilities (CYPWD) Service in Essex County Council. Her previous roles have included an interim service manager position for family support and protectionservice where the new guidance on child in need in Essex was developed and written. Ahana’s career in the UK has spanned 15 years in local authorities in a range of roles including looked-after children, family support and protection and more recently assessment and intervention and the disabilities service. Ahana is a strong advocate of relationship based social work that focusses on taking families along the journey of change using systemic principles of practice.

She qualified as a social worker in the mid-90s and have worked for Hampshire and Essex in both adult and children’s services. She is currently a service manager in Essex’s children and young people with disabilities service with a lead for SEND and preparing for adulthood. When not working I enjoy cooking, music & comedy gigs and countryside walks.

With 16 years of experience in funding for special education needs for further education colleges, Suzanne has developed strong partnerships with Essex colleges to support the move from accreditation system to an outcome model specifically for employment. As manager of the targeted employment team she has focused on creating sustainable post 16 pathways into employment.

Fiona is the director of safeguarding and quality assurance for Essex County Council, acting as the lead for safeguarding, MCA and DoLS, quality assurance and provider quality. Fiona is also the principal social worker for Essex County Council and director for Essex Social Care Academy (ESCA), which is an award-winning adult social care and children's and families' workforce development team.

Giles is a qualified social worker, with over 20 years of experience in adult social care in a variety of roles. He has worked in frontline and countywide teams across Essex, with service user groups and external partners. Most recently he has worked in safeguarding and quality assurance where he is passionate about celebrating and improving frontline practice.

David has worked in adult social care for the past 13 years; including a period as the manager of the individual budget pilot that Essex hosted as part of the wider national work. A former civil servant, David has a background in policy work, but has always approached it from an operational perspective.

Alison started in Adult Social Care (ASC) in 1998 as an administrator, before becoming a social work assistant. She was sponsored to do the BA in social work, qualifying in 2008. She has worked in most areas of ASC, but in 2011 decided to specialise in safeguarding, firstly as a social worker and more recently as a service manager within the safeguarding and quality assurance.

Sam Keith has worked for Newcastle City Council for 15 years, and is a qualified social worker and best interests assessor. She has extensive experience of complex risk and care management and has a particular interest in promoting the needs of young adults who are at risk of or are experiencing exploitation in all its forms. The multi-agency hub whose remit is to support those impacted by exploitation is a key element of the safeguarding response we offer in Newcastle . This is a ground-breaking area of work within adult social care, indeed the team has been nationally recognised as winners of the Adult Team of the Year at the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2017. This is just one of the awards the team have won for their work.

Jonathan is a qualified Level 6 careers advisor within Essex County Council with a background within the SEN arena. He is dedicated to inspire and motivate young people to realise their true potential and to bridge the gap between education and social care.

Having worked in the employment sector for twelve years Jethro has supported hundreds of people achieve their aspirations of gaining sustainable employment. In addition to his operational experience he has been pivotal in the development and implementation of strategies that increase the employment outcomes for those with special educational needs and disabilities.

Lori has been a social worker for 25+ years and has practised social work in Canada, the US and the UK. She is currently the principal child and families social worker for Medway Council and has been delivering workshops on secondary trauma for more than eight years.

Sue is the co founder and Chief Creative Officer and programme expert at Rock Pool C.I.C. Sue has worked with individuals who have experienced psychological trauma as a result of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) for over 30 years in her professional life as a clinician, trainer and supervisor both within the NHS and independently. She has specialised in writing psycho-educational programmes that promote trauma informed practice and a recovery model. Sue is passionate for the need for multi-agency working and committed to supporting front line workers to have the skills to support families with a trauma informed approach. Sue has an extensive background in the domestic abuse sector and has written trauma informed domestic abuse programmes including the Inspiring Families Programme, Adult and Children and Young People Domestic Abuse Recovery Toolkit and the Sexual Violence Recovery Toolkit. Sue has also devised the ACE Recovery Toolkit written for parents and the ACE Recovery Toolkit for children and young people. Sue Recently published The Recovery Toolkit – a self -help guide for individuals recovering from domestic abuse. Further details about her work can be found at www.rockpool.life

Fiona is a HCPC registered Social Worker, graduating with a MA Social Work from Middlesex University, London and a MA in International and Community Development from Deakin University, Australia. She is the Senior Social Worker at Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB), where she leads on delivering CFAB’s International Kinship Care training programme and developing the capacity of CFAB’s partner agencies in Asia and Africa. Prior to CFAB, Fiona worked in the human rights sector with statutory agencies and charities in the UK, Australia and Asia region for over 15 years.

As a solicitor in private practice Maria represented clients in a wide range of matters encompassing international child abduction, jurisdictional disputes concerning children, wardship, committal, forced marriage, and public and private law proceedings. She acted in a number of high profile cases, including the seminal case of Re B (A Child) Habitual Residence: Jurisdiction [2015] EWCA Civ 886, where the Supreme Court case examined the use of the Inherent Jurisdiction in relation to the removal to Pakistan of a child born to a same-sex couple. She also represented the Appellant Mother in Re E (Children) [2011] UKSC 27, a Supreme Court case concerning the correct approach to the Article 13 (1) (b) exception in proceedings under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention. In 2015, Maria worked as judicial assistant in the Court of Appeal to Lady Justice Black and Lord Justice McFarlane. In 2016 she was awarded a studentship by the Economic and Social Research Council to pursue an MSc and PhD with the University of Bristol School of Law. Her study examines the operation of instruments of private international law (Brussels IIa and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention) in care proceedings taking place in England. The research is conducted in collaboration with Cafcass and CFAB. Maria has also published widely on children’s law with an international element. She is the co-author of a leading practitioner’s text, ‘International Issues in Family Law The 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Brussels IIa’ (2015 Jordans). Maria has also published extensively on the use of Special Guardianship in care proceedings with an international element, transfers of jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of orders and the protection of children where jurisdiction is in issue.

Dr Prospera Tedam is a social work academic currently teaching at the United Arab Emirates University. She has broad research interests in the areas of culturally sensitive practice, equality, diversity and relationship based anti-racist education and practice. She has published widely in this area and in this seminar will be presenting findings from her ongoing research into the experiences of Black and minority ethnic social workers in the UK during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Claire Bates is the leader of Supported Loving, a national network that believes people with learning disabilities should be able to enjoy the same sexual and romantic freedoms as everyone else. Claire is also a researcher at the Tizard Centre, conducting research into sexuality and relationships.

Eve Payne is a qualified social worker and is also currently studying for a certificate in therapeutic play skills. She has worked for CCS since 2018 as a life story worker for the Sharing Stories service and also works for the local authority part-time working with children who are looked after which she has done since 2015. Sharing Stories has published articles in Coram’s Spotlight, the guardian and community care, has produced a video sharing a birth grandmothers experience of life story work, provided training and drop-ins, designed templates and created resources all with the aim of supporting improving the quality of life story information and supporting families to feel confident doing life story work. Eve believes passionately that any child who has been removed from their family of origin has the right to qualitative enriched information which allows them to integrate their sense of self. Life story work to be done effectively deserves sufficient time and commitment to ensure that all parties feel held and supported to enable the child to feel empowered to process, internalise and own their journey.

Lindy Wootton is an accredited mediator and qualified social worker. She has a background in Criminal Justice, Community Mediation and Children and Families social work. Before she began to work for CCS adoption in 2013 she worked in a Local Authority Safeguarding team. She has been the CCS lead on Early Permanence since 2013, managing their PIF 1 and 2 Early Permanence Projects from 2016 – 2019 and in that role led CCS Adoption to become the first adoption agency in the country to gain the EP Quality Mark in March 2018. Her PIF EP Project Management role also involved the creation and development of the Sharing Stories service and Lindy has managed the service since its conception in 2017. Lindy believes passionately in the importance of good quality life story work for adopted children as a means to help children build strong and integrated identities and a sense of belonging and place in the world. When life story work is done well it also empowers both the birth family and the adoptive families leading to greater well-being for all.

Frank Keating is a Professor of Social Work and Mental Health in the Department of Social Work at Royal Holloway University of London. His main research interests are ethnicity, gender, ageing and mental health, particularly focusing on African and Caribbean communities. He had recently completed a National Institute for Health Research funded study to investigate socially oriented approaches to mental health recovery for African and Caribbean men. Frank is a strong advocate for racial equality in mental health services through his writing, teaching and public speaking.

Mark has worked in social care, local authorities and NHS Trusts for almost 30 years, starting as a care assistant in a learning disability residential unit. Mark’s particular areas of expertise are mental health, learning disabilities and autism. As well as joint chief social worker at the Department of Health and Social Care, Mark is also operations director for Adult Disabilities Services at Hertfordshire County Council.

Fran has worked in Children and Adults social care for over 30 years and in senior roles within local authorities for 15 years. Fran’s particular areas of expertise are safeguarding, complex care, Modern Day Slavery & Prevent. As well as joint chief social worker at the Department of Health and Social Care, Fran is also Principal Social Worker (PSW) and Strategic Lead for Adult Social Care and Safeguarding at Thurrock County Council.

Tricia Pereira is a qualified social worker, with over 15 years’ experience spanning adults and children’s social care and social work in the voluntary sector. She has an interest in sector led improvement & inclusive Leadership and hosts leadership events. Tricia is currently the Head of Operations Adults Social Care –for London Borough of Merton and Co-Chair of the BAME Communities Advisory Group for the Department of Health and Social Care sector, COVID-19 Support Taskforce. Previous roles include Practitioner Development Lead for London ADASS, providing strategic oversight, advice and guidance on the professional leadership and development aspects of both the London Directors and Principal Social Workers work programs. As practitioner lead, Tricia wrote and led the procurement for the Social Work Degree Apprenticeship across 33 London Boroughs. She is the former Co-Chair of the National Adults Principal Social Worker Network for England, as such deputised for the Chief Social worker -sitting on the Chief Social Worker’s Advisory Group and the Department of Health and Social Care, Quality Matters Board. Tricia is a proficient British sign language user and practiced as a social worker with Deaf and deafblind children and adults, older people, adults with physical disabilities and rehabilitation with Visual Impaired people. She has developed safeguarding adults processes within prisons pre and post care act implementation and facilitated multi agency learning events (County Lines) for the Metropolitan Police, looking at where agencies missed opportunities to share information to support the young person & their family. She is a keen advocate of Restorative Practice and family group conferences with adults and has developed projects utilising these approaches. Along with Carmen Colomina, Prof Samantha Barron and Dr Tony Stanley, Tricia is the co-author of Strength Based Practice Framework and Handbook published by the Department of Health and Social Care in February 2019

Dr Denise Turner is an experienced, registered Social Worker and currently works as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work, having previously worked in a hospice. She is particularly interested in how the experience of death impacts on health and social care practitioners and users of services. Denise has designed teaching on death and dying, including an innovative new Elective module and also delivers CPD training to health and social care practitioners. Denise’s research has focussed on varying aspects of death, loss and bereavement, including a study on parent’ experiences of the professional response to sudden, unexpected child death and on cultural aspects of death, arising from a study of social work students. She is published on her research work and has also sole authored a book, ‘Perspectives on the Experience of Sudden, Unexpected Child Death: The Very Worst Thing?’ with Palagrave MacMillan (2017). She is Associate Editor for CPD for the journal Child Abuse Review.

Dr Camilla Parker is an independent consultant, researcher and trainer specialising in mental health law, policy and human rights. Much of Camilla’s work is focused on promoting a better understanding of the law and human rights of children and young people with mental health needs. She worked as a consultant for the Department of Health on the revision of the children and young people’s chapter in the Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice (2015) and authored chapter 7: Decision-making in Disabled Children: A Legal Handbook (eds Steve Broach and Luke Clements, (3rd edn, LAG 2020)). Her book on Adolescent Mental Health Care and the Law (LAG 2020) is due to be published later this year. Camilla is a solicitor (non-practising) and member of the Law Society’s Mental Health and Disability Committee. She is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent.

Ju was a social worker for 18 years, she reflects candidly in her work as an artist and writer upon having lived her life as an undiagnosed autistic woman. Ju is an ambassador for The Missing People charity and was keynote speaker at The International Conference on Missing Children and Adults 2019.

Alison qualified as a social worker in 1995, working for the first sixteen years of her career in the probation service as a probation officer and senior probation officer in a variety of settings in Hampshire. During that time, she had a three-year secondment to what was Wessex youth offending team as a team manager. Leaving probation in 2011, Alison moved to Hampshire County Council’s children’s services as a lead independent reviewing officer, managing the reviewing service in the west of the county. She became head of service for the newly formed Hampshire youth offending team in 2012, taking additional responsibility for the Isle of Wight youth offending team in 2013 following the strategic partnership of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight children’s services in that year. In 2016, Alison became strategic lead for transformation in Hampshire’s children’s services, leading on the set up of the transformation work undertaken as a result of Hampshire being in the first round of the DfE’s Partners in Practice (PiP) local authorities. Since November 2018, Alison has occupied the role of head of sector-led improvement and service development, leading on the improvement and support work with other authorities and the continuous improvement and development of Hampshire’s quality practice. Alison is really pleased to be sharing Hampshire’s journey and learning with wider colleagues at CC Live.

Sue qualified as a social worker in 1979, working in a London borough for the first eight years of her career before moving to Hampshire. This coincided with the implementation of the Children Act 1989 -an exciting time in social work. Sue has held a number of different social work and managerial posts in her 40 years as a social worker. These have been both operational and strategic, overseeing and managing children’s homes, fostering and adoption services, statutory work with children in care, disabled children and children in need of protection. For three years Sue worked in Government Office for the South East in a safeguarding advisory role, before returning to Hampshire, soon afterwards taking up her current role, managing the services delivered across the five districts in the West of Hampshire and the multi-agency safeguarding hub. As well as holding a BA in social sciences, an MA in sociology and social policy and a strategic management qualification, Sue holds a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work and is accredited under the National Assessment and Accreditation System.

Jahnine Davis is the Co-Founder and Director of Listen Up Research. She has been involved in a variety of national and local innovations, bringing about systems change via the promotion of evidence-informed practice in child protection and safeguarding. Jahnine is also a Research Fellow for Contextual Safeguarding at the University of Bedfordshire and an expert in diversity & inclusive child protection & safeguarding practice. More recently, Jahnine led research into the experiences of Black Girls and Child Sexual Abuse and is now a doctoral candidate exploring how Black adolescents who experience harm as are responded to by child protection agencies. She is currently the Safeguarding Trustees for IMKAAN and St Giles.

As a social worker-researcher, Nick is passionate about improving access to research in safeguarding and wellbeing settings. Nick has built a reputation for supporting service transformation through co-design and research-informed practice. This includes leading the development of the Greater Manchester's child exploitation service (ACT). Currently, as part of his role at the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse, Nick is Co-ordinating a pilot to remove the use of risk assessment tools in child sexual and criminal exploitation settings. Nick's PhD research relates to safeguarding adolescents in extra-familial contexts.

Dr Peter Buzzi is the Director of Research and Management Consultancy Centre and the Safeguarding Research Centre. He is the chair of Digital Practice Network and the national research lead carrying out a research on digital practice, digital professionalism and online safeguarding. He has extensively researched and published about digital well-being and safeguarding and relational practice in a digital context. See Dr. Buzzi's latest article in CCinform: “Safeguarding Children and Young People Online”.

Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly is a registered social worker who is an experienced senior manager. Following her retirement she has become a senior partner in Bokell Associates Ltd, for whom she now works offering consultancy and project developement leadership working as a consultant in a number of councils and private sector organisations. Her work with councils have Included setting up a number of social care academies in children's and adults' services -these have included the Surrey Children Services Academy in Surrey County Council and Barnet Children Practice Academy in Barnet Council, Norfolk Social Care Academy in Norfolk County Council, Medway Social Care Academy in Medway Council and the first Children Academy in Croydon Council. She has also advised other councils, including Southwark, Wandsworth and Havering on the development of their workforce service academies as an expert advisor.

I am the founder and Director of Effective Practice, which supports organisations to improve social care. I work with practitioners, managers and leaders to develop practice so that they can serve adults, families and children better. I co-present the Helpful Social Work podcast. I am a registered social worker and Chair of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), the professional association for social work and social workers in the UK. BASW provides support to social workers, leads on the development of the profession in the UK, and advocates for social justice. Before working in practice improvement, I was a service manager in a large local authority, a team manager, and a social worker in community and integrated teams in England.

Helen is a qualified Social Worker and holds a combined Degree (BA Hons) and CQSW. On qualifying, she worked for Leicestershire County Council where she undertook a range of social work and managerial roles before moving to similar positions in London Boroughs. Helen joined Essex County Council in July 2011 and is currently the Executive Director Children Families & Education. During her London years, she chaired and authored much of the pan London Child Protection Procedures. She co-authored “Ten pitfalls in assessment and how to avoid them” and has co-authored an article “Practice needs to be braver, Child Protection and the paradigm of risk”. Helen is an active member of the ADCS, being on the Council of Reference, and the ADCS representative on UASC and Family Justice Reform Implementation groups. Regionally, Helen is the Chair of East Region Sector Led Improvement Group. Essex Children & Families is Ofsted graded overall Outstanding from its ILACS inspection in 2018. Helen has been a strong supporter of sector-led improvement, as such, she is a lead contractor with the DfE for improving children’s services as Intervention Advisers, and as a Partner in Practice, to other LA’s, graded Inadequate and Requires Improvement, by Ofsted, respectively.

Rachael will take up post as executive director of children, families and lifelong learning at Surrey County Council in early December. She is currently director of children, schools and families at the London Borough of Merton and was previously director of children's and adults' services at West Berkshire Council.

Founder of Surviving Safeguarding, and parent and relatives representative on the Family Justice Council and Domestic Abuse Working Group.