Hearing children's voices: how we engage children and share their wishes and feelings in the family court

As an assistant director in Cafcass, Barry’s responsibility is to lead a dedicated group of managers and senior managers in safeguarding, auditing and learning development. Barry’s background is over 20 years in the sector as a social worker, manager and senior leader. Barry’s journey to Cafcass and the development of a practice framework is all about a passion of getting things right for children by creating the conditions for social workers to achieve their very best. Barry also has a keen interest in Attachment Theory and its application in assessment.

Sarah has worked as a social worker with children and families since 2005. She has a varied background which includes having worked in roles related to Child Protection and Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Sarah has specific interests relating to the impact of developmental trauma and restorative ways of working. Sarah has worked for Cafcass for the last 10 years and is currently employed as an Improvement Manager with a specific role in supporting with the implementation and continued development of the practice framework.

Andie has worked with children and families since 2003 before qualifying as a social worker in 2009. Andie has worked within Locality tams, Child in Need and Child Protection teams as well as Children in Care team. Andie has worked for Cafcass since November 2017 as a Family Court Advisor and Children’s Guardian managing both Public Law and Private Law. Andie has also been involved in the pilot of the Together Framework trying new templates and providing feedback to the developers of the framework.

Jeremy qualified as a Social Worker in 1998 in sunny Trinidad and Tobago then migrated to the UK in 2000.  Having worked initially in London he then spent 11 years in Southampton as a Social Worker, Senior Practitioner and Programme Supervisor in Child Protection, Looked after Children and Fostering teams respectively.  Prior to moving to CAFCASS, Jeremy managed the Treatment Foster Care programme in Southampton which was his first experience of managing a multi-disciplinary team that including a teacher, psychologist, social workers and a skills worker.  His 11 years with CAFCASS has seen him work mainly as an Assistant Service Manager mainly in Public Law however he eventually took up a role as an area Service Manager for the Early Intervention Team and the Dorset pilot scheme called Pathfinder.  Jeremy is also a trained Strengthscope coach and firm believer in supporting others to identify things that energise them within their working capacity to achieve their best.