Speakers

Dr Musharrat Ahmed-Landeryou is an associate professor at London South Bank University and leads the de-colonising Allied Health Professions education strategy at her university. She is the author of Antiracist Occupational Therapy: Unsettling the Status Quo and has contributed to the book Antiracism in Higher Education: An Action Guide for Change. She is co-founder of BAMEOTUK, a network of Black and minoritised populations occupational therapy students, staff and educators which works to tackle institutional racism and discrimination in the profession. She recently won a national award from the Royal College of Occupational Therapists in recognition of her work.

Kerie is chair of UNISON’s National Social Care Forum. A Trade Union officer as well as a registered social worker, she has many years’ experience representing social workers employed in local government on a wide range of collective and individual issues.  From grievances and disciplinaries, protecting whistle-blowers, challenging employers on unsafe workloads, pay and grading disputes, through to leading strike action on ‘fire and rehire’. Kerie has also led on numerous community campaigns in east London, working alongside service users, to challenge outsourcing and cuts to public services.

Tim Baldwin is a practising barrister at Garden Court Chambers, is ranked in Chambers UK for social housing and community care and is identified as a leading junior in the Legal 500 for social housing; Court of Protection and community care; and administrative law and human rights. He is known for his fierce commitment to representing vulnerable, marginalised and disadvantaged clients. He is highly regarded for his public and administrative law practice, which includes housing and community care, acting in complex cases involving mental health issues, welfare benefits, social care, asylum support, and persons who lack capacity in all jurisdictions. His current practice is predominantly in the High Court and Appellate courts. He is an editor of the Community Care Law Reports and has contributed to Legal Action Group books by the late Stephen Knafler QC on adult and children’s social care. He worked at the Law Commission and Public law project prior to coming to the Bar. He is co-chair of the Housing Law Practitioner Association and sits on the advisory Panel to the Legal Aid Practitioners Group.

Professor Kish Bhatti-Sinclair’s academic career began at University of Southampton with a lifelong commitment to combating racism, shaping debates on black perspectives and de-colonising social work practice. As a professor of social work at the University of Chichester she has developed methodologies and theories such as “modern racism” to test discriminatory attitudes and behaviours and worked on research projects including studies on child sexual exploitation and “hard to reach” children.

She is co-editor-in-chief of the Wiley journal Child Abuse Review owned by the Association of Child Protection Professionals and her books include Anti-Racist Practice in Social Work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and Diversity, Difference and Dilemmas (OUP/McGraw Hill, 2017).

She co-ordinates many academic and local authority partnership groups including the Social Work Education Anti-Racist Social Work Education Network. As the co-ordinator for the Centre for Workforce Development she has undertaken a three-year evaluative review on the needs of the health and social care workforce in the south east of England which has contributed to strategic planning.

Dr Wuraola Bolaji is a psychoanalytically trained doctor of social work and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She is a trauma-informed practitioner, educator and thought leader. She has several years’ experience managing looked-after children and leaving care teams. She is currently a senior lecturer on the University of Hertfordshire’s MSc and BSc social work programmes. She completed her doctorate at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. Her research interests are broadly around trauma-informed pedagogy, care leavers, higher education, refugees and asylum seekers. Her thesis on trauma and transitions to adulthood of care-experienced young people who are refugees or asylum seekers is available at: http://repository.tavistockandportman.ac.uk/2584/

Sass Boucher’s research Looking Through a Lens of Terribleness explored and aimed to understand professionals’ needs when working with and listening to those affected by trauma. What she learned resulted in the creation of SelfCare Psychology with co-founder Kate Collier.

As a counsellor and psychotherapist, her practice includes a wide range of work, including referrals from employee assistance programmes within emergency services and health, social care and education settings.

She is currently lecturing part-time on the MSc Counselling Psychotherapy course at Keele University. She previously trained as a social work practice educator while working in domestic abuse services where she had a variety of roles including working in frontline support and service management and as a local authority domestic abuse partnership co-ordinator.

Charmaine Chandler is a lecturer in occupational therapy at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the current senior adviser for pre-registration learners within the School of Health Sciences. During her time at UEA she has also been the course director for the MSc (pre-registration) occupational therapy programme. Before joining the university in 2016 as a full-time lecturer, she completed her MSc in clinical research and worked in the NHS in a variety of neurological services as well as services supporting adults with learning disabilities.

Kate Collier is practice and development director and co-founder of SelfCare Psychology. She develops new training and tools and has taken SelfCare Psychology’s training online with the development of interactive live workshops and e-learning. She has a special interest in early intervention in wellbeing through education for social care and health professionals born out of her personal struggle with professional trauma and fatigue. Her experience spans training as a social worker and independent domestic violence adviser and designing, delivering and managing services for women facing multiple disadvantages.

Chickenshed is a theatre company for absolutely everyone.

For 50 years, we’ve created bold and beautiful work from our limitless belief in each other. Through our productions, our performance training, our education courses and our outreach projects, we create wonder out of chaos and change out of challenge.

We succeed together or not at all. This is our vision of how the world should be. We’re here to shake things up by sharing our experience with each other. We do this on stage, off-stage and wherever people come together.

Chickenshed, theatre changing lives.

Mark Finnis is an expert in restorative practice and director at L30 Relational Systems

Gail Gibbons is head of change for children’s services and health at the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), where she is responsible for sector engagement activity and partnership development. A social worker by profession, she has over 25 years’ experience of working in the public sector mainly in the fields of mental health, young people, policy development and commissioning. Immediately prior to joining YEF, she was chief executive of Sheffield Futures, a young people’s charity providing specialist support and mentoring for young people in Sheffield and the surrounding region. She has been an Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) Fellow and a Fellow of Practice at Oxford University’s Government Outcomes Lab. An experienced board member and chair, she is especially interested in collaborative partnership working, user voice and participation, and outcomes-based delivery programmes.

Jennie Guthrie is a social worker and principal curriculum lead for Frontline. She is an independent trainer and writer and hosts the website Autistic Social Worker. She is autistic and has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She is a director of Neuro Inclusive Solutions Ltd, providing training and consultancy services to social work organisations on neuro inclusion and working with neurodivergent people.

Helen works for Trevi, an award-winning women’s and children’s charity based in South West England, which provides safe and nurturing spaces for women in recovery to heal, grow and thrive. She facilitates the Freedom Programme for those affected by domestic violence.

Rt Hon Mike O'Brien KC is a senior barrister practising in the Court of Protection. He has dealt with cases involving hoarding and covert medication for a number of years. Before practising as a barrister, he was a government minister for 13 years and is a former Solicitor General for England and Wales.

Millie Kerr qualified as a social worker in Oxford in 1994 and has 30 years’ experience working as social worker, team manager and children’s services manager within local authority children’s services, adult social care and the charity sector. She has worked across a range of fields including safeguarding and child protection, HIV, palliative care, child asylum, child trafficking, leaving care, and within a specialist Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and safeguarding service. She has worked in the area of anti-racist practice and racial equity since November 2020 in Brighton & Hove. She is also a practice educator and delivers training on anti-racist practice, racial equity and cultural competence/humility within social work and more widely.

Alex Laidler is an occupational therapist with over 30 years’ experience in health and social care in practitioner, operational management and strategic leadership roles. She has led teams and services comprising a wide range of professionals and is committed to ensuring practitioners maintain a strong professional identity while promoting interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary practice. She joined Essex County Council in 2015 as director of adult social care and after two periods of maternity leave took up the position of principal occupational therapist when the role was first created in 2019.

Jenny Molloy is an author, motivational speaker and a patron of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW). She spent most of her childhood in care and is now a married mother, grandmother and care leaver. She wrote her bestselling books Hackney Child and Tainted Love under her pen name Hope Daniels. She is also patron of Trevi, an award-winning women’s and children’s charity based in south west England, which provides safe and nurturing spaces for women in recovery to heal, grow and thrive.

Dr Tanya Moore has worked in social work and social care for more than 30 years as a practitioner, educator and practice leader. She has published research and articles and edited two recent books: Principles of Practice by Principal Social Workers and The Anti-Racist Social Worker. Formerly research lead and programme lead for the social work/social care doctorate programme at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, she was also principal social worker at Hertfordshire County Council and senior lecturer and programme lead at the University of Hertfordshire. She joined Essex County Council in April 2023. She is committed to thoughtful, relational practice and is determined to see practice front and centre of leadership and decision-making in adult social care.

Colin Morgan has practiced in the family courts for 30 years, mainly in the area of child protection but also in the Court of Protection and withdrawal of treatment cases in the High Court. He is the head of Pallant Chambers, Chichester.

Greg has been a Social Worker since 2006. He has worked in a Leaving Care team as a Social Worker, Senior Practitioner and a Team Manager. Greg has also worked as part of Essex’s front door triaging referrals into Social Care and for the last ten years, he has worked with the D-BIT Service helping to keep families together using the Solution Focused approach. Greg’s passion and enthusiasm for the SF approach has led him to being part of the Essex Solution Focused Centre focusing on supporting others to learn and develop their own use of SF practice. Greg is a published author, and is the co-lead for Solution Focused Accreditation with the United Kingdom Association for Solution Focused Practice (UKASFP).

Vivian Okeze-Tirado is a social worker, practice educator and author and runs VOT Training and Consultancy. The service, which is provided across the UK virtually and face-to-face, aims to empower professionals with knowledge and information in the fields of social work, social care, foster care, equality, diversity and inclusion. Its robust, dynamic and interactive training sessions combine emotional intelligence with cultural sensitivity to ensure safeguarding of vulnerable service users is at the heart of practice.

Sarah Parsons has worked throughout her professional life in the family courts in England and has worked for Cafcass since its inception in 2001. She led Cafcass services in East Anglia and the London Private Law service until 2019. She is currently Cafcass’ principal social worker and as deputy director for improvement, leads the organisation’s National Improvement Service. Sarah played a key role in leading the development of the Child Impact Assessment Framework which includes the Domestic Abuse Practice Pathway and guidance and has been part of the team developing and implementing the Together practice framework.

Professor Andy Phippen is a professor of digital rights at Bournemouth University and a visiting professor at the University of Suffolk. He has specialised in the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) in social contexts and the intersection with legislation for almost 20 years, carrying out a large amount of grassroots research on issues such as attitudes toward privacy and data protection, internet safety and contemporary issues such as sexting, peer abuse and the impact of digital technology on wellbeing.

Rebecca Regler is an expert by experience and an associate lecturer in social work at Oxford Brookes University. She has an undergraduate degree in social work and an MSc in mental health recovery and social inclusion. She works within several lived experience projects. She is passionate about lived experience being used to improve services.

Luke is an award-winning social entrepreneur, recognised through the award of the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He has 10 years’ experience co-designing projects that enhance the experience of children in and leaving care. As a facilitator, Luke has worked with the Department for Education, The Fostering Network and in 2020 was invited to be a Fellow at the Saïd Business School, Skoll Centre for Social Enterprise, at the University of Oxford.

Kellie Salter was called to the Bar in 2019. Before she became a lawyer, she qualified as a social worker and worked in various roles within local authorities. Her practice focuses on all things social care – children and adults and private children’s matters. She is keen to assist practitioners with confidently navigating the law even when it appears unclear.

Pam Shodeinde is an advanced social work practitioner working with children and families in the East Midlands. Since qualifying as a social worker in 2019, she has worked to ensure her practice is embedded in fairness and equality for those she works with and more widely through her work with the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) as a member of the Black Professional Symposium. She is a speaker and an advocate and her work has focused on anti-racism and cultural sensitivity in social work with a particular interest in supporting students and newly qualified social workers.

Florence Smith is a director of Neuro Inclusive Solutions Ltd, providing training and consultancy services to social work organisations on neuro inclusion and working with neurodivergent people. 

She is dyslexic, dyspraxic, autistic and has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and uses her lived experience to inform her work. She hosts the website and blog The Neurodivergent Social Worker where she writes to both neurodivergent social workers and social work employers, advocating for cultural and system changes to facilitate neuro-inclusion within social work.

Tim is a lawyer who specialises in mental capacity, mental health and social care law. He works for the Government Legal Department (Department for Health and Social Care) where he advises on mental capacity and mental health law. He is also the legal editor of Community Care Inform (Adults) and a senior lecturer at Kingston University where he teaches on the best interests assessor course.

Kathryn Swinney is a member of the Health and Wellbeing Team at CAFCASS, working to support over 2,500 staff across England. Kathryn has covered a range of wellbeing topics in her experience supporting staff wellbeing in public sector organisations in both the USA and UK since 2017, with more recent projects covering areas of mental wellbeing, stress and resilience, and financial wellbeing.

Gary Vaux has been employed in welfare rights work for over 40 years. He is also a writer, trainer, consultant and broadcaster on social security matters for the BBC, GB News, the Local Government Association, numerous social care organisations and Rightsnet. He is regularly consulted by, and liaises with, the Department for Work and Pensions on welfare reform. He is the author of the A-Z of Benefits for Community Care Inform.

Vicki works for Trevi, an award-winning women’s and children’s charity based in South West England, which provides safe and nurturing spaces for women in recovery to heal, grow and thrive.

Stephen Wey has worked as an occupational therapist since the early 1990s and much of this has been in hospital and community settings working with people with dementia. He was part of a pioneering intensive home treatment and rehabilitation team for people with dementia and during this time was actively involved in pilots and evaluations of emerging assistive technology and some of the first telecare services. He has been an advocate for person-centred, strengths-led approaches rather than a risk/problems-led perspective and for enabling and rehabilitative approaches to dementia.