James Fookes, Policy and Public Affairs Coordinator, The Children's Society Expand Frontline work and lived experience are more useful to policy than a degree I worked instead of going to uniWhen all my friends were going to university, I spent a year working. I felt pressure to go to university, but also felt needed at home. I saved the money I earned, unsure whether I’d spend it travelling or going to uni later on. I’ve always been an activistI’ve been volunteering since I was 15, when I joined the Terrence Higgins Trust’s youth leadership scheme. They’re a really empowering employer and gave our team of young people commissioner-style powers to allocate funding to youth projects on sexual health. When I was a teenager my friends and I supported a daycare centre for families in my area who couldn’t afford childcare over the summer holidays. Volunteering led me to my first paid jobI had this idea of doing police training so I could learn about human trafficking, which was the issue I really wanted to work on. But I quickly realised the police wouldn’t suit me! Terrence Higgins Trust has a ‘no degree needed’ culture and a great organic system where young people who’ve been involved informally can stay with the charity, moving into more formal roles. So when I moved to London to finally start a degree in philosophy, they employed me as an LGBT Community Engagement Officer, essentially running outreach services for HIV testing and support. THT were supportive of me studying while I was working for them, but in no way needed me to get the degree – the qualities they need in their frontline staff are honesty, openness, friendliness and being non-judgemental, and I had those already. Would I have got my first job in policy without my degree? I hope soI started working part-time as Policy and Campaigns Officer for THT while I was also part-time Community Engagement Officer. Although I’d got my degree by that point, I think it was my other experience that they thought qualified me for a policy role – I’d done lots of campaigning and internships and of course knew the cause and the organisation’s values well by then. Unfortunately, there is a false divide between ‘service delivery’ jobs and ‘policy’ jobs when I think it’s important to have people who’ve done both. Frontline experience is more useful in policy than a degreeI would never work in a policy area I didn’t have practical experience of. When my job at THT finished as a result of a restructure, I went to Greece on the spur of the moment, and ended up helping to support the refugee population there. That experience now feeds into my work for the Migrant and Refugee Children’s Consortium at The Children’s Society, where policy work enables me to focus my activism. Find your causeMy advice to young people who want to work in a policy and campaigns role is to get involved in the issues you feel strongly about. If you look around your community, there will be plenty of projects and campaigns that need help – just ask how you can be useful. And that includes on issues you’ve got personal experience of: if something unjust is making you angry or frustrated, you can channel that into activism. After all, there’s a lot for young people to feel angry about, and good policy making needs their voices.
Jeremy Cripps, CEO, Children North East (Treasurer) Expand Jeremy Cripps has been Chief Executive of Children North East since 2009 and a trustee for Children England since 2010. He is currently our Treasurer. Jeremy has 40 years’ experience of social work with children and families as a practitioner, manager and senior manager in voluntary sector organisations and Local Authorities. He is particularly concerned about the impact of growing inequality and poverty on children, young people and families especially in North East England. Jeremy is a member of the North East Child Poverty Commission and a trustee for the North East Child Poverty Trust and also the North East Law Centre.
Joanna Manning, National Lead Substance Misuse, The Children’s Society People have always seen the potential in me Expand As someone who entered the sector in 1991 as a volunteer with few qualifications, I welcome your campaign. I left grammar school at 16 with no qualifications and little aspiration. Although I always kind of felt I had something to offer – empathy and understanding. I grew up in a working class family who didn’t go to university or have degrees, plus as a family we had our own share of dysfunction and stress to deal with. In my career I have been lucky and people have always seen the potential in me and looked beyond qualifications. As a manager in a children’s charity I too have done the same with others and the service and especially the service users have benefitted as a result.
Kathy Evans, Chief Executive Chief Executive Expand Kathy Evans, Chief Executive Kathy joined Children England in 2010 as Deputy Chief Executive, leading Children England’s Programmes as the DfE’s Overarching Strategic Partner for the VCSE sector. She became CEO in April 2013. After graduating from Trinity College Cambridge, Kathy took a full-time CSV volunteer placement in a children’s home, leading her to train in counselling and to work with young people in secure accommodation for several years. She moved into policy work in 1997: firstly for DrugScope, specialising in drug treatment for young people; then to The Children’s Society where she remained for 8 years, as its Policy Director. During her career Kathy has been the Chair of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, a trustee of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, a member of the ACMD Hidden Harm group and DCSF Care Matters advisory group. She was also consultant to the Police Foundation and Justice, devising potential alternatives to Youth Courts, to support the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour. Kathy is also passionate about her role as a Humanist Celebrant for the BHA, performing non-religious weddings and baby namings whenever she is able! Contact: [email protected]
Laura Payne, Project Manager, 4in10 London Child Poverty Network Laura Payne, Project Manager, 4in10 London Child Poverty Network Expand Laura Payne, Project Manager, 4in10 London Child Poverty Network Laura is a committed campaigner with over a decade of experience working on issues of poverty and disadvantage faced by children in UK. Laura joined us from Barnardo’s where, as Head of Campaigns, she had notable national and local successes with child sexual exploitation and care leaver accommodation campaigns. Prior to that Laura coordinated the End Child Poverty Campaign, which will be a great experience to draw on as she builds the activities of the network to address the key child poverty issues London now faces. Contact: [email protected]
Lisa Byrne, Director of Finance and Central Services Director of Finance and Central Services Expand Lisa Byrne, Director of Finance and Central Services Lisa Byrne joined Children England in 1993 and is a member of the Senior Management Team. In her role as Director of Finance and Central Services she has responsibility for all finance and personnel functions across the organisation. In her role as Company Secretary Lisa administers the governance tasks for the Trustee Board. Lisa holds a CIPD qualification, is a School Governor for a secondary school in East Sussex and is a Trustee of a small charity in Brighton. Contact: [email protected]
Mark Lee, CEO, The Together Trust Expand Mark has been CEO of The Together Trust since July 2013, having been Regional Director Northwest and Project Director at Barnardo's between 2007 and 2013. Prior to that he worked at The Children's Society in roles including Head of Social Work and Regional Director for the North. He has been a trustee of Children England since 2014 and also sits on the board of the Greater Manchester Council of Voluntary Organisations.
More children are in care in poorer neighbourhoods - are you saying poor people are worse parents? Expand No. Parents in poverty can be just as caring and supportive as wealthier parents (and of course children in better off families can suffer adverse experiences too). It's the extra pressures on poorer parents that make it more likely that problems will occur and relationships will break down - debt, bad housing conditions, insecure tenancies and precarious employment to mention just a few. The relationship between disadvantage and children needing more help and protection is complex, and explored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Coventry University's Child Welfare Inequalities Project.
Norma Hornby, Youth Worker I got more out of my studies by starting in direct delivery Expand Firstly I worked with young people in the voluntary sector from the age of 18, on a part time basis because I was studying science through a day release scheme and working in a laboratory. Gradually my enthusiasm for youth work took over: I worked on a full time basis and didn’t take my professional qualifications for another fifteen years. Looking back, I got so much out of my studies because I had that background in direct delivery. Evidenced based portfolios compensated for fewer GCSEs and A levels For the past twenty years or more I have focussed on enabling young people to progress through the same route, from full engagement in decision making, planning and delivery to young leaders, volunteers, sessional workers and then full time workers: some who demonstrated the aptitude for academic study became graduates and often their very varied and evidenced based portfolios compensated for fewer GCSEs and A levels. Equal partners in a youth-led youth project From 2001 onwards I was fortunate enough to be able to involve local young people in restructuring a local charity – a youth worker’s dream because we were equal partners in this process. Ten young people who were thirteen years old at that time secured a Children Fund Grant and they consulted their peers before developing a highly exciting youth led social inclusion project. Those young people really pushed the boundaries out in terms of innovation in youth work. The same progression route worked for them also and for the next thirteen years those young people nurtured the next two tranches of younger youth workers. This experience confirmed for me that young people have the capacity and the commitment to deliver high quality youth work providing they have access to training and good supervision. Despite that fact that each of these young people lived in a deprived community and their school was placed in special measures, each one has achieved a good career and seven out of ten did graduate as teachers or in youth work-related fields. Young people can and will change the face of youth work I believe that young people can be highly skilled practitioners, providing the charity has one professionally qualified youth worker to ensure that their learning and personal development is of the highest possible standard. Initially that person should ensure the resources are available so that young youth workers can maximize their contact time with young people. As long as all young people have a progression route and they are respected and valued by more mature staff and trustees. Young people can and will change the face of youth work. However they must be paid a fair wage and have access to all in service training in localities: the real skill of the graduate worker has always been to facilitate and enable, so nothing new really. We need both graduates and non-graduates So, for exciting, responsive to local need and empathetic youth work delivery, give me young people any day: for vision, compassion and willingness to work evenings weekends and at peak holiday times, younger staff are very often the most likely to deliver. However there is still an important role for the graduate youth worker because monitoring, outcome measurement, evaluative reports and bid writing are needed to keep the charity functions and sustainable, so don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Norman Goodwin CBE, CEO, Adoption Matters Expand Norman is a qualified social worker whose career in social work began in 1979 with Clwyd County Council before moving to Cheshire County Council. Norman joined voluntary adoption agency Adoption Matters in 1985, initially as a team manager moving up to Chief Executive by 1992. Over the past 32 years, alongside leading the agency through significant growth and success, Norman has tirelessly campaigned to raise the profile of adoption and the status of the Voluntary/Independent Adoption sector. His contributions and achievements include: overseeing the successful merger between Adoption Matters and Blackburn Diocesan Adoption Agency in 2007 an honorary MA from Chester University in 2012 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to social work, adoption services and the family a CBE awarded in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours for, ‘recognition of his outstanding contribution and distinguished service to adoption services and the family’ His involvement in a number of key national initiatives and working groups on adoption includes: Tim Loughton’s Ministerial Advisory Group the Conservative Party Review of Adoption working party the Adoption Stakeholder Group the Prime Minister’s Expert Working Group on Adoption and the Adoption Implementation Group which became the Adoption Leadership Board an executive member and twice chair of CVAA, helping to drive developments and policy, such as the equalising of the Inter-agency fee Formerly a member of the Board of Trustees of the British Association Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). Contributing to several publications including: Barriers to Adoption? Variations In The Use of Adoption By Local Authorities; When Two Become One – A Guide To Merger For Voluntary Sector Organisations Working With Children And Familiesand No Place Like Home: Improving Adoption Services.