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.
Matthew Reed, CEO, The Children's Society Matthew Reed, CEO, The Children's Society Expand Matthew joined The Children’s Society as Chief Executive in May 2012 after two years as Chief Executive for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Prior to this Matthew was a director at Christian Aid. Matthew is passionate about social justice, opportunity and inclusion. He is now leading The Children’s Society to develop its work with many of the most disadvantaged children and young people in the UK through further tackling the effects and causes of severe and multiple disadvantage. Until 2016 Matthew was also the independent chair of the Birmingham Commission on Child Poverty. Matthew has a degree in Theology from the University of Oxford, a degree in Engineering and Management from the University of Nottingham, and a Masters in Management from the University of Surrey. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the RSA, and a trustee of Children England. He lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife and two teenaged children.
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.
Natasha Finlayson, CEO, Become (Joint Vice-Chair) Natasha Finlayson, CEO, Become Expand Natasha Finlayson became Chief Executive of Become (which changed its name from The Who Cares? Trust in November 2016), a national charity working to improve the lives of children and young people in care and care leavers, in 2008. Natasha spent 16 years at ChildLine, the last six of which she headed up the charity’s campaigning, communications, policy and research activities. She has also worked as a consultant for a number of large charities and the Charity Commission and as a director of one of Prince Charles’ charities. She is a Trustee of Children England and has been a member of the Children’s Commissioner’s Advisory Board since 2014.
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.