Jackie Long has been the social affairs editor and one of the presenters of Channel 4 News for more than a decade. She spent almost twenty years at the BBC  working on programmes including Newsnight and Radio 4’s World at One and PM programmes.

Her special interest has always been trying to give space and time to people whose stories and voices are often ignored.

Simon Bailey CBE, QPM, DL served for 35 years as a police officer, the last 8 years as the Chief Constable of Norfolk, and the National Policing Lead for Child Protection.

He was responsible for creating Operation Hydrant, the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme and the Tacking Organised Exploitation Project.

Simon was awarded the Queens Police Medal in 2016, the Commander of the British Empire in 2022 and appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Norfolk in 2021.

Alison Hernandez was first elected as the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in May 2016. She is now serving in her third term, having been re-elected in 2021 and 2024.

During her tenure, Devon & Cornwall Police has recruited 686 additional officers, taking it to record strength, opened an extra 18 police station front desks, modernised the police estate, and partnerships to tackle drugs and alcohol, road safety, theft, violence, and antisocial behaviour.

As well as her role of holding the Chief Constable of Devon & Cornwall Police to account, she is the voice of the public for victim services in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Dr Neil Churchill OBE is Director for People and Communities at NHS England, having joined the NHS after a 25-year career in the voluntary sector. His work includes understanding people’s experiences of the NHS, involving people and communities in decision-making, and leading change to improve the quality and equality of care. He has a particular focus on strengthening partnerships with unpaid carers, volunteers and the voluntary sector.

Neil has previously been a Non-Executive Director for the NHS in the South of England, is a member of the Strategy Board for the global Beryl Institute, and Chair of two charities, Cruse Bereavement Support and Care for the Carers. He is himself an unpaid carer and in his spare time writes about medieval art and politics.

Ben-Julian Harrington, known as BJ, has been the Chief Constable of Essex Police since October 2018. 

Throughout his career, CC Harrington has held various roles, including serving as a reserve soldier in the Parachute Regiment. He gained significant experience in public order policing, overseeing events such as football matches, the Notting Hill Carnival, and the London 2012 Olympics. 

In 2017, CC Harrington joined Essex Police as Deputy Chief Constable before being appointed Chief Constable the following year. 

CC Harrington was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in the 2022 New Years Honours.

The Rt Hon Caroline Nokes was born in Lyndhurst and has lived in the immediate Romsey area all her life.

Caroline was first elected to represent Romsey and Southampton North in 2010.  She has been re-elected at every election since, and now, following the boundary changes represents an area stretching from Shipton Bellinger in the North to Swaythling in the South.

Between 2020 and 2024 Caroline was Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.  She has served in three different Government Departments and attended Cabinet as Minister of State for Immigration between 2018-19.

In July 2024 Caroline was elected by the whole House to serve as one of the three Deputy Speakers.

Jess Phillips first entered Parliament  as the MP for Birmingham Yardley at the 2015 general election.

Before becoming an MP, Jess worked for Women’s Aid in the West Midlands developing services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, human trafficking and exploitation.

She was elected to Birmingham City Council in 2012 and was appointed Birmingham’s first ever Victims’ Champion in the same year.

As an MP Jess has continued to promote women’s rights and to encourage the most vulnerable in society to participate in politics and to find their voice.

Jess Asato is the Member of Parliament for Lowestoft, elected in 2024.

She is a member of the Education Select Committee and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Perpetrators of Domestic Abuse. Prior to being elected, Jess worked as the Head of Policy and Public Affairs at children’s charity Barnardo’s. Jess also worked for domestic abuse charity SafeLives, and was a political advisor to Tessa Jowell.

Jess has recently tabled an amendment to the Victims and Courts Bill to ensure parents and carers receive statutory support in their own right.

Dr Jo Finch is Professor of Social Work and Post Graduate Research  and Co-Head of the  Department of Counselling, Psychology and Social Work at the University of Suffolk. Jo has been a social work educator for 23 years and has run several social work qualifying and post qualifying programmes. Jo is also a highly experienced PhD supervisor and examiner.

Prior to becoming a lecturer, Jo practised social work in London and worked in both adults and family settings, in the statutory and voluntary sectors. Jo is also a qualified practice educator, play therapist and coach.

Jo has also written extensively on PREVENT and social work with her co author David McKendrick. Jo has also undertaken commissioned evaluations of services providing care and support to people.

Andrew Kelso is a Consultant Neurologist and Chief Medical Officer at Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust. Growing up in Dunblane, he studied at the University of Edinburgh in the 1990s and completed postgraduate training in the same city. Moving to London in 2004 to undertake a period of postgraduate research in Experimental Epilepsy, his first consultant post was at Basildon Hospital in 2009, moving to the Royal London Hospital in 2012 and he worked for Barts Health until May 2022.

With a strong commitment towards improving health inequalities and staff wellbeing, he is driven to improve health by developing responsive and safe health services at scale that will deliver the highest quality healthcare to the most people and give colleagues and patients the agency to achieve this. Outside of work, he is a cellist and bellringer, and is currently the Master of the Essex Association of Change Ringers. Cairn and Jack Russell terriers welcome him home every night.

Jonathan Warren is a retired Chief Executive and Chief Nurse – most of his career was spent at east London NHS Foundation Trust where along with the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer redesigned the entire Quality management System to support the implementation of a culture of improvement which led the Trust to be the first MH Trust to be rated Outstanding by the CQC. He was also the national Advisor for Nursing at The Care Quality Commission

He spent 3 years as an Interim CEO at two further Trusts before retiring in 2021. One of these had been rated Inadequate by the CQC requiring a diferrent approach to improvement.

Since retirement he has continued as a member of faculty for the IHI where he has worked with a number of Trusts delivering training in Leadership for Improvement for core leaders. He has also worked with a number of challenged Trust to support their improvement journey, this has included being a member of the review team for GMMH following the abuse exposed within Edenfield.

Luci Coffey began her working career in finance and banking before moving to the technology sector working in anti fraud and identity authentication systems.

Luci then became a 3rd party victim and had to navigate legal and authority systems, whilst trying to care for her distressed children and also holding down a full time job. Luci was appalled at the way her and her family were treated by these systems and became an advocate for other parents.

Through her journey supporting others, it became clear that the majority of her clients were struggling to access legal advice for family law. As a result of client need, Luci requalified as a family solicitor and now provides pro bono family law advice to parents and carers of sexually abused children through the charity We Stand. She has also been campaigning for legal change.

Baroness Sal Brinton is the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on Victims issues in the House of Lords. She has spoken on victims matters since 2011 when she came into the Lords and joined the Stalking Law Inquiry.

Sal has a long-term interest in the protection of children and their families from abuse, and had a Private Members Bill on Mandatory Reporting of suspected Child Sexual Abuse. She has worked with Restitute on changes to legislation in Parliament.

Sal is a wheelchair user, who also speaks on disability matters.

Cath Pickles is the CEO of Restitute CIC, an award-winning organisation that supports 3rd party victims of crime.

She started Restitute to share the hard-fought information and experience gained whilst caring for her daughter and to offer real, practical solution-based services to people deserving respect, a voice and care.

Professionally, Cath has worked as a teacher, a senior manager for a county council and served for 4 years as a district councillor. As well as leading Restitute, she is an expert public speaker, trainer and project manager.