Falling through the Cracks
Kirsten Alderson is CEO of Suffolk Family Carers, an award-winning organisation that supports family carers of all ages in Suffolk. Kirsten is also the Chair of the Suffolk and North East Essex Voluntary Community Faith and Social Enterprise Sector Assembly. In this role she helps to raise the profile of the voluntary sector with statutory partners in health and social care.
Prior to working in the voluntary sector, Kirsten worked for 18 years in the public sector in Central London, focusing on criminal justice and legal aid. She is a qualified barrister and has an MSc in psychology.
Zoe Billingham CBE is the Chair of NSFT and focused on ensuring the Trust improves its specialist mental health services.
She is a seasoned broadcaster frequently commentating on policing, trust, legitimacy and mental health.
Prior to this she was Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary where she promoted improvement of the police response to domestic abuse and stopping violence against women and girls.
Anthony Douglas was Chief Executive of Cafcass from 2004-19. He took Cafcass from an ‘inadequate’ to an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating and from supporting 60,000 children a year in 2008 to 140,000 in 2019. Prior to his social work career, he was an economist. Anthony has written several books on social care in the UK and is a Visiting Professor at UEA. He was given the ‘outstanding contribution to social work’ award at the Social Worker of the Year Awards in 2018.
His current portfolio includes developing and writing the National Practice Framework for the Welsh Government: being a DfE commissioner in local authorities; acting as a Senior Intervenor for NHS England into local health and social care systems which are not working for particular children and young people; and advising specific overseas governments about child and adult protection on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
He is the Independent Chair of the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership and their Special Advisor about SEND.
Dave Freeman is a Detective Superintendent with Norfolk Constabulary and is head of the Investigations Command. His areas of responsibility include overseeing the criminal investigations linked to child protection, rape and other serious sexual offences.
Dave has worked in a variety of child protection based roles over the last 10 years.
Gemma is the CEO of the Green House. The Green House is a specialist support service for children, young people and families living in Avon and Somerset who have experienced sexual abuse. The Green House team believe in creative evidence-based support services led by the voices of young people and their families. Their specialist services are designed to grow connection and community with families who have experienced sexual abuse and have a creative arts focus.
Gemma is a mixed-methods researcher with a specialist interest in domestic abuse and sexual violence. Her research is grounded in experience of working frontline within the domestic abuse and sexual violence sector/s and reflects her commitment to survivor-led co-produced services. Research guides everything Gemma does, in understanding the Green House service, developing best practice nationally in the sector and as a platform for amplifying survivors voices.
Christian manages Ormiston’s Mpower and YouCanBe services, which aim to break the cycle of recurrent care proceedings at different points. He has worked at Ormiston Families for four years and in the charity sector for over ten, previously at environmental (Groundwork East) and child poverty (Level Trust) charities in roles ranging from direct project work to an interim CEO position.
Simone Ivory manages the Police Victim and Witness Care Unit for Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Justice Team, a statutory provider of services under the Victims Code.
Responsibilities include tailoring support to Victims and Witnesses, providing them with information of services available throughout their journey and keeping them updated with any developments to the conclusion of the case. A passionate advovate for victims and survivors, Simone has worked in the Justice sector for over 30 years.
Andrew Kelso is a Consultant Neurologist and Medical Director at SNEE ICB. 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.
Neil Lad is a registered mental health nurse with a career spanning 18 years across NHS, private and voluntary settings. As Lead Nurse for Norfolk and Waveney Specialist Services he provides nursing leadership to the Mother and Baby Unit, Perinatal Community Team, Under 18s Eating Disorders and Early Intervention in Psychosis as well as actively contributing to Trust wide and regional NHSE initiatives too.
As a father and clinician, Neil is passionate for promoting holistic care and ensuring the individual is seen as such but also in the context of their wider system; and where appropriate promoting the use of a trauma informed approach.
The Rt Hon Sir Norman Lamb was Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk from 2001-2019 and served as a Health Minister in the Coalition Government from 2012-2015. In 2019, Norman became Chair of the Advisory Board of Kooth, the longest established digital mental health provider in the UK, and received a knighthood for his mental health campaigning.
Since leaving Parliament, Norman has established a Norfolk mental health and wellbeing fund, bringing together a coalition of local charities and community groups supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, and become Chair of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
Kirsty is the CEO of Carers Trust, the UK infrastructure charity supporting nearly 130 unpaid carer organisations and 1.1 million unpaid family carers. Prior to this, Kirsty served as CEO of the Mayor’s Fund for London, the independent social mobility charity and CEO of the Employment Related Services Association, the UK membership body for providers of employment support.
Kirsty has also spent nine years as Director of Partnerships at Business in the Community, the UK charity dedicated to responsible business practice. Kirsty has previously served as a panel member of the National Lottery Building Better Opportunities Fund, a member of the Investment Committee of social investor, Impetus, and is a non executive Board Member of Gateway Housing Association.
Lisa started her nursing career at West Suffolk Hospital 29 years ago and moved to Manchester to train and practise as a children’s nurse at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital before relocating back to Suffolk to work at the East Anglia Children’s Hospice. She enjoyed working at both the hospice site and providing care to children at the end of their lives in their homes.
She left EACH to become a Lecturer in Children’s Nursing and then a Senior Lecturer in Service Improvement, teaching service improvement methodologies to under and post-graduate health students. She has worked in the acute sector at both West Suffolk Hospital and Ipswich Hospital in senior nurse leadership posts, most recently as Director of Nursing at Ipswich Hospital before taking up the CNO role in the Suffolk CCGs.
Her academic background is in psychology, interprofessional healthcare education and health psychology and she has recently been appointed as Senior Visiting fellow at University of Suffolk.
She is interested in co-production of services with users and families and is keen to work with the wider Suffolk community to understand how services need transforming to meet the needs of Suffolk residents. Nursing remains a career that she loves and she is keen to work with senior nurse leaders across Suffolk to be the voice for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.
As Police and Crime Commissioner, Tim’s role is to hold the Chief Constable to account to ensure the policing needs of Suffolk are met as effectively as possible, bringing communities closer to the police and building confidence. His role is to listen and respond to the needs of the people and businesses of Suffolk; bringing more of a public voice to policing.
Commissioning services to support victims is an important element of the Tim’s role and is a key part of his Police and Crime Plan. He allocates funding to a variety of organisations to support victims and survivors across the county.
Jess Phillips is a Labour Party politician who became the MP for the constituency of Birmingham Yardley at the 2015 general election.
Jess is committed to improving the lives of others, especially the most vulnerable. 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 became a local Councillor in 2012, where she worked tirelessly to support residents. Her hard work was recognised when she became Birmingham’s first ever Victims Champion.
Since becoming an MP, Jess has continued her fight to support those who need it most and has earned a reputation for plain speaking. Since being elected, she has been unfazed by threats and continues to call out sexist attitudes and promote women’s rights.
Jess has written three bestselling books “The Life of an MP -Everything you really need to know about politics”, ‘Everywoman: One Woman’s Truth About Speaking the Truth’ and ‘Truth to Power: 7 Ways to Call Time on BS’. All books reflect her commitment to speaking up and having the courage to have your voice heard and make a difference.
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.
Jeannie is a senior support worker with Restitute. She is a mother, grandmother and family carer. A retired social worker and independent reviewing officer, Jeannie is a former client of Restitute who uses her lived experience to support families and nurture other support workers who are beginning their careers with Restitute.
Sarah is a specialist practitioner who is instructed alone and as a leading junior to defend against a wide range of grave allegations.
Sarah deals largely with difficult and emotive cases of serious violence (in particular murder and other homicide offences) and sexual offending. She is a highly-regarded jury advocate, and is regularly instructed in cases involving historical abuse (sexual, violent and otherwise), indecent images and offences within the sex industry. She is also instructed in complex and serious allegations of financial crime, and is sought out for advice and representation in restraint and confiscation matters arising from allegations of brothel-keeping. Sarah’s client care is outstanding; she rapidly inspires confidence in those she represents, and is frequently relied upon to deal sensitively with both clients and witnesses with acute and complex vulnerabilities.