Craig Pinkney - Criminologist & Urban Youth Specialist
Craig Pinkney is a Criminologist, Urban Youth Specialist, and Chief Executive of SOLVE: The Centre for Youth Violence and Conflict.
Craig is an experienced worker and academically holds a BA (Hons) in Youth & Community Development (JNC), Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning, Post Graduate Certificate in Research, Masters Degree in Criminology and is currently a PhD Researcher in Social Sciences at Birmingham City University.
Craig has over 18 years of experience as an outreach worker, transformational speaker, international gang exit strategist, training facilitator, mediator, mentor and filmmaker.
Craig Pinkney is nationally and internationally known for working with some of the country’s most challenging young people, potentially high- risk offenders, victims of gang violence and youth who are deemed most hard to reach. Craig specialises in the area of Urban Street Gangs, Youth Violence, Social Media, Race and Crime, Racism and Anti-Racist Practice.
Due to his area of expertise Craig is the currently UK lead for the EU Gangs Project, an advisor for several bodies such as the National Youth Agency (UK), The Children’s Society (UK) Police and Crime Commission Office (West Midlands), Norfolk County Council (Children’s Services), Violence Reduction Unit (Birmingham and Nottingham) and the Ministry of Justice in Jamaica.
In 2021 Craig founded ‘Solve Online Learning Centre’ which is an online platform that provides remote video CPD to professionals within Education, Criminal Justice, Social Care, Youth, Community and Families. In the same year Craig also established ‘Solve Housing’ which is supported living accommodation for young people 16+ across the West Midlands.
Howard Smedley - Safeguarding Specialist
Howard has spent the majority of his career in the social care sector, specialising in national and international safeguarding and child protection.
With vast experience in residential child care provision working within units for children and adolescents who needed particular intensive care and support, he has worked as a field social worker, a children’s services manager, team manager and subsequently a higher strategic manager.
Howard has specialist skills in dealing with complex cases and specific experience with both perpetrators and survivors of sexual abuse.
Alan Mackenzie - ESafety Specialist
“We don’t educate by fear, but by empowering adults and children to use technology appropriately, and to identify and mitigate risks which may lead to harm. I strongly believe that we engage students, parents and professionals by discussing the positives of technology, not by demonising and scaremongering.”
Alan is passionate about technology and the huge benefits that can be realised through global connectivity and collaboration. He is a strong believer that online safety is an enabler, not a showstopper; it should not be a barrier to innovative use of technology and was the online safety lead at Lincolnshire County Council, raising initiatives across all schools, police, the voluntary sector and others with positive outcomes and a significant increase in online safety awareness
Alan became a CEOP Ambassador in 2008 and now works with hundreds of schools nationally and internationally as well as speaking at a range of regional and national conferences about online safety, safeguarding and the wider aspects of behaviour and wellbeing which take into account more emotional, behavioural and usage aspects of technology.
Toni Leatherland - Family Support Specialist
Toni Leatherland is a Safeguarding Children Consultant with over 30 years’ experience of working within both the Voluntary Sector and Local Authority with children, young people and their families, largely from disadvantaged communities in the East midlands. Toni’s experience ranges from direct service delivery, to working at strategic level to identify, develop and manage a variety of support services.
Alongside her work in Safeguarding, Toni has extensive experience in the development and delivery of Parenting Programmes in partnership with a number of Local Authorities.
Barney Angliss - SEND Specialist
Barney Angliss is a former Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator and board member of the Department for Education and Council for Disabled Children Independent Support Programme.
He currently acts as an advisor for Surrey County Council on autism support and knowledge-base within education settings and has also supported their CAMHS Task and Delivery Group with advice on service delivery in education settings, working with them to improve the health and well-being of children, young people and families at an earlier stage and increase access to services.
Barney holds a Diploma in Autism Spectrum Conditions and a Certificate of Professional Studies in Education in Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties from Kingston University.
James Upton - Safeguarding Children Specialist
James is a qualified Social Worker, University Associate Lecturer and a member of the international body Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). He worked in the drugs and alcohol field for 10 years focusing on adult treatment, children in care, young offenders and as a manager in the NHS working with children and young people in treatment. Until 2016 he worked as a practicing Social Worker and Safeguarding trainer with a key focus on children, young people and their families.
James is now a safeguarding auditor, trainer and consultant working for a range of organisations including the NSPCC, Alcohol Change UK and APSCo. He also provides a portfolio of private training in Motivational Interviewing and Safeguarding.
James has delivered Safeguarding training (Supervision Skills / Safer Recruitment / Assessment and Analysis / Designated Safeguarding Leads) and Motivational Interviewing training to Early Years, Schools and Colleges, Alcohol and Drugs workers (children and adults), Youth Workers, Teachers, Social Workers, Multi-Agency staff involved in safeguarding and Youth Offending Team staff.
James also audits health and social care organisations to ensure they are compliant in their safeguarding practice.
Anthony Graham - Criminal Defence Solicitor
Anthony Graham is a criminal defence solicitor with 20 years’ experience. He is co-director of Amosu Robinshaw Solicitors in Croydon, South London. He specialises in representing young people who find themselves entering the criminal justice system and has delivered presentations to various groups, including foster carers, on their rights as an Appropriate Adult at the Police Station and the typical offences young people find themselves arrested for.
Anthony created his training package as he feels that the role of the carer is completely underestimated in the context of being the conduit between the young person and the various agencies they interact with. If the carer is armed with the correct knowledge when they perform their role as an AA, they will play a huge a role in facilitating communication with the police as well as deterring the young person from the criminal justice system.
He is also a Mentor with Urban Synergy and a practising Notary Public.
Karlene Wong - Safeguarding Adults Specialist
Karlene holds a BSc in Psychology and a MSc in Social Work.
Karlene is the founder of the social enterprise, WeCare FullStop (WeCare.)which provides housing and support to those that are homeless or at risk of homelessness. WeCare. has been created around the central vision that everybody has the potential to live a fulfilled life with independence, growth and connection.
If you or your organisation require ‘Safeguarding Adults’ training, please get in touch
Rachel Davis - Early Years Music & Wellbeing Specialist
Rachel is a TEDx Speaker, Songwriter, NLP Practitioner, Hypnotherapist, TimeLine Therapist, Parent Transformation Coach and a passionate advocate for young children’s mental & emotional wellbeing. After leaving her corporate career to spend more time with her children, Rachel began running music sessions for under 5’s which she did for 6 years. When she discovered that music would reach children where words often failed, she began writing songs to help them out with little childhood tasks. When they worked instantly, she realised she could teach children much deeper life lessons, in a way that they would understand and that would stay with them forever.
Rachel is the founder of the online musical educational platform LaLa Tigers and the creator of The ‘Raise a Tiger’ Programme, which combines the powerful teaching vehicles of music and play, with increased connection, the power of the subconscious mind and NLP, to help younger children love, trust and believe in themselves, understand their internal worlds, and live to their fullest expression.
Jeff Kayne - NSPCC Accredited Trainer, Senior Leader and Designated Safeguarding Lead
Jeff Kayne is an NSPCC Accredited Trainer and Senior Leader and Designated Safeguarding Lead with over 20 years’ experience in education. He has held positions of responsibility in both the maintained and independent sectors and is currently DSL at an independent school in East London (1450 pupils, age 4-18) where he leads a team of 10 Deputy DSLs.
Jeff firmly believes in the importance of creating a robust culture of safeguarding and child protection in schools to ensure that keeping children and young people safe is ‘everyone’s responsibility’. Additionally, he believes that contextual safeguarding, listening to the voice of children and young people and adopting a child/young person-centred approach are the foundations upon which high impact systems, policies and procedures can be built. Jeff has considerable experience of all aspects of safeguarding and child protection especially in terms of current issues, such as self-harm, suicide prevention, mental health and peer-on-peer abuse.
Jeff has extensive experience of working closely with Governors including – but not limited to – delivering training, presenting and writing reports, preparing the governing body for Inspection and ensuring that information is shared in a timely and effective with respect to the most serious safeguarding and child protection incidents. In addition to his work in his current setting, Jeff has previously served as a Governor in a special education setting and has recently formalised a partnership with a local state primary school to add capacity to their provision of mental health support. As a full-time DSL is a large setting, Jeff is ideally placed to assist other settings with safeguarding audits in order to ensure policies and systems are consistent in their application in different settings.
Having completed the National Professional Qualification for Headship and the three levels of coaching courses offered by Graydin, Jeff continues to strive to develop his practice and help support others. He has extensive experience of delivering training and is currently working towards his NSPCC accreditation as a safeguarding and child protection trainer.
Prior to teaching, Jeff represented Scotland at Rugby at U18, U19 and U21 levels.
Sara Alston - SEND and Safeguarding Consultant and Trainer
Sara Alston is a practicing SENCo and an independent SEND and Safeguarding Consultant and Trainer with over 35 years teaching experience. As a consultant, she works to support schools that are ‘under-sencoed’, as well as working with schools to develop outstanding SEND practice. She conducts TA, SEND and Safeguarding Reviews and provides training for a range of SEND and safeguarding issues.
Sara’s book co-author with Daniel Sobel, The Inclusive Classroom: A New Approach to Differentiation was published in January 2021. She writes regular articles and blogs, including for Teach Primary, Headteacher Update and The Key. She has also written a number of online courses including for Inclusion Expert and UK Parliament Education Service.
Elizabeth Rose - Independent Safeguarding Trainer and Consultant
Elizabeth Rose is an independent safeguarding trainer and consultant and the director of So Safeguarding. She is a qualified and experienced teacher and has worked in education for more than 15 years.
She was formerly a secondary designated safeguarding lead and then a local authority safeguarding in education advisor, working with schools, colleges, early years settings and charities. She is a member of the Midlands Association of Safeguarding in Education, the Association for Child Protection Professionals and CAPE (Child Protection in Education).
She now provides safeguarding training, advice and support to a wide range of organisations nationwide.
Katie Marlow - Mental Health Specialist
Now a National Trainer & Instructor (2016) for MHFA England, an ASIST & safeTALK Trainer (2018), & a freelance training associate with several well-known charities including the Charlie Waller Trust, Katie up-skilled as a Suicide First Aid Tutor with the National Centre for Suicide Prevention (2020) which led to her recruitment to the National Team the same year. Katie is one of only 9 National Trainers in the Suicide First Aid National Training Team, offering Suicide First Aid training & train-the-trainer cohorts across the country & online, on behalf of the National Centre for Suicide Prevention Education & Training in partnership with MHFA England.
Catherine Irving - NSPCC accredited Safeguarding Children Specialist
Catherine is a qualified Social Worker and NSPCC accredited child protection trainer. Beginning her career in residential care settings, then qualifying as a social worker in 2001, Catherine has worked within a variety of Local Authority teams, including child protection, hospital based, children with disabilities and early help.
Catherine was a part of the implementation of both the Early Support for children with disabilities and Common Assessment Framework. It was within these roles that she first gained experience designing and delivering training. Catherine worked in schools for 5 years, bringing her social work skills into the education environment in the role of Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Keri Standen - NSPCC accredited Safeguarding Children Specialist
Keri originally started her career in Youth Justice before moving into the education sector and then more specifically the children’s and families service working on multi-agency responses to safeguarding. Her experience has included leading and developing services and training for safeguarding boards, local authorities, multi academy trusts, independent schools, faith and voluntary groups, the early years sector and the private sector.
As a consultant Keri’s specialises in supporting organisations develop effective safeguarding practice, this includes policy development, compliance auditing and training. Keri has trained staff from across a variety of sectors in all aspects of safeguarding, including domestic abuse, neglect and child exploitation. Her most recent work has been with multi academy trusts delivering projects to embed a shared culture of safeguarding across academies. Developing end to end systems for governance involving and embedding pupil voice. This compliments her work in the private sector supporting businesses contracting into the education sector.
Keri is an accredited safer recruitment trainer, qualified early years worker and a board trustee of a multi academy trust. She is an active member of national and local professional forums, regularly offering her advice and guidance and continues to work directly with children and young people, involving them to improve practice wherever she can.
Cath Knibbs - International Consultant and Educator Online Harms and Child Trauma Psychotherapist (Cybertrauma)
Cath is a Clinical Doctoral Researcher, Online Harms Consultant, Public Speaker, Author, Educator and Child/Adult Trauma Psychotherapist. She writes about and works with Cybertrauma which is any trauma that occurs through an internet ready device. This much more than Online harms covers
Cath Knibbs is a tech geek, gamer (of sorts), tech/gaming therapist and cybertrauma and trauma psychotherapist using biofeedback/tech and gaming to elicit Post Traumatic Growth, healing and flow. Her recently published book is available now. The book focuses on the ‘why’ we do what we do in cyberspace, and how to help children, young people and adults.
She is a disruptor and advocate for children’s rights, privacy, and digital explorations online. She also educates therapists via her company Privacy4 about Data protection/privacy/cybersecurity issues in relation to their practice. She is also the mental health advisor for Gamersbeatcancer CIC.
Helen Laryea-Dyer - LGBTQ+ and intersectionality specialist
With an early background in professional theatre-in-education and over 20 years’ experience as a leader working within the third sector, Helen is passionate about facilitating social change and addressing inequalities.
Helen has held her current position as CEO of Bromley autism charity CASPA for 18 years, is Chair of Trustees at the Bromley Children & Families Voluntary Sector Forum, Trustee of Bromley and Croydon Women’s Aid and Chair of Governors at The Learning Centre, an alternative education centre for young people in Bromley. She is Designated Safeguarding Lead for two of these organisations. Helen is a certificated Iheart Principles Facilitator and truly believes in the power of early intervention and prevention.
Helen was a shortlisted finalist at the 2018 National Diversity Awards in the Positive Role Model for Gender category and commended for achievements in both her personal and professional journeys.
Helen is committed to enabling people at all levels to realise their self-worth, to question their own bias and prejudices and to finding real, practical solutions to organisational and societal issues – challenging inequalities across all sectors and supporting individuals and organisations to become more inclusive, self-reflective and ultimately more effective.
Some of Helen’s subject and training specialisms include autism and neurodiversity, the intersectionality between neurodivergence and LGBTQ+ issues, good practice when working with young people, conflict and relationships, and mental health and wellbeing.
Helen’s approach to training and development is dynamic and collaborative. She starts by focussing on the people in the room, enabling participants to examine and question their own perspectives on the subjects being explored and to facilitate discussion, using interactive exercises and drama based techniques to support participants in an experiential learning journey. Her main goal is to increase participants’ confidence, enabling them to gain knowledge, have better understanding of other perspectives and be more effective in their work/lives. Practical solutions to challenges brought by the group/participants are always explored, so participants don’t just leave feeling like they’ve ‘had training’, but rather that they’ve had the opportunity to truly develop understanding and feel confident to apply their learning and insights in real-life situations.
Jill Hanney - Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist and EMDR Practitioner
Jill is an experienced Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist and EMDR Practitioner with over 20 years experience delivering psychotherapy in the NHS and privately and is accredited by the British Association of Behaviour and Cognitive Psychotherapists (BABCP).
She has extensive experience working with children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral difficulties and currently works as a Senior Clinician in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS; prior to this she worked as a psychotherapist within the Multi-Disciplinary Treatment Foster Care Service (MTFC), A specialist service for children with a complex difficulties.
Jill works in private practice with children, adolescents and adults specialising in the field of Childhood Trauma, PTSD, Emotional Disturbance and Relationship Issues and as part of her work provides a range of consultancy and training around Understanding and Healing, Neuroscience and Attachment, Self-Harm and Suicide, The Sexualized Child plus other specialist subjects to foster agencies, social workers, schools and parents regarding supporting, understanding and helping children with emotional and behavioural difficulties
Seamus Doherty - Safeguarding Lead, Trainer & Consultant
Seamus Doherty is a Safeguarding specialist with almost 30 years’ experience across health and social care. He has a proven track record in the delivery and promotion of safe, high quality services that support positive outcomes for service users, carers, families and the organisations that support them.
As a Safeguarding lead for a North London Local Authority, Seamus’ role involves supporting service users, staff, volunteers and the organisations that employ them to respond to Safeguarding challenges, both operationally and strategically, and to effect positive outcomes for all those involved. He is also the vice-chair of the London Safeguarding Adults Network; sits on the London Professional Steering Group; is part of the London SAB Managers Network, the London Modern Slavery Network and is one of 9 London Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) Champions.
Seamus also acts as an Independent Board Member (and Safeguarding Specialist) on the Safeguarding and Quality Committee of a National Housing Association.