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Our team of experienced professionals are based across three nations:
Jo Scherer-Thompson - Service Head, England
Jo leads the team to deliver the service objectives which are to work with professionals and organisations across the sector in improving safeguarding and protecting children through the provision of training, consultancy and resources. Having qualified as a social worker she has worked with children, young people and their families for over twenty years in social services, education and voluntary organisations.
She co-founded the National Peer Support Forum, a body which created a network for lobbying government and sharing good practice in the field of peer support. Jo is an accredited mediator and author of Peer Support – a guide to setting up a peer listening project in education settings published by the Mental Health Foundation.
John Stead - Education Advisor (and Acting Service Head), England
As an Education Advisor for the NSPCC he provides advice, training and consultancy relating to the responsibilities of schools and colleges for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, focusing on the school’s pastoral and pupil welfare system.
Prior to joining the NSPCC, John was a secondary school headteacher for twelve years, seeing the school successfully through its first Ofsted inspection before becoming the Assistant Director for Education with a local education authority. Within the Departmental Management Team he had specific responsibilities for Special Educational Needs, School Safeguarding and Support Services, and Early Years. He took responsibility for work on a range of new initiatives for the council involving partnership working with a range of agencies, leading working groups and writing bid submissions. He has also been an Open University tutor for the M.A. (Education) degree course, covering the programme Education Management in Action.
In recent years he has been funded by the Department for Education to act as the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s Regional Adviser (Yorkshire and Humber). In this role he provided advice on policy and strategy to local authorities, and advice, consultancy and training to the schools and colleges in the region. Working with two local authorities he developed the Listening School Initiative that helped the school to assess how effective it was in making its pupils feel safe, supported and empowered.
Kay Joel - Senior Consultant, England
A qualified teacher, Kay’s main area of expertise is working with children and young people with SEN and disabilities and supporting the school staff who work with them.
Kay joined the NSPCC in March 2011 after working in Local Authorities as Advisory Teacher for Special Educational Needs (SEN). She has worked with a wide range of audiences within the education sector in an advisory and training capacity and has more recently worked in the area of school improvement.
Developing the role and expertise of teaching assistants has been a key part of her work over the past ten years
Julie Mortimer - Education Advisor, England
Julie has been with the NSPCC since 1999. She is an experienced teacher with a particular interest in positive behaviour strategies, the development of emotional literacy within schools as part of wider safeguarding strategies, and identifying specific vulnerable groups. She has supported schools in the development of listening systems to safeguard vulnerable pupils as well as providing a range of safeguarding training to professionals.
Saleha Islam - Senior Consultant, England
Saleha, a qualified social worker, has considerable experience and knowledge of working with both the BME sector and faith communities especially the Muslim community. She has over twenty years' worth of experience of working with children, young people and their families in both statutory voluntary and health services.
A qualified solution focused psychotherapist and management consultant, she has managed and set up large family centres. Previously she was head of the NSPCC UK’s Asian Helpline. Her most recent work has been at the Child Exploitation Online Protection (CEOP) centre where she was working in intelligence supporting children and young people and education professionals dealing with sexual abuse and on line exploitation.
Michelle North - Senior Consultant, England
Michelle joined the NSPCC in December 2010 with a wealth of experience as a frontline worker, manager and delivering safeguarding training. She has a keen interest in the area of neglect and the role that education can play in tackling this issue. Prior to joining the NSPCC, she worked as a Senior Education Welfare Officer.
Phyllis Stephenson - Education Advisor, Northern Ireland
Phyllis works strategically within the Northern Ireland division and nationally to develop and support education initiatives that promote the aims and objectives of the NSPCC. Recently she has been involved in a ‘Keeping Safe’ Research Project (2008-2011) funded by the Department of Education (DE) in Northern Ireland, which explored the development of preventative education within primary schools.
She is a qualified Social Worker who has worked as an Education Advisor since 2006. Her career with the NSPCC started in 1999 undertaking therapeutic work with children and young people impacted by the experiences of abuse. Prior to joining NSPCC Phyllis worked with children and young people in the Looked After system.
Aisling McElearney - Education Advisor, Northern Ireland
Aisling works in partnership with Phyllis to deliver the strategic aims of the service in Northern Ireland. She has recently been involved in the ‘Keeping Safe’ Research Project (2008-2011) which was commissioned by the Department of Education (DE) and explored the various issues in the development of preventative education in primary schools.
Shân Jones - Education Advisor, Wales
Shân works with education providers and Welsh Assembly Government providing advice and support on safeguarding practices, and to develop education specific child protection information and training materials. Prior to joining the NSPCC in 2006, she worked as a teacher in the secondary sector and also has over 15 years experience on governing bodies.
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