COMMUNITY JUSTICE - Key Persons

Adam Burley

Job Titles:

Consultant

Adam works as a consultant clinical psychologist at the Edinburgh Access Practice, a service dedicated to the provision of care to individuals who struggle to access mainstream care, as well as providing input to a wide range of public and third sector organisations across the homeless sector.

Angela Milligan

Job Titles:

Business Support Officer

Angela's role is providing business support to the Learning Development and Innovation & Caledonian team. She is involved in managing core training schedules and waiting lists of students, assisting in collation of assessment results, minute taker of working groups/National Trainer Groups, being point of contact, assisting in the daily function in all areas of administration within the team. Background Prior to joining Community Justice Scotland, Angela worked in Administration within Justice Social Work, having an extensive knowledge and experience in areas of Court, UPW, Throughcare and latterly MAPPA. Angela joined Community Justice Scotland as a Learning Development & Innovation Support Officer in 2021. Angela has a particular interest in MAPPA administration. Angela has voluntary roles within her children's football team and school parent council.

Ashana Dunstan

Job Titles:

Project Officer

Ashana is Project Officer at Community Justice Scotland. Her role involves supporting and overseeing project work within the organisation. She helps project leads plan projects, provide insights into risk, and assist with delivery of projects through various different mechanisms. Overall, Ashana's role is about support and communication - to help those involved in project work to achieve positive outcomes that lead to successful implementation and embedding of change inside and outside of the organisation. Background Ashana worked in the Housing sector for just under six years at the City of Edinburgh Council. She started as a Modern Apprentice Housing Assistant in 2017, working with tenants and residents in various localities throughout the city. The foundation of her career has been grounded in helping people. In her time at the Council Ashana learned a lot about the issues and factors which affect peoples' access to good quality housing. The intersections between health and social care, justice and housing are some professional interests she has developed along the way.

Astrid Shearer

Job Titles:

Caledonian Data Coordinator

Astrid spent the early part of her career working in the Arts and Heritage sector. With a BA Hons in Design and Craft, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Management she spent many years working in contemporary gallery management, exhibition curation and arts marketing. However, after taking a career break and developing her interest in Domestic Abuse advocacy, she is excited to support the work that she passionately believes can make a significant improvement to the lives of women, children and men.

Bill Fitzpatrick - COO

Job Titles:

Director of Operations

As Director of Operations Bill has responsibility for planning, performance, finance, management of risk and supporting governance. Background Before joining Community Justice Scotland Bill worked in the private and third sectors and in Further Education. Prior to that, he was a police officer for thirty years working in local communities across the then Strathclyde Police area including Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Glasgow. In addition to operational policing, Bill's police career encompassed specialisms such as community policing, crime prevention, Equal Opportunities, training, governance and policy development. Bill believes that complex problems require approaches that are essentially collaborative in nature and he is committed to helping CJS develop the scope and effectiveness of its stakeholder engagement and partnership working.

Catherine Dyer - Chairman

Job Titles:

Chairman
Chairman of the Board

Catherine Dyer CBE is a lawyer with extensive experience of public sector delivery and leadership and was the first woman to be appointed as Crown Agent for Scotland acting as Chief Executive of the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), Scotland's sole public prosecuting authority. She was a founding member of the Justice Board for Scotland, has acted as Diversity Champion for Scottish Government and was Chair of the Public Sector Employers' Diversity Network. She was elected as a Director of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL) in 2010 and was also an inaugural member of the Scottish Sentencing Council. Following her retirement in 2016, Scottish Ministers appointed her as Independent Chair of a Review of Child Protection Systems and announced acceptance of all the recommendations of her Report in March 2017.

Chris Read

Job Titles:

Business Support Officer

Chris is our Business Support Officer, supporting the organisation's finance, IT and office functions. This varied and busy role can involve anything from arranging student social work training, supporting outreach events and book keeping, to data management, meeting facilitation and website updates. Background Chris comes from a third sector and youth work background, having supported a variety of charities and community groups for more than fifteen years. Having worked with vulnerable young people, with homelessness services and with alcohol and substance misuse services, he appreciates the pressing need for community justice in Scotland. He volunteers for a community-based mental health service and works with organisations promoting Polish-Scottish friendship. He has a particular passion for arts-based responses to community wellbeing issues and B-movies on VHS cassette.

Claire Penny

Job Titles:

Head of Commissioning

Within the Community Justice Scotland's team, Claire has overall responsibility for the management and administration of the throughcare and mentoring budget. Background Claire has over 20 years' experience of working across both voluntary and statutory sectors. Initially, spending almost 9 years working for a drug and alcohol misuse support and education charity which predominantly focussed on young people, many leaving and entering the criminal justice system. She then moved on to work with Borders ADP as their alcohol development officer. Claire then moved to work within the world of grants, funding and participatory budgeting. Working as Scottish Borders Councils, Funding Officer within the Communities & Partnerships team, directly supporting communities to identify need, build local area plans and distribute funding for projects of all scale and size. Most recently, she worked for Volunteer Centre Borders as their Chief Officer as well as one of the four partners within Borders Third Sector Interface, before taking up her post with Community Justice Scotland

David Scott

Job Titles:

Head of Learning, Development & Innovation

David is tasked with developing Community Justice Scotland's strategy for Learning and Development across Scotland. His role is also to identify examples of best practice nationally and internationally in the field of community justice and to share these with our partners across Scotland. Background David has enjoyed a wide and varied career within the criminal justice field. He worked as an intelligence analyst with Tayside Police before becoming Deputy Principal Analyst at Strathclyde Police. He designed and delivered SQA accredited training programmes to diverse agencies whilst employed at the Scottish Police College and also developed a "whole system" approach to analytical training in conjunction with academics and practitioners from around the world. He also ran his own company advising and training organisations across the world in analytical techniques and processes and, prior to working with Community Justice Scotland, was employed as a Performance Analyst with the Scottish Police Authority.

Dawn Wheildon

Job Titles:

Improvement Lead

Dawn has a strong background in project management and partnership working and is part of Community Justice Scotland's team responsible for reviewing local community justice plans and performance data, and providing feedback and support to local authorities and justice partners to help improve community justice outcomes. Background Dawn has enjoyed a wide and varied career within the fields of criminal justice, education and the private sector. Dawn joined the team after several years of working as a local Community Justice Co-ordinator where she was instrumental in establishing the local Community Justice Partnership and supporting the implementation of strategic plans. Previous to this, Dawn carried out analytical roles within criminal justice social work and multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). In the private sector, Dawn spent ten years as a project manager and systems analyst and was responsible for the development and implementation of key IT systems. After studying early years through the Open University, Dawn spent a number of years as a case officer for children with special education needs. Dawn has a particular interest in effective partnership working practices and outcomes based performance management techniques.

Denise Huntridge

Job Titles:

People Advisor

Denise's role within the People Team is to provide support to colleagues across the organisation. Her role involves ensuring a number of HR functions run smoothly including recruitment and onboarding, supporting the organising and running of the HR Committee and ensuring the People Team function is consistent, clear and transparent. Background Denise spent the first 17 years of her working life in the brewing industry before taking a major decision to leave it all behind to study a BA course in Community Education at Edinburgh University. After graduating, she worked at The Risk Factory, an educational centre that teaches people how to be safer in a variety of settings including home safety, fire safety and internet safety. She also enjoyed six years with the Scottish Community Safety Network, working with many partners and organising a number of events including the bi-annual Safer Communities Awards. In addition, Denise has worked across Midlothian in a number of youth work roles including supporting young people on a one to one basis.

Dianne Thom

Job Titles:

Caledonian National Trainer & Advisor

Dianne is one of the national trainers and advisors for the Caledonian system, which is Scotland's accredited domestic abuse perpetrator programme with integrated women and children's support services. Dianne co-designs and delivers the training for the system, is involved in the development of guidance and manuals that support the system, and she provides ongoing expert advice to the local authorities in Scotland that deliver the Caledonian system. Background Dianne's academic career includes a PG Dip with Distinction in Social Work and a degree in Corporate Communication. She has extensive experience working within Scotland's justice system, having fulfilled statutory criminal justice Social Work and Senior Social Work roles within local authority fieldwork, programmes and Court teams. Whilst in these positions, she also specialised in delivering the Caledonian system including supporting men to address their abusive behaviour, undertaking management roles, contributing to the system's reaccreditation and delivery of the system's training programme. Dianne joined Community Justice Scotland in 2021.

Dorothy Smith

Job Titles:

Business Manager

Dorothy provides the necessary support to Chief Executive, Karyn McCluskey, to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of corporate operations at Community Justice Scotland ultimately helping the organisation to achieve its core aims and objectives. Her role involves reviewing policy documents and procedures and handling governance issues. She also contributes to the drafting of our yearly Business Plan and Annual Report for submission to Scottish Ministers and leads the drafting of answers to Freedom Of Information responses on our behalf. Background Dorothy's career has been with the Scottish Government, she has worked mainly in Non Departmental Public Bodies and Agencies. Her recent postings have included: Policy Officer with the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland and prior to that as an Inspection Support Manager with the Social Work Inspection Agency (now the Care Inspectorate).