CORAMBAAF - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Information Services Officer
Akina joined CoramBAAF in June 2023. She completed her master's degree in library science at the City University of London. Previously, Akina has worked for various types of libraries in England and Japan including public, school and university libraries in Tokyo and London, she also volunteered in the library at the National Archives in Kew. Thereafter, she worked for a law school library as a Library Learning Advisor. As an Information Services Officer, Akina is passionate about finding and providing resources to users and enjoys cataloguing library resources.
Alexandra was called to the Bar in 1989, and spent nine years in private practice, representing children, families and local authorities, followed by nine years as a Senior Child Care Lawyer in a London local authority before joining BAAF as Legal Consultant in 2008. Her CoramBAAF role involves writing and advising and training on all aspects of the adoption and fostering process, as well as advising the IRM Cymru. Until recently she was combining her part-time role at CoramBAAF with employment as a child care lawyer in a North-East local authority, and now maintains hands-on experience with some private practice at the Bar.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant ( Training and Events )
Alice began working at CoramBAAF in January 2025. She has a bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Manchester, a Graduate Diploma in Law, and completed the Legal Practice Course at BPP University in 2012. She is particularly interested in Child and Family Law. After several years working in administration and litigation, Alice moved to Japan, where she worked full-time for three years as an English teacher, proofreader and editor. Since returning to England in 2018 she has studied for a master's degree in Creative Writing, while working in education, childcare and administration.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Corporate Director of Children 's Services
Andrew joined Lambeth Council as Corporate Director of Children's Services in November 2022. Before this, Andrew was Executive Director of Community and Children's Services for the City of London Corporation. He was also responsible for community safety, libraries, homelessness and rough sleeping, public health and registration services. Under Andrew's leadership, the City of London Corporation's children's social care services were judged as outstanding by Ofsted in 2020.
Previous roles for Andrew have included Assistant Director for Children's Social Care for Thurrock Council in Essex, and for a time as both Interim Director of Children's Services for the London Borough of Hackney and Director of Children's Services at the City of London.
Job Titles:
- Social Worker
- Kinship Care Consultant
- Training Development Consultant
Ann joined CoramBAAF in February 2022 alongside jobshare partner, Clare, as a Kinship Care Consultant. Ann has been a local authority social worker in children's services for 20 years. She has worked in kinship care for the last 14 years and for 7 of these co-managed a dedicated kinship care team in Brighton and Hove. Ann contributed to the development of best practice models within the Brighton and Hove Team, and some of her work locally later contributed to wider national policy developments around kinship assessments. Ann also took a lead in developing comprehensive kinship support services, ensuring kinship carers in Brighton and Hove were well served by a range of available supports.
Augusta joined CoramBAAF in April 2023 and job-shares with Alexandra, providing advice and supporting service delivery for our members. She qualified as a solicitor in 2020 and has extensive experience in youth justice, community care, education, and strategic litigation. Before joining CoramBAAF, she worked as a Youth Justice Lawyer and Policy Officer at Just for Kids Law, contributing to the work of the Children's Rights Alliance for England and the Youth Justice Legal Centre. She also served as Head of the Children's Rights Advice Service at Article 39, supporting youth advocates and professionals working with children in care and other institutional settings. In 2023, Augusta was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, traveling to Australia to research ways to improve supported access to children's social care files. In 2024, she became the Chair of the Racial Justice Family Network, a collaborative initiative promoting anti-racist practice in the family justice system.
Job Titles:
- Independent Social Work Consultant
Barbara is an independent social work consultant based in Edinburgh. Her career in social work has included time as a hospital social worker in Norfolk, a children and families worker in Leeds and Service Manager for Adoption, Fostering and Residential Services in Bradford.
Barbara's belief in creating opportunities for children separated from their birth families, to join and grow up within adoptive or foster care inspired her to take up the post of Director of BAAF Adoption and Fostering Scotland. She was responsible for developing policy, devising and delivering training across Scotland and Northern Ireland and was part of a major review of adoption in Scotland. Currently Barbara works with a number of local authorities and with Scottish Adoption and the Dean and Cauvin Young People's Trust, alongside her role as chairperson of Coram IAC.
Carrie joined as the Licencing Officer in February 2021 after previously working with Coram Beanstalk.
Job Titles:
- Outbound Legal Researcher
Cathie joined CoramBAAF in July 2023 when the Outbound Permanence Service transferred from IAC - the Centre for Adoption, alongside her colleague, Sandra Latter who is the part-time Specialist Advisor. She is a retired solicitor with over 30 years experience in family law, and worked for several London local authorities specialising in child protection, fostering and adoption. At CoramBAAF she is the part-time legal researcher for outbound queries, when local authorities are seeking to place children with family overseas.
Job Titles:
- Social Worker
- Kinship Care Consultant
Clare joined CoramBAAF in February 2022 alongside jobshare partner, Ann. Clare is a qualified social worker with over 20 years' experience in Children's Services. She has managed a children's social work team in Brighton & Hove, helping to implement a new relationship-based practice model as well as previously having responsibility for staff in fostering and fostering support teams. Clare has worked as a freelance social worker for the last four years, specialising in Kinship and adoption assessment and support as well as working as an independent auditor for an IFA. Clare is a qualified trainer with experience of delivering the Separated Parents Information Programme in Sussex.
Job Titles:
- Senior Policy Coordinator
Danielle manages the business support function in the PRD Team alongside Georgina Coope. She previously worked at The Children's Society and brings over 20 years' experience in the field of business support for the voluntary and charitable sector.
Dr Carolyn Sampeys is a Community Paediatrician and Designated Doctor for Safeguarding with the National Safeguarding Team, Public Health Wales NHS Trust. She has a professional leadership role across Wales for NHS staff working in adoption and with Looked after children (LAC). She has 22 years' experience as Named Doctor for adoption, fostering and LAC in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and as Medical Adviser in adoption and fostering to two local authorities and a Regional Adoption Collaborative in South Wales. Carolyn was chair of CoramBAAF UK Health Group for 8 years and is co- editor of the CoramBAAF publication: Promoting the Health of Children in Public Care. She represents the NHS on the Wales National Adoption Service Advisory Group, the National Fostering Framework Steering Group and the Ministerial Advisory Group; Improving Outcomes for Children.
Dr Gemma North is a researcher, training consultant and coach. She has extensive experience in working with individuals and groups as a social worker and educator in a range of settings such as universities, charities, social enterprises and local authorities. Gemma's expertise lies in emotions and trauma, gender, neurodiversity and organisational culture. She has published on a range of issues including her doctoral research about working with emotional abuse in child protection settings, autistic women, well-being and mental health. Most recently Gemma has worked with CoramBAAF and the University of Stirling on the research project ‘Helping Separated Children to Thrive during Covid-19'. Gemma is committed to meaningful inclusion; enabling people to fulfil their potential and improve their outcomes.
Elaine has worked in adoption and fostering for over 30 years having qualified as a social worker in 1988. Elaine has worked as a practitioner and a manager for Local Authorities and a Voluntary Adoption Agency. She joined BAAF in 2004 and set up and managed the Independent Review Mechanism for 5 years before moving across into a Consultant role in the Policy, Research and Development Team for CoramBAAF.
She currently chairs two fostering panels and an RAA adoption panel. She has authored or co-authored several Good Practice guides for CoramBAAF including Undertaking an Adoption Assessment, Completing a child's permanence report, The Role of Fostering for Adoption in Achieving Early Permanence for Children, Adoption by foster carers and Parent and Child Fostering. She is responsible for designing and revising the core CoramBAAF templates for adoption reports. She has also undertaken case reviews with a focus on early permanence and chaired adoption disruption meetings.
Ellie graduated from Manchester University with a nursing degree and worked as a nurse, midwife, health visitor and specialist public health practitioner in the NHS for 25 years. She was a designated nurse for looked after children for 14 years ,chaired a regional nursing network and was a foster panel member. Since joining CoramBAAF in 2017 Ellie has facilitated our health committee and health group. Ellie has also delivered training and development opportunities for a wide range of health and social care professionals. Her role involves authoring practice guidance, and working with partner organisations in policy and research development.
Job Titles:
- Senior Marketing and Engagement Officer
Ellyse graduated from the University of Warwick in 2019 with a degree in Film and Television Studies. In the beginning of 2022, she joined CoramBAAF as part of the Training and Events Team, where she organised and supported our online open courses. Prior to that, she worked as an Executive Assistant in central London for a post-production company.
Currently, Ellyse is responsible for organising our internal and external communications, including social media schedules, newsletters, and website content. She also leads in shaping and creating CoramBAAF's branding, assets, and engagement strategies.
Emma started working at CoramBAAF in October 2021. She is a qualified social worker, with over 25 years of experience in children and young people's services. She most recently led a fostering team in Brighton and Hove City Council for five years. Emma led on step down placements, for children and young people moving from a residential setting back to living with a foster family. Emma has also worked in child protection, on establishing the young carers project in Tower Hamlets, co-ordinating the Summer University for young people in Brent, and on a service redesign for local authority and voluntary youth services in Brighton and Hove.
Job Titles:
- Business Support Advice and Information Service and Groups
Erica joined BAAF/CoramBAAF in 1993 and has held a number of different roles. Erica provides support to the advice service and the wider team. She has her own caseload of enquiries to the advice line and helps ensure all enquiries are answered in a timely way. Erica administers a number of practice forums, working with CoramBAAF colleagues to set dates, manage attendance list and mailings and respond to enquiries and requests from new attendees.
Fareena began her social work career in 1992 with a voluntary organisation supporting adults to live independently. Since qualifying in 1996 she has worked in the field of Children & Families, encompassing Local Authority practice and a long period in Cafcass. She became an Independent Practitioner in 2009. Fareena has always been a strong advocate for children's rights and the rights of disadvantaged groups in society. She has previously held the position of Vice-Chair of the management committee for SAHARA, a refuge for Asian women fleeing domestic abuse, and undertook the role of a trustee for Platform51, an organisation working with disadvantaged young women. Her areas of expertise include assessment, child protection, court work, care planning, quality assurance, practice development, Action Learning Set facilitation, training design and delivery. Fareena holds a BA (Hons) in Social Policy & Administration, an MSc in Social Work Studies, and a Professional Certificate in Management (Health & Social Care).
Job Titles:
- Policy and Research Assistant
Georgina graduated from Swansea University in 2020, with a first class BSc degree in Criminology and Psychology. Following two years at Parents and Children Together (PACT), delivering administrative support for the Children and Trauma Community Hub (CATCH), she joined CoramBAAF in 2022. Georgina provides business support for the PRD team, alongside Danielle Sawyer, and administers a number of advisory committees and practice forums.
Job Titles:
- Independent Therapeutic Social Worker
Hedwig is an independent therapeutic social worker and a social work lecturer at the University of Leeds. She is a current DProf student in Psychological Trauma. She has worked in adoption and special guardianship support services for many years and was part of the small team that set up the Centre for Adoption Support in Warrington. Hedwig has a special interest in attachment, psychological trauma and body-focused approaches to working with trauma, as well as child to parent violence and aggression.
Job Titles:
- Consultancy and Events Team Manager
Helen joined CoramBAAF in 2023. Latterly, she was Learning and Development Manager for almost 8 years at Langley House Trust. The learning and development function she developed for Langley now offers an extensive programme for staff and managers whether that be face to face, virtual, e-learning or coaching. Reflecting on her career to date, she can see that this new role for CoramBAAF draws on the many parts of it from the beginning in the hospitality and conferences industry to running her own learning and development consultancy for over 18 years, designing and delivering a range of programmes for clients across many sectors.
Jacqui has worked within social care sector for over 30 years and as Social Worker in the children and families sector for over 20 years. She currently works as an independent Social Worker and within the education setting as a senior leader and safeguarding lead, bridging the gap between education and social care, a role she is very passionate about. She has been a community school governor for over 12 years. Jacqui worked for CoramBAAF as a Trainer and Consultant for over 10 years; specialising in fostering and has contributed to various CoramBAAF forms, publications and innovative projects. She is interested in managing team restructures and exploring diversity within social care. Jacqui sits on fostering panels including the IRM panel and is a member of the stakeholders panel for the What Works Centre for Children's Social Care and bridging the gap of research and evidenced based practice. She covers the Birmingham area, London, South and South East areas.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Head of Policy, Research and Development and Interim Managing Director
James joined CoramBAAF in January 2022. James has over 7 years' experience working with directly with children. He has worked as children's Guardian and Family Court Advisor at CAFCASS and as a social worker in London and Norfolk operating in a safeguarding role. Prior to becoming a social worker James has worked in public affairs for The Children's Society and NSPCC and as a researcher in Parliament. He brings a mixture of practice, policy and influencing skills in the children's sector to CoramBAAF.
Jane joined CoramBAAF in 2021 as a qualified Social Worker with over 15 years' experience in fostering and adoption, assessing, matching and supporting adopters, alongside training prospective adopters. Jane has experience in working for both LA's and VAA and was involved in the development of the Regional Adoption Agencies in the South West. Prior to joining CoramBAAF she was Agency Advisor in Somerset, for both Fostering and Adoption Panels as well as coordinating Agency Decisions for Children, amongst other pieces of work such as researching Long Term Placement endings.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant ( Training and Events )
Jane is our Administrative Assistant (Training and Events). Prior to working at CoramBAAF, she ran training events for another charitable organisation. Jane's background is working with children, as a qualified nursery nurse working in a variety of nurseries and later as a qualified playworker in a variety of outdoor and indoor environments. Jane has also worked closely with social workers in Family Service Units to benefit children and families. Jane has delivered a variety of training from Introductory to Level 3 courses to Early Years Workers and Playworkers.
Jo has been working with children and families for over 25 years, in Local Authority and community nurseries, as a Social Worker, as a Psychotherapist, and as a trainer and consultant. She delivers training around the country and internationally to staff in Local Authorities, voluntary organisations, governments and for foster carers and adopters. Training topics Jo delivers include: all aspects of safeguarding; attachment and secure base; trauma and addictions; children's rights; equality, diversity and identity and the needs of the child in care.
Joan has provided training and consultancy for a range of Independent Agencies and Local Authorities and within this capacity facilitated training on a number of child care, fostering and adoption focused subjects to professionals, family members, foster carers and adoptive parents. These have covered a diverse range of subjects; separation and loss, attachments, the Secure Base model, therapeutic re-parenting, behaviour management, life story work, managing food issues, assessing sibling groups, parenting teens, parenting siblings, direct work with children, panel training, cultural diversity, internet safety, supervising social workers, fostering reviews, disruption training, child development, caring for children who have been sexually abused, supporting children in education, and parent and child Arrangements. Joan also undertaken consultancy work including chairing disruptions, life story literature review, and parent to parent peer mentoring.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board of Directors
John is the Independent Pension Board Chair for the Dyfed and Tower Hamlets Council pension funds. Previously in his career he held several senior Finance positions in London, including the posts of Director of Finance for two London boroughs and as a Finance Director at the Mayor of London's office.
Job Titles:
- Communications Specialist
Jonathan is a communications specialist and works in corporate communications for Electronic Arts, a video game company headquartered in California. In his current role he works across international markets. Jonathan has held communications and corporate affairs roles in diverse organisations across the voluntary and private sectors. Earlier in his career, he worked in government departments including the Cabinet Office and the Government Equalities Office. Jonathan and his partner became adoptive parents in 2019.
Job Titles:
- Website and Digital Asset Manager
Jonathan joined CoramBAAF in 2019, following 6 years at First4Adoption where he developed both the website and various e-learning modules designed to inform and prepare prospective adopters in the early stages of the adoption process. A Spanish and Italian graduate, Jonathan began his career in foreign language training and has amassed over 20 years' experience in online learning.
Karen is a qualified Social Worker with over a decade's experience in Social Work, her background is mainly in child protection statutory services, working therapeutically with fostering families, managing fostering and kinship teams, working with children and adults with disabilities and she has also worked as a Family Court Advisor at Cafcass dealing with both private and public law. Karen has a wide range of experience and has been fortunate enough to work on adoption and surrogacy cases. Karen is now a consultant social worker, and she delivers training nationwide to social workers and multi-agency teams, she continues to keep her practice up to date by working with children and families, completing assessments, chairing complex reviews, quality assurance and managing complaints and allegations.
Karen is passionate about improving outcomes for children who are at risk or cared for by the local authority. She loves completing direct work with children and ensuring their voices are heard and shine through in her work. Karen enjoys working in partnership with families to promote positive and effective change.
Karen joined the Advice and Information Team at CoramBAAF in October 2024. She supports both the Advice Line and the Outbound Permanence service on a part-time basis. Karen has had a variety of roles throughout her career, mostly within training and event management, project management, HR and Operations. She has worked for global corporations and start-ups; most recently within the Leadership Team of a small company providing experiential training around the world.
Karen has enjoyed working on many different projects, including process improvement, and has instigated several employee initiatives. In her most recent role, she was a key part of a small team which successfully applied for B-Corp certification.
Job Titles:
- Information and Knowledge Services Manager
Katrina joined BAAF in 2002 after 15 years working in university and hospital libraries and is now the Information and Knowledge Services Manager at CoramBAAF. Katrina works closely with our Information Services Officer to support the information needs of CoramBAAF members and staff by delivering the Digest current awareness service, providing briefings for practice forums, maintaining our library collection, carrying out literature searches and providing statistics in response to enquiries. Katrina also works on the Adoption Search Reunion website and is the Data Protection coordinator for CoramBAAF.
Laura Payne is a qualified Social Worker and Social Work Manager with over 25 years experience in Family Placement. Laura worked for Nottingham City Council from 1992 until 2012 as a Social Worker, Panel Advisor and latterly as Principal Manager. Between 2012 and 2021 Laura had Management and Senior Mangement roles in two different Voluntary Adoption Agencies in the East Midlands. Laura now works as an independent social worker, trainer, mentor and consultant specialising in adoption and fostering. Laura has a keen interest in the development of evidence-based assessment skills, assessing and supporting sibling placements, and post adoption contact. She has been involved in Adoption Support pre and post placement for many years and has worked extensively with adopted adults. Laura has recently written a new good practice guidance Exploring and assessing motivation adoption, published in September 2024.
Liam joined CoramBAAF in 2023 after assisting with Coram's Christmas fundraising appeal that year. With professional experience as a copywriter and digital marketer within startups, as well as previous roles aimed at widening participation in the education sector, Liam brings valuable expertise to the organisation. As an events officer, he is deeply passionate about utilising our platform to advance equality, diversity, and inclusion within practice, while also shining a spotlight on current and future issues in the children and families sector.
Lindy Wootton possesses over 35 years of valuable experience working with people in the voluntary and public sectors, serving as a trainer, practitioner, manager, project leader, mediator, and restorative justice practitioner. After qualifying as a social worker, she initially worked in child protection before transitioning to adoption. In 2013, she joined CCS Adoption, where she took on diverse roles, including managing early permanence projects and the life story work service - Sharing Stories, as well as handling assessment, training, post-adoption support, and agency decision maker. In 2022, Lindy left CCS Adoption to become an independent social work consultant, undertaking work for the National Adoption Strategy Team and delivering training as an associate trainer for CoramBAAF. Lindy holds a BSc in Social Administration, MSc in Criminal Justice Policy, MSc in Social Work, and is a qualified mediator.
Job Titles:
- Advice Line Adviser
- Senior Training Administrator
Louise joined CoramBAAF in 2021 with fourteen years of administrative experience. Over the years she has worked as a senior administrator for an Independent Fostering Agency and as a care home administrator. Louise manages the administration of our commissioned training, open courses and consultancy service and is an Advice Line Adviser twice a week. Louise graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a social work degree and is currently working towards registering with Social Work England. In addition to her roles at CoramBAAF, Louise is a Mental Health First Aider EDI Champion and attends monthly EDI forums and planning groups.
Job Titles:
- Service Manager of Adoption, Fostering and Placements, London Borough of Lambeth
Marrianne qualified as a social worker in 2002, and with a wealth of experience in child protection and family placement social work. She holds a degree in social work, along with a PGCE. Since 2016, she has been working as a trainer while simultaneously practicing in the field. Apart from her role at CoramBAAF, Marianne serves as an associate trainer for AFKA Cymru and works part-time in adoption. During her tenure with AFKA Cymru, she contributed to a number of National Adoption Service Wales' good practice guides. Marianne's primary areas of expertise encompass fostering, adoption, permanency planning, and life story work.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Head of Member Services and Engagement and Interim Managing Director
Michelle joined BAAF in 2005, initially providing marketing support to the publications team. In recent years she has overseen marketing activities, including the CoramBAAF website, across the organisation and in 2019 was appointed to the role of Head of Membership Services and Engagement. She brings over 25 years of experience of marketing, communications, publications and strategic planning from previous roles including at the Design Council, WaterAid and City & Guilds.
Job Titles:
- Advice and Information Team Manager
- in 2017 As the Dedicated Adviser
Pippa joined CoramBAAF in 2017 as the dedicated adviser for the members' Advice Line and as a trainer-consultant. Prior to that she has over 30 years' experience in the voluntary sector, working with parents and carers in disability and health services and as an advice professional. Since 2006 she has worked for national services in fostering and adoption first with the Fostering Network, Fosterline and then as lead adviser with First4Adoption. She now manages CoramBAAF's advice and information team and takes the lead in responding to policy and practice related enquiries from members, coordinating responses from other CoramBAAF consultants when appropriate.
From an IT background and with over twenty years' experience in the membership sector, Richard joined CoramBAAF in 2019 after previous engagements with Electoral Reform Membership Services and the TUC affiliated trade union BECTU.
Rosie initially joined CoramBAAF in her role as Business Support within the Training and Events Team, helping to coordinate training events. Rosie has since become the Membership Officer and works with Michelle and Richard in the Membership Team.
Sandra rejoined Coram on a part-time basis in July 2023 having previously worked as a Coram Associate setting up and developing a range of services for 15 years. Most recently, she jointly managed the Advice and Information Service at IAC- the centre for Adoption with lead responsibility for the Outbound Permanence service. Sandra has been the driving force behind the creation and development of workshops and resources for local authority staff involved in children moving overseas to live with kinship carers. Sandra is a qualified social worker and has substantial experience in child protection, looked after children and adoption settings in both local authority and VAA's. She has been a freelance social worker and Independent Reviewing Officer for the past 20 years. She also sits on our Kinship Advisory Committee.
Sandra Russell has 30 years expertise in fostering and adoption as a Social Worker. She has been a Children's Guardian and Reporting Officer in care and adoption cases and is an adoptive parent. She is an experienced manager who enjoys the training and development of staff and teams with particular skills in team building, motivation, change management and working with diversity. Sandra has taught social work and practice teaching as well as Counselling and Psychotherapy to MA level. She has also been a Practice Teaching Award assessor for the Open University. She also undertakes face to face therapeutic work with individuals, couples, families and groups in private practice.
Job Titles:
- Independent Social Work Consultant
Velou manages the Coram Group Finance and Resources. Velou is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering and completed his Master of Business administration in Finance and Information Systems. Velou has 20 years of Financial sector experience, working in managerial positions in different sectors including commerce, industry, education and the voluntary sector. Velou is Qualified by Experience and also a part qualified member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in UK. Velou has contributed to the development of financial regulations for charities under the Statement of Recommended Practices (SORP) to the charity commission and was a member of the HM Revenue & Customs consultation group on Vat reforms for charities.
Ziafat has been dedicated to supporting and empowering young people since 2011, when he established his first education and training venture. Over the years, he has founded multiple Ofsted-regulated services, including Independent Fostering Agencies, Children's Residential Homes, and Supported Accommodation services.
As the Director of Thrive, based in Lancashire, Ziafat brings extensive expertise in both the care and education sectors. He has a proven track record in leading children's services through strategic planning, partnership development, and the implementation of high-quality standards. Driven by a deep commitment to improving the lives of vulnerable children, he is passionate about ensuring the best possible outcomes for children and young people in society.