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SaFest 2025 speaker information
My background is in education, I graduated from a teacher training specialist university (Bishop Grosseteste) with a BA in education studies, I then went on to work with SEND students in mainstream school settings working in a hybrid pastoral/educational role within SEND departments with large autistic student populations.
I run a nonprofit focusing on digital harms particularly around my community (the neurodivergent community) as well as the intersection with young people and gambling harms. We are partnered with a number of prevent organisations and local authorities throughout the UK including being a member of Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership.
My major areas of focus lie on shining a light on the content generation alpha consume online and how their lived experiences are fundamentally different to our own.
Tuesday
- Alexandra Burgess: Alex has a strong background in criminal justice; housing, homelessness and systems change. Alex is a researcher at Together for Childhood’s Plymouth site, focussing on child sexual abuse prevention. In addition to working with Together for Childhood Alex is carrying out PhD research into sexual abuse prevention with a focus on primary and secondary prevention work with adults who may be at risk of sexually harming others.
- Shelley Shaw- Shelley has been working for the NSPCC for 8 years and is privileged to work on the amazing child sexual abuse prevention programme ‘Together for Childhood’. Shelley’s background is background is in community development and this theory and practice underpins Together for Childhood’s work. Shelley has also worked in commissioning and this approach enables her to maintain a ‘helicopter view’ and identify opportunities for different parts of systems to work together. Shelley is committed to the values of social justice and collaboration is her favourite way to achieve this.
- Alice Dutton: Alice Dutton has been evaluating Together for Childhood since the start of the project. Alice leads the local evaluation in Stoke-on-Trent and has conducted various research and evaluation with young people around topics such as consent and online safety. Alice has also led on the Young People’s Knowledge Attitudes and Behaviours research, which was conducted across all four of our Together for Childhood sites.
- Ashika Thomas: Ashika is a researcher at the Together for Childhood Stoke on Trent site working on preventing child sexual abuse in the area. She has completed her masters in Development Studies at the London School of Economics and has experience in mixed methods research. Ashika has also led several ethnographies with children, young people and adults from migrant and minority communities in India and is interested in ensuring children across different social backgrounds are safe from abuse and neglect.
Claire has a background in forensic and developmental psychology and began working on the Together for Childhood project in Plymouth in 2017. She has extensive experience of designing and carrying out quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation with children and young people, adults in the community, and professionals (using traditional, participatory, and creative methods), helping to build an evidence base of what works to prevent child sexual abuse in a place-based initiative.
Lin joined the NWG in 2022 with more than 40 years of safeguarding/investigation experience gained from an extensive career in the Police and as an independent safeguarding consultant/trainer.
Lin has worked as part of a team who investigated one of the earliest historical Child Abuse enquiries. She has been an advocate for a Bedfordshire Homelessness Charity and was a ‘Regional Practice Co-Ordinator’ within Barnardo’s National Counter Trafficking Centre where she advocated for children who had been trafficked and exploited within the UK.
Lin is the Police and Justice Lead and her role involves supporting and empowering Safeguarding partners/families to disrupt and tackle the exploitation of children and young adults.
Sukhdev Rathore joined the NWG in 2022 and is a qualified youth worker with extensive experience in the youth and community sector. I have worked in both statutory and third-sector organisations, including a previous role as a practitioner at Barnardo's. In this position, I supported survivors of child exploitation and modern slavery. Also providing advice and guidance to communities, professionals, and various organisations on other safeguarding issues. My career has provided me with opportunities and the privilege to enhance my knowledge of working with diverse communities and organisations.
As the Exploitation, Diversity, and Inclusion Lead at the NWG, I collaborate with practitioners, strategic leaders, community leaders, and policymakers to ensure marginalised and minoritised communities are part of the solution and effort to combat child exploitation. Part of my role includes hosting forums and webinars that give practitioners and managers a platform to better understand the complexities of supporting child victims and survivors from diverse backgrounds. I have also developed resources to assist practitioners in supporting children and families from all communities.
Wednesday
Lewis is an experienced school leader and DSL, who has worked in both small school and large rural school settings as a Class Teacher, Deputy Head and Head of School. He has a passion for providing young people opportunity and success and understands the important role educators play in contextual safeguarding as part of this. Lewis has a particular success in proactive engagement of key safeguarding elements within a school curriculum and promoting strong safeguarding cultures shared by all staff. He looks forward to working in partnership with colleagues from all sectors of education to ensure that these principles are shared and developed by working collaboratively together.
Lewis understands the demand placed on educators in recent years and is compassionate and enthusiastic in his approach. He advocates the importance of positive challenge within safeguarding teams to ensure a robust approach to safeguarding children. Lewis is a team player, who enjoys engaging key stakeholders throughout his work and responding to their feedback in continuously growing and developing initiatives. He is passionate about looking after the brilliant people within our profession to support them keeping children safe and able to reach their potential.
Thursday
Alice biography:
Alice Ayres is a social worker within the Therapeutic Fostering Team. Prior to this Alice was a social worker in the D-BIT Emotional Well-being Team which was set up as a pilot project, this involved completing solution focused work on a 1:1 basis with young people with emerging emotional well-being difficulties. In April 2023 this project came to an end and Alice moved to work in the Mid D-BIT Core team. In this team Alice predominantly completed solution focused work with families in various contexts such as where children are on the edge of coming into care, or when children had an unplanned episode in care. In addition to this, Alice also supported with upskilling other’s within her team and new starters in the service in solution focused practice.
Paul biography:
Paul Wiggins has been practicing Solution Focused with a focus on family relationships for the past seven years. In 2019 he completed BRIEF’s SF Diploma. In 2020 Paul became the Practice Supervisor for DBIT North, responsible for upskilling others within his team and service in Solution Focused practice in addition to his ongoing work with families. In 2022 Paul developed the Intermediate Certificate in Solution Focused Practice which he has delivered since it’s onset. In 2021 Paul also became accredited by the UK Association for Solution Focused Practice.
Aside from SF practice, in 2019 Paul obtained the Level 3 Award in Education which speaks to his capability in training and facilitating adult learning.
Paul is proud to be a part of the Essex Solution Focused Centre.
Greg has over 20 years of experience as a qualified Social Worker working with neurodiverse teenagers, young offenders, care leavers and triaging referrals into social care. Throughout those roles, Greg has had experience managing a team and providing supervision in a way that supports practice development while also maintaining high standards of practice. Over the past 13 years, he has been working in various teams within the Divisional Based Intervention Service (DBIT), which is a therapeutic Solution Focused intervention Service within Essex County Council (ECC) Social Care. During this time, Greg’s enthusiasm for the Solution Focused approach and for maintaining high standards of practice has led him to becoming a member of the United Kingdom Association for Solution Focused Practice (UKASFP) and becoming co-lead for Solution Focused Accreditation through the UKASFP.
Greg is currently serving as a Practice Supervisor in the Essex Solution Focused Centre, the formalised training arm of the DBIT service. In his current role he is responsible for developing and facilitating training courses, which has involved providing solution focused training for Essex staff as well as for charities and other local authorities. Greg’s passion is to support people to find a way to bring Solution Focused practice into their work alongside the challenges and expectations of their respective roles. He also continues to provide direct Solution Focused interventions and support for young people, parents and families open to ECC Social Care, which helps keep his training grounded in the reality of the work that people are doing.
Joe Clay - UK programme Manager- Safeguarding Partnerships
Joe oversees Railway Children’s Safeguarding Action Groups across the country and leads the organisation’s training provision for Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and British Transport Police (BTP). With over 18 years of experience supporting young people—as a frontline practitioner, outreach youth worker, and later as a project manager for a large national charity—he brings extensive expertise in direct youth engagement, the rail industry, and multi-agency collaboration.
Joe plays a key role in strengthening contextual safeguarding systems to protect children at risk, working closely with rail industry partners, law enforcement, and community stakeholders to develop and embed effective safeguarding practices. He leads on Railway Children’s support for the Safeguarding on Rail Scheme, ensuring that frontline staff across the transport sector are equipped with the knowledge and skills to identify, respond to, and support vulnerable young people.
His work is instrumental in building safer environments for children and young people, ensuring they receive the right support at the right time.
