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Officers and Council members of NAGALRO take
part in many other social work related activities, aside from their work
as Children's Guardians and members of the Council. Their roles as
Officers and Council members may advise or enhance these other roles and
vice versa. However, when a member has a personal interest in an activity
in which NAGALRO has a current role which is not related to their
official NAGALRO role, it is essential that the Council is informed and
that no approaches are made to another organisation which could represent
a conflict of interest either for the member or for NAGALRO. Such
personal interests, which may involve research, consultation or training,
should be advised to the Council prior to any outside undertaking.
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Helen James –
Chair
Helen
has worked as a Children’s Guardian and independent social worker and
trainer since 1990 and continues to take work from Cafcass. She works within both public and private
law both as an ISW as well as in relation to work taken from Cafcass. She provides consultation, mentoring
and supervision within the voluntary sector. Prior to 1990 Helen had worked
extensively in Social Services, both within child protection, residential
child care and mental health.
Helen joined Council to support the work of NAGALRO in making sure
that members views were heard in relation to professional and policy
issues affecting our practice.
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Judy Tomlinson,
Secretary
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Following
over ten years working in local authority as a social worker in children
and family teams she became a children’s guardian in 1993. She now works
as an independent social worker in the North West providing reports in both
private and public family law proceedings. She has worked for NYAS since
1994 as an advocate and as a caseworker, representing children under rule
9.5. She was appointed to NAGALRO Council in 2003 and has been secretary
since 2006.
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Ann Way,
Treasurer
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Ann has been a member of the Norfolk
panel since 1993 and is also a freelance researcher. She was
employed for over 20 years in a variety of social work and related posts,
including research and teaching. For some time Ann worked directly
with children and young people and their families during which time she
came to specialise in child protection work, permanency planning and
adoption. She has worked on 2 studies commissioned by the DoH
relating to the operation of the Children Act 1989 under the directorship
of Professor June Thoburn at the Centre for Research on the Child and
Family, University of East Anglia.
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Kathy Butcher
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Kathy has been a Children's
Guardian in London since 1986. Before that she worked as a social
worker in mental health, then with children and families.
Eventually she took a post as a Principal Officer managing homes for
children, day nurseries and family centres. She established a
family centre jointly between the local authority and National Children's
Homes. Currently Kathy is a senior lecturer in public sector
management and human resource management. Kathy joined the council to
work towards the enhancement and development of the role of the guardian
and to influence developments of the service. Kathy has taken part in
organising training and conferences for guardians.
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Sue Clarke –-
London
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Sue first qualified as a
Probation Officer in 1989, working as a Family Court Welfare Officer. She
has worked in a variety of social services settings including
Child Protection and Adoption and Fostering, where she gained
extensive experience in Public and Private Law both as a practitioner and
manager. In 2001 she moved to London and worked as a Service Manager for
CAFCASS. Sue currently works as an Independent Social Worker
undertaking independent assessments in Court proceedings and
for Local Authorities. She also works as a Children's Guardian
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Eva Gregory –
South East
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Eva has worked as a Guardian
since 1985. Eva initially trained as a probation officer and as a
psychiatric social worker. She has worked in psychiatric hospital and in
the community mental health service; but has also worked as a researcher
and management consultant in a private research organisation and has held
senior management posts in social services and education
departments. Eva is now appointed as an external assessor and
examiner to three university social work courses. She is also engaged by
two local authorities as an independent investigator of complaints under
the Children Act and Community Care Acts.
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Ann Haigh -
London
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Ann brings experience of being
a practitioner and manager in social services and in the voluntary
sector. She has been a Children's Guardian for 10 years and served on
governmental working groups including Chief Justice Thorpe's committee
assisting the Bulgarian Government on their child care legislation.
Ann has actively lobbied to bring about change in adoption and the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology legislation.
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Yasmin Hossain -
International
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Yasmin has over 21 years
working with children; as a form teacher, social worker and Children's
Guardian. She has a particular interest in Adoption and the
placement needs of children who are subject to Immigration and Asylum
laws. Yasmin regularly undertakes independent comprehensive
assessments of families in the UK and in the Asian sub-continent on
behalf of the Local Authority and/or GALs. Fluent in Urdu, Punjabi,
Hindi, Arabic, Bangala and Sylheti.
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Paul Greenhalgh
– North Yorkshire
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Paul Greenhalgh began working
in statutory child care 35 years ago. He has managed Child Placement
Services in two local authorities and a voluntary sector Adoption Agency.
For the past thirteen years Paul has operated as an independent child
care practitioner, mainly within the court setting, and has worked as a
Children’s Guardian for the past nine years. He has been a member of
several Child Placement Panels and independent sector Fostering Panels,
and has also undertaken formal complaints as an independent investigator
for a number of social welfare agencies.
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Polly Dumas –
Eastern
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Polly Dumas qualified as a
Social Worker in 2000. Prior to this
i worked for several years with children and young people within the
voluntary sector. The mainstay of my work post qualifying has been
within children and families social work within the Court
arena. I joined CAFCASS as
an FCA in 2006 and have recently been appointed as a NAGALRO Councl
Member. Areas of particular
interest to me relate to outcomes for Looked After children and young
young people, the impact of parental substance misuse, and post adoption
contact issues.
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Chris Rivers –
North West
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Chris has been a social worker and
manager in the NW region and has specialised since 1980 in permanency
planning, adoption, child protection and later GALRO work and acquired almost
20 years managerial experience. He first became a Children’s Guardian in
1984 as a member of the Merseyside and Cheshire Galro panels, taking his
last case in 2007. Chris
contributed to the pre-Cafcass project team work and set up the Cafcass
Smartgroup online forum in 2000 to promote the exchange of views and information
prior to Cafcass Vesting Day.
After experience as a Cafcass service manager he became
self-employed and now works mainly as an independent social worker,
undertaking family-finding, post-adoption support and family court
assessments. His areas of
particular interest are the impact of antenatal substance misuse, parents
with learning disabilities and sibling contact.
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Sue Robson -
Wales
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