Tony Breslin Trustee Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK? My wife, Ann and I adopted our sons, Lewis and Rhys, 12 months ago, a couple of years after registering our interest with St Francis Children’s Society in Milton Keynes. We have been members of Adoption UK throughout the process and have found the organisation’s services and publications invaluable. Adoption has always been something thsat we have been positively disposed towards, not least because I was adopted as a child by wonderful parents. As such, I am acutely aware of the positive impact that adoption can have. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? I am a teacher by profession and have worked in or around education and youth services throughout my career. For the better part of the last decade I led the Citizenship Foundation, the education and participation charity that led the campaign to establish Citizenship in the National Curriculum in the late 1990s and has played a similar role in sustaining it as a statutory subject following Michael Gove’s recent curriculum review. I now work as a public policy analyst, specialising in education and participation, and hope that I might be able to support Adoption UK in the education sphere and in its efforts to influence public policy. How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? I would like to see Adoption UK established as the key authoritative voice at the heart of the national debate that I believe we are now embarked on about the future of adoption, fostering and care, not necessarily having a position on every issue bur certainly having the organisaitonal self-confidence to raise the questions and host the debates. I’d also like us to do as much to tell the positive story about adoption as we do, rightly, in highlighting needs and challenges; sometimes the former gets lost and, when it does, we are all losers.
Jane Game Trustee and Finance & Scrutiny committee member Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK? We began the process of adopting our daughter in 2007. Early on, I became aware of and joined Adoption UK. The adoption process ultimately took over 3 years and the website and bulletin boards were a great support providing additional information and showing me that we were not alone in our experiences. Adoption doesn't finish with placement and through the 4 years our daughter has now been with us, I have continued to value the support that being part of the Adoption UK community provides. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? I am a chartered accountant with over 25 years experience in practice working with both businesses and charities. In that time I have both advised others on their finances and also run my own business. In latter years, I have concentrated on working with small and medium size organisations where the owners or managers are closely involved in the day to day activities. When I saw that Adoption UK were looking for trustees with financial experience, I was delighted to be able to get involved feeling that the experience I have gained could be put to good use in helping the charity move forward. Working with an organisation whose aims are so close to my heart is a great opportunity. How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? Adoption is a lifelong process and I strongly believe that adoptive parents need as much, if not more help, after placement than before it. Yet it can seem that support falls away once a child is placed. Adoption UK have consistently campaigned for ongoing support and have had some significant successes in this area already. I would like to see this campaigning and the direct support that the charity provides to parents continue and grow so that every adoptive parent feels they will have the support they and their child nee
Eleanor Bradford Trustee, Scotland Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK? I was given membership of Adoption UK by my local council when I adopted two boys in 2013. My partner and I were unusual in that we were adopting brothers aged 3 and 7. Sadly, the chances of being adopted decline sharply for children over 5. I found the magazine to be a great source of advice, and also attended a couple of workshops. Shortly after I saw an advert looking for trustees, and applied. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? I have worked in the media and communications industry for more than 20 years. I spent most of my career as a correspondent with the BBC before leading the Communications department of Aberdeen University and then joining a PR company as an Associate Partner. This has given me a good understanding of how the media works and how the charity can champion the interests of adoptive families through the press and social media. How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? My adoption experience was fairly smooth but we still faced many tricky issues such as lying, stealing and toileting problems. Adoption UK already offers a helpline and online forum for advice, but I'd like to see the charity develop a larger online resource of factsheets and information. It would also be great if we could put training videos on our website, for parents to access when it suits them.
Barry Catchpole Board member, Chair of Finance & Scrutiny committee, Treasurer Expand How did you become involved with Adoption UK? Having seen the advertisement for new trustees, I began to research the subject of adoption and was astonished to learn of the level of inequality suffered by adopted children and their adoptive parents compared to children in care and living with their birth families. I was also disappointed to see how comparatively few children within the care system were given the opportunity of adoption into a loving, caring and stable family environment. I felt my professional background in finance and senior management together with my knowledge of public service at both national and local level could help Adoption UK with their work to improve these issues, and was delighted to be invited to join the Board of Trustees. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? As a retired accountant I am comfortable with finance issues large and small, and have a strong background in financial planning aimed at supporting an organisation’s strategic plan. Having been a local authority chief executive for over twelve years, I have a wide range of knowledge, skills and experiences which could be helpful especially in the strategic and financial planning together with the campaigning and lobbying aspects of Adoption UK’s work. How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? With the coalition government now beginning to prioritise adoption issues within the care system, I would like to see Adoption UK grow to assist many more adopted children and their new families, and also to strengthen its role in influencing legislative changes using its unique bank of knowledge to ensure changes are truly for the benefit of adoptees and adopters.
Mary Greenwood Vice Chair Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK? I applied to become a member of the Adoption UK Board to complement my social work knowledge and practice in respect of children and their families, and to inform my more recent role as independent chair of adoption panels. Having spent over 30 years in children’s social work, both in statutory and independent agencies, I wished to get an informed perspective, both from adopters and adoptees, through the work of Adoption UK. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? I have more than 30 years’ experience of social work with children, young people and their families both in a statutory and voluntary setting. My chairing of adoption panels is particularly relevant to the work of Adoption UK. I can therefore bring an understanding of social work and agency practice to the Board, whilst being able to influence adoption practice from my learning of the experiences of adopters and their children from Adoption UK’s work. How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? I am interested in using adopters’ experiences to inform the process of adoption at all levels, from recruitment and preparation to the challenges of parenting and to explore ways of influencing social work practice to improve the outcomes for adopted children and their parents.
Peter Seymour Chair and Finance & Scrutiny committee member Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK? My wife and I started our adoption journey in 1996 – a journey that saw us take delivery of a sibling group of four pre-school children in December 1997 and a birth daughter in 2002. A journey that after many years of trying to progress the support we needed for our family via our local authority, eventually brought us to the services provided by Adoption UK. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? My years of adoptive parent experience (contested adoption, local authority adoption services, life story, school statements/appeals, CAMHS, etc), along with my business experience (12 years with Marks & Spencer followed by the last eight years in a business development role across parliament and government departments) provide a useful mix of practical adoption and business experience and expertise to support Adoption UK. This adoption and business experience is particularly valuable, as it encompasses things that have worked well and things (as they say) that have worked less well. How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? I would like to see Adoption UK championing some specific adoption areas on top of its broader agenda (e.g., in education getting “adopted” children included in the same category as “looked after children”) as well as seeing the charity increasing its profile across both the wider population and also government, so that more people are aware of the services that it offers
Emily Boardman Trustee Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK?I am a solicitor who does a lot of work with birth families and adopters and I have become increasingly interested in how we support children moving into adoption, and their parents. I deal with care proceedings every day and see in great detail the difficult start that so many adopted children have and I cannot understand why these children and their adoptive families are not given every available resource to assist them.As a national organisation with a big voice Adoption UK is perfectly placed to lobby for the support these kids need and support their families and I am excited to be a part of that.Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? I have been a solicitor dealing with family law since 2002 and I bring to Adoption UK knowledge about the legal system, and access to the judiciary and other professionals involved in family justice. Family courts can be private places and as a consequence there are many misunderstandings about family justice in the public arena. I hope it will be very helpful to Adoption UK to have a trustee who has been in this system for so long.How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? I would like Adoption UK membership to be essential for every adopter or prospective adopter. With that growth in membership our voice will grow stronger and we will continue to select carefully which areas to concentrate on. I am especially pleased to join Adoption UK at a time when we are focusing on support in education and giving adopted children an equal chance in schools.
Wesley Graham Trustee Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK? My wife and I adopted our son 10 years ago after he lived with us for one year on a fostering basis. We became involved with Adoption UK through attending the parenting course, ‘A Piece of Cake’, now called ‘Parenting our Children’, which we found extremely helpful in understanding the reasons behind our son’s behaviour. We also attended our local AUK support group and after about a year I was asked to became the volunteer co-ordinator for this group. I agreed to do so as I wanted to give something back to AUK for the help and support they had given to us. I was asked to join the AUK Advisory Group in Northern Ireland three years ago and have been the Chair of that group for the past 18 months. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? My role as a volunteer support group co-ordinator and lived experience as an adoptive parent has given me insight into the needs of adoptive families. I worked for 11 years as a Senior Commissioner responsible for commissioning community-based health and social care services. This role has given me knowledge and experience of health and social care systems and the relationships between the Department of Health, commissioning bodies and provider organisations. It also has also given me extensive experience of financial management and corporate governance. I currently sit as an independent member of my local Trust Adoption Panel whose job it is to assess the suitability of prospective adopters, decide whether adoption is in a child’s best interests and to match children with suitable prospective adopters. I think that this experience and the knowledge and skills I have gained within the statutory / public sector are transferable to my role as Trustee. How do you want to see Adoption UK develop over the next five years? I would like to see all adoptive families becoming members of AUK and benefiting from that membership through peer support, training and counselling where appropriate. Based on my own experience of the TESSA programme (Therapeutic Education and Support Service in Adoption) in Northern Ireland, I think the roll out of this programme to other UK nations would be an invaluable resource to adoptive families (and teachers and social workers who could refer into the service) and I would like to see this become widespread in the next five years. I would also like more teachers and social workers in particular to see the benefit of having closer links with AUK in terms of the training and professional development opportunities that AUK can for developing their own knowledge of early childhood trauma and neglect and the impact that this can have on children and their adoptive families. I would therefore like to see more widespread professional and corporate membership uptake with the ultimate result of having social service providers and schools that are more understanding and appreciative of the needs of adoptive families.
Clare Hudson Trustee Expand How did you become involved with adoption and Adoption UK? I first became involved with Adoption UK when my partner and I adopted a four year old girl seven years ago. We were given a high degree of support in the months leading up to our daughter’s placement with us and in the year following her arrival. We knew that was unusual, and my years of involvement with AUK have only served to underline how unusual it was. I have received a great deal of support and insight from meeting other adopters through AUK, as well as the staff and volunteers who work here in Wales. I would like to think that by being involved I can help ensure that future adopters have the kind of positive experience that we had at the outset. Any specific skills or areas of expertise relevant to the work of Adoption UK? I have worked in the media for most of my adult life - first as a print journalist, then as an investigative reporter and producer for ITV, and later as a programme commissioner for the BBC in Wales. This has given me an in-depth knowledge of how newsrooms and the media generally work, which I hope to use to help AUK get our key messages across . It has also given me an understanding of how messages need to be tailored to reach different kinds of audiences, and how campaigns of different sorts need to be able to tell a strong “story”. I sit on the Boards of several organisations and have learned that offering constructive challenge and lots of support is what works best at this level - and there should always be space to celebrate achievement.