A range of highly experienced professionals from practice and research
Meet the Board of Trustees
Our board of trustees is made up of a range of highly experienced professionals from practice and research, all of whom are volunteers and give their time to ensure the Association meets the needs of its members and beneficiaries, and is governed appropriately. The constitution of the board is set by our governing document.
We believe that we have a board of trustees who together best represent the areas that we work in and the skills needed, but where particular input is required we may also co-opt additional members to the board.
Vacancies for trustees and lay members are advertised on the website as well as via our newsletter and social media channels. Any correspondence for trustees should be sent to hello@aocpp.org.uk
Dr Sam Warner (Chair)
Dr Sam Warner - Dr Sam Warner is a consultant clinical psychologist and holds an honorary lectureship at Salford University. Sam has specialised in sexual violence, child protection, domestic abuse and mental health for over thirty years and has written books and papers on sexual abuse and related issues. Sam works as an expert witness and has led a variety of specialist sexual violence therapy services in the third sector, mental health, child protection and safeguarding.
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, DBE JP FRSA Lorna has over 30 years’ experience of managing, leading and developing social care services, including a range of Social Care Academies in a number of Local Authorities across Children and Adult Services. Where she also project managed the setup of these Academies to attract, recruit, develop and retain social workers and managers.
Ann Marie Christian
Ann Marie is a registered children & families’ social worker practicing over two decades with twelve years of social work management. She worked in a pilot project as a school based social worker in the late nineties for four years and experienced safeguarding of children pre:threshold intervention. Ann Marie evolved and managed cluster social workers in schools and provided safeguarding advice as a safeguarding advisor to schools and Headteachers.
Steve Myers
Steve Myers is Director of Social Sciences at the University of Salford and a registered Social Worker with a background in child protection and youth justice. He has worked in both statutory and voluntary organisations and been involved with the training of social workers in Higher Education for the past 25 years. Steve has researched and written about strengths-based and solution focused practice, and has a interest in working with violent behaviour including sexual violence.
Dr Ciaran Murphy
Dr Ciaran Murphy is currently employed as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Edge Hill University's Social Work Department, where he leads on specialist children and families; research; and safeguarding modules. Ciaran remains a qualified and registered social worker specialising in child protection. Before working in academia, Ciaran practised for 10 years in the areas of child protection, substance misuse and education welfare.
Simon Snell
Simon is a retired Detective Inspector having served with Devon and Cornwall Police for 30 years. He specialised in the investigation of complex child abuse, including online offending. He is now a director of Safeguarding Associates for Excellence which specialises in delivering training and consultancy around safeguarding. He is also an associate trainer for the NSPCC, Barnardos and the South West Grid for Learning.
Julie Baker
Julie is a registered social worker with 25 years experience in working with children, young people and families. She is a manager in a local authority; overseeing several social work teams and focusing on practice improvement. Julie has a wide breadth of knowledge and experience in child protection work. Julie’s practice interests include ensuring children’s voices are heard and centred, pre-birth and early years work, substance use, domestic abuse and working with fathers and male carers.
Jermaine Ravalier
Jermaine Ravalier is a Professor of Organisational Psychology and Social Justice at Bath Spa University, and Director of Programmes at What Works for Children's Social Care. Jermaine's interest and expertise in social work revolves around the social work workforce. He has worked with and led BASW and SWU's campaign for Professional Working Conditions, which is based on his bi-annual national survey of social worker working conditions and wellbeing. He works with the IFSW to run global working conditions surveys, and alongside thousands of social workers across the UK has co-created the Working Conditions and Wellbeing Toolkit, which can be found on BASW's website. At WWCSC, Jermaine oversees the commissioning of independently evaluated research aimed at supporting and improving outcomes for children and young people with a social worker, and the social work workforce.
Kelechi Ukandu
Kelechi has worked for 15 years in the NHS and brings a wealth of experience in her field, including in Nursing Health Visiting, Safeguarding advising, CAMHS and local Safeguarding boards. She joins AOCPP as an independent Safeguarding Consultant and currently provides expert training and consultation on the topic of: Child exploitation, serious youth violence, extra and Intra-familiar harm, adultification, contextual safeguarding, intersectionality, childhood neglect and think family.
You may recognise Kelechi from a 2021 podcast on child exploitation and one of the speakers at the 2021 University of Kent child exploitation conference.
Sarah Forrest
Sarah is a registered Social Worker and works within Children’s Services, managing a therapeutic service working with adolescents at risk of exploitation and at risk of entering custody or the care system. Sarah has worked in a number of innovation projects and has experience in both the statutory and non statutory arenas; targeted therapeutic services, strategic practice development, academic input and service management. Sarah has a keen interest in practices and policies that facilitate effective child protection and having previously guest lectured on a Social Work CDP course she feels passionately about bridging some of the gaps between research and practice.
Sarah’s interests lie in working restoratively and therapeutically with families, restorative leadership, innovation in social work practice, effective supervision practices and exploitation, contextual safeguarding and extra familial harm.
Meet the team
We are a small home-based team working to support you across the length and breadth of the UK. With expertise that ranges across Child Protection & Safeguarding, Organisation Management, Event Management, Marketing and much more, we are confident that we can find the best way to support you as individual practitioners, academics and organisations. We like to build relationships with our members, so please do get in touch with us directly at hello@aocpp.org.uk
Helen Wilson
Helen is the new Operations Manager who will be leading the office team.
Maureen Gordon
Maureen leads on supporting our conferences and events and is our face at most of these. She is a key part of the office working across all administrative areas.
Tyra Sirandula
I'm responsible for managing our social channels as well as producing content for the association. This includes our podcast which brings together leading experts within child protection and adult safeguarding, video, and also everything you see across social media.
Interests: When I'm not working for the AoCPP, you'll find me on a walk with a podcast on, cooking food with a podcast on, or at the gym with a podcast on - so basically listening to podcasts wherever I go. If not, you can find me out at dinner, learning TikTok dances or making friends with every dog I meet!
Association of Child Protection Professionals 17 Priory Street, York, YO1 6ET
