West Midlands Staff List

Principal Social Worker

Sandie Paul DipSW

Joined SWIIS Foster Care February 2002

Sandie brought experience of being a Youth Work Leader in Scotland to her role as a Foster Carer for a local authority.  She was a carer for seven years and in that time looked after 24 children with a variety of needs.  Sandie then undertook a social work course and qualified in 1999.  She has worked in Family Placement in both local authority and voluntary sector settings.

Oliver Kirkland BA (Hons), DipSW, M Soc Sc, PQSW, B Phil

Joined SWIIS Foster Care June 2004

Oliver worked with adults with learning difficulties prior to training as a Social Worker.  He gained further experience working with young people in residential and youth offending settings before qualifying in 1997.  After that, Oliver spent two years working in a local authority Children and Families Team.  He then worked in a team supporting young people and their carers in the Looked After System for four years, the last two as Deputy Manager.  Oliver has delivered training on the subject of attachments with Foster Carers and Residential Workers.

Senior Social Workers

Jayne Golder Bsc (Hons) Psychology, CASW/DipSW

Joined SWIIS Foster Care October 2002

Jayne began her career working in a local authority residential unit working mainly with

adolescents. She was seconded to complete her social work training and moved to area

social work services in 1986. She has substantial experience of working mainly with children and families in the child protection area, and long-term work with looked after children.

Kathy Green DipSW

Joined SWIIS Foster Care in November 2004

Prior to training as a Social Worker Kathy was a volunteer with the Citizens Advice Bureau and also worked as a classroom assistant to children with learning disabilities. She undertook a social work course and qualified in 1999. She then spent 5 years working for a Local Authority as part of a long term Child Care Team.

Christopher Mitchell BSc(Hons) Social Work, DipSW, BPhil in Childcare, PQCCA

Joined SWIIS Foster Care January 2005

Chris began his career working with the homeless with alcohol related problems. He gained experience working with young people as a youth worker and through a project supporting young people with learning difficulties.

Chris gained further experience in a secure unit environment. He moved to the area of social services in 2000, working long-term work with looked after children.

Chris has recently completed his post-qualifying award at Birmingham University.

Wayne Hardie  BA (Hons) Social Sciences, DIPSW, DIPHE

Joined SWIIS Foster Care March 2006

Wayne previously worked with children and young people with learning difficulties as part of a Family Support Project. He then gained experience as a Deputy Manager within a Children’s Residential Unit, and has also worked within Local Authority area teams in the field of child protection. More recently Wayne has worked for two independent agencies in family placements prior to joining SWIIS.

Sue John Dip Social Work, Dip Higher Education, BPhil in Philosophy, PQCCA Joined SWIIS Foster Care July 2007

Sue began her career working in residential child care in 1979. She then moved onto working within the disability arena, working in residential care and within an educational establishment for disabled children. On completing her Diploma in Social Work in 1996, she moved into child protection for disabled children. In 2002 she Sue moved into family placement work , formally working within a recruitment and assesment team, then moving onto a family and friends fostering team. Sue has recently ccompleted her post qualifying award and Birmingham University.

Claire Feather BA Social Work                                                                              Joined SWIIS Foster Care November 2007

Claire completed placements within a Local Authority Fostering team and in a voluntary setting with children and their families through her social work training. Claire has also worked as a Supervised Contact Worker. Previous to working at SWIIS Claire has worked and at a homeless day centre and worked in customer care.

Vince Llloyd NVQ Level III Independent Living, D32/D33/A1 Assessors award, D34 Internal Verifiers Award, Dip Management of Care Services, DipSW

Joined SWIIS Foster Care April 2008

Vince worked in a local authority residential unit for 9 years working mainly with adolescents; a 3 year period in the role of NVQ assessor and lead internal verifier training and assessing residential staff and foster carers enabling unqualified workers to gain an NVQ Level III and training and assessing new D32/D33/A1 assessors.  After that Vince worked for a local authority fostering agency for 5 years as a supervising link worker, recruiting, supporting and training foster carers and maintaining effective foster care placements for looked after children. Vince completed a Diploma in the Management of Care Services in 2004 and a Diploma in Social Work in 2006.

Children’s Resource Workers

Sharon Gordon NNEB, Merit Pass in Play Therapy

Joined SWIIS Foster Care October 2002,

Sharon qualified as a Nursery Nurse in 1989 and began working with children in a local

authority education setting. She then worked for six years in a community day

nursery/family centre. Sharon was involved in helping with parenting skills and child

protection work. She then moved into the voluntary sector to co-ordinate after school clubs in the area. Sharon is developing new skills in direct work with children, particularly in life story work, and has recently completed a course in play therapy.

Leah Clark NNEB

Joined SWIIS Foster Care November 2005

Leah qualified as a Nursery Nurse gaining the CACHE Diploma in Nursery Nursing (NNEB) in 1998 and gained experience of working with children aged 0- 5yrs through employment with Barnardos in Wolverhampton as a play worker. She has worked for Wolverhampton Children and Family Services based in a Family Centre. Leah was employed first as a Nursery Officer working directly with pre-school children in a nursery setting and then as a Family Worker/ acting Senior Family Worker. This role involved working directly with children up to the age of 16 years covering areas such as Keepsafe work, planning and carrying out outreach programmes to support parents and also planning and carrying out parenting assessments for court.

Robert Clarkson NVQ 3 Health & Social Care

Joined SWIIS Foster Care September 2007

Robert has brought fours years of foster caring experience from both the private sector and local authorities. Robert has also worked with young people in the private sector before moving to the local authority where he spent two years working in a residential unit with young people aged between 12 and 16 years. He supported the educational needs of Looked After Children since 2001.

Principal Education Case Worker

Kevin Street BA (Hons), PGCE, M.Ed

Joined SWIIS Foster Care January 2004

Kevin began teaching English to 11-18 year olds in 1974.  By the late 1980’s he was a faculty head in a large Nottingham comprehensive school.  He then pursued a different career path in Germany before returning to part time teaching and managing a youth charity.  Kevin has developed educational programmes for gifted and talented children and maintains a keen interest in how learning potential can be maximised. 

Education Case Workers

Manjit Kaur Hayre B.Ed (Hons), M.Ed

Joined SWIIS Foster Care February 2004

After qualifying as a primary teacher in 1997, Manjit taught in Key Stage 1 for over six years. Early year’s literacy, assessment and the psychology of teaching and learning were her main areas of responsibility. Manjit has also worked as a tutor for the Children’s University, delivering out of hours study modules to all primary aged children throughout the city. In 2003 she completed her M.Ed at Birmingham University.

Roselena McAuley BA (Hons) PGCE

Joined SWIIS Foster Care January 2004

Roz began teaching in 1991 and has taught all the primary age groups. She has held various posts of responsibility including literacy co-coordinator, community co-coordinator and acting deputy head. As community co-coordinator, Roz set up before and after school clubs, leisure classes for adults and parent/teacher weekends. She is keen on promoting an “I can” attitude to life and to this end she has also organised clubs promoting activities such as running a school newspaper and literacy and numeracy classes for adults.

Sue Gillespie - Cert.Ed.

Joined SWIIS Foster Care January 2004

Sue began teaching 11 - 18 year-olds in 1978. Although she originally taught French,

her career changed direction two years later with a move to the Midlands and thereafter

she taught predominantly art and technology to the secondary age range. During this time, she held positions of pastoral responsibility and became involved in youth work. In 1997 she began working with children with special educational needs and trained to become a SENCO. Since 2002 she has enjoyed working exclusively with looked after children in both the primary and secondary phases, supporting and promoting their educational needs.

Donna McNaughton BSc (Hons) QTS PGCSpEd

Joined SWIIS Foster Care in 2004

Donna has experience as a class teacher and curriculum co-coordinator in a large primary school in Telford. Whilst there she developed a strong interest in the needs of more vulnerable children, as well as becoming very involved in a wide range of extra curricular activities, including netball, rounders and the organisation of annual residential visits.

Helen Fox BSc (Hons), Connexions Diploma for Personal Advisors

Joined SWIIS Foster Care September 2004

Helen has taught Key Stage 2 and 3 children for over seventeen years.  She has had curricular responsibility for mathematics and physical education, was Key Stage 2

Co-ordinator, member of the Senior Management Team and mentored newly qualified teachers. Since leaving teaching in 1998, Helen has managed a team within an Education Business Partnership and worked for the Connexions running a mentoring programme for ‘at risk’ young people.

Andrew Naylor BA French, PGCE

Joined SWIIS Foster Care April 2007

Andrew spent 16 years teaching Modern Languages and working as Head of Department in a variety of schools, both mainstream and independent. He tought across the age range from  7 years to 18 years up to A level. He has also worked on a sessional basis for the National Children’s Advocacy Service both as an advocate for Young People in care as well as being an independent visitor.

Education Support Worker

Maria Ryan – BSc (Hons) Psychology                                                                           Joined SWIIS Foster Care July 2007

Maria began her career working with vulnerable disengaged young people and Looked After Children in a training academy as a learning mentor. Maria gained further experience when she worked with young people and adults with learning difficulties at a large college. She has also trained as a voluntary befriender at Barnados.

Health Adviser

Mary Burns RGN SN (School Nursing Qualification) ENB998 Counselling Cert.

First Aid

Joined SWIIS Foster Care July 2002

Mary has 30 years nursing experience both in a hospital and community setting.  Hospital experience included being a Sister in charge of a children’s ward.  She worked as a Practice Nurse in a busy GP practice before becoming a School Nurse for twelve years, working with children aged 5-18 years dealing with all aspects of Child Development and Child Protection work.  She moved to a Local Authority Leaving Care Team in 2001 as a Personal Advisor, helping young people move successfully from care to independent living.

Administrative Staff

Alison  Janowicz - Office Administration Manager BTEC, RSAII, NVQ Level 2 & 3 in Business Administration, BAAF Panel Administrator, Diploma in Management Level 5. Joined SWIIS Foster Care March 2000

Alison worked in a local authority for many years, providing admin support to a large staff team, and responsible for a wide range of admin tasks. She has added to her experiences since joining SWIIS Foster Care and has successfully helped to create an efficient and comprehensive administration system. Alison has also completed her Management Diploma level 5.

Lisa Jay – Senior Administrator BSc (Hons) Psychology, Fire Marshall, BAAF Panel Administrator, Health & Safety Advisor. Joined SWIIS Foster Care October 2005

Prior to joining SWIIS Foster Care Lisa gained several years of administration experience working in a number of differing sectors, her roles varied from logistics to purchasing management.  Lisa has trained to be a Fire Marshall within the company and has completed her 'Managing Safely Course' and is now the Health & Safety Advisor for the Birmingham Office.

Lisa Swann – Administration Assistant, Joined SWIIS Foster Care July 2007

Lisa spent two years volunteering as an assistant Cub Leader and gaining administration experience within an NHS Primary Care Trust. Lisa recently completed A Levels in Maths, ICT, Physics and English Literature.

Independent Fostering Panel Chair

Serge Paul - Independent Social Work Consultant

Serge is a Social worker who has worked in almost every sector of social care for over over 40 years and was a Head of Service in Sandwell for a number of years. He is a former UK Chair of the British Association of Social Workers and chaired BASW's International Panel for a longtime. Currently, Serge is an Independent Consultant in Social Work and, as well as Chairing the Midlands Panel for SWIIS, is also the Independent Chair of Black Country Connexions and the Chair of Community Transport, the national charity.