Kelly Harris is currently Head of Participation for Brook. She is a qualified (BA Hons and MSc) youth worker with 20+ years working with children and young people and is currently Chair of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales’s Adult Advisory Panel.

At Brook, Kelly has spent the last 5 years establishing the education services for young people and professionals in Wales, before recently becoming responsible for how the organisation engages with young people and adults across the UK. In her time at Brook, Kelly has given formal evidence to the Senedd on the new Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Code, and the review into Peer-on-Peer Sexual Harassment in schools.

Prior to working for Brook, Kelly worked at Funky Dragon for 10 years, and then worked at the Senedd for 5 years establishing their Youth Engagement service and being part of the team to create the Welsh Youth Parliament.

I am the Deputy Director for Equity in Education at the Welsh Government. My current responsibilities include safeguarding vulnerable children and young people in education, with a particular focus on supporting mental health and wellbeing and tackling the impacts of poverty on attainment. In this role I work closely with a range of partners across the education sector including local authorities, regional partners and schools.

My career in Welsh Government spans more than 20 years. I have worked in a variety of roles spanning local taxation, sponsorship for major sporting and cultural events, lotteries and gambling, flood and coastal erosion risk management, public service delivery and more recently support for children and families. I have worked on policy, legislation, finance, corporate operations and direct delivery, providing a broad spread of knowledge about the public sector in Wales, inequity within system and service delivery and the levers available to redress balance.

Cecile was born and raised in France, where she graduated from the Institut D’Etudes Politiques de Strasbourg in 2001 with a degree in Public Policy. Following the completion of her Masters Degree in European Public Affairs from the University of CELSA/Paris Sorbonne, she worked for Welsh MEPs and at the Senedd Cymru.

Cecile has been a member of the Policy team at NSPCC Cymru since 2010, moving into the Manager role in 2019. In this role, she currently shapes of all NSPCC Cymru’s policy influencing work in Wales.

• Started teaching in 1998 and has only worked in schools in deprived areas such as Liverpool, Birkenhead, St. Helens and North Wales.
• Neil has a passion for improving the life chances of disadvantaged pupils.
• Started his career as a Biology teacher.
• Is now in his 8^th year as headteacher of Prestatyn High School.
• Neil was appointed after the school was in a category in September 2016.
• Neil took the school out of a category within 12 months.
• The school recently had an excellent Estyn inspection which praised all areas of the school including pupil wellbeing and pastoral support.
• Neil is now a peer inspector for Estyn and is on the executive committee for ASCL.
• Neil also supports other schools through GwE.
• PHS were recently visited by Jeremy Miles due to the outstanding anti-discrimination and community focused schools work the school is engaged in.

Claire has been Deputy Headteacher since September 2019. She has worked at the school since January 2006 when she first started teaching in the Learning Support department.

Prior to working on the senior leadership team, Claire worked as SENCo until 2014 when she became Assistant Headteacher.

Claire has a passion for inclusion, wellbeing and ensuring that learning is accessible to all, regardless of their background or need.

As DSP in Prestatyn High School for the last 10 years, Claire has continued to build on the strong culture of safeguarding which has included ensuring an impactful training provision for staff, establishing trauma informed practices and provision, setting up additional provision and intervention.

In the last couple of years, her work has also included setting up a student led campaign which addresses the schools anti-discrimination and anti-bullying procedures. This has been impactful and continued to support an inclusive and respectful culture within the community.

In developing PHS as a community focussed school over the last two years, Claire’s work has also extended out into the wider community, including with cluster primary schools. It has also involved working to share good practice with other local secondary schools who have been able to set up similar systems in their own school.

Naomi works within the NSPCC Cymru Policy and Public Affairs team as a Policy and Public Affairs Officer. Prior to this role, Naomi worked within the public affairs team at the British Red Cross, at the Senedd Cymru and for a political monitoring agency. At NSPCC Cymru, Naomi supports a range of key priorities for the team, including child poverty, domestic abuse, early years and relationships and sexuality education.

Paula joined Kidscape as CEO in September 2023. Kidscape is a bullying prevention charity offering practical help for children and young people to challenge bullying and protect young lives.

Paula is an experienced strategic leader within the children’s sector across the UK. She has worked in charity and local government organisations, including Early Year Childcare, Education, Family Support and Mental Health services. Paula is passionate about fairness and equality for all, championing children’s rights and working to create a world where all children and young people can thrive.

Paula joined Kidscape as Chief Executive Officer from Children in Wales, the national charity in Wales championing Children’s Rights, and UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child), where she was Director of Business Development and Delivery. Paula joined the organisation in March 2021. Prior to joining Children in Wales, Paula worked for Barnardo’s UK, developing their health strategy, and Merthyr Tydfil CBC, leading on poverty prevention programmes.

Amanda joined West Mercia Police in 1992 and throughout her career has held various posts. She spent the first 11 years of her service gaining an invaluable amount of experience and knowledge across a variety of roles as a police constable.

In 2003 she was promoted to sergeant and, since then, across several ranks, has led teams in delivering critical services to communities. She has held the responsibility for intelligence and proactive functions and has been a Senior Investigating Officer as part of the Force Serious and Organised Crime Unit.

In 2008, seconded to the West Midlands Regional Intelligence Unit, she led the development of the critical processes around identifying and disrupting Organised Crime Groups. In addition, she has led the delivery of policing operations on a local level as a Local Policing Area Commander. She has also held the roles of Head of Public Protection and Head of Operational Support for West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police. She has been a Tactical Firearms Commander and is now a Specialist Strategic Firearms Commander.

Amanda has a Bachelor’s in science with Honours in Crime and Criminology.

Amanda was appointed as Deputy Chief Constable for West Mercia Police in February 2017 having previously been Assistant Chief Constable for Local Policing, since October 2014, for Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police.  She joined Gwent Police in October 2019 as Deputy Chief Constable.

Appointed as Chief Constable for North Wales in October 2022. She is the Chair of British Association of Women in Policing (BAWP)

She has national portfolio responsibilities for:

• Police National Database
• Acquisitive Crime
• VAWG – Wales
• Criminal Justice – Wales

Born in the small mining village of Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Jeffrey Connick was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera before pursuing his academic studies at the Universities of Lampeter and Swansea. Having joined Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr in 1990 as the Head of History, he went on to become an Assistant Head, Deputy Head and since January 2022 Headmaster. The school, which has almost 1,200 students, is a Welsh medium secondary school which serves the western part of the City and County of Swansea. Its motto, ‘Gorau Byw, Cyd Fyw’ stresses the importance of inclusivity and cooperation as a learning community for the benefit of all learners. Under Jeffrey’s leadership, the school’s latest Estyn inspection report recognised this ethos, noting that ‘Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr is a caring and inclusive community that prioritises the well-being of pupils in a familial and close- knit environment.’ In that context, over the last few years, the school has focussed on recognising and challenging sexist, misogynistic and homophobic behaviour through the use of a restorative approach. The school has worked closely with partner agencies, not only to minimise incidents of inappropriate behaviour through education, but also to deal with them robustly when they do arise. By doing so, the school aims to create young people who treat each other with respect and dignity, something which they will hopefully adopt to do for the rest of their lives.

Cath is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, with over 30 years’ experience in various sectors, including Health, Local Government and Education. She joined the Executive Management Team at Coleg Cambria in September 2020 having previously been Vice Principal (People, Organisational Development & Culture) at Hugh Baird College in Liverpool. Cath is accountable for the functions of Human Resources & Professional Learning; Inclusion; Learner Services; Libraries & Academic Skills and Marketing, Admissions & Digital. Cath’s key accountabilities, as a member of the Executive Management Team include safeguarding of all learners across the College and leading on equality, striving to create a College that is inclusive, supportive, equitable, kind, safe and understanding.

Kate Jones has worked as a specialist in Violence Against Women Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence for the past 9 years. Currently she is the Head of Services and Survivor Engagement at Welsh Women’s Aid and a lecturer at Swansea University. Over the past year WWA have been developing specialist modules for Children and Young People that educate and engage them around topics such as online safety, Bystander Interventions and sexual harassment. These topics, and several others, form part of their strategy to embed the Change that Lasts approach to tackling VAWDASV across Wales and have arisen partly as a result of the influential ‘I trust them’ report (2022). Kate is excited to participate in the event today and to share learning across all attendees.

Maxine is an established, senior educational/safeguarding professional, having worked in the Further Education Sector for 36 years . Her whole career has been based at Pembrokeshire College, joining the College pre the incorporation years in 1988. Maxine’s areas of specialism have been the development of learner support services, including UCAS and safeguarding. Her external  roles have extended to include the chairmanship of important sector wide regional and national  groups.  She was  the  Co-Chair of the UCAS Standing Group in Wales, leading on schools and FE interests for over 22 years; she is the former Chair of the Coleg au Cymru Student Services Network, and formerly the Wales Regional Lead for NAMSS. She has served on many sector Advisory Groups to the Welsh Government covering all aspects of learner services/ support  and safeguarding.  She is a member of the Pembrokeshire/Carmarthenshire SEREN executive.

From 2001, Maxine has been the senior lead / manager heading up Safeguarding in Pembrokeshire College as the Designated Senior person (DSP). In delivering this role she works closely with multi agencies; she  is currently Vice Chair of the Pembrokeshire Safeguarding  Local Operational  Groups for both children and adults (LOGs) and is the Chair of the  Pembrokeshire CONTEST  Board. She is also the FE sector representative on the Welsh Government Safeguarding in Education Advisory Group (SEG) and has Co-chaired the SEG since 2016. She is currently leading on the updating of the handling of allegations guidance for education staff.  Maxine has organised and participated in many national safeguarding conferences and delivers frequently papers associated with her specialist areas of expertise ( the most recent being on peer on peer abuse). Maxine works closely with the CYSUR & CYMPAS Regional Safeguarding Board and serves as a member of their Policy and Procedures, & training subgroups. She is also an experienced Independent Reviewer and Panel Chair for MAPFs, Child and Adult Practice Reviews. She has recently been approved by Welsh Government to be registered on the new Single Unified Safeguarding Register.

Her work on peer on peer abuse has included presenting on behalf of the FE sector at the formal  Children, Young People and Education Committee who were conducting a policy inquiry into Peer on peer sexual harassment among learners on the 10^th March 2023, where she  gave evidence to the inquiry. Maxine has also been involved in  Cardiff & Vale College’s FE sector Peer on Peer abuse project, (as a project member), as part of the Mental Health & Wellbeing Collaborative project, funded by Welsh Government. She was also involved in  sharing her own College’s safeguarding practice in relation to peer on peer abuse which was included within  some of the  cameos published in  the Estyn thematic inspection report of 2023.

Kelly Harris is currently Head of Participation for Brook. She is a qualified (BA Hons and MSc) youth worker with 20+ years working with children and young people and is currently Chair of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales’s Adult Advisory Panel.

At Brook, Kelly has spent the last 5 years establishing the education services for young people and professionals in Wales, before recently becoming responsible for how the organisation engages with young people and adults across the UK. In her time at Brook, Kelly has given formal evidence to the Senedd on the new Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Code, and the review into Peer-on-Peer Sexual Harassment in schools.

Prior to working for Brook, Kelly worked at Funky Dragon for 10 years, and then worked at the Senedd for 5 years establishing their Youth Engagement service and being part of the team to create the Welsh Youth Parliament.