Who we are: Senior Management Team
Read about our chief executive and other senior managers.
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David Holmes, Chief Executive and Company Secretary David has senior management experience in children’s services in the voluntary sector, local government and central government and has been Chief Executive of BAAF for the last 5 years. Before moving to local government as a Deputy Director of Children's Services, David directed the child protection, adoption and children’s trusts divisions in the Department of Health and then the looked after children division in the Department for Education and Skills. He has worked on a wide range of child care legislation including the Care Standards Act 2000, and the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and key national initiatives for children including Quality Protects, Choice Protects, Every Child Matters and Care Matters. David was a member of the Government's Working Group on the Future of the Care Population and has also served as an Adviser to the LGA on Children's Services. He is currently a member of the Government's Advisory Group on Adoption and the Department for Education's Children in Care and Adoption Board. David is also a Trustee of Children England and Siblings Together. He began his career as a solicitor in private practice and then worked for several years in NHS management. |
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Director BAAF Central England - Alan Wood Alan trained as a Social Worker and Child Therapist, and has worked with Looked After Children and their Carers for over 20 years. Before joining BAAF Alan worked as a Senior Practitioner and Manager (child protection; children in need; fostering and adoption teams) within Children’s Services Departments in Staffordshire and London; as a Child therapist within the private sector; as Head of Service for the NSPCC in the North West region; as an Agency Decision Maker and Fostering Operational lead in the private sector and as a Fostering Panel Advisor within the Statutory sector. Alan and his partner are also Foster Carers, looking after 2 teenage boys on a long term basis. |
| Director BAAF Northern England - Viv Howorth |
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Director BAAF Southern England - Jeffrey Coleman Jeffrey joined BAAF as Southern England Director in 1999. Before that he had worked for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Qualifying as a social worker in 1977, he built up considerable experience of work with children and families as a practitioner and manager in the north Kensington area. He has always been a strong campaigner for the needs and value of social work as a profession. Jeffrey feels BAAF's Southern team plays a valuable role in making available to agencies training packages (together with consultancy and advice) that integrate research with best practice, and that also maintain a strong emphasis on anti-discriminatory practice and the rights of children. The Southern region serves the BAAF membership in East Anglia, through southern England to the south west, including London on the way. Jeffrey lives in west London with his wife and young daughter. |
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Director, BAAF Scotland - Barbara Hudson Barbara qualified as a social worker in the '70s and her experience includes working as a field social worker and family placement worker in an inner-city area of Leeds. Her management experience includes managing staff in family centres fieldwork teams and residential units as well as family placement services. Since leaving local authority work in Bradford to join BAAF, Barbara has provided training and consultancy to a range of staff and carers across Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a member of the Adoption Policy Review Group and the Inspection team for Adoption Services in Northern Ireland she has made a significant contribution to developing these services. Barbara has also worked with other agencies to develop materials for improving the educational outcomes of looked after children and regularly offers consultancy and training to teams in residential units and to foster carers. |
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Director of Fundraising, Media and Marketing - Diane Gault Diane Gault came to BAAF from the Enterprise Education Trust, a national youth education charity, where she was Director of Business Development and managed a team of Business Development managers working across trusts, foundations, companies and major donors. Prior to this she worked for St Giles Trust for five years as Head of Fundraising and Communications, taking the charity from a local homeless charity to a national organization working with a range of socially excluded people. Diane previously worked for the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability, Prisoners’ Advice Service, Mansfield Settlement and Weatheralls. Diane is also a Trustee of the Prisoners’ Advice Service. |
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Director of Publications - Shaila Shah Shaila is BAAF's Director of Publications with responsibility for commissioning, managing, delivering and marketing BAAF's publications and periodicals programme. She comes from a journalism and publishing background and has worked with BAAF for 13 years, heading a team of 11 editorial, sales and marketing staff. |
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Director of Policy, Research & Development - John Simmonds John is a qualified social worker and until his appointment at BAAF was the Programme Coordinator for social work programmes at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has been involved in consultancy and training to social workers and social work organisations throughout his career. He has published many articles and chapters in books and was the co-editor of 'Direct Work with Children' published by BAAF/Batsford in 1988. He is the adoptive father of two children. |
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Director of Finance & Administration - George Wood George is a Chartered Accountant (CA) with blue-chip private sector experience as well as five years in the not for profit sector (as Finance Director or equivalent). He has a broad experience including IT, project management, consultancy, governance and audit. George joined BAAF in March 2001 and is currently responsible for finance, IT and facilities. |
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Director BAAF Cymru - Wendy Keidan Wendy Keidan qualified as a social worker in January 1988. She spent four years working in the Children and Families division in St Helens, Merseyside before moving to Cheshire to pursue her professional interest in Adoption and Fostering. This interest and passion in working to provide services for vulnerable children unable to live with their birth families, resulted in a move to South Wales where she lead and developed the Fostering and Adoption team in Newport. The work of this team also encompassed remand fostering, supported lodgings and kinship care. In 2002, Wendy joined Pathway Care, an Independent Fostering Agency, as the Regional Manager for SE Wales. Wendy spent eight years at Pathway Care, latterly as the Director of Practice, Wales, where she had strategic responsibility for leading on the quality of service delivery for over 300 children and young people placed with the Agency. |
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Director of Child Placement - Louise Hocking Louise is a qualified social worker who worked in London Local Authorities for twenty years prior to joining BAAF in the role of Director of Child Placement. Louise has worked as a social worker, team manager and service manager in both fostering and adoption services and has previously worked as a project manager setting up a Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care Programme. In BAAF Louise is the Ofsted Registered Manager in England as a Voluntary Adoption Agency and Adoption Support Agency. She is responsible for the Adoption Register for England and Wales and the IRM (Independent Review Mechanism) for England which BAAF runs on behalf of the Department for Education. The role also includes responsibility for the Be My Parent Services and the Adoption Activity Days Project. |
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Director of Business Development, Simon Ginns Simon has 30 years senior management experience in the Private, Learning and Skills and Third (Not for Profit) Sectors, in particular, in the Telecoms, Airline, Further and Higher Education, and, now with BAAF, the Social Care and Children’s sector. He has previously founded and ran his own management and training consultancy and held Directorships whilst at British Telecom, The Learning and Skills Network. As well as being Chair of Trustees of New Life Family Church in Suffolk, he is also Chair of Governors at Combs Middle School and a Parent Governor at Hardwick Middle School, also in Suffolk. |
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Director of BAAF Northern Ireland - Priscilla McLoughlin Priscilla McLoughlin qualified as a social worker in 1986 and has worked in a variety of posts within statutory agencies across NI at both a social worker and manager. Within the legacy trusts to the Northern Health and Social Care Trust she was employed initially as a family placement team leader and later, as Adoption Development Officer. Most recently, Priscilla held the post of Adoption Services Manager within the NHSCT. This role involved responsibility for the development of adoption services and practice throughout the NHSCT, management responsibility for the Trust’s adoption support and inter-country adoption services, professional advisor to the adoption panel, responsibility for compiling the annual adoption panel report, chairing linking meetings in respect of children requiring adoptive and dual-approved carers and providing specialist reports and verbal evidence to courts on complex adoption cases. Priscilla was a member a regional working party responsible for reviewing adoption policies and procedures in 2010. Priscilla is the RQIA registered manager of BAAF (NI) as a voluntary adoption agency and has responsibility for the Adoption Regional Information System (ARIS). |
