The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services Conference 2023

Ndidi is the CEO of UK Youth; a leading national charity with a growing network of over 8000 youth organisations and national partners who use the educational disciplines of youth work to support the social, personal, and skill development of over 5 million young people. Prior to this role, she worked as a teacher and school leader for ten years, spent six years as the Executive Director of the charity Teach First, and led on Digital and Customer Voice Strategy for Pearson PLC. She sits on the Board of The National Citizen Service, The Southbank Centre and Sky’s Diversity Advisory Council.

Within Government, Dean served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and was the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as Minister for Enterprise and Markets.

Dean is a longstanding campaigner for mental health including introducing a 10 Minute Rule Bill in Parliament for better mental health support in the workplace, he is an Ambassador for the ‘Where’s your head at’ campaign, successfully launched and delivered a campaign to train 1000 people in Mental Health First Aid Awareness and is the co-chairman of the Mental Health APPG. He is also a former member of the Health and Social Care Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Prior to a career in digital and politics, Dean studied a Physics and Business Studies degree at De Montfort University followed by an MPhil in Physics and Material Science mostly at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) in the Daresbury Laboratory.

Along with acting as the Chairman of the Speakers Works of Art Advisory Committee, Dean is also an artist and has had 4 Prime Ministers sign his portraits which have been auctioned for good causes and events. He is also a children’s book author with four published books including ‘Mouse and the Moon Made of Cheese’.

Charlotte is Coalition Manager for the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition. Charlotte leads on the Coalition’s work, including their policy and public affairs. Prior to this, Charlotte worked as Policy Officer for Mental Health and Wellbeing at The Children’s Society, where she was responsible for the charity’s policy work in this area. Charlotte also previously worked for her Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, where she played a role in performance monitoring.

Kadra Abdinasir is Associate Director for Policy at Centre for Mental Health. She leads the Centre’s policy work to drive mental health equality across the life course. She specialises in children and young people and oversees the team behind the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, a network of over 270 organisations, hosted by the Centre. Kadra has over a decade of experience working with young people in youth policy, research, and engagement. She is a Youth Board Member for mental health charity Beyond, a Trustee for FORWARD UK, Race on the Agenda and Mental Health Collective.

Sarah is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Head of the Paediatric Psychosocial Service at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. She studied at both Oxford University and the University of Manchester and has worked within specialist paediatric services in Manchester since 1997. She has led the development and growth of the Paediatric Psychosocial Service at the new Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, a multi-disciplinary Paediatric Liaison Team which includes psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners. Her clinical and research interests include facilitating psychological recovery following paediatric burns, supporting staff working in stressful acute hospital settings and exploring links between psychological well-being and physical recovery. She has been a Schwartz Round facilitator within MFT since 2016.

Caroline Sanders is a Qualified Social Worker who has worked in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Lincolnshire for over 20 years and has a special interest in trauma and attachment. Caroline began her career in CAMHS as a clinician in Core CAMHS, later moving to manage the CAMHS primary mental health team. She became a service manager in 2016, setting up the first CAMHS crisis team and the Healthcare team in the secure children’s home and overseeing the delivery of care and service management of the General Adolescent Unit, Ash Villa from 2016 until its closure in 2020 when Lincolnshire moved to a community model of care. Currently Caroline is managing complex needs service in CAMHS which is part of an integrated care model and vanguard delivering trauma informed care to vulnerable children and young people with complex needs who are accessing youth justice or child in care services.

Originally from the Midlands – I trained at Oxford and Barts medical schools, qualified in 1998 and initially worked as a medic in East London. I have a range of experiences in the voluntary sector including being a youth worker in East London, to working overseas with an NGO in Tajikstan, in a drug rehab centre in Russia, to being involved in health teaching in Ethiopia. We located for a while back in my husband’s homeland but we eventually succumbed to the pull back to East London with my family in 2012 and  returned to work as a GP in Tower Hamlets.

As my own children have become more independent I have been able to take on a number of roles within the ICB, which have given me the platform and opportunity to grapple alongside other partners with the challenges faced by our CYP and families– in particular for those who already face multiple adversities and especially when seeking to access and engage with our traditional health and wider system offers.

This in part has lead to the amazing opportunity to launch and be involved in delivering Health Spot, with a local youth provision Spotlight. It is basically a reconfiguration and integration of pre-existing health offers that seeks to remove silos and avoidable barriers so that YP’s unmet health needs can be identified and supported in an manner that is meaningful to the YP and promotes engagement in the context of relationships of trust mediated by the youth workers. Health spot is born out of and continues to be refined by local young people’s voice. In turn  this has enabled me to pursue change at local and national levels to address the barriers our YP face within traditional health and wider systems

Aside from work my down time is spent enjoying running, cycling, drinking decent coffee and mooching in charity – oh yes and spending time with the fam!!

Genette Laws is the Director of Commissioning with Southwark Council as part of the Children and Adult Services management team.

Before becoming Director of Commissioning in April 2017, Genette worked with two other local authorities for adult social care services.  She also managed procurement departments at Medway Council and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Foundation Trust.

During her career in health and care, she has led commissioning and procurement projects that have been shortlisted in the National GO Awards in 2014 and 2020 and LGC Awards in 2021 for an innovative homecare procurement strategy in Medway, introducing the ethical care charter to homecare contracts in Southwark and the creation of The Nest, an open access service for the mental wellbeing of young people and their families.

Genette earned an MSc in Property Development and a BEng in Civil Engineering with Management, both from University of Manchester.  She started her career with British Rail and after 5 years in the rail industry, worked with the Legal Services Commission for 7 years, before joining local government in 2006.

Barbara is the Service Manager of The Nest, a mental health and wellbeing service for Children and Young People (0-25s) based in the London Borough of Southwark. The Nest offers free and confidential early therapeutic interventions in 1:1 and group setting, family systemic therapy and mental health and wellbeing workshops. Previous to this role, she worked for three years as Family Engagement Manager with the Prison Advice and Care Trust at HMP Pentonville, where she worked closely with the local authority, social services and NHS forensic psychology teams to support individuals in custody to maintain positive family relationships. For the past six years Barbara has worked in community mental health services and forensic family services with young people and families. Barbara also volunteers for the suicide prevention charity, The Listening Place.