Ann Buchanan
Ann Buchanan is currently Senior Research Associate and Professor of Social Work at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford. She was formerly Director of the Centre for Research into Parenting and Children and for more than nineteen years undertook research on children’s well-being, fathering, children involved in divorce and grandparenting. In recent years she has been involved in advising Government family policy forums. She is currently on the Council of the ESRC and was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to social science.
Stephen Burke
Stephen Burke, Co-Chair, became a trustee of Grandparents Plus in 2003. He is co-Director of United for All Ages, an intergenerational social enterprise. He is also the former Chief Executive of Counsel and Care, a charity giving advice and information to older people, their relatives and carers across the UK. Previously he was Director of the Daycare Trust which campaigns for quality affordable childcare for all. He has over 20 years’ experience in public relations, fundraising, journalism and management in national organisations. His work has been recognised in several major public relation awards. As a local councillor, non-executive director of a health trust and trustee of several charities, he has been involved in a wide range of community initiatives seeking to address disadvantage.
Janet Brown OBE
Janet Brown is a police officer with a background in alcohol related crime, and the night time economy. Janet is a single parent kinship carer to three children twin 9 year olds and a 7 month old baby, and the carer for her learning disabled daughter . Janet’s involvement with Grandparents Plus started when she needed help and guidance for herself. Janet hopes that she can use her experiences to help others get the support they need, to provide a caring home to the children they are parenting, and keep sane .
Dean Casswell
Dean Casswell became a trustee of Grandparents Plus in 2007 and is currently our treasurer. Dean is the former director of Finance and Fundraising of Contact a Family. He is now Chief Executive of Bag Books, a UK-wide charity providing tactile and multi-sensory stories to people with learning disabilities. He has an MBA and an MSc in Charity Accounting and Financial Management. He became a step-grandparent at the age of 34.
Brian Edwards
Brian Edwards is a former Director of Education in Gateshead and Northumberland and is a past Chair of The Association of Chief Education Officers. He is now retired, having had a long career teaching in disadvantaged inner-city secondary schools in the West Midlands, then moving into education management in local government.
He was a Regional Children’s Services Advisor for the DfE, being very much involved in the introduction and development of Children’s Services nationally and in the North East and is currently a Governor of secondary school in challenging circumstances .He is an Associate Member of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and Director of Educare Consultancy Services Limited.
He is a very active Grandparent , with direct experience of providing child care, and is committed to improving the life chances of children through collaboration and team work.
Gladys Edwards
Gladys has an extensive background in Voluntary Sector Management and Medical Social Work. She recently retired, after ten years in post, as Chief Executive of The Psoriasis Association – a national charity supporting people living with psoriasis and their families. Prior to this she was Director of Milton Keynes Council of Voluntary Organisations supporting the development of local groups.
She was a hospital social worker in London and Milton Keynes working largely in paediatrics and maternity. She was also Area Director of Family Welfare Association in Milton Keynes managing different funded projects as well as supervising social work students and a team of volunteers.
Gladys has experience as a Trustee having served as a Director of the Skin Care Campaign and been a member of committees both national and local. She is currently a Trustee of Milton Keynes City Counselling Centre.
On a personal level Gladys is an involved grandmother to five grandchildren.
Patrick Grattan MBE
Patrick Grattan set up the Equality and Diversity Forum in 2002. He also founded The Age and Employment Network (TAEN) in 1997 and was Chief Executive for 10 years to 2007. Patrick built up TAEN as a leading centre of expertise and policy body and as a network of organisations committed to better opportunities to learn, work and earn. He was appointed MBE in 2001 for this work. He was a member of advisory boards and groups for Government departments, the Learning and Skills Council, Jobcentre Plus and a number of voluntary organisations. He continues to work in a supporting role for TAEN.
Patrick has had a varied career in the Diplomatic Service and Civil Service and in the oil industry, working in the UK, the USA and France. He ran the operations of the Prince’s Youth Business Trust. He was a member of the Parole Board from 1997- 2003 and a former board member of Notting Hill Housing Trust. He is an active performing musician.
Helen Jackson CBE
Helen Jackson was born near Leeds in 1939. She has lived in Sheffield for 35 years. Leaving Oxford in 1960 with a History degree she cared for her family of three and trained as a teacher, working mainly with special needs children. Elected to Sheffield City Council in 1980, she chaired the Economic Development and Works committees. She became MP for Sheffield Hillsborough in 1992. In 1997 she was appointed PPS to Mo Mowlam with a brief to liaise with women’s and community groups during the intense period of the Good Friday Agreement. Since leaving Parliament in 2005, she worked with the Equal Opportunities Commission to form the Women and Pension Network. She was appointed as a Commissioner for the Women’s National Commission in September 2008, and was a Trustee and Vice Chair of the Fawcett Society until recently. She teaches adults about Politics and Public Life, is a Trustee of Age Concern Sheffield, President of Homestart (Sheffield) and Chair of her local village green. She now plays an active role in the lives of her eight grandchildren aged 1 to 20.
She was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours 2010 for her work in the South Yorkshire community, and the Women and Pension Network.
Stephen Mold
Stephen Mold is a Sales and Marketing professional; he leads the sales operations for leading US technology firm Roxio in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Stephen is a holder of the Institute of Directors Diploma in Company Direction which deals with Board best practice. Stephen has extensive international experience in Europe and the US, having managed European operations for a number of successful hi-tech Silicon Valley businesses. He brings strong commercial expertise and is comfortable working with new technologies and managing change.
Over the 3 years preceding the 2010 General Election Stephen was the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate in Derby North and narrowly lost by some 600 votes.
Stephen is married with two young boys and has a special interest in parenting and the wider support of families in whatever form.
Jean Stogdon OBE
Jean Stogdon, Co-Chair and co-founder, was for many years a social worker, social services manager and guardian ad litem. She has long been interested in the role of grandparents and until 1999 was Chair of the Grandparents Federation. A Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship enabled her to study the role of grandparents within kinship care in the USA and convinced her that in many situations grandparents and other kin should be the first and preferred choice for the care and protection of children when parents are unable to fulfil this role. Jean was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2013 for services to children and families.
Pat Strachan
Pat has a great interest in later life developed over 27 years working and volunteering time with older people. She is an Older Person’s Services Manager for Peabody Housing Association.
Pat started at East Cambridgeshire District Council (as their first dedicated ‘Elderly Person Adviser’), later returning as the Head of their Strategic Housing Service. She managed leasehold and sheltered housing in 5 counties at Hanover Housing Association, and was Chief Executive at Age Concern Peterborough for 11 years. Pat joined Care and Repair England in April 2009 to promote the involvement of older people in housing in order to improve housing conditions, housing related services and plans across the South of England (South East, London and Eastern regions).
She is not a grandparent but has two sons who have benefitted from close relationships with their grandparents.
Julie Wilkes
Julie has held leadership roles in social work regulation at CCETSW and the General Social Care Council, and has worked as a senior manager in charities including Barnardo’s and Skills Third Sector. She has a master’s degree in social work and is trained in systemic practice and appreciative inquiry. She became a kinship carer for two young children in 2006, and lives with her family in Leeds.
