Liz Baker is the Barnardo’s Assistant Director for Cardiff and The Vale locality, managing a varied portfolio of services including family wellbeing, school-based counselling, Reflect, and children with disabilities.

Starting her career in acute mental health, Liz completed a psychology degree in 1993 and worked in residential and community settings with adults, children and young people, specialising in mental health and autism. Qualifying as a Social Worker in 2000, Liz was employed in RCT's youth offending service for eight years before moving to Barnardo’s as a manger.

Liz’s portfolio of delivery has included family support, substance misuse, young carers, domestic abuse and the Newport Collaborative Partnership with a strong focus on both early intervention and acute services for families with complex needs.

She is currently working with Professor Gordon Harold on the development of an outcomes assessment tool for children affected by parental conflict/domestic abuse. Liz is the Barnardo’s lead for the Early Action Together Programme, where Public Health Wales and the Police take an ACE informed public health approach to policing and criminal justice.

Emma Reed has worked for Barnardo’s Cymru for over 12 years. During this time, Emma has developed and worked with projects across the South Wales area. This included the development of a project to support children affected by parental imprisonment.

Emma’s work has included direct work with children and delivering training to multi agency partners on raising awareness of the impact on parental imprisonment. Emma has worked with families who have multiple complex needs and supported young people who were at risk of offending and anti-social behaviour. She was also responsible for recruiting and supervising volunteers for this project.

Prior to Julie’s secondment to Barnardo’s in June 2018, Julie worked with the Probation Service for 15 years.  Her most recent role was Diary Manager to the Head of Public Protection.  She also worked with the Wales Counter Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime Lead.  

Previous administrative roles within probation have included Cardiff Crown and Magistrates Court and with the Operational Probation Officers within Westgate Street Cardiff.  

Carly worked with the National Childminding Association where she delivered the Certificate in Childminding Practice, which included sessions on Child Protection & Managing Children’s behaviour. Carly then worked with the Wales Probation Trust where she spent the last 10 years, predominantly as a facilitator in the Interventions Team, with a brief spell of case management. Carly has delivered a variety of accredited programmes including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Practices, to groups of offenders as sentenced by the courts. 

Carly has trained in and delivered a multitude of programmes over the years. These programmes range from General Behaviour Programmes such as the Thinking Skills programme which covers Self Control, Problem Solving and Positive Relationships as well as the Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme for domestic violence Perpetrators.  Carly has developed a strong interest over the last few years in Domestic Violence and worked within her team both as a facilitator and the Women’s Safety/Partner Link worker. 

Leanne has over 10 years' experience in supporting people of all ages. After graduating with a BSc in Criminal Justice Studies with Social Justice and Human Rights, Leanne has spent most of her career supporting drug and alcohol users of all ages. Leanne worked in Her Majesty’s Young Offender Institution (HMPYOI) facilitating and addressing substance-related offending with males aged 18 and over. 

Leanne has worked on a number of similar roles with local agencies ranging from delivering a work programme to adults that had recently been released from prison and help them to re-integrate back into the community, to working as an adviser advocate on a 24 hour helpline to help safeguard young people in Wales. Most recently she worked with Media Academy Cardiff and South Wales Police for the 1825 Triage Project, working with 18-25 year olds using a restorative approach programme. 

Lofa has worked for over 10 years in youth and community services. Lofa has worked in both formal and informal education settings with young people, adults and professionals. Lofa has experience in set up and delivering bespoke youth and family support projects, supporting disadvantaged communities and disaffected youths. Lofa has experience in working with racism, Islamophobia and NEET young people,

Lofa’s previous role was for the Ethnic Youth Support Team as a Manager on the Family Link project. There Lofa became the Training Development Manager and developed training packages which he delivered to young people and third sector organisations.

Stephanie attended Swansea Metropolitan University and achieved a First Class in BA HONS Primary Education and spent several years teaching primary school children. Following this, Stephanie worked with the NSPCC/ChildLine as Volunteer Coordinator and Area Coordinator for the ChildLine Schools Service.  

As area Coordinator for the ChildLine Schools Service Stephanie was responsible for implementing national initiatives at a local level in south Wales, which included delivering safeguarding assemblies and workshops on abuse to primary age children, recruiting and training volunteers. In 2012 Stephanie joined South Wales Police as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO).

In Stephanie’s role as a PCSO she worked with partner agencies to raise awareness of hate crime as the Hate Crime Engagement Officer.  Stephanie delivered presentations/workshops, organised and facilitated PREVENT and Vulnerability Training, organised and chaired minority group forums and worked closely with partner agencies. In October 2017, Stephanie commenced work with the City and County of Swansea in conjunction with the Home Office as Counter Extremism Coordinator. 

Karon studied BA Criminal and Community Justice, BSc Criminology, PGCE – specialising in Criminology, Victimology, Criminal and Restorative Justice. Karon has over 15 years’ experience in working with victims, witnesses and offenders of crimes, specialising in Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) for over a decade.  Whilst studying at university, Karon volunteered for a number of services in the third sector. In 2013, Karon began freelance university lecturing in criminology.  

Karon had been recognised in a number of areas for her work and has subsequently won awards for: Women Leading in Wales – Leadership in the Public Sector (2012), Inspirational Individual Award (2013), Transforming Partnership Working Award (2013), Advancing Awareness in Domestic Abuse Award (2013) and a Prestigious Award form the University of South Wales (2017) for research undertaken in VAWDASV and the changes in Welsh legislation. 

Due to commence post in November

Lisa graduated with a BSc in Psychology and an LLB in Law and has over 10 years’ experience working with vulnerability. Lisa worked with a Youth Justice and Preventions Service with young people involved in the Criminal Justice Service, firstly as part of their preventions team and then delivering programmes based on cognitive behavioural therapy.

Lisa also spent some years facilitating court ordered panel meetings based on restorative justice. In 2011 Lisa worked for Genesis, a project addressing the root cause of unemployment. Lisa has spent the last six years working with high risk domestic and sexual violence with West Wales Domestic Abuse Service as an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor.  

Linda has over 33 years of experience with South Wales Police. She began her police career in the Western Area Control Room, where she progressed from the monitoring console to taking 999 calls. Linda later worked as a Station Enquiry Clerk where she was front-facing dealing with vulnerable families.  

Linda has been a panel member in safeguarding boards across the SWP force area and has had involvement in several serious case reviews and several high-profile cases conducting research from NICHE and SWP legacy databases. Linda’s role for the last 14 years was that of Investigative Policy Research and Development Officer within the Public Protection Department. 

Sarah has led the tier one training provision for Barnardo’s substance misuse service in Conwy and Denbighshire for the last six years, providing training to professionals to increase their understanding of substance misuse. Prior to this Sarah worked within the Leaving Care Team, supporting young people with complex needs including mental health, housing, education and independent living skills.  

Sarah has worked with young people within a school setting who were at risk of being excluded from either school or education. Sarah would teach the young people through alternative education packages in order to support them to succeed in getting a qualification. Sarah has taught within a college campus on a variety of courses such as Health and Social Care and the Foundation Police Degree.

Gemma has 14 years’ cross sector experience working in Social Care, Education and Housing. Prior to becoming an ACE Coordinator, Gemma worked for the Social Landlord Grŵp Cynefin, coordinating the award-winning youth homeless prevention project Going it Alone. Gemma studied Law at the University of Central Lancashire whilst working part time with young people in a residential care setting.

In 2006 Gemma moved to North Wales, to an emergency intervention project using outdoor education as a therapeutic method to support young people exhibiting challenging and health harming behaviours, often as a result of adverse childhood experiences. In 2009, Gemma became the Coordinator for the Going It Alone project, developing specialist knowledge in housing and youth homelessness, in particular, the links between ACEs and homelessness and the need for early partnership-based interventions. Gemma is also a qualified teacher and vocational assessor, and has been learning Welsh for the last four years, recently passing her foundation exam.