Who we are

Our Chair and Board of Trustees

Anthony Douglas, CBE - Chair

Anthony Douglas was Vice Chair of BAAF for three years before succeeding Sir Edward Cazalet as Chair in 2003. He brings to the role a considerable personal and professional experience. As an adoptee, he understands the issues for children and families in family placements.

Anthony Douglas has been Chief Executive of Cafcass, the specialist national agency representing children and families in family courts throughout England, since 2004. Cafcass supports over 100,000 children in public and private law cases every year.  Prior to this he was Director of Social Services in the London Borough of Havering, where he was also Director of Housing, Leisure, Libraries and Neighbourhood Services, and in Suffolk, where he was Director of Social Care and Health Services.  He was an economist and then a journalist prior to becoming a social worker. He has written three books on UK social care and is now writing a fourth on social care partnerships.  He has been a school governor and a government adviser on specific programmes. He is a Visiting Fellow of the University of East Anglia and Chair of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). Anthony was awarded a CBE in 2008, for services to family justice and adoption.

Anthony is married with two grown-up daughters, and lives in Suffolk and London.

Maswood Ahmed (nominated by BMEPAC)
Maswood has extensive experience of managing in local government and the third sector. He qualified as a social worker from University of Liverpool, 1992. He has an MBA (Master of Business Administration) from Westminster Business School and currently completing an MSc in Advanced Social Work. Maswood has experience of managing award winning complex multi-agency and multi-disciplinary projects. He has over twenty years experience of working for local government and voluntary sector organisations e.g. Barnardos, NSPCC and Action for Children (formerly NCH). He has a keen interest in broadcasting and journalism and was director of Mass Film Productions Limited producing documentaries on socio-political issues for many years. He has served as a School governor in state and several independent schools. He has been the chair of social services Asian Workers Group for many years. Maswood is committed to promoting the welfare of children in care and is currently working as a team leader in children’s services. Maswood is renowned as an independent social work consultant acting as an expert witness in complex care proceedings. Maswood has particular expertise in working with children and families from Bangladeshi and other Black and Minority Ethnic communities. Maswood is married and father of 3 boys.

Ron Cooke - Treasurer
Ron's career was spent entirely in local government finance, having qualified as an accountant in 1970. He retired from the post of Chief Finance Officer at the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 2002. Ron has been involved with Social Services finance and was Hon. Treasurer of the London Childrens Regional Planning Committee, and the Inner and North London GALRO Panel for many years. He was co-opted to the BAAF Board in October 2003 and has acted as BAAF's Honorary Treasurer.

Andrew Christie (nominated by ADCS England)

Andrew Christie began his career in children’s services as a residential social worker, after completing a degree in social administration at Manchester University. In the early 1980s, he was a social worker for children and young people in East Sussex and Australia. He began his management career at a multi-disciplinary family centre in the London Borough of Lewisham in 1984, before gaining his first senior management post as an area manager in West Surrey in 1989.

In 1998, Andrew joined Hammersmith and Fulham as Assistant Director of Community Services and became Assistant Director of Children’s Services in the Social Services Department in 2000. Andrew was appointed Director of the Children’s Trust in 2004, and then as the Borough Director of Children’s Services  in January 2006.

He leads for the ADCS on issues relating to Children in Care. He is a member of the Boards of BAAF and Research in Practice; and chairs the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Care Steering Group.

Alan Fisher (nominted by Independent Fostering Providers Forum)
Alan is the Director of Care at Supported Fostering Services, a charity providing foster placements and packages of care for looked after children.

He has spent his entire working life in social care with children, young people and their families. His experiences in an inner London community social work team and establishing a family support centre in Kent reflect his interest in partnership, multi-disciplinary practice and collaboration with service users in a statutory or voluntary sector setting.

With over 30 years social work experience, his vitality is sustained by aiming towards the goal of a fostering service that is truly child centred and by the remarkable dedication of his carers. His biggest challenge is to respond effectively on behalf of the children in care whose future lies ahead of them.

He is a birth parent and step-parent. He is the current chair of Fostering Through Social Enterprise, a group of charities and not-for-profit IFPs.

Norman Goodwin (nominated by CVAA – Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies)
Norman is Chief Executive of Adoption Matters Northwest, a voluntary adoption agency, with its main headquarters in Chester, but covering the North West of England.  He has worked there since 1985 having previously worked in social work in Scotland, Wales and England.   He is an executive member and treasurer of CVAA and was until recently a Trustee of NCVCCO. Norman is married with two adult children and enjoys playing cricket and regularly watching Liverpool FC.

Matthew Huggins – Matthew is Chief Executive of Care Matters Partnership responsible for the strategic direction of the company as well as the delivery of high level consultancy to CMP clients. He has a track record of working at a strategic level on as a Councillor, senior manager in private residential care, information and knowledge services and a former Head of Public Relations for the biggest charity providing fostering and adoption services and campaigning for children involved in the criminal justice system. He has a particular expertise in Corporate Parenting, having chaired the NCB Corporate Parenting Toolkit Group, raising educational attainment and attendance of looked after children, through his work supporting and reviewing Virtual Schools for Local Authorities and Leaving Care Services. He is a regular public speaker on issues to do with mental health, participation and looked after children and comments in the trade and national press and media. He is a trustee for BAAF, a board member of Debate Wise and, more recently, as a member of the Best Practice in Schools Working Group for the Care Matters White Paper.

Paul McCormack – Trustee with personal or professional experience of the care system

Jean Minshull –Vice Chair
Jean Minshull spent over twenty years in the NHS, beginning her career as a nurse and midwife, and moving on into nurse education and senior management roles.  Following her Master’s degree in leadership development she left the NHS to spend the remainder of her career as an organisational development specialist working in a range of public and private sector organisations.  Jean has over twenty years experience of working with boards & senior teams in strategic planning & management, and has specialised in all aspects of human resources management including leadership and management development, executive coaching, and change management.  Jean also has previously held a position as a trustee of a charity supporting people living with cancer.
As an adoptee Jean has direct experience of the complexity of issues faced by adopted children and their families as well as the issues related to searching for birth family.

Colin Moodie (nominated by the Scottish Legal Group)

Natasha Rego – Trustee with personal or professional experience of adoption

Tony Rodgers - represents Directors of Social Services, Northern Ireland.

Carolyn Sampeys (HGAC)
Dr Carolyn Sampeys is a Community Paediatrician and Named Doctor for Adoption and Looked After Children for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. She acts as Medical Adviser in Adoption to Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan Local Authorities. Carolyn is Chair of the BAAF Welsh Medical Group and an active member of the BAAF Health Group Advisory Committee. Carolyn lives in South Wales and is married with 3 teenage children – 2 sons and a daughter

Dr Peter Selman (nominated by the Research Group)
Peter is Reader in Social Policy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He has researched and written on many aspects of adoption policy, with a special interest in intercountry adoption and teaches an honours course on Adoption: a worldwide perspective. He is chair of the Network for Intercountry Adoption and the editor of Intercountry Adoption; developments trends and perspectives. He is currently a research consultant for the Intercountry Adoption Centre (renamed from Overseas Adoption Helpline) and the Scottish Executive’s Adoption Law Review and has been invited to act as consultant to the United Nations Population Division in a review of adoption trends worldwide.

Tony Sharp (nominated by UKSWPAC)
Tony qualified as a social worker in 1974, since which time he has worked for Essex County Council in Children and Young Peoples Services. Since 1997 he has held the post of County Adoption Manager. He is currently Co-opted to the UKSWPAC and is Chair of that advisory group.

Robert Swift (ADSW Scotland Trustee)
Robert is employed as a service manager in East Lothian Council, with responsibility for resources for children and families. He has been involved in fostering and adoption as a practitioner and manager for about thirty years. He has been a member and chair of fostering and adoption panels in the statutory and voluntary sector, and is an agency decision maker. He chairs the ADSW sub committee on Fostering and Adoption. He is a birth parent and an adoptive parent.

Carole Sykes (UKSWPAC)

Observers

Eugenia Ngwane (former Vice-Chair)
Peter Baldwin (Legal Group Advisory Committee)
Pat Case - Local Government Association

Chief Executive & Company Secretary

David Holmes

Board Secretary

Karen Wilkins