ECP are made up of a team of highly skilled and experienced people.

 

Our Trustees

Sal Thirlway

Sal has served as a Trustee since 2018 and is the Chair of the Trustee Board.

He has over 20 years experience working in local government Children’s Services, and has held Head of Service and Assistant Director roles in a number of authorities.

Sal’s experience is in securing improvement and developing early intervention and prevention approaches.  Sal has experience of the voluntary sector through his role with Barnardo’s and is now the Director of his own management consultancy.

Bob Thompson

Bob was previously Head of Early Years for Bedfordshire County Council, a primary school adviser, inspector and headteacher.

Bob has a keen interest in supporting young children and their parents. He is actively involved as a trustee of one other charity, local to Bedford. He also has a long-term commitment as a volunteer to athletics at a local level.

 

Deborah James

Deborah represents the Peter Pan Training Partnership on the ECP board of trustees. The Peter Pan Training Partnership is one of the organisations that make up ECP.

Deborah is a National Leader in Education and is currently Headteacher of Crosshall Infant School Academy Trust in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. She has been a Headteacher since 1995.

Jennie Bayliss

Jennie has been an award-winning entrepreneur since 2013 and now owns 3 companies, including a project management company that has delivered over £30m of social value.

Jennie holds several voluntary roles. As well as being a Trustee for the ECP and Chair of FACES Bedford, she founded Bedford’s Baby Bank in January 2023. She is also a School Governor, a Business Mentor, a School Mentor and a Board Advisor to several small businesses.

Our Leadership Team

Linzi Schier (Head of Family Services)

Linzi is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership aspects of One YMCA/ECP’s commissioned contracts and delivery for Family Support Services and Children’s Centres, ensuring that services meet specified national and local requirements and any relevant government agenda and frameworks.  Linzi has almost 30 years’ experience of working within services that provide support for children and families.

Julie Smith (Early years education and school/setting liaison lead)

Julie is the Executive Head Teacher of Bedford Nursery Schools Federation and a Specialist Leader of Education.  Julie will play a crucial part in ensuring early years practice and education is of high quality, leading to positive outcomes in children’s learning, development and readiness for school across Bedford Borough.

FACES (Family and Children’s Early-help Services)

FACES is a well-established local independent charity offering practical and emotional support to families under stress.

FACES supports local children and families faced with difficult issues such as mental and physical health, domestic abuse, poverty, child sexual exploitation and behavioural issues via a range of quality-tested services and family support groups, many led by the team of dedicated volunteers.

Our Children’s Centre Team

Helen Letting (Children’s Centre manager)

Helen is responsible for the day-to-day management of Children’s Centre services and delivery teams at our Centres. Helen is a highly experienced leader of Children’s Centres, having worked in Bedford for a number of years.

Katy Sexton (Universal Services Lead)

Katy’s primary focus is to support our Children’s Centre Managers and delivery teams.  Katy ensures our work with parents, carers, families and children reflect ECP’s vision for the Children’s Centres and support the engagement of parents in the development and learning of their children.

Genna Smith (Family Support Lead)

Genna manages the family support team to deliver quality one-to-one and group support within Bedford reflecting our core ECP vision. Genna works closely with Helen to ensure our work meets the need of service users and to develop key partnerships with various agencies in order to do so.

Martina Lynch (Senior Family Support Worker)

Martina supports Genna in the delivery of family support services. Martina is our Domestic Abuse lead and has worked for the Children’s Centres for a number of years.

Rebecca Ballaam – Senior Children Centre Practitioner

Rebecca supports Katy in the delivery of the universal services. Rebecca is our perinatal champion and has a vast experience is supporting parents with breastfeeding.

Family Support Practitioners

Work with families on a one to one and group basis.  They provide help and support to parents and carers who need a bit of extra help when it comes to parenting and raising Children under five years of age.

Children’s Centre Practitioners

They will be the most familiar faces to families accessing our services.  They deliver all the day to day activities you see in the timetable and are highly skilled Early Years Practitioners.

The Data and Monitoring Officer

Our information lead who works closely with the Borough monitoring our contract obligations.

Administrators

They play a crucial role in the day to day running of our Children’s Centres.  They are a friendly face when families arrive at the centre and support the rest of the team with managing bookings for activities.

 

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