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Meet the Leadership Team

St. Francis' Children's Society is a registered charity (Charity No.211670) which is managed by a Chief Executive Officer and governed by a Council of Trustees. The Trustees are responsible for the overall governance and strategic direction of the charity, developing the organisation's aims, objectives and goals in accordance with the governing document, legal and regulatory guidelines.

We are pleased to introduce you to our current Leadership Team.

Post-adoption BME mother walking with son in park

Angela Dakin - Chief Executive Officer

Angela joined the SFCS team in July 2021.  She has extensive experience in strategic planning, performance, transformation, and management of stakeholder relationships at times of organisational change. She has a distinguished record across local government, health and the charity sector, including previously working as the Business Manager for Barnardos.

Angela is deeply committed to the care, support and safeguarding of children and young people, and to empowering individuals and communities to change their stories and life outcomes through a commitment to diversity and inclusion. She also has extensive expertise in project management, governance, financial and grant funding through her ongoing work as the National Impact Committee Member with BBC Children in Need, having formerly served on their Grant Committee.

Angela is the current Vice Chair of Trustees for St Christopher’s Fellowship (a national children's charity) and serves on the Member nominations committee and safeguarding committee. She is the Trustee representative on the Foster Panel as well as providing strategic input to supporting service provision for children with complex needs.  She will now support SFCS through the next stage of its journey to build for long term sustainability for the benefit of service users, especially children who wait the longest to be placed.

Little sister kissing big sister on cheek

Safia Boot - Chair of Trustees

Safia has a MSc in Personnel Management from Portsmouth University and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), holder of an Advanced Certificate in employment law.

She is a serving Employment Tribunal Panel Member, Independent Investigator/Mediator and a Founder of Respect at Work Ltd with various portfolio roles, including Chair of CIPD - Milton Keyes Group (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and Ambassador for MKIAC (Milton Keynes Islamic, Arts & Culture).

She has 30 year+ background as a HR Executive in the public (NHS) and private sector (IT). She is an adoptive parent of two (now grown up) children and a previously approved foster carer.

Little sister kissing big sister on cheek

Dawn Jarvis - Trustee

Dawn is a former NHS Nursing Director and a registered adult and children’s nurse with Board level experience over a 30-year period. Her contribution has covered change management, service development, operational and strategic transformation projects. She has also led on workforce capacity building, staff, and patient engagement.

Dawn will bring extensive experience in working in a regulatory environment to implement effective practices to support CQC and Ofsted inspections and safeguarding requirements. She has further supported the NHS Race Equality agenda.

Dawn left the NHS end of 2020 to set up her Healthcare and Diversity Consultancy service to support strategic change and remove barriers for staff and service users.

Post-adoption BME mother walking with son in park

Adrian McNulty - Trustee

Adrian has over 30 years’ experience in the social care and criminal justice sector. A qualified probation officer and social worker, Adrian has operated as both a practitioner and manager in a variety of settings.

Adrian is the Director of Operations for the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child protection charity dedicated to the prevention of child sexual abuse.

He has worked in youth justice, case management and accredited programmes as well as being the senior lead on substance misuse and evidence informed practice. He has a history of leading projects and operations that drive community outcomes.
Adrian has a lot of experience of developing effective collaborations and partnerships across both local authority and criminal justice sectors.

Adrian is from Birmingham and is married with two grown up sons.

Mackenzie Chapman

Mackenzie Chapman - Trustee

Mackenzie has fifteen years' management experience across the private and charity sectors. For the most recent nine years working in charities, Mackenzie has led organisations through change and upscaling, with a particular focus on Finance, HR and Marketing.

Mackenzie holds a postgraduate diploma in Charity Accounting and Financial Management and is in the final year of a part time MSc at Bayes Business School.

In his free time, he enjoys chess, a variety of sports and cooking.

Karen Gravesande-Hill - Trustee

Karen is a social worker with 27 years child protection and family assessment experience. Karen has extensive experience working with vulnerable children and their families, assessing past and current risk indicators. Karen is a strategic practitioner, holding a role as a Registered Manager for over 15 years in a residential family assessment centre.

Karen has facilitated groups for women at risk of domestic abuse, she is an IDVA with an interest in hearing her clients’ narratives, and supporting families regardless of cultural differences and societal expectations.

Karen left her former role as a registered manager in 2019 to start her own parenting assessment centre that would put an emphasis on the impact of children’s experiences - in turn securing positive outcomes for families that would ensure that the child/children’s needs are paramount.

St. Francis' Children's Society is first and foremost committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers working with children to share this commitment. We apply recruitment and selection procedures which seek to ensure that no employee, trustee or volunteer is appointed who may pose a risk to children or is otherwise unsuitable to work with them.