Child Welfare in a Digital Age: evolving technologies,
emerging risks and developing responses
Speaker Biographies
Tam Baillie
Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People (pre-recorded
Welcome Address)
Tam Baillie has worked as a manager and practitioner with children and young people
for over 30 years. Tam has worked primarily with young offenders, young people in
and leaving care, and young homeless people. He has worked in Scotland and
England and in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. Tam latterly moved into
policy and influencing to help address the strategic and structural changes necessary
to affect lasting improvements for children and young people.
In May 2009, Tam took up the post of Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and
Young People. As the Commissioner, Tam’s remit is to promote and safeguard the
rights of children and young people in Scotland which are set out in the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Sue Palmer
Independent writer and consultant on literacy and child development;
Author of 'Toxic Childhood' and '21st Century Boys'
Sue Palmer, a former primary headteacher in Scotland, has been an independent
educational consultant for over 25 years. During that time she has written over two
hundred books, software packages and TV programmes about primary literacy, and
worked as a consultant for the Department for Education, the National Literacy Trust,
the Basic Skills Agency, many educational publishers and the BBC.
She is a popular speaker in the UK and beyond, both on literacy and, more recently,
‘child development in the modern world’. Her first book on this subject, Toxic
Childhood, was published in 2006, since when she has been involved in many national
campaigns around education, outdoor play, screen-based entertainment and the
commercialisation of childhood. She has twice been cited in the Evening Standard as
among the 1000 most influential people in London (which she finds particularly
thrilling, since she lives in Edinburgh) and is currently a member of the Scottish
Government’s Early Years Task Force and co-chair of the Task Force’s committee on
Culture Change.
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Beth Smith
Director, WithScotland and Conference Chair
Beth Smith has been the Director of WithScotland (formerly the Multi Agency
Resource Service) since 2009. WithScotland is the national hub for child protection,
hosted by the University of Stirling.
Beth initially trained as a primary teacher and worked in a number of local
government services before deciding on a career in social work. She qualified as a
social worker in 1987 and has worked as a frontline practitioner and manager and has
also held a number of senior management and leadership positions with a focus on
multi-agency partnership working.
Previously, she worked in the former Strathclyde region, Glasgow City Council and
Dumfries and Galloway Council, where she was Head of Service for Children and
Families and Criminal Justice Social Work and also held the role of Chief Social Work
Officer.
WithScotland supports child protection practice, policy and research. We connect
research with practice, exchange knowledge and ideas and coordinate activities
across Child Protection Committees and are also developing links between child
protection and adult protection in Scotland. At the heart of WithScotland is the
principle of improving outcomes for children in need of care and protection and adults
at risk of harm by working in partnership and facilitating access to expertise across
Scotland.
WithScotland’s research briefings are available to download at www.withscotland.org.
Contact us at withscotland@stir.ac.uk to see how we can help you.
Professor Andy Phippen
Professor of Social Responsibility in IT, University of Plymouth
Andy Phippen is a professor of social responsibility in information technology at the
Plymouth Business School, University of Plymouth. He has worked with the IT sector
for over 15 years in a consultative capacity on issues of ethical and social
responsibility, with companies such as British Telecom, Google and Facebook. He has
presented written and oral evidence to parliamentary enquiries related to the public
use of ICT and is widely published in the area. In recent years he has specialised in
the use of ICTs by children and young people, carrying out a large amount of grass
roots research on issues such as their attitudes toward privacy and data protection,
file sharing and internet safety. He is a research partner with the UK Safer Internet
Centre and is a frequent media commentator on children and the Internet.
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Alison Preston
Head of Media Literacy Research, Ofcom
Alison Preston is head of media literacy research at Ofcom, the independent regulator
and competition authority for the UK communications industries.
She leads Ofcom’s media literacy research, which provide a wealth of data on the
media habits and opinions of children aged 5–15 and their parents, and adults aged
16+, interviewing over 6,000 people annually. Its media use and attitudes reports
show trends since 2005 in the areas of take-up and use of different media, with a
particular focus on internet habits and attitudes.
She joined Ofcom in 2003, and previously worked as a research consultant in digital
media policy and independent TV production business models. She has a doctorate
from the University of Stirling which examined the development of the UK’s TV news
industry, and has carried out a number of multi-country analyses of TV news
coverage of conflicts.
Brian Donnelly
Director, respectme
Brian has spent the vast majority of his working life working with challenging and
excluded children in Scotland.
He began working in a residential school where he spent 2 years before working in a
number of Glasgow City Council’s residential children’s units. Brian did this for 11
years progressing to manager in a number of residential units.
He moved to the voluntary sector with where he spent over 3 years and was
instrumental in the design and development of an alternative to secure care
residential and fostering service.
Brian took up the post of Director of respectme the Scottish Government funded antibullying service in January 2007. respectme builds the confidence and competence of
all adults who play a role in the lives of children and young people through training,
policy guidance and campaigns.
Brian has a strategic role to influence policy and practice nationally on anti-bullying.
He has co-authored a paper published in the International Journal of Youth Studies
called: Bullying and Agency: Definition, Intervention and ethics. This presents a new
take on how we define bullying and where responses must focus to be effective. He
has also conducted research into young people’s experiences of cyberbullying and
their online behavior.
Brian is also the Chair of Young Scot in Mind Management Group - a voluntary sector
forum promoting children and young people’s mental health.
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Heather Smith
Principal Officer - Child Care & Protection Training and Development, City of
Edinburgh Council
Heather graduated with a degree in Information Management from Queen Margaret
University College with a special interest in new media and emerging technologies.
After working for some time within the voluntary sector with adults with mental
health difficulties and disabilities she moved into public sector Early Years Workforce
Development. For the past 10 years Heather has been working for the City of
Edinburgh Council with a focus on Child care and Protection Training and
Development.
Combining 20 years of information communications technology (ICT) with working in
the human services has formed a basis for understanding of both evolving
technologies and human behaviour within Digital Safety as a public protection issue.
Heather’s special interest lies in the development of practitioner confidence; working
with children and young people to keep themselves safe online and confidence in
knowing when it’s gone wrong and how to help. Heather heads –up a workforce
development team in children’s service in social work practice learning and child care
and protection. Promoting development Heather is also in the last year of her MSc
Leadership and Management in Social Services.
Jenny Kemp
Coordinator, Zero Tolerance
Jenny joined Zero Tolerance in October 2007 in an education role, and from July 2008
to March 2011 she worked to develop and co-ordinate the VAW Prevention Network
and to develop new approaches to preventing violence. Since April 2011 she has held
the post of Coordinator, managing the staff team, overseeing all project work and
leading on the organisation’s policy and media work. Prior to joining Zero Tolerance
Jenny worked for the Equal Opportunities Commission, an education funding agency
and a health charity. She is married with two young children.
Jill Cook
Service Manager for ParentLine Scotland and Kinship Care, CHILDREN 1ST
Jill Cook has worked in the helpline industry for twenty years, supporting children,
young people and parents over a number of helplines and voluntary organisations.
Currently Jill is the service manager for ParentLine Scotland, which is one of the
national services provided by Children 1ST and the National Kinship Care Service.
Derek Howie
Social Media Manager, fatBuzz
Derek Howie is the Social Media Manager at leading digital marketing agency,
fatBuzz, where he works directly with a wide range of high-profile clients across the
UK on content creation, social media engagement and social media marketing.
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He also provides regular PR, copywriting and editing services to a number of
businesses across various industry sectors.
Derek graduated from The University of the West of Scotland in 2012 with a 1st class
honours degree in journalism, and his work has appeared in publications including
The Scottish Sun, STV and tilllate magazine.
He is extremely passionate about social media and has written widely about its
benefits and implications for children, as well as researching it as part of his
dissertation study into journalists' use of social media as a news gathering tool when
reporting on teenage deaths.
Derek has also been rewarded for his academic endeavours with many personal
accolades, including the 2011 and 2012 UWS Court Medal for Journalism and the
2009 and 2010 Glasgow Metropolitan College HND Journalism prize.
Jamie Tosh
Founder, Kibooku
A builder and architect with no prior knowledge of the internet, Jamie took an interest
in internet safety after his own daughter was bullied online…
“There was nothing as far as I could see on the market for kids to play and interact
with others on an age appropriate site. So I came up with Kibooku and after 11
months in development we launched. Naively I thought that with a small bit of
advertising the site would take off but this is harder work than I ever imagined! We
are currently trying to raise awareness of the site and the fact there is now a safe age
appropriate site out there for 6-13 year olds – giving parents piece of mind and
something to divert their kids to, rather than giving into peer pressure and allowing
them to become an underage user of Facebook.
We get support everywhere we go but still struggle to get it out to the masses on
such a tight budget. Kibooku was the subject of a very successful debate in the
Scottish Parliament and we were credited for our site and what we are trying to do.
We continue to raise awareness of safe social networking and will keep trying to do so
until the site is a major success and our kids are in a safe environment on the
internet”.
Kirsten Urquhart
Information Services Manager, Young Scot
Kirsten is Information Services Manager at Young Scot, the national youth information
charity for Scotland. Kirsten looks after the digital information/content team and
specialises in content strategies, social media engagement/monitoring and digital
performance management.
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Victoria Jack
Helpline Supervisor, ParentLine Scotland
Victoria Jack has worked with children, young people and families in a range of
statutory and voluntary agencies including eight years working with children at risk
of, or being abused through, sexual exploitation. She is currently a Helpline
Supervisor at ParentLine Scotland. Child Welfare in a Digital Age: evolving
technologies, emerging risks and developing responses
Anne Jarvis
Helpline Supervisor, ParentLine Scotland
Anne initially trained as a nurse and worked in oncology for 10 years where she
supported patients and their families through the trauma of the diagnoses, treatment
and the terminal care.
Anne then took a 15 year break to bring up her two children. She joined Children 1st
in 2008 as a volunteer call taker for ParentLine Scotland. Two years later she became
a sessional supervisor and following this her hours have been increased to cover a
maternity leave.
Eamonn Keane
Detective Inspector, e-crime Unit, Police Scotland
Rebecca Hammond
St Augustine's High School
Eilidh Mackay
Leith Academy, Edinburgh
Ellen Worthington
Leith Academy, Edinburgh
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