Associates
To ensure the highest level of confidentiality, some of our senior associates maintain a low digital footprint and are not listed publicly.
Justine Skeats
Safeguarding Professional
DipSW, BA (She/Her)
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Justine Skeats is an expert safeguarding professional, who is registered with Social Work England. Justine qualified as a Social Worker in 1993 and has 31 years experience working across the gamut of sectors including the statutory, voluntary, humanitarian and governmental. Justine has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Applied Social Studies, a Diploma in Social Work and a Diploma in Leadership and Management (Level 7) registered with the CMI. Justine began her career working in front line social work with children and families.
Justine was the Head of Safeguarding for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) for five years, providing expert oversight to safeguarding decision making across all areas of the Inquiry’s business. Prior to this, she worked for many years in the NSPCC. Justine has expertise working in the humanitarian sector as the Global Head of Safeguarding for an INGO, working in countries in the Global South giving her unique experiences of working with diverse communities. Justine has authored articles published in VOICE magazine about her work in safeguarding and gender based violence in South Sudan.
Justine has provided consultation services for a range of statutory Inquiries and reviews including; UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Future of Church Safeguarding Review, the Lampard Inquiry, the Whyte Review and the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR). Justine also sits on the Board of Trustees for an intimate partner abuse refuge and Child Sexual Exploitation service based in Rotherham and is a member of the Parole Board.
Steve Harris
Senior Counsellor & Trauma Specialist
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Steve Harris is a senior Counsellor specialising in trauma informed care within complex institutional environments. He currently serves as the Lead Counsellor for the Staff Support Service at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, where he designs and delivers psychological support frameworks to mitigate secondary trauma and burnout for staff, providing individual support sessions and reflective practice groups.
Prior to this, Steve spent six years at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), providing specialist emotional support to witnesses, victims and survivors, as well as training and support to staff in trauma informed practice.With an MA in Clinical Counselling and over 13 years of specialised experience in adult trauma recovery, he has delivered bespoke therapeutic interventions for organisations including Mind and Action for Children.
Steve is a registered member of the BACP, adhering strictly to its Ethical Framework, and approaches his work through a collaborative, person-centred lens tailored to diverse individual perspectives.
Stephanie Ford
Counselling Psychologist
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Stephanie Ford is a HCPC registered Psychologist, with over a decade of experience, who has worked extensively across the lifespan with a broad range of mental health difficulties in a variety of professional settings. Specialist areas include child and family psychology, trauma and neurodiversity, alongside a strong focus on trauma-informed systems and service development. She is currently working for the NHS in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) as well as in private practice.
Stephanie has significant experience in child protection, safeguarding, community outreach, and the development of trauma-informed systems. She is particularly passionate about embedding lived experience and Victim Survivor collaboration into organisational and systemic approaches, ensuring that services are responsive, compassionate, and informed by the voices of those directly impacted. This has included working collaboratively with panels and advisory groups with lived experience to support meaningful systems change and improve service delivery. This has shaped her work at the NHS as well as with various inquiries -including the Covid 19 Inquiry, Independent Inquiry into Childhood Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Essex Mental Health Inquiry (EMHI) and Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (IIGG).
She has worked in multidisciplinary settings supporting both adults and children presenting with complex trauma, neurodevelopmental differences, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and family-related challenges. Her neurodiversity specialism includes supporting autistic individuals and those with ADHD across different stages of life, with an emphasis on affirming, strengths-based approaches.
Stephanie is a member of the British Psychological Society, HPCSA and HCPC. Having published research and peer-reviewed others’ research, she is currently pursuing a PhD at University of Essex, further developing her research interests in trauma-informed practice, neurodiversity, systems change, and lived experience collaboration.
Sarah Walker
MA (Social Work), BA (Hons), Social Work England Registered
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Sarah Walker is an experienced safeguarding leader, consultant and registered social worker with over 17 years' experience working across children's social care, safeguarding, quality assurance and system improvement. She qualified as a Social Worker in 2009 and has held senior leadership positions within local authority children's services, national governing bodies and independent consultancy roles.
Sarah's most recent role was as Head of Safeguarding Case Management at The Football Association (The FA) from 2018-2026, where she led a multidisciplinary safeguarding service responsible for the assessment and management of risk relating to children and adults at risk across football in England. During her time at The FA, she played a key role in the development of safeguarding strategy, policy, regulations, quality assurance frameworks and practice standards, while providing strategic leadership across a team comprising social work, policing, probation and legal professionals.
Prior to this, Sarah worked extensively within local authority children's services, holding leadership roles across safeguarding, referral and assessment, fostering and quality improvement. She has significant experience supporting service improvement, inspection readiness and multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, including liaison with Ofsted and Joint Targeted Area Inspections (JTAIs).
Sarah was also the first Independent Social Work Consultant appointed to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), where she developed safeguarding policies and procedures, advised the Inquiry Chair and Panel on safeguarding matters, delivered specialist training, and helped establish safeguarding arrangements across the Inquiry's work.
Alongside her statutory and national safeguarding experience, Sarah has undertaken consultancy assignments supporting organisations with safeguarding reviews, policy development, quality assurance, governance, service improvement and practice standards. She is particularly passionate about creating safeguarding cultures that move beyond compliance and place children, young people and adults at risk at the centre of organisational decision-making.
Sarah brings a collaborative but appropriately challenging approach to her work and is committed to helping organisations strengthen safeguarding practice, governance and accountability while improving outcomes for those they serve.
Dr Kirsten Atherton
DClinPsyc, CPsychol
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Dr Kirsten Atherton completed her training over three universities in the North West of England after completing this Kirsten moved north and has worked in Scotland since qualifying as a Clinical Psychologist over a decade ago. After spending a couple of years developing and consolidating skills in a Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service she moved to work in a Specialist Psychological Trauma Service where she has worked for years as a Principal Clinical Psychologist in NHS. Kirsten is a chartered member of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Association of Clinical Psychologists and the UK Psychological Trauma Society.
Within her clinical role Kirsten delivers evidence based psychological assessment and interventions with people who have had complex traumatic experiences and present with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other trauma difficulties such as dissociative conditions. Whilst an integrative approach is usually required, she is trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Schema Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy for Shame Based Trauma and Narrative Exposure Therapy.
Kirsten is motivated to work clinically with people who have experienced social disadvantages and people from typically underrepresented parts of society including asylum seekers and refugees, people who have experienced institutional abuse and trafficking and modern slavery. Specifically, she has developed a clinical specialism over the last eight years in working with Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children.
Kirsten frequently delivers a variety of trauma specific training and consultation within her NHS role and is research active within the board. Along with clinically related research she has an interest in staff wellbeing, vicarious resilience and compassion in the process and delivery of healthcare. Further, Kirsten has extensive experience providing clinical supervision to both qualified and trainee psychologists and Community Psychiatric Nurses and Wellbeing Workers in Partnership Organisations.
Dr Lorena Tussis
Clinical Psychologist
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Dr Lorena Tussis is a HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist with expertise in trauma-informed practice, psychologically informed organisations, staff wellbeing and organisational consultation.
She works with organisations to translate psychological theory into practical, evidence-informed approaches that support staff, leaders and those accessing services. Her work spans trauma-informed system design, reflective practice, safeguarding, consultation, supervision and the development of psychologically safe cultures.
Alongside her consultancy work, Lorena maintains an active clinical practice, providing specialist psychological assessment and therapy for adults experiencing trauma, anxiety, depression, adjustment to illness and work-related stress. She works integratively, drawing on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and systemic approaches to develop collaborative, formulation-led interventions tailored to individual need.
Lorena currently provides strategic clinical leadership within the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, where she has led the development of trauma-informed approaches to participant and staff wellbeing, emotional support pathways, safeguarding and multidisciplinary consultation. Her previous experience spans NHS physical and mental health services, specialist cancer support, eating disorders and private practice, giving her a broad understanding of the psychological challenges faced by individuals, teams and organisations.
She is particularly interested in helping organisations create environments that are compassionate, psychologically informed and sustainable, recognising that staff wellbeing, effective leadership and high-quality services are closely interconnected.
Lorena brings warmth, curiosity and clinical rigour to her work, helping organisations embed psychologically informed approaches that are both evidence-based and practical to implement.