Past Event

Steve Peters, BA, PGCE, MBBS, MEd, MRCPsych, PhD, DSc, Dip Sports Med

Consultant Psychiatrist, Bestselling Author & CEO Chimp Management Ltd

Professor Steve Peters is a medical doctor; he specialises in mental health and the functioning of the human mind. He has dedicated his working life to help people get the best out of themselves and to be in a good place.

Steve's work past and present in the field of psychiatry and education includes Clinical Director of Mental Health Services within the NHS at a district hospital, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist at Rampton, Senior Clinical Lecturer of Medicine and Undergraduate Dean at Sheffield University, and visiting Professor at Derby University. He has spent 20 years as an examination panel member at the Royal College of Psychiatry and has been an expert advisor to the World Anti-doping Agency.
He has been a consultant to over 20 Olympic and national sporting teams including Liverpool FC, British Cycling, GB Taekwondo, England Rugby, and England Football. Outside of elite sport, Prof Peters works with CEOs, senior executives, teachers, students, hospital staff and patients. Steven Gerrard, Sir Chris Hoy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Victoria Pendleton, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Lee Westwood, Jonathan Trott and Raheem Sterling are people that have all spoken publicly about how Prof Peters' has helped them during their career.

Professor Peters is also a best-selling author, and his latest book ‘A Path through the Jungle’ was published in 2021. Steve has also authored 3 other books including the bestselling self-help book of all time in the UK, The Chimp Paradox, which has sold over a million copies - as per Nielsen TCM Chart 2020. Other achievements include attending Downing Street for winning the senate award twice for his excellence in teaching.

For fun, Steve competes in track and field athletics and has held multiple World Masters Champion titles and world records over the 100, 200 and 400 metres.

Leora Cruddas

Chief Executive, Confederation of School Trusts (CST)

Leora Cruddas CBE is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts – the national organisation and sector body for academy trusts in England.  She is a teacher and has spent many years working at director level in local government. She is Visiting Professor at UCL Institute of Education. Leora was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours, 2022.

Julie Liddell

Managing Director, Still Human

Julie has over 25 years experience of teaching Psychology, along with an enthusiasm for sharing simple, effective ways to improve wellbeing.
Having worked in the post 16 sector both as a teacher and a Senior Manager, Julie has a genuine understanding of the current challenges facing education.

Julie founded Still Human as she believes that when staff health and wellbeing is nurtured, it positively impacts both the individual and the whole school community. Still Human is part of the educational support services organisation, The Edwin Group and delivers workshops on a wide range of topics including Stress Management, Mindfulness, the Menopause and Rest, as well as delivering Wellbeing Champion training.

Elizabeth Fortin PhD

Associate, Education and Information Law, Stone King

Working for the Education Team and Information Law Team at Stone King, Elizabeth advises mainstream and special schools on their legal obligations relating to their day-to-day operations. She specialises in the Equality Act and SEN, and also UK-GDPR/data protection. She also advises on a range of other operational issues, including exclusions and safeguarding. She brings a wide range of professional experience in a variety of academic, policy and legal environments to this role. She qualified as a Solicitor for an international law firm in 2001, has subsequently achieved an MA, an MSc and a PhD. Before going back into practise as a solicitor, she worked at a number of universities including Sussex, Manchester and Bristol, where, in addition to academic research and teaching, she spearheaded engagement activities with policy-makers and parliament, NGOs and charities.

Tom Rees

Executive Director for School Leadership at Ambition Institute

Tom Rees is the Executive Director for School Leadership at Ambition Institute, a national education charity providing professional development for thousands of teachers, school leaders and system leaders each year serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Previously, Tom was a headteacher and Executive Headteacher over a period of ten years and the Education Director of a medium size Multi-Academy Trust before joining Ambition Institute in 2019.

Tom served on the Regional School Commissioner’s headteacher board for the North West London and South-Central region and is a trustee of two Multi Academy Trusts. In 2019, he was appointed by the Department of Education to the Headteachers' Standards review group.

Tom is a founder of Ups ‘n’ Downs, a local charity supporting families affected by Down’s syndrome.

Rob Aitken

Head of School Partnerships

A qualified teacher and academy trustee with a decade of experience supporting schools in the use of innovative technologies and services.

Understands the priorities of schools and how that can place specific challenges on change management or technology implementation.

Passionate about the wellbeing of students and staff and the quality of education: determined to put schools first and help to place them at the centre of their community.

Darren Winterbottom

Head of IT Services, Tel Group

Darren has over 30 years experience in the IT sector spanning a range of different technologies and heads up the IT team at Tel Group.

Ben Cain (Assoc CIPD)

Customer Success Manager, Lead Data Protection and Cyber Security Officer, Fusion Education People Solutions

Ben has  been with FEPS now for 5 years and has worked in the Education Sector for 15 years , as a Full time Trade Union Official and HR Business Partner and Data Protection Officer.  Having exposure to the entire spectrum of employment relations and now over the last 5 years working as a Lead DPO for both the FEPS group of business and over 100 schools around the country, Ben is able to provide a wealth of advice and guidance on all things HR and Data Protection Compliance

Liam Hadfield

Senior Business Development Executive, Fusion Education People Solutions

Liam has been with FEPs for nearly 8 years and like all his colleagues have a passion for education supporting schools & Multi Academy Trusts, driving impactful improvements through HR software and solutions. Liam is a family man with two small children, so he has his hands full during any spare time he has. When he does have time away from his family, he likes socialising and spending time following Manchester United far and wide!

Sue Prickett

Chief Finance & Operations Officer, SENDAT

Sue is Chief Finance and Operations Officer for SENDAT, a MAT of five Special Schools with approximately 600 students and 350 employees. She's been working in education finance for 8 years and has a background in Management Accounting.  Following a career break to raise her three children, she started in the education sector as an administration assistant in a rural primary school with 56 children on roll. She is a network lead for WomenEd England, a grassroots organisation supporting women in education into Leadership.

Karen Smith

CFO, Nexus Multi Academy Trust

Karen has spent the majority of her career as an analyst and finance business partner in the Civil Service; in varied roles that include police funding and performance analysis, and forecasting Higher Education student numbers and costs. She left the Civil Service in 2017 to pursue a career in the education sector, becoming CFO of a 6 school mainstream primary trust in 2021. She has been CFO for Nexus Multi Academy Trust for a year, which includes 14 schools (13 special) located across 4 Local Authorities.

David Fisher

Education Specialist, School Business Services

David is a senior member of School Business Services Ltd and was part of the leadership team that created the company over 15 years ago. He has over 20 years experience supporting schools in their use of MIS systems. Supporting schools. LAs and Trusts in their statutory returns.

David provides training to schools and trusts on how the statutory returns impact funding, in particular Post 16 Census, Pupil Premium, SEN and high needs funding. He is also an experienced timetabler, Assessment guru and has worked with many Special schools, Prus and Alternative Provisions settings. He has also been a school Governor for 6 schools during the last 26 years and is currently Chair of Governors for Field Head Infants School part of Embark trust in Derbyshire.

Claire Walters

School Business Manager, Foxwood Academy, Notts

SBM in an amazing special school where Claire has many roles from budgeting, finance, elements of HR, procurement, H & S and build maintenance and all of the other requests in between. Claire is driven (which is only slightly different from being impatient), resourceful and adaptable.  

Her whole career has been compliance focused having worked in the private sector as a Commercial Manager for many years.  Claire has been working in education since 2013 and she enjoys finding solutions by focusing on pupil outcomes.

Tracy Darby

Financial Controller, SENDAT

Tracy is the management accountant for SENDAT, a MAT of five Special schools. After a career in retail management and having 2 children, she began working in education finance starting as an office Manager at a local primary school back in 2001. Since then, she has worked as Business Manager and CFO in the academy sector in secondary and Special trusts. Between 2019 and late 2022, she was an SRMA with specific focus in Special Schools. Until recently, she was a member of the DfE working group reviewing and updating the Academy Trust Handbook. 

Gareth Hunter

School Business Manager, Ravenscliffe High School and Sports College

Gareth has worked in the maintained sector for 15 years.  Previous roles include IT Manager, Finance Manager and most recently SBM at Ravenscliffe, a maintained generic 11-19 special school with 244 students on roll across two sites

Will Washington

Commercial Director, The Edwin Group

Having previously worked in the special education needs sector, Will started his education recruitment career in 2009 and has over 13 years’ experience. Will was responsible for the strategic direction of Edwin Supply’s SEND teams (Vision for Education, ABC Teachers and Smart Teachers) and now in his current role as Commercial Director for The Edwin Group, Will identifies and secures new company acquisitions and manages their integration into the Group.

Pauline Aitchison

Deputy Director, Schools North East & NNoSS Network Lead

Pauline joined Schools North East in July 2017 as Business Manager and was appointed Deputy Director in 2020. She also leads the National Network of Special Schools for School Business Professionals (NNoSS), a network representing 400 schools in the specialist sector across England.

Prior to joining Schools North East in 2017, Pauline was a School Business Manager and has more than 25 years experience of working in education.  She has a wealth of knowledge with an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by schools and is committed to making a difference to the learning chances of all pupils.

Pauline is also experienced in school governance having served on various governing bodies and is currently a trustee of a special school trust and a committee chair.  She has an MBA in strategic leadership and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management.