Our team

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Steve is an internationally recognised speaker and specialist in combatting sexual exploitation and abuse in organisational settings.

Steve sits on various advisory boards, including the FCDO’s Independent Reference Group, and is a Strategic Advisor to both the British Transport Police and INTERPOL’s operation to tackle exploitation and abuse in the aid and development sector. Steve is one of three members of the Independent Safeguarding Board for the Church of England, providing independent scrutiny and oversight.

Steve was previously the Safeguarding Director of Save the Children, responsible for the organisation's safeguarding arrangements, acting as principal advisor to the Trustees.

Prior to Save the Children, Steve was the Head of Safeguarding for The Scout Association, the UK's largest co-educational youth organisation. This role involved the establishment of Scouting’s first specialised central safeguarding team, allowing a significant increase in safeguards for young people and a reduction in organisational risk.

Steve has a first degree in International Politics and a master’s degree in criminology, coupled with extensive professional training and experience in the field of safeguarding and the prevention of child sexual abuse. 

Gary has more than two decades of experience in the third sector.

Gary was previously the Head of Safeguarding Operations at Save the Children, managing safeguarding investigations conducted by a globally deployable team of specialists, and ensuring corporate safeguarding compliance.

Prior to joining Save the Children, Gary was the Director of Safe Scouting at Scouts Canada, leading on safeguarding for the country’s largest co-educational youth organisation.  Previously Gary led safeguarding at the Marine Society & Sea Cadets, where he developed the organisation’s first professional safeguarding service.

Gary has worked in and investigated allegations of abuse in multiple jurisdictions. Gary worked with the National Crime Agency to develop training for law enforcement officers to address the exploitation of children by transnational sex offenders and is a member of INTERPOL’s Specialist Working Group on Crimes Against Children.

Gary is a Magistrate sitting in the adult criminal courts and a member of UK Athletics Safeguarding Panel. 

Hager has been working in international development for 14 years and in safeguarding for seven years.

Hager was the National Focal Point with Save the Children in Egypt for four years, leading the implementation of safer partnerships in Egypt.

Hager's work has included cross-cutting areas of intervention such as child protection, alternative care, youth empowerment, gender and sexual and gender based violence at both technical and management levels.

Hager been certified by Save the Children in child safeguarding, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), child protection, psychosocial support, risk management and investigation. 

Hager holds a diploma in the management of  non-profit organisations from Cairo University and has completed the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Investigation Training Tier 2.

Hager has worked on a variety of assignments in Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan and Pakistan. Hager is a safeguarding investigator and has experience in safeguarding case management. 

Sally holds a master’s degree in advanced child protection from the University of Kent.

Sally was the workforce development lead for Devon Safeguarding Children’s Board, assuring the provision of training to children’s workforce including education, police, health and providing safeguarding training and support to the voluntary and community sector. Sally has wide experience of both face to face and e-learning and was responsible for the procurement, quality, and impact of training across the children’s workforce.

Sally has worked in collaboration with adult safeguarding specialists to deliver training covering both child and adult safeguarding good practice.

Sally is the safeguarding governor for a primary school and is also a trustee for two charities, in the health and wellbeing and education and skills sectors.

Sally has extensive experience in Scouting, including leading the delivery of specialist safeguarding training for senior managers, as well as taking part in reviews of safeguarding cases used to inform policies and practice to enable the continual improvement in its practice.

Hussein is a graduate of the Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine at Cairo University and holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Kent.

Hussein has extensive experience in the international development and aid sector, having worked for a number of highly respected agencies in both Europe and Africa. Hussein has experience managing complex programmes, particularly in the health and protection sectors. This work has included the management of donor compliance, reporting, and project management from inception to effective delivery.

Hussein has led humanitarian projects in both West and East Africa, including intensive work in Togo, where he was in charge of a sexual and reproductive health project, and Tanzania, where he worked on protection projects involving urban refugees in Dar es Salaam.

Hussein is experienced in delivering training in gender mainstreaming, project management, and monitoring and evaluation.

Hussein is a trained Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Investigator and is fluent in English, French and Arabic.

Michael holds a PhD in Child Safeguarding and is a Registered Health Visitor and Adult Nurse. 

Michael has over a decade of clinical, academic and safeguarding experience in the public health, NHS, higher education and voluntary sectors.

In particular, Michael has expansive experience of leading, developing, planning and evaluating research and education in health and social work, especially on emerging and sensitive themes relating to safeguarding practice, to a range of different audiences.

Michael is the Expert Advisor for Safeguarding for the Institute of Health Visiting (UK), a Board Member (Nominated Safeguarding Governor) for Bournemouth and Poole College, and an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology.

In 2022 Michael edited Digital Connection in Health and Social Work: Perspectives from Covid-19 and is a peer reviewer for various academic journals relating to child abuse and neglect

Michael is a Queen’s Nurse and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now, AdvanceHE).

Dani Pruett was a Police Officer for over 18 years, 16 of those spent interviewing victims, suspects, witnesses and perpetrators of serious sexual offences.

In 2014 Dani was one of the first police officers in the UK to train in polygraph testing, following which she tested for Hertfordshire police until her retirement in February 2022.  Dani has been instrumental in implementing polygraph testing as a risk assessment tool for the police.  

Dani joined Behavioural Measures UK (BMUK) after retiring from the police. BMUK has trained and continues to supervise all probation and police polygraph examiners currently working in England and Wales. Her role includes supervising and mentoring all police and probation polygraph examiners nationally, both on-site and remotely. 

Dani also provides training to the police and probation practitioners in order to maintain their accreditation and complete the necessary quality assurance on polygraph reports.

Dani also conducts private polygraph examinations.

Fiona is a registered Social Worker, with 14 years of experience in local authorities Youthwork, Education, and Children’s Services.

Fiona currently is the Deputy Manager of a Local Authority Children’s Home and works running a youth club for children with disabilities.

Fiona was previously a frontline children’s social worker, working in the Children with Disabilities multidisciplinary team, completing assessments, and undertaking child protection and court work. 

Fiona was a local authority foster carer providing short term care, as well as regular respite.

Fiona has a BA Hons in Drama and Education, an MA with JNC in Youth and Community Learning and Development, and a PGDip in Social Work. Fiona has completed the ASYE in children’s Social Work and is currently studying to become a Practice Educator in the field.

Fiona is an experienced trainer, delivering workshops over several years in universities and for professionals, across a range of topics around working with Looked After Children, trauma, and attachment.

With over 30 years’ experience of designing, developing, and delivering training, Tim is an acknowledged specialist in the field of volunteer management, training, and support.

Tim’s work has enabled thousands of people to make a greater impact on their communities and meet their organisation’s mission. Tim has wide experience of training including leadership skills, planning skills, presentation skills, safety and safeguarding. Tim’s work has included leadership of culture change in both commercial and third sector settings, most recently in tackling cultural challenges affecting safety in a large international children’s organisation.

Tim has also had a successful career in computing, latterly as an executive director in an organisation providing very large-scale computing services to research and the tertiary education sectors.

Tim has served as a trustee for several charities in the UK and recently completed a five-year term as the UK Chief Commissioner for The Scout Association, where he was responsible for the leadership of one of the largest youth organisations in the UK.