Stephanie Gee (MSc, DipSw) has over 8 years' experience as a Regulation 44 and Standard 3 independent visitor. Stephanie has a wealth of experience within social care settings for children and young people. As a Senior Practitioner Social Worker for almost 20 years, Stephanie has significant experience within both safeguarding and children with disabilities teams.

Stephanie had been "Head of Residential Services" for a large OFSTED "Outstanding" provider, working and communicating closely with a range of children with special needs.

Stephanie is registered with Social Work England and has been appropriately vetted through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Marisa Kelsall (BA Hons, PGCE) has a proven track record of experience in the childcare sector, spanning 30 years. Marisa has been working as a consultant with us since 2016.

She has expertise, particularly in working with children with special needs and mental health problems; having a special interest in autism. Her accomplishments include setting up and managing a variety of Residential Special Schools. She has also been responsible for a number of Children's Homes and has experience in independent monitoring visits.

She is a skilled at forming relationships with children and has strong communication skills.

Marisa has also been appropriately vetted through the Disclosure and Barring Service. 

Sarah Hancock (BSc Hons) has been providing visits for us since 2018. She is an experienced health professional, who has worked in both the community and in residential care as a specialist nurse for children with learning disabilities and also as a health visitor. 

She has experience of working with looked after children, when working in residential settings, or as the looked after child lead whilst working in the community. She has particular expertise in relation to the health and wellbeing of looked after children and has worked as a behavioural specialist. 

Sarah has been vetted appropriately through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Mandy Thomas (BA Hons) has been providing Regulation 44 visits for Children First Consultancy since January 2022. Mandy has worked for Staffordshire County Council Children’s Services for 28 years in a variety of roles including as a lead for social workers in schools, edge of care services and restorative practice. She has experience as a Service Manager for the Intensive Prevention Service.

She also has experience in Family Assessment and Support as both a Senior Social Worker and as a Team Coordinator.

She also worked as a Senior Personal Adviser for Staffordshire County Council for 9 years.

For 6 years Mandy worked as a Residential Care worker gaining proficiency in a role which involved the day-to-day care of young people.

Mandy is registered with Social Work England and has been appropriately vetted through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Stuart Banks (BA Hons) has been a regulation 44 Visitor with Children First Consultancy since 2021. Stuart has over 20 years of experience in the residential childcare sector, with over 10 of these as a Registered Manager.

Before working as a Registered Manager, Stuart gained experience and responsibilities from working as a Therapeutic Support Worker, through to becoming a Senior in the field with deputising responsibilities. This led to gaining skills and experience ranging from providing care and support, to training, supervising and developing care staff. With so much experience as a registered manager, Stuart has been able to mentor new managers and has overseen homes while their manager posts have been vacant.  

He applies his extensive knowledge of regulatory requirements and his vast experience in the childcare sector to his regulation 44 visits.

Stuart has been vetted appropriately through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Michelle Hanney (BA Hons) has over 22 years of experience in the private and public sectors. Michelle has been working as an independent regulation 44 visitor since July 2019 and has a wealth of experience visiting homes that specialise in SEMH, Learning difficulties and disabilities, complex trauma and more.

Michelle gained experience working as a senior residential care worker and then followed on to become a deputy manager and peripatetic children’s home manager within the same group. Therefore, she has great experience with the day to day running of children’s homes.

Michelle has also worked within the NHS as an Administration and Systems Manager. She has worked both privately and on behalf of a county council as a senior support worker for young people.

Michelle has been vetted appropriately through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Gillian Miele has over 21 years of experience within the care sector. She has held senior management positions for the past 18 years with roles including being the Group Head of Social Care and Compliance plus RI for a large children’s home group.

During this time, Gillian was responsible for the day-to-day leadership and strategy development for 9 provisions. She was also part of the Quality and Compliance committee during this time as well as being responsible for the strategic growth of 4 new homes in the group. Gillian has great knowledge of safeguarding with 16 years of experience as the Designated Safeguarding Lead. Prior to this Gillian gained experience as a RCW and worked her way to Home Manager at a different group whilst carrying out reg 33 inspections and monitoring reg 34 reports.

Gillian has been vetted appropriately through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Jon Clugston (DipSw, PG Cert) has had extensive experience in the social care sector for the past 32 years. He has worked in both the public and private sector in children and adult services - mainly working with young people who have disabilities.

He has been a Registered Manager, Nominated Individual and a senior manager in a number of organisations and has also spent time as a Social Care Inspector for the Care Quality Commission.

For the last two years, Jon has focussed on providing consultancy services to social care services, through training and quality assurance support, concentrating mainly on CQC registered services. Jon has been provided quality audits to Adult Social Care provides, for children first consultancy, since 2021.

Jon has also been appropriately vetted through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Jane Rumble (MSc) has a wide range of experience as both a nurse in the NHS and in managerial roles for inspection and compliance.

As a Ward Sister, Jane both provided and managed nursing care and treatment at learning disability hospitals. She then used this experience to manage a residential care home for people with learning disabilities for 4 years before moving towards inspection and registration.

Jane has worked as an inspector for 27 years in roles including Principal Inspector and Compliance manager at Birmingham City Council Inspection Unit and the Commission for Social Care Inspection, respectively.

For 14 years, Jane has worked as an Inspection Manager for the Care Quality Commission.

Jane has been providing quality audits for adult social care provisions, for children first consultancy since 2023.