Keynote Speakers and Workshops

Kelly is an award-winning motivational speaker, school improvement advisor, published author and founder of the ‘Family Matters’ empowerment and engagement programme. Kelly has worked systemically throughout her career as a director of wellbeing, working with local authorities, MATS, Senior leaders and pastoral teams to help create healthy work cultures and environments.

She is an expert trainer and coach for Senior Mental Health Leads and supports some of the most challenging communities with preventative and early help measures in education.

Recognised by the DfE, NCB, The Anna Freud Centre and The Education Support Partnership as a lead influencer of mental health and wellbeing in education.

Haleem's belief is that honesty and openness are the keys to a better world.

Whether speaking on TV or radio, Creating films & podcasts or delivering talks around the country in schools or Corporations - His mission is to talk openly and honestly (about some of the things we struggle with) to create more connection and openness in the world.

WORKSHOP A 

Difficult Conversations & Looking After Yourself

Alex Walker and Ruth Gavenlock

(Young Somerset)

WORKSHOP B 

Firing On All Cylinders When Under Pressure. 

Howie Howard

(Young Somerset)

WORKSHOP C 

Vicarious Trauma

Kate Greenwood

(Safeguarding Learning and Development Lead – Somerset NHS Foundation Trust)

Developed by Tim Cockerill

Delivered by the Educational Psychology Service

Tuning In

Kerry Chappell

(Headteacher Support Service)

Everyday Movement Matters

Jane Knowles

(SASP)

Better Stories, Better Help.

Robert Pye

(Ethos VO)

Compassion Circles

Developed by Rosemary Novak

Delivered by the Colleague Support Service

(Somerset Foundation Trust)

WORKSHOP I

From Fragile to Fortified 

Rose White and Debbie White

(Mindful Educators)

Difficult Conversations and Looking After Yourself

Alex Walker and Ruth Gavenlock

(Young Somerset)

Workshop details coming soon!

Alex Walker is a Youth and Community worker with experience in supporting young people from a wider range of backgrounds and demographics. Using a strength focused outcomes model Alex has supported young people and staff to make their own informed decisions for change. Alex is also involved in community projects, supporting skateboarder led groups to achieve having new facilities in their area. 

Ruth Gavenlock is currently a Service Manager in the Young Somerset Mental Health and Wellbeing Team.  Ruth has, many years of experience in working with families and young people in the VCSE sector and for the Local Authority.  Ruth is a qualified Youth Worker and CWP (Children's Wellbeing Practitioner) and has a degree in Politics and a Masters degree in Political Theory from Exeter University.  

WORKSHOP B

Firing On All Cylinders When Under Pressure

Howie Howard

(Young Somerset)

How do we keep going when the challenges of working are piling up? Grit and determination will only get you so far and sometimes the only place it will get you is to burnout. Cited as the main driver of workplace related illness it’s vital that we recognise it and manage it effectively before it’s too late. Understanding our ‘Threat System’ is key to managing this workplace phenomenon and recognising why our own work ethic might just be our greatest enemy will help us plan and stay productive, happy and healthy in our working (and non-working) lives. 

Following a 24-year career in the military as a Medic and, whilst many of his colleagues were seeking a less chaotic lifestyle, Howie made the somewhat curious decision to head to university to retrain to become a Primary School Teacher. Upon recognising the struggle that many of his pupils had with their mental health, alongside traits such as confidence, resilience and general happiness, he successfully navigated into the world of Children’s Mental Health, gaining a Post Grad in Low Intensity Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. He completed a further Post Grad in 2021 to qualify as a Clinical Supervisor of Psychological Therapies and moved to Young Somerset in 2023.

WORKSHOP C

Vicarious Trauma

Kate Greenwood

(Safeguarding Learning and Development Lead – Somerset NHS Foundation Trust)

• To consider and define vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, resilience, and vicarious resilience.
• To discuss how working within a Trauma Informed care approach impacts on the professional/practitioner.
• To discuss the impact of vicarious trauma on organization/service resilience.
• To identify strategies that could strengthen both personal and professional resilience.

Having spent 15 years as a Youth Worker planning and delivering Youth Work programmes within Schools and colleges, and providing one to one support for young people, as a member of the then Local Service Team, Kate moved into Adult Education as a Tutor/Assessor on the Youth Work and Leadership and Management Qualifications and Credit framework apprenticeship programmes.

This led into Kate specialising in Safeguarding Learning and Development and she joined the Somerset safeguarding Children Board (now Partnership) as the Multi-Agency Training Manager taking on the responsibility of ensuring all Safeguarding training commissioned by the SSCP met the requirements of a multi-agency workshop.

For the past three years Kate has been employed by the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust as the Safeguarding Learning and Development Lead, having the responsibility for all the Safeguarding Learning opportunities across the newly merged trust.

WORKSHOP D 

Relational Policy and Practice in Schools – Emerging evidence and Implementation

Developed by Tim Cockerill

Delivered by the Educational Psychology Service

Emerging evidence nationally is highlighting how embedding relational approaches can have a range of benefits, including enhancing staff and pupil wellbeing. This workshop will focus on what is meant by relational policy and practice in education settings, explore what this looks like in practice and provide guidance on overcoming barriers to implementation. Learning will be shared from Somerset’s relational policy pathfinder project and the implementation support offer will be outlined. 

WORKSHOP E 

Tuning In

Kerry Chappell

(Somerset Headteacher Support Service)

Kerry’s workshop will empower you to reflect on how you really are, understand and develop higher interoceptive awareness and tuning in techniques, use visualisation as a tool and take away some quick wins for relaxation.

As headteacher support Kerry provides professional and personal effectiveness support for leaders in Somerset. Kerry’s purpose is to enable school leaders to maintain clarity of vision, making a positive difference to future generations.

Kerry brings a wealth of experience, skills and training in Education, Leadership, Holistic therapies and Coaching through a wide spectrum of support which includes:

• 1-1 support for Headteachers
• Executive Coaching for school leaders
• Leadership Development training
• Pre and post Ofsted self-management
• Stress management including Relaxation techniques
• Staff Wellbeing workshops
• Resilience training
• Reflection residentials

WORKSHOP F

Everyday Movement Matters

Jane Knowles

(SASP)

The workshop will explore both the reasons why we should move more and move regularly but importantly examine the reasons why we don’t. How do we create the conditions for change and environments that encourage this in our workplaces? This will be an interactive workshop looking at how we embed movement into our everyday – every little counts.

Jane has worked in the sport and physical activity sector for over 25 years and over the last 15 has been very focused on the role movement plays in individual and community health and wellbeing through improved physical and mental health.

WORKSHOP G 

Better Stories, Better Results

Robert Pye

(Ethos VO)

Many people employed by organisations working with young people in Somerset are maxed out for time. This has implications on the ability of those people to do the best they can for young people in need, it has implications for staff, the network, resilience and capacity.
 
Ethos has drawn on its experience of building new socially valuable and sustainable interventions over the last two decades to produce a people-centric approach called "Value Exchange" to address these issues. Value Exchange highlights the stories that matter most to individuals as a source for inspiration to their own resilience and those they support. Ethos will bring to the workshop stories of not only how staff in the Somerset ecosystem are finding that "it's difficult being me because..." but also how some individuals across our organisations are building their own resilience strategies and helping to "push up" to leaders in their networks solutions which will enable staff to be more resilient, aligned, trusting and sustainable.
 
The workshop will be led by Robert Pye who is co-founder of EthosVO.org.

To gain a better example of how this story telling approach comes to life watch this 30 minute webcast and read about the Value Exchange approach and look through some of the stories of young people transformation and of social value leaders in their blogs to uncover some inspiration.

WORKSHOP H 

Compassion Circles

Developed by Rosemary Novak

Delivered by the Colleague Support Service

(Somerset Foundation Trust)

Rosemary Novak is the Principal Psychologist and Operational Lead for the Colleague Support Service in SFT, which offers support to all health and social care workers and volunteers in Somerset. 

Session info:

Compassion Circles (experiential session)

Why is compassion at work important?

Research tells us that a compassionate culture at work has a positive effect on:

• Patient care
• Improving team dynamics
• Increasing work satisfaction
• Reducing burnout, stress

We can embed and support compassion at work by introducing interventions which facilitate this approach. Compassion Circles is one such intervention.

What are Compassion Circles?

Compassion Circles are facilitated reflective conversations which aim to:

• Offer a safe, reflective space for dialogue to groups of health and social care workers
• Break down hierarchies and, at times, unhelpful boundaries between people
• Build up personal and organisational resilience and wellbeing
• Reduce burnout, stress and increase ‘thriving at work’.

Come along and try the benefits! 

WORKSHOP I

From Fragile to Fortified

Rose White and Debbie White

(Mindful Educators)

Do you ever wonder why some schools are able to retain their best staff? Maintain low staff absenteeism? And always seem to be ahead of the game with creativity and delivery. Answer - You are most likely already aware that your staff are your most precious resource, therefore, investing in their wellbeing, is also investing in the sustainable success of your school.

We know that it is important to be able to identify and spot early signs of mental health issues in your workplace; we are great advocates for this. However, is waiting for mental health issues to occur with the resulting impact on your staff and school the best approach? If you agree that your most valuable resource is your staff, then it makes sense to have preventative measures in place that can save your setting money and resources whilst supporting and retaining your best staff. The benefits of preventative measures to enable staff to thrive is equally as important as the statutory requirements of your wellbeing programmes.

This workshop will demonstrate how simple tools and exercises can build resilience and self-compassion. It will also explore how and why self-awareness and self-compassion is at the forefront of enhancing staff performance and building thriving team cultures.