Dr Sam Warner is the chair of the national charity, the Association of Child Protection Professionals. She is a consultant clinical psychologist and holds an honorary senior lectureship at Salford University. Sam has over thirty five years’ experience of working with children, young people and adults who have complex mental health and safeguarding needs. Sam has specialised throughout her career in sexual violence; child abuse, neglect and exploitation; and domestic abuse; their impacts on mental health; and in respect of related issues including attachment difficulties and personality disorders, self-harm and suicide, dissociation and psychosis. Sam works as an expert witness and provides system-wide/ whole family interventions with children who are looked after. Sam has also led a variety of specialist sexual abuse/ exploitation services in the third sector, mental health, child protection and residential sector. Sam utilises an attachment-based and trauma-informed approach in therapy and safeguarding. Sam has written books, papers and reports on these issues and advised at national and international levels.

John O’brien cbe has unique experience of leading programmes of work involving vulnerable or traumatised people or safeguarding issues. A civil servant for more than two decades, John was secretary to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) from 2015-2023, with overall responsibility for its administration and governance. Before being seconded to lead the iicsa, John was director of safeguarding at the home office, with responsibility for policy on public order, public risk and safeguarding and public protection. He joined the civil service as director of the criminal records bureau with responsibility for the implementing the recommendations of a the public inquiry into police vetting procedures following the 2002 soham murders. John was awarded an cbe in 2023 for his services to child protection.

Gary Ridgway was a Detective Superintendent with Cambridgeshire Police where he led a number of successful multi agency CSE investigations. He was seconded to South Yorkshire Police where he was part of the multi agency team which responded to the Alexi Jay report  into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham. Following his retirement he was appointed as an Assistant Director with Rotherham Borough Council where he chaired the independent CSE sub group of the Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board and worked closely with the Council, South Yorkshire Police and the National Crime Agency in an advisory capacity.

He has advised a number of local authorities and police forces in England with their enquiries into CSE and has conducted many reviews, most recently high profile CSE reviews involving Oldham, Rochdale and Greater Manchester police.

Hello, my name is Mayameen, but you are welcome to call me ‘Maya’.

I am delighted to join the Maggie Oliver Foundation as a Senior Legal Advocacy Caseworker and live out my passion and mission supporting and advocating for survivors. I have been working within the field of sexual violence for over 10 years as a Trauma Specialist, Educator and Accredited Trainer.

My passion is driven through my lived experience as a CSA Survivor. I gained national media attention and recognition when I waived my lifelong anonymity in September 2018, exposing the serial sexual abuse at the hands of my father, during his release from prison after serving just 6 years of his 10-year sentence.

I have used my survivor voice to successfully pave the way to changes in policies and forcing change within fractured services for better victim protection.

Proudly taking the TEDx stage, numerous speaker engagements, panel involvement and giving my poignant first-hand account of surviving Child Sexual Abuse in my Channel 5 Documentary.

In 2020, I was honoured to be awarded the prestigious British Empire Medal (BEM) for my services to child victims.

Ian has an extensive background in children’s services, including more than a decade leading the development and implementation of children’s social care and child protection policy. Most recently, Ian led on children’s social care policy for the Local Government Association, working closely with councils and their partners to support, promote and improve children’s services. Prior to this, Ian managed the London Safeguarding Children Board, working with senior leaders from across the public sector with a particular focus on building multi-agency partnerships, commissioning and managing research projects, and designing innovative policy responses to complex safeguarding issues.

Ryan is an experienced social worker and the Founder of the Self Caring is Sharing Concept, where he provides tailored mindfulness, self-care, and wellbeing sessions for professionals and young people. He holds a First Class BSc in Social Work and has delivered trainings on various safeguarding topics across the United Kingdom.

As a Senior Practitioner in Child Protection at a Local Authority in the East Midlands, Ryan has extensive experience working with vulnerable children and families, conducting investigations, and implementing safety plans. He has a strong focus on managing cases of sexual abuse, having supported children under Child Protection Plans and initiated necessary legal proceedings.

Ryan’s work has highlighted that many children lack essential safety knowledge, even with existing support. He is passionate about integrating social work interventions into educational settings to prevent harm and abuse proactively.

Phil has over 10 years’ experience working to tackle child sexual exploitation CSE, starting as a multi-agency CSE service manager in a large metropolitan area. During that time he helped oversee a significant trial involving multiple victims and offenders. Phil spent three years as the Operational Lead for the Department of Education-funded CSE Response Unit, providing strategic and operational support to professionals working to address CSE. Phil is now the National CSE Development Coordinator for the CSE Taskforce, a Home Office-funded project supporting police forces across England & Wales. Phil has been recognised nationally for his work with the hospitality industry to prevent child sexual exploitation through partnership approaches.

Abbie Gillgan is currently Online CSA policy manager at Ofcom, leading the policy development work for issues including online grooming, age assurance and CSA reporting. She was previously at the Home Office, leading on the CSA policy for the Online Safety Bill before and during its passage through Parliament. Abbie began her career at the NSPCC, where she worked on campaigns on children’s mental health and project managed the NetAware app. Alongside her policy career, Abbie has been working on her PhD, which she is due to complete this year. Her research has explored the factors facilitating the online child sexual abuse of children in the Philippines by British men.

Will Gardner is the CEO of Childnet International, a children’s charity working with others to help make the internet a great and safe place for children. Will has worked at Childnet since 2000 and has been the CEO since 2009.

He is a Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, in which Childnet is a partner alongside two other charities, the Internet Watch Foundation and the South West Grid for Learning, and in this role Childnet organises Safer Internet Day in the UK every year. He is also an Executive Board member of the UK Council for Internet Safety and founded and chairs the Early Warning Working Group of helplines, hotlines and law enforcement. Will also sits on Meta’s Safety Advisory Board and the Advisory Group for the AntiBullying Alliance.

In his time at Childnet Will has led national and international projects, and has led the development of Childnet’s range of award-winning internet safety programmes and resources aimed at children of all ages, parents and carers, and teachers and schools.

Will was awarded an OBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for his work in the field of children’s online safety.

Evan works for St Giles Trust, a charity that supports ex-offenders and other vulnerable groups. He has developed and works on a range of projects including SOS Gangs, County Lines, Family Support and Through the Gates. He now focuses on developing Gangs/ SYV/ county lines projects across England and Wales.

Evan has worked in homelessness and offender services since the late 80s both in the statutory and voluntary sectors. His roles have included resettlement, shared housing management, floating support, street outreach and housing allocation.

St Giles Trust was among the first agencies to identify and campaign on county lines, raising awareness and are now delivering county lines support services in London and elsewhere.

St Giles trains and employs former service users to deliver its services; providing credible and capable staff who clients want to engage with; this is the Peer Advisor model and runs through all our work.

Dr Sam Warner is the chair of the national charity, the Association of Child Protection Professionals. She is a consultant clinical psychologist and holds an honorary senior lectureship at Salford University. Sam has over thirty five years’ experience of working with children, young people and adults who have complex mental health and safeguarding needs. Sam has specialised throughout her career in sexual violence; child abuse, neglect and exploitation; and domestic abuse; their impacts on mental health; and in respect of related issues including attachment difficulties and personality disorders, self-harm and suicide, dissociation and psychosis. Sam works as an expert witness and provides system-wide/ whole family interventions with children who are looked after. Sam has also led a variety of specialist sexual abuse/ exploitation services in the third sector, mental health, child protection and residential sector. Sam utilises an attachment-based and trauma-informed approach in therapy and safeguarding. Sam has written books, papers and reports on these issues and advised at national and international levels.