
	Backstop Trainers Standards of service Criminal Justice consultancy Events Your Training Contacts Training Q&As


	Training topics Core Practice Intro to effective evidence based practice in youth justice Key Legislation for Youth Justice Practitioners Diversity in Practice Management target setting within the criminal justice context effective supervision skills for Criminal Justice managers Working with Multi-Agency Public Partnership Arrangements (MAPPA) Building a more effective team Work with Clients in the Community and in Custody working with young men who sexually abuse Motivational interviewing Child protection awareness in criminal justice Substance and Alcohol misuse Aspergers Syndrome and Autism in criminal justice Mental Health assessment and practice Anger management with young people Victims and Restorative Justice Volunteer recruitment and management Victim awareness restorative justice processes Work in the Courts Diversity and Equality Diversity

Backstop trainers

Pete Thomason
Kathy Weigh
Chiatulah Ameke
Jon Fayle
Claudine Rane
Catherine Fuller
Sarah Hendrickx
Phil Smith
Steve Green
Mark Creitzman
Fiona Millar
Judy Dimmocks

Pete Thomason is a Consultant Therapist and trainer specialising in work with adolescent males who sexually abuse. He has 13 years experience in the field including Head of Therapy at SWAAY (an organisation working exclusively with adolescent males who sexually abuse) and Principal Therapist at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. He is currently Consultant Therapist at a therapeutic community working with adolescent males who sexually abuse. Pete's first book on the subject was published in November 2000. He also consults to Harrow YOT, helping them to develop team resources for working with young people who present challenging behaviours. Drawing on his broad experience of Social Work practice in a variety of settings, Pete has run training events in Europe, Scandinavia and throughout Britain.

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Kathy Weigh has been a freelance consultant specialising in youth justice issues since June 2005. Her specialty areas include risk management, assessment, business processes and strategic leadership, supervision skills, community justice, strategic HR and Learning
Previous employed by the youth justice Board Kathy held the position of HR and Learning Adviser for the North West region for several years before venturing into her own consultancy business.
Kathy has over 10 years probation experience including Prison and Court, Practice teacher experience and years of management experience in staff development, training and HR within the criminal justice and youth justice sectors. Kathy has also several criminal justice publications.

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Chiatulah Ameke is rated by many sources as one of the best Diversity and Race Equality trainers in the UK. For most of the 1990s he was a Groupwork Probation Officer at the Camberwell Probation Centre in the former Inner London Probation Service (ILPS), specialising in BME Offender and Cognitive Behavioural groups. Chiatulah ran over 500 BME offender group sessions and wrote the most influential handbook in this field. His unique level of experience and empowering training style has led to an ever increasing demand for his skills as a trainer and consultant from criminal justice agencies nationwide. He has delivered training packages to over 2000 staff in Youth Offending and Probation teams to date and we are already taking bookings for him for 2008 - many of these repeat bookings as well as new potential clients who each receive a free initial consultation.

Diversity Training; background to Chiatulah's personal approach

Click on the PDF below to download a brief overview from Chiatulah on 'Politics and Practice' in Diversity

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Jon Fayle is a freelance consultant with a wealth of youth justice experience to bring to any organisation. A youth justice board placement director for seven years, then head of policy on youth custody Jon is well placed to work alongside a client in both the youth justice and criminal justice sectors on strategic initiatives such as custody reduction, restorative justice and interim management. An esteemed consultant, Jon has a significant number of publications on youth justice issues to his name.

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Claudine Rane is a freelance trainer and consultant working in the voluntary and statutory sector having several years of experience in training design, development and delivery, as well as ongoing development and evaluation of training. She recently completed a CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) Certificate in Training Practice, which complements her experience in a range of settings, including youth offending, criminal justice, with a particular specialism in restorative justice and working with victims of crime. Claudine has also worked extensively in the area of child protection and safeguarding. She has he a good cross section of knowledge regarding issues facing both statutory and voluntary sector organisations, and an excellent understanding of the issues of the sectors working together.

Catherine Fuller is an independent learning and development consultant with 20 years experience with the probation service as training manager, probation officer, group work, practice teacher and hostel worker. She has designed and delivered a variety of motivational interactive learning activities, including the National Probation Services’ motivational skills Training the Trainers programme and the national systematic motivational work training for the approved premises pathfinders.

In the last year Catherine has assisted the European Union Twinning projects to establish probation services in Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania by devising and delivering training programmes for their new staff and is about to publish a manual for staff working in the helping professions.

“Catherine is highly regarded by me and by my project managers…her flexibility and capacity to respond to the diversity of our projects make her a trainer of preference for us”.
Kevin Barry, International Project Manager, National Offender Management Service, July 2007

Sarah Hendrickx has extensive knowledge of Asperger Syndrome from both professional and personal experience. She is currently the Training Manager for the Aspire project – an adult AS mentoring and training scheme based in Brighton and Hove, a freelance training consultant and qualified FE teacher. An experienced writer, editor and published co-author of Asperger Syndrome: A Love Story (Jessica Kingsley, 2007) and forthcoming books on the link between Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Alcoholism/Substance Misuse and Sex and Asperger Syndrome. Sarah is keen to promote a positive view of AS as ‘difference’ rather than ‘disability’. She is currently studying towards a Master's degree in autism.

“Without exception the 26 people who attended felt the day had met the course objectives… I have seldom had such positive evaluations from participants as I did for this day. To quote from a few of the evaluation forms:- “ Speaker was brilliant, lovely personality”, “The whole experience was enlightening and engaging.” These comments are representative of most of the evaluation forms”.
Morwenna Cork, Training Officer, Victim Support Sussex, July 2007

Phil Smith is a consultant and trainer with over 30 years Criminal Justice experience as a practitioner, manager and trainer within the Probation Service and the voluntary sector, with particular expertise in public protection.
He has chaired a Multi-Agency Public Protection Strategic Management Board and held the positions of senior management lead in a probation service and head of the National MAPPA team at the Home Office. Phil has also undertaken a number of national public protection projects, including writing a national MAPPA communication strategy, producing a film depicting how the authorities manage high risk of harm offenders in the community. He is currently leading on a substantial review of the National MAPPA Guidance (due for publication summer 2007). Phil has run workshops and spoken at regional and national conferences on public protection issues.

Aside from public protection Phil’s training experience includes social and cognitive skills training for offenders, programme delivery training, team building, What Works/effective practice, communication skills and building partnerships between the voluntary and public sectors.

Phil holds a CQSW, an MBA and is an accredited external European Excellence Model assessor.

“Phil has a good understanding of learning theories and principles and consistently demonstrates these in his well prepared and constructed training plans .He possesses emotional intelligence, can always be depended upon and has a thoroughly professional approach to all that he does…He makes good use of stories, metaphors and concrete examples to enhance learning"

Marilyn Henry, Programme Manager, National Probation service, July 2007

Steve Green is a freelance trainer and qualified social worker with extensive experience in youth justice and social work spanning over eighteen years. He currently teaches the YJB accredited ‘Principles of Effective Practice’ (PCEP) program for the Open University so offers a highly specialist knowledge of the current evidence base and legislation underpinning effective practice and its application to the work of youth justice practitioners today

Mark Creitzman has been working successfully as a restorative justice conference facilitator for several years and has delivered training to trainers mediation and restorative justice. He has carried out over 250 conferences and mediations within the Youth Justice System. Mark has delivered training throughout England to Youth Offending Teams and to Manchester University on behalf of Mediation UK

Fiona Millar is the Managing Director of a Training and Consultancy Business which has been successfully delivering training packages to social workers, probation officers, lawyers, police, homelessness workers and youth workers since 2001. Fiona was headhunted by the UK Director of Probation to pilot a drug treatment plan in 2003, and her plan is now used by all UK probation drug treatment services. Fiona’s experience spans the range of hands-on practitioner to manager and consultant and her areas of expertise in substance misuse, homelessness, mental health, Roma Gypsies and stress management make her training holistic, comprehensive and bespoke.

Judy Dimmocks has over fifteen years of experience as a trainer and practitioner spanning across YOTS, youth services, social services and community work.