The SafeLives Practice team

Director and experienced practitioner working with the public, private and voluntary sector for over 25 years.  Nikki has extensive experience in advocacy, place-based regeneration, social justice, and supporting people in some of the country’s most deprived communities.  Her experience includes Chair of NHS Kernow Performance, Governance and Organisation Committee, and Governing Body Lay member for patient and public participation, alongside leading and developing national and global programmes of work.

Paul has been working in the field for 18 years. She joined SafeLives in 2008 as a Trainer and assessor for Idva and Marac. She was a Marac Quality Assurance Assessor before becoming the Marac Manager for the Marac Development Programme. For the past 5 years Paul has been the lead for SafeLives’ Beacon Sites, piloting and implementing Whole Family Integrated Services. Prior to working for SafeLives, Paul was an Idva based in a hospital (primarily covering A&E and Maternity departments) and has frontline knowledge and experience of supporting domestic abuse victims and working with multi agency partners.

Dan has worked in the social care sector for 20+ years. He is the Lead for SafeLives’ Beacon Sites, which involves implementing Whole Family Integrated Services into local authorities as well as advising on strategy and local domestic abuse responses and supporting areas to develop their governance and authentic voice offers.

Prior to working for SafeLives, Dan managed Young People’s Domestic Abuse Services, Family Intervention Projects and has been the CEO of a local charity working with vulnerable families.

Lauren joined SafeLives in 2020 and has 14 years’ experience working within the housing sector. During this time Lauren was a front-line housing officer specialising in Adult and Child Safeguarding, Community Safety and Domestic Abuse and is experienced in working in partnership with a wide range of agencies.

Lauren has been a Designated Safeguarding Lead and worked on a number or projects including the development of a new anti-social behaviour system and creating of policies and procedures for Domestic Abuse. Lauren was also the lead for a Complex Cases pilot developing new ways of working with the most high-risk customers.  Within SafeLives, Lauren has worked with a number of Local Authorities to implement our Public Health Approach to Domestic Abuse and completed various Safe Accommodation Needs Assessments as per the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. Other pieces of work including supporting the development of the Housing Idva training, producing and delivering of webinars and training and developing the Social Value Engine for use across the organisation.

Chris joined SafeLives in 2020 and will be responsible for the day-to-day delivery of the project. Within Safelives Chris has led on the implementation of the Public Health Systems Reviews in local areas, while also completing other specific pieces of work including delivery of webinars and training, consultation and authentic voice work with young people and guidance on Domestic Abuse strategy.

Chris has worked with young people and families for 20 years across a range of settings including Children’s Social Care, Youth Offending teams, Prison’s and Young Offenders Institutes, Children’s Homes and Youth, Family and Community Centres. Chris has embedded the underpinning values of Trauma Informed Practice and Whole Family Approaches into his practice and has a background in supporting families with domestic abuse, gang crime, criminal and sexual exploitation, substance misuse, mental health, and dual diagnosis, as well as facilitating training in these areas of expertise. Outside of his Safelives role, Chris also facilitates other training on subjects such as Trauma Informed Practice, Early Help Practice, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Working with Vulnerable Adolescents and Motivational Interviewing to improve responses to local practice across all partnerships.

Lucy has worked for SafeLives since 2010 as part of a team delivering the Marac implementation programme, later becoming Marac development officer for the South West and Wales. Her work also includes delivering bespoke work such as developing work around older people and domestic abuse, consultancy work and training. She is currently Programme Lead for Wales for SafeLives and lead for Marac. Before joining SafeLives Lucy set up and managed/directed substance misuse organisations and complex needs services. Lucy brings over 30 years of experience in the social welfare sector, primarily in mental health, homelessness/housing, substance misuse, complex needs and domestic abuse and was previously Chair of the board of trustees for Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Services (SARSAS). Lucy was part of the implementation and set up of this service which was the largest SV service in the West. Lucy also has a MA in ethics of Social welfare.

Andy has worked in the social care sector for around 17 years, including time spent in frontline homelessness, substance abuse and complex needs services, supported living provision and service development work within complex mental health settings. He has overseen the development of supported living and supported housing services, managed complex needs support schemes and held responsibility for broad service review and improvement work. He has worked with individuals with a range of needs, including those with mental illnesses, substance abuse issues, learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders and individuals with complex histories of trauma. Most recently Andy worked on a range of community development projects and oversaw the development of community hubs and biodiversity sites and managed a team of social prescribing link workers.

Bev has spent nearly two decades working in the charity sector helping those most in need reach their full potential, transitioning from a frontline professional into a collaborative leader. Bev has gained extensive experience and a comprehensive understanding of the ways that domestic abuse can affect the whole family. She has worked with adult and child survivors, as well as those that use harmful behaviors in their relationships. Bev is able to combine theory with practice to gain the best outcomes.

Bev enjoys both big picture thinking and getting stuck into detailed design and implementation.  Throughout her work it is worth noting that when she led the national project on behalf of SafeLives for the Risk Led review, she was keen to hear a cross representation of voices, reaching out to more marginalised communities who face additional barriers in accessing support to ensure their voices were heard.

Chloe has 10 year’s experience working within the Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Domestic Abuse arena. Starting by working in custody settings to support perpetrators integrate back into the community prior to their release. Following this she moved onto training as a forensic psychologist running a perpetrator programme called Kaizen in a cat C prison, using CBT to support them understand their thoughts, feelings and behaviours to reduce the risk of reoffending. Since this Chloe has worked in inpatient mental health hospitals ensuring the safety of females with personality disorders is kept paramount, before moving into frontline DA work and setting up a new project working as a Mental Health IDVA within her local area. Chloe has since delivered a training programme across the course of a year to ensure all professionals within her local area are recognising and responding to DA appropriately.

At SafeLives, Chloe is working on the Echo project, ensuring authentic voice is embedded into the work we do to further support victims of domestic abuse.

Charlie joined SafeLives in 2022 and is primarily working to embed the authentic voice of minoritised children, young people, and their families within local areas. Charlie has around 12 years’ experience working within the criminal justice system. She was an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) and as an ISVA and Advocacy Manager as well as a Designated Safeguarding Lead providing additional training to staff members on key issues for survivors. She has also sat on several local strategy panels alongside Commissioners, CPS, Police, Health and other CJS agencies, informing and advocating for best practice for victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and providing a platform for survivor voice within these forums. Prior to working in the Violence Against Women and Girls sector, Charlie worked with ex-offenders, supporting them into employment by addressing and removing barriers they were facing. She has worked with a wide range of needs including learning disabilities, substance abuse, marginalisation, and mental health issues. During her time at SafeLives, Charlie has worked with Bermuda to support the implementation of their first Marac, and she has, alongside survivors and pioneers, developed a best practice toolkit to help professionals respond to victim/survivors of domestic abuse who are blind or partially sighted.

Frances joined SafeLives in 2023 as Practice Consultant overseeing the Leading Lights accreditation programme. Prior to this Frances had worked in the voluntary sector for 17 years, originally in small local by and for services before joining a large national charity for victims of crime.

Frances has specialised in areas including domestic abuse, sexual abuse and violence, and safeguarding.  Frances began her career in project coordination, frontline work and volunteer management, before becoming a manager of multiple services including IDVA services. Frances has worked closely with funders and written multiple funding bids. She has planned, developed, built and maintained services for some of the most vulnerable and often overlooked people in our society. Organisations Frances has worked for include Back on Track Manchester, Women in Prison, Victim Support and One25.

Nik (She / Her) has worked in the voluntary sector for almost 20 years’ the majority of this time has been focused on tackling disadvantage, discrimination, violence and abuse, in roles including: Director of Off Centre (Young Persons charity); CEO of Galop (The UKs’ LGBT+ specialist Domestic Abuse, Sexual Violence and Hate Crime charity); Interim CEO support, Breakthrough UK (A charity promoting Disabled people’s rights), Associate Practice Consultant at Safe Lives (a leading National Domestic Abuse charity) and National Lead / Head of Respects’ Young Peoples Service.

Nik has successfully attracted funding, mobilised and managed partnerships and programmes of work from an extremely wide spectrum of statutory and Trust funders (Central, regional and local). For example, at Galop Nik led the organisation in developing pioneering projects across a range of specialist service delivery areas (Domestic Abuse; Sexual Violence and Hate Crime).   Alongside the development of direct services Nik oversaw the production of landmark research, such as the LGBT+ Domestic Abuse report- Recognise and Respond. This work educated and informed strategic thinking at national, regional and local levels to change policy and practice in the UK.  Nik’s most recent role before joining Safelives was as National Lead and then Head of Respect Young People’s Service (RYPS) leading a specialist team in the development and implementation of responses to young people who use behaviours that harm.