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Staff & Directors

Together currently employs two members of staff - Juliet Harris, National Development Officer and Mirka Vybiralova, Administrator.

 

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors comprises of 10 members of Together, elected to the Board on a rolling basis.

 

Elizabeth Morrison - Chair of Together Board

Elizabeth first became involved with Together in 2005 as Who Cares? Scotland representative on its Board of Directors. She is currently a Head of Policy with Who Cares? Scotland with lead responsibility for policy and research, having spent 3,5 years in an operational role as Assistant Director. Who Cares? Scotland is the biggest provider in Scotland of independent advocacy support for children and young people who are looked after away from home.

Elizabeth is committed to children's rights, she was with Save the Children for over 8 years as Assistant Director with responsibility for a range of Scotland-wide work including development projects and research on citizenship, community-based participation and care issues. Before that, she worked in the community in the drugs field and at a European level developing community care training materials.

Prior moving to the voluntary sector, Elizabeth worked in management consultancy, working mainly with the NHS, and in marketing. Her voluntary work includes eight years as an alcohol counsellor and seven years as a children's panel member.

 

Alex Cole-Hamilton - Vice Chair of Together Board

Alex is Head of Policy at Aberlour Child Care Trust and currently co-organises the Parliament's cross party group on Children and Young People and sits on the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People's Advisory Committee.

Before entering the voluntary sector some years ago, Alex was employed by the Liberal Democrat group in the Scottish Parliament where he was responsible for researching and articulating policy, particularly pertaining to education and young people.

Alex is a graduate of Aberdeen University where he obtained an honours degree in politics and held office as President of the Students' Association.

He enjoys surfing, scuba diving and learning Arabic and occasionally writes for the Guardian unlimited website.

 

Zoe Picton-Howell - Treasurer of Together Board

Zoe did a Masters in Human Rights Law in Glasgow which included a dissertation on the Human Rights of children with disability and is currently doing a PhD in Edinburgh Law School which combines human rights, ethics and law and looks at how difficult medical treatment decisions are made for disabled children.

She is a Chair of the Scottish National Council of Contact A Family and a UK trustee and director, on NHS Lothian's disability, equality and human rights steering committees and on a number of other committees and groups concerned with the rights of children with disability, particularly from a health perspective.

Zoe is interested in children's rights generally and disabled children's rights in particular. She joined Together in 2009.

 

Brian Donnelly - Director

Brian Donnelly has been working with challenging and excluded children since 1991. He began working in a residential school where he spent two years before working in a number of Glasgow City Council's residential children's units over an eleven year period. He moved to the voluntary sector with NCH Scotland where he spent over 3 years and was instrumental in the design and development of an alternative to secure care residential and fostering service.

Brian took up the post of Director of RespectMe, the Scottish Government funded anti-bullying service, in January 2007. RespectMe builds the confidence and competence of all adults who play a role in the lives of children and young people through training, policy guidance and campaigns. It is a rights based national program that aims to influence policy and practice at a local and national level. It believes in positive and practical approaches to anti-bullying.

Brian is also the Chair of Young Scot in Mind, a voluntary sector forum for those working on children and young people's mental health. He joined Together in 2009.

 

Colin Morrison - Director

Colin Morrison is one of the founding members and co-director of The Children's Parliament. The Children's Parliament works with children in the context of family, school and community. Through creative projects, consultations and community programme children learn about their human rights whilst acquiring knowledge, skills, behaviours and values for citizenship. CP work connects children with each other, with adults, with their communities, with policy and services. Colin's professional background began in teaching, then in community-based youth social work and children's play. His professional practice was largely in the voluntary sector.

In addition to work at the Children's Parliament Colin is a partner in social research company The TASC Agency which has a particular interest in health and wellbeing and review/evaluation of services.

Colin has recently completed doctorate level study exploring sex and relationship learning for children and young people with a learning disability. He lives in Edinburgh.

 

Stephen McGinley - Director

The provision of advocacy for children and young people has been the thread that runs through Stephen's eighteen years working in the field of Children's Rights. Over this time he has worked with looked after and accommodated young people with a particular passion for throughcare and aftercare.

Further to this Stephen managed an independent community based Children's Rights Project in Drumchapel in Glasgow that provides a generic advocacy service which afforded a unique insight into meeting the needs of a range of young people, sometimes with very complex needs.

Stephen currently works for the DRC (Dumbarton Road Corridor) Youth Project which aims to provide a safe and confidential resource for children and young people within the communities of Scotstoun & Yoker and is firmly of the belief that Children's Rights should be the foundation upon which good practice is built upon and he strives to make rights a reality in Scotland.

It is this practise based background that Stephen believes is the value that he brings to his membership of the board of Together and with colleagues works to keep this high on all concerned with this issue's agenda.

 

Susan Elsley - Director

Susan Elsley has run her own independent policy and research consultancy since 2005. The focus of her work is children and young people and the services that support them and is based on a commitment to children's rights. Current interests include children's participation in policy making, advocacy, looked after children, play and children's arts and culture.

She also is a part time Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR), the University of Edinburgh where she undertakes research and teaches on the Masters in Childhood Studies and CRFR's Continuous Professional Development programme on research with children.

Susan's previous experience is working with children, young people and their families and the voluntary sector. She has worked in policy, research, management and service provision at national and local level and in partnership with a wide range of organisations. She is currently on the board of Play Scotland and has been on the board of Together since 2009.

 

Claire Telfer - Director

Claire has worked in the children's policy field in Scotland for the past nine years and has successfully advocated for policy changes for children. She has worked for Save the Children for the last five years and is currently the Policy and Advocacy Manager (Scotland) who is responsible for leading their policy and advocacy work in Scotland. Currently Claire's main area of expertise is around child poverty and children's rights.

Claire has an MSc in social policy from the University of Edinburgh. She has worked on a wide range of children's rights issues including asylum seeking children, family law, child protection and education.

Claire has a long standing commitment to promoting and realising the rights of children and young people and making sure this has a real and positive impact on children's lives. She joined Together in 2011.

 

Kate Sanford - Director

Kate is a skilled policy advisor, with 8 years experience in private sector business development, followed by 6 years in the voluntary sector, and is currently employed at Quarriers as Policy Manager.

Over the past few years, her relevant experience includes working with young people, children in residential care setting, disabled children and children and families in a family centre on a delivery of various programmes and campaigns.

Kate believes that it is essential that policy-makers understand the real challenges faced by children and young people, and is committed to enabling them to raise the issues that are important to them, and to influence the decisions that impact on their ability to achieve their aspirations. She joined the Together Board in 2011.

 

Selwyn McCausland - Director

Selwyn has worked with children and young people in various community settings for the past 17 years gaining a range of skills and knowledge covering all aspects of service delivery including both operational and strategic management.

He has a current remit for the strategic development of children's rights with Barnardo's with specific attention on children and young people's right to participate within decision making processes.

Selwyn also works directly with children and young people to ensure their voices and opinions are heard by decision makers within Barnardo's and external partners including at national government level.

He also delivers a range of external training programmes on effective communication with children, and rights/participation for a wide range of external agencies. He joined Together in 2011.

 

Kelly Bayes - Co-opted Director

Kelly Bayes has been involved in Together, formerly the Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights, since it was established in 1999. She is a qualified social worker with over 30 years experience in voluntary and statutory child care organisations.

Prior to becoming Head of Policy and Communications with Aberlour Child Care Trust in 2003 Kelly held a number of posts within Barnardo's Scotland, initially as Manager of alternative to care services for young people and latterly as Assistant Director for Policy.

In June 2008 Kelly took up the post of Project Manager for the National Residential Child Care Initiative which was led by the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care and which produced a number of reports in December 2009.