Meet the team

Dinah, production and administrative assistant
Kathy, database co-ordinator and administrator
Maria, administrative assistant
Sophie, assistant editor
Claire, deputy editor
Isabelle, editor
Patricia, child placement consultant
Sessional child placement consultants
Mo, director of child placement services

Dinah, production and administrative assistant

Dinah is officially the ‘first port of call’ at Be My Parent as all referrals from social workers come straight to her. She’s constantly juggling with the newspaper page layout, trying to fit the children’s profiles into each of the colour-coded regions which characterise Be My Parent, and choosing the right photograph for each profile. We know families find the website video clips of children really useful, and Dinah advises social workers on how to make these, or gives them information on See Me Films. Dinah takes hundreds of telephone enquiries every month and has a fanclub of families and social workers, who are grateful for her calm and unflappable nature.

Kathy, database co-ordinator and administrator

Kathy is on the front line taking calls from families - there are over 1,000 telephone enquiries every month. She strives to deliver a great service to each caller and has kept many adopters or foster carers going at times when they felt like giving up by dispensing words of encouragement and support. As part of the Be My Parent team for 25 years, Kathy is known as ‘The Oracle’. She has lived every stage, from 1980s’ book to the new website, and keeps every name, postcode and statistic stored in her head for easy recall! Kathy also regularly collates detailed placement statistics. When a child or sibling group has been matched through Be My Parent, she is often the first to hear. Invariably a cheer goes up in the office, especially if the child has been waiting a long time or a large sibling group is going to be staying together. Calls like that make it all worthwhile.

Maria, administrative assistant

Maria is on the phone most of the day, liaising with families and agencies. When you call to enquire about a child or group of brothers and sisters you’ve seen in Be My Parent, it is likely you’ll get through to Maria, so please have the code reference handy so she can find the details quickly for you! Maria follows up referrals to find out whether the child has been successfully placed with a permanent family, ensures that families using the CRB-area of the website have been satisfactorily police checked and sends out information packs. She works part of the week with Be My Parent and spends the rest providing support to the BAAF Southern England team.

Sophie, assistant editor

Sophie writes, edits and proofreads most of the profiles you see in Be My Parent always watchful for maximum word allowance and what information will really make a child come alive on the page. She takes all sorts of referrals, from the sparse to the lengthy and magically weaves them into our recognisable format. Sophie uses her compassionate interviewing style to great effect, the results of which can be read in the News & Features published every other month. She says the most rewarding interview was with a woman who gave her child up for adoption, and – as it transpired – was also adopted herself. Sophie is at the end of the phone when families or agencies call to make enquiries. She also manages the Family profiles section for approved families waiting to be matched. If you’re not yet featured there, why not ask your social worker to give Sophie a call?

Claire, deputy editor

Claire writes and edits the children’s profiles for the newspaper and website. She also creates website content such as the popular quiz, Your questions, and the general adoption and fostering information. Be My Parent would not be what it is without our real-life stories of adoption and fostering. We’d love to hear from you with your story, so please get in touch! One part of Claire’s role is to provide technical support to subscribers, getting them set up to use the service and helping them navigate and make the most of the website. The team is dedicated to solving your website issues so please don’t hesitate to call or email.

Isabelle, editor

Isabelle oversees all editorial and production work for Be My Parent, whether it be the newspaper, website, and all other publications such as fliers, posters and information packs. She makes all final checks to ensure that all the referred children are correctly featured in the newspaper and website, and is the person to compliment if you love the look of an issue – a lot of deliberation goes into the colour schemes, and the full and half-page profiles; each one is individually designed. Isabelle plans, commissions and writes for the bi-monthly News & Features pages so if you have any suggestions of topics you would like to see covered, let her know! She also checks and uploads the video clips of the children you see on the website. Families have given great feedback on the video clips, as they feel that they better communicate the essence of a child, especially a child with special needs.

Patricia, child placement consultant

Patricia is our in-house Child Placement Consultant and is a qualified social worker with over 20 years’ experience in social work. Her work includes ensuring that best practice is applied to everything that Be My Parent publishes, particularly the children’s profiles, so that each child featured has the best opportunity to receive appropriate enquiries and find a permanent family. In addition, she responds to adoption and fostering enquiries from social work agencies and families from all over the UK and always finds time to patiently soothe anxious or distressed callers and offer proactive suggestions. Patricia also works with social work agencies and BAAF's media department to feature children needing permanent families in the wider media, particularly during National Adoption Week, BAAF’s annual campaign in November which aims to raise public awareness about adoption and encourage more people to consider adopting a child.

Sessional child placement consultants

Be My Parent’s sessional child placement consultants are:

• Ros
• Lois
• Charmaine

Mo, director of child placement services

Mo’s official title is Director of Child Placement Services so, as well as managing the Be My Parent team, she has a line management responsibility for the National Adoption Register for England and Wales. She has a social work background and has specialised in Adoption and Fostering for over 30 years. Mo joined BAAF from Barnardo’s just as Be My Parent online was beginning to take shape. After a lot of planning and hard work, the website was officially launched in May 2007 and has gone from strength to strength – receiving over 5,000 visits during National Adoption Week 2007. Mo is delighted that Be My Parent online has recently reached the last three for the National e-Wellbeing Award in the Improving Public Services category. Thank you to all our visitors and subscribers for making the website a success!

Last updated: 25 February 08

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