Meet the team

Rachel left her career in retail management in 2000 to focus on her children and later discovered both her sons had various needs. “I found myself on a journey that I hadn’t expected and hadn’t planned for. I had to try and make sense of what I needed to do to understand and support my children. I wanted the council, health services and commissioners to understand what it is like for parent carers and their children.” During this time Rachel channelled her energy into volunteering on various projects from being a PTA chair, a school governor and the National Autistic Society's South Glos Branch Officer. Rachel co-founded and volunteered with South Glos Parent Carers as Chair before taking on the role as CEO.

Sue has been the chair of SGPC since 2015. With a background in educational psychology, she has always had a passion for children and young people with SEND. Since Sue’s retirement, she has been involved in many projects including the Autism Education Trust and a school governor at a specialist school. She is also a grandparent to two adorable grandchildren.

Sue has been involved with SGPC since 2009 and manages the operational side of the company. Sue started as a volunteer, and has seen many developments in that time. She became a director when SGPC became a CIC in 2013.

Lloyd joined SGPC in 2018 as a non-executive director and brings a wealth of expertise to the board, gained from many years of planning, delivering and improving services in the public sector, including the NHS. This experience (much of it focused on setting and managing budgets) serves him well in his role as finance director for SGPC. Several of his children have additional needs so the work of SGPC is especially close to his heart.

Leonie is SGPC’s community support manager, overseeing all of our support teams. Leonie’s background is in paediatric nursing, but she took some time off from nursing in 2010 to enable her to focus more on her son who has Down Syndrome. At this time Leonie became involved with SGPC as she was interested in making a difference for other families, as well as working alongside professionals to help improve and shape services. She started off volunteering as a parent Rep and in 2013 she became a director and helped to develop SGPC into a Community Interest Company (CIC Not For Profit). Leonie has a passion for helping other parent carers and being part of SGPC.

Robbie joined SGPC as a volunteer Parent Rep in 2019 and is now our Parent Voice and Co-production Manager, leading our Parent Voice and Marketing and Comms teams to ensure that the collaborative parent carer views are reflected in the meetings we attend, and are communicated to our wider audience.

Ellie joined SGPC in January 2023 because she wanted to help make the SEND journey better for our families. Ellie makes sure that parent carers' views are heard in the meetings that we attend so that we can help shape and improve services for our families, children and young people.

Caz is our Peer Support Lead for SGPC, building our outreach service with schools and leading our team of peer supporters working in the community. As a parent carer herself, Caz is passionate about helping others and understands the importance of timely support, information and a warm welcome.

Sarah joined SGPC in 2022 as our SEND training coordinator. She has spent the last 8 years working for various parent carer forums and as mother to a child with severe learning difficulties. She coordinates the autism workshops, both online and in-person, that SGPC deliver to families in South Glos.

Gill started as a volunteer with SGPC several years ago and is now part of our community support team. As a parent of children with additional needs, Gill sought out support on her own journey as a parent carer and has a wealth of knowledge to share. Gill leads our Early Years team, and you will find her supporting families at our Little Treasures stay and play sessions, as well as at our community base in Kingswood, our Early Years workshops and online support groups.

Joey is our Peer Support Coordinator working at our community base, visiting schools and organising a range of support activities. Recently changing her career after 27 years in primary education, she continues to be passionate about supporting children and their families in her work for SGPC.

Helen has recently joined SPGC. With a background in education, she has spent the last 12 years caring for her children with complex needs. She is passionate about supporting other parent carers and can be found at our community base in Kingswood or visiting parents within schools as part of our outreach project.

Liz joined SGPC in May 2023, keen to get involved with all aspects of our parent carer community. Liz has a background of working with children with SEN in primary schools and also has a special little granddaughter who has brain trauma from a tumour and now has additional needs. She loves to listen and is passionate about making a difference to our parent carers.

Jennie regularly attended Little Treasures and the community base with her children and enjoyed receiving support from staff, volunteers and other parents along the way. Once her youngest started school, Jennie began volunteering at the community base, before joining SGPC as a Peer Supporter in 2022. “I know how it feels talking to others who ‘get it’ and I feel incredibly lucky to work for SGPC and having the opportunity to be that person for other parent carers now.”

Jo has been a parent carer to her daughter with complex needs for the last 14 years. Jo volunteered with the running of Little Treasures in the early days and joined our staff team in March 22. She is passionate about helping and supporting other parent carers on their journey.

Helen is one of our Early Years peer supporters within SGPC’s Little Treasures stay and play sessions and at our community base. She has a teen with complex medical needs and once able to return to work, she retrained as a SEND teaching assistant. Helen joined SGPC in March 2023 after recovering from a major operation and is happily using the skills she’s learnt along the way to support others.

Kirsty is an Early Years peer supporter within our Little Treasures stay and play sessions and at our Community Base. Kirsty joined SGPC in 2020 as a volunteer, and in 2022 we welcomed her to our staff team.

Having previously worked for local and national magazine titles, Sam joined SGPC in March 2023 after taking some time out of work to care for her daughter. Wanting to get involved with something that is close to her heart, Sam is enthusiastic about communicating the important work of SGPC.

Jenny joined SGPC in 2022 as our Communications and Media Officer. She manages our website and social media channels and is keen to ensure that as many families as possible hear about the work that SGPC does.