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The Health & Disability Equality Team
Anne Agius
Secretarial Assistant
Email: anne.agius@niace.org.uk
Anne provides secretarial support to Yola Jacobsen (Development Officer - Adults with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities).
Anne joined NIACE in 1989, initially working out of a local adult education centre providing clerical support for a tutor seconded to a NIACE project. Anne now works part time from home and the NIACE London Office.
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Lin Westmoreland
Regional Programme Officer (Mental Health) - South West Region
Email: lin.westmoreland@niace.org.uk
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Catina Barrett
Regional Programme Officer (Mental Health) - East of England
Email: catina.barrett@niace.org.uk
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Vivienne Berkeley
Development Officer (Learning Difficulties)
Email: viv.berkeley@niace.org.uk
Vivienne Berkeley, PGCE (PCE), PG Dip. (Learning and Teaching).
Viv was appointed in September 04. Her work takes into account adult learners with learning difficulties and the issues surrounding them.
Prior to working at NIACE, Viv worked with a local authority as an Inclusive Learning Manager where she focused on how the service could work collaboratively with other organisations and agencies on Person Centred Planning. Viv has trained to be a Person Centred facilitator using Essential Lifestyle Planning. She has worked in two large FE Colleges teaching learners with a wide range of abilities, from teenagers to adults. She has also worked in HE delivering modules on Cert Ed/PGCE’s. She has delivered the PECF training to a wide variety of practitioners across the country.
Viv is particularly interested in effective ways of helping learners to progress, especially part time adult learners. She believes the current mode of delivery (predominantly 2 hour sessions for 30 weeks) needs redressing.
She asks, do learning providers collude, intentionally or not, with other services to “warehouse” learners? Beverley (2000) states:
“there is a danger that adult education groups become places where adults with learning difficulties are contained or entertained, but that the activities taking place can no longer be described as educational. For if an activity is to be educational one assumes that those adults taking part are willing participants in the learning process”.
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Tricia Clark
Regional Programme Officer (Mental Health) – Yorkshire and Humberside
Email: tricia.clark@niace.org.uk
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Clare Worrall
Regional Programme Officer (Mental Health) - North West Region
Email: clare.worrall@niace.org.uk
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Jenny Gartland
Regional Programme Officer (Mental Health) - South East
Email: jenny.gartland@niace.org.uk
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Yola Jacobsen
Development Officer (Learning Difficulties or Disabilities)
email: yola.jacobsen@niace.org.uk
Yola Jacobsen worked with people with learning difficulties in adult education for seven years teaching and managing a project for people coming out of long-stay hospital and re-settling in the community. She then moved to the voluntary sector and worked as an Area Manager for Day Services for people with learning difficulties. In her role at NIACE, Yola has been involved in various projects on the themes of:
 | equal opportunities in continuing education for marginalised groups of students with learning difficulties; |
| access to learning for carers; |
| a Charter for Learning by and for people with learning difficulties; |
| the Self-Advocacy Action Pack; |
| the Making the Jump-transition to work project; |
As a staff trainer for the Adult Pre-entry curriculum framework (PECF), Yola trained staff in the London region. She also led for NIACE on the development of an on-line version of this training.
Yola was project leader for Access to employment for adults with learning difficulties, one of the Learning and Skills Development Agency’s DDA projects (September ‘03 – August ‘04).
From April ‘03 to March ‘04 Yola was on a part-time secondment to the Department of Health’s Valuing People Support Team (VPST) as an advisor on post-16 education. The focus of her work was on producing guidelines for joint working between local LSCs and Learning Disability Partnership Boards to improve access to post-16 education for people with learning difficulties. The guidelines will be available from November 2004.
Current work includes a survey of provision for people with learning difficulties whose first language is not English and advising on the employment strand of the Pathfinder project for people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
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Kathryn James
Development Officer (Learning and Health)
email: kathryn.james@niace.org.uk
Kathryn James, BA, Diploma in Careers Guidance, Post-graduate Certificate of Education (F.E.), MA in Lifelong Education.
Kathryn is the Development Officer for Learning and Health and is concerned with linking NIACE’s work on widening participation in learning to work that addresses health inequalities. Kathryn’s current work looks at how these two agendas can be brought together and what needs to be done to promote initiatives that address the health divide and the learning divide. Kathryn has a background in guidance and is particularly interested in how in-depth guidance can be used to engage hard-to-reach learners and to enable them to access learning, promote raised self-esteem and improve a sense of well-being.
Prior to working at NIACE Kathryn worked in F.E. where she set up and managed a Mental Health Support Service, which enabled mental health service users to access guidance, learning and support in a way that felt comfortable to them. The Mental Health Support Service won two national awards for innovation and inclusiveness and attracted international interest.
Publications include:
James, K. and Nightingale, C. Discovering Potential, NIACE
James, K. (2004) Winning Hearts and Minds, NIACE
James, K. (2003) How low self-esteem offsets adult learners, Adults Learning,Vol. 14 No. 5
James, K (2003) Self-esteem as a barrier to learning: literature review and report, Journal of Access and Credit Studies Vol. 4, No2
James, K. (2002) A Model for Supportive Services in Further Education in Stanley,N. & Manthorpe, J. (eds) Students Mental Health Needs. Jessica Kingsley, London
James, K. (2001) Prescribing Learning, NIACE, Leicester
James, K. (2001) Living and Learning, Careers Guidance Today, Vol 9 No 4,
James, K. (Summer 2001) Prescriptions for Learning, The Waiting Room
James, K. (2001) Prescribing Learning, Adults Learning, NIACE, Leicester
James, K (1993) Making Work Work 1 + 11 Careers Education Voice, Derbyshire Careers Service
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Caroline Law
Research Assistant
email: Caroline.law@niace.org.uk
Caroline joined NIACE in November 2005. She has a first class honours degree in Sociology. Prior to working at NIACE Caroline has worked in a local inclusion service for families with disabled children, and for the Red Cross for families with children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. She has also carried out voluntary work within libraries.
Reports and projects Caroline has been involved in include:
| ‘Evaluation of Prescriptions for Healthy Learning’ (unpublished report) |
| ‘Just Learning’ (case Studies in Offender Education) |
| ‘Say What You Like’, Leicester, NIACE |
| ‘Effective Practice with Underrepresented Learners’ (unpublished report) |
| ‘The Little Book of Earning and Learning’ |
| ‘Let’s Talk about Money’ (financial literacy and offenders) |
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Bhupinder Nijjar
Health and Disability Equality Administrator
Bhupinder (Poppy) joined NIACE in September 2001. She is a BA honours graduate in the field of business administration, and also has a HND qualification in business computing.
Before joining NIACE Bhupinder worked at Loughborough College, promoting training and education to organisations in the Leicestershire region. With her extensive experience in IT and administrative skills Bhupinder manages and moderates the Literacy, Language and Numeracy email group, which currently has 600 members. Bhupinder also has proven experience in research writing and event managing, and contributed to the development of a "Good Practice Guide" called "Opening up a New World", published by NIACE.
Bhupinder also worked on the evaluation of the Step into Learning, Training and development programme.
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Sue Rees
Administrative Secretary,
email: sue.rees@niace.org.uk
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Lesley Talbot-Strettle
Regional Programme Officer (Mental Health) - West Midlands Region
Email:
lesley.talbot-strettle@niace.org.uk
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Victoria Sturdy
Regional Programme Officer (Mental Health) - London Region
Email: victoria.sturdy@niace.org.uk
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