Wales

Meet the team - Wales

Adoption UK Cymru provides support and services across Wales and works in collaboration with our partners in the National Adoption Service.

A list of our team members appears below. We are also supported by many volunteers in the community.

You can contact us by email [email protected] or via the Adoption UK information and support line on 0300 666 0006. The information and support line is available Monday to Friday between 10am and 2.30pm. You can leave a voicemail outside of these hours and we will return your call on the next working day. Our postal address is Adoption UK Cymru, Office C12, Britannia Lodge, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly, CF83 3GG.

Jane White
Safeguarding Lead | Quality Assurance and Impact

Jane is responsible for Quality Assurance and Impact in Adoption UK. She is responsible for ensuring an effective system of quality assurance and evaluation operates within Adoption UK’s support services. This will support the service to evidence good practice, and continuous improvement.

She is also the lead for Safeguarding for England and Wales. She has 29 years of safeguarding experience, primarily within Local Authority Children’s Social Care. She is experienced in partnership working and is passionate about service user participation and involvement in service development and improvements.

Jane’s experience spans across all areas of children’s social care and includes a number of years of strategic leadership of permanence services such as Children in Care, Care Experienced, Adoption, and Fostering services.

Her aim is to support the teams to deliver high quality services, demonstrate the impact of the services provided and to showcase best practice within Adoption UK.

In her spare time Jane likes to exercise at her local gym, walk her dog and also to travel as much as she can.

Mandy Rowsell
Director for Wales

Mandy is responsible for the team in Wales, both staff and volunteers. Her role ensures that all of the services are delivered to the highest of standards. Mandy also works closely with the central team at the National Adoption Service, as well as working collaboratively with regional managers and teams to deliver support and improve standards and services in Wales.

Mandy is a mum to 2 boys and outside of work her life revolves around their hobbies. Mandy loves all things Rugby and is also a Team Manager for her son’s rugby team. Mandy’s family are avid caravanners and like to jump in the car and take their tourer to new places whenever they get the chance!

Rebecca Lewis

Adoption Community Manager

Rebecca is a fully qualified primary school teacher and taught for ten years in a specialist ALN school before starting her role at Adoption UK in June 2023.

As Adoption UK Cymru's Community Manager, Rebecca plans events for the Welsh adoption community and supports our volunteers to plan and run local community events and get togethers. Rebecca also works closely with the adoption regions and agencies to support families and individuals within the Welsh adoption community.

Rebecca has three children, two of whom are adopted and she is an adopted person herself. Outside of work she enjoys being with her family, reading, cooking and going on lots of adventures.

Sarah Coomber

Adoption Community Officer

Sarah joined Adoption UK in 2021 as the Administrative Officer for Adoption UK Cymru. She has previously worked with children and young people for over 10 years and has a degree in Information Communication Technology. Sarah is now the Adoption Community Officer, working as part of the communities team in Wales and supports volunteers to set up community group meet ups and events.

Sarah is also an adoptive parent and outside of work she spends her time as a busy Mum, taking her daughter to various clubs and activities, being outside at the park, organising playdates and all the other joys that come with being a parent. In her spare time, Sarah likes to meet up with friends, attend dance fitness classes and take her dog for walks.

Julie Moseley
Lead Education Officer

Julie joined Adoption UK in October 2019, initially as a Parent Partner and as a volunteer helpline adviser. This was following early retirement from teaching after 33 years. She was a Deputy Head for 12 years and obtained NPQH (headship qualification). In November 2020, Julie became Lead Education Officer for Adoption UK Cymru.

In her role as Education Lead for Wales, Julie aims to encourage schools and families to work together to understand and meet the needs of children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences. She can offer enquiry calls to schools and families where children are struggling and runs Welsh Government funded training for schools, on managing behaviour in care experienced learners. She is supporting young people involved in the North Wales Adoption Alliance project to develop training resources for schools on understanding the needs of adopted learners.

Julie and her husband adopted a sibling group of 3. They are now all grown up and doing well in the world. Julie and Robin now have 2 adorable grandchildren.

Julie loves spending time with her grandchildren, cats, walking the dog, reading, watching films and visiting the theatre.

Helen Griffiths

Helpline and Volunteer Support Officer Wales

Talitha Brown
Lead Youth Officer Adoption Alliance in North Wales

Talitha is a nationally qualified Community and Youth Worker of over 25 years. She is a qualified Teacher, qualified Playworker and holds a qualification in Childcare Learning and Development. Talitha has managed a county Youth Service, an Informal Education team, worked in various youth work roles and managed a Full Day Care provision. She is a trained supervisor, international exchange worker, education visits co-ordinator and was previously trained as an Estyn Peer Assessor. She is a Welsh speaker.

Her work has been focused on the most marginalised in society and supporting them towards collective and individual actions which help them reach their potential. She is passionate about supporting young people to get their voices heard in Cymraeg or English, anti discriminatory practice, groupwork and building voluntary trusted relationships with young people which help them reach their potential.

Talitha leads on the Adoption Alliance project, working with groups of young people across north Wales to design products and offer training to schools and education providers to support adopted young people’s needs.

Talitha also works with young people from across Wales in our youth forums CONNECT Voices.

Matt Price

Young Person Intern for Adoption Alliance in North Wales

Matt is working in post for a year, to help organise and run the Adoption Alliance groups. Matt has recently finished a Level 3 BTEC in Esports. Matt will help young people develop skills for the project, including podcasting, video production and branding. Matt is also an adopted person and wants to help provide a lived perspective to the project and it’s goals.

Matt’s hobbies include playing games on the PC, both casually and competitively, going to concerts and chilling out with his two dogs.

Ruth Letten
Children and Young Peoples Service Manager

Ruth has worked within post adoption support for over 20 years for organisations such as NORCAP, local authority adoption teams and After Adoption. In that time, she has supported adopted adults, birth parents, adoptive parents in areas such as accessing adoption files, tracing family members, delivering training to prospective adopters, as well as delivering Adoption Awareness training to ensure wider society is aware of the lifelong impact adoption can have.

However, approximately 12 years ago Ruth began running a project called TalkAdoption (as part of After Adoption) which aimed to give a voice to adopted children and young people using youth work principles and purposes. This has been her passion ever since and since 2019, Ruth has worked with Adoption UK Cymru where she continues to manage, and support adopted children age 7-25 years through our CONNECT Service. The service is developing across Wales to ensure all adopted children and young people have the opportunity to meet others with shared experiences; make and retain friendships, develop confidence, self-esteem and learn life skills which will support them into adulthood and have fun.

Pamela Leigh
Lead Youth Worker for North Wales, Connected

Hello, my name is Pamela, and I am the Lead Youth Worker for North Wales at Connected.

I have worked with children and young people for over 20 years in residential child care settings, youth services, training, being a foster carer, and working for an ambulance service.

When I am away from work, I enjoy being a community councillor and a school governor, and I organize and take part in a lot of fundraising for local charities. I have been to Pakistan as a volunteer to teach adults and young people life-saving skills. I enjoy spending time with my family and going on holiday, visiting various countries, and I love cooking, especially outdoors.

Sasha Tye
Support Worker for North Wales, Connected

Hello my name is Sasha, I have been working with children and young people for 4 years in nurseries, school, personal assistant and currently working in a special needs school.

I have 2 brothers 1 of them has down syndrome and out of work I enjoy taking them both on trips out. I also love baking, shopping, going on holiday and being outdoors.

Becky Radford

Lead Youth Worker for Western Bay and Mid & West Wales, Connected

Bec is a qualified Youth Worker and has over 17 years of experience working with a variety of young people in a variety of settings such as local authority, third sector organisations and the NHS. She is the Lead Youth Worker for Connected in Western Bay and Mid & West Wales. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her cousins, going to the beach and exploring new places.

Christine Evans
Support Worker for Western Bay and Mid & West Wales, Connected

Christine is a Children and Young Person’s Support Worker for Adoption UK and works in the Connected Service in Mid and West Wales and Western Bay. Christine loves coming along to these sessions and meeting the adopted Children and Young People and joining in with the fun activities they offer. Along side this, Christine is currently studying for her Youth Work and Education degree.

When Christine is not studying or working, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She loves a day out at the beach, especially if it involves a BBQ and going for walks with her little dog, Daisy.

Chris Richards

Lead Youth Worker for South Wales, Connected

Chris is the Children and Young People's Services Lead (South East Wales), part of the Connected Service. Chris supports children and young people, carrying out fun activities in group, as well as looking at issues that are important to them.

Chris has worked with children and young people from across Wales for over 30 years in various different roles. Chris believes fully in the voices of children and young people, ensuring their voices are heard on all matters that affect their lives – ‘having a voice – having a choice’.

Cathy Martinson
Support Worker for South Wales, Connected

Hi, my name is Cathy and I am the Children’s and Young People Support Worker for South Wales. I initially qualified as a Nursery Nurse and later took a undergraduate Higher Diploma in Childcare and Education as I love working with children.

My working experience includes Nursery, Schools, Children’s centres and Play Work. I have experience of working with children with additional learning needs and children in the care system.

I have two adopted children and enjoy family time including walking, cycling and visiting new places.

I consider myself to be calm and patient with a good sense of humour. When you love the job you do its no longer work.

Penny Jeffreys
Peer Practitioner

Penny is a qualified trainer, coach, facilitator and advanced Non-Violent Resistance Practitioner. She works directly with families alongside delivering training and facilitating groups for parents and professionals.