Brian Jones

Non-Executive Chairman

Brian is the Group’s Non Executive Chairman. Prior to this he acted as the group’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operations Officer.

Brian has worked at CEO and Director level within local authorities, as well as the voluntary and independent sector. He has significant experience in the design and set up of high quality children and adult services across Britain. With this expertise Brian will lead the group in its vision to provide a comprehensive network of educational and residential care services, working in partnership with young people, parents and local authorities.

Richard Atkinson

Chief Executive Officer

Richard was appointed Chief Executive Officer for the Group in September 2019, retaining his responsibility as the Group’s Chief Financial Officer.

Richard is a Chartered Accountant with extensive commercial and financial experience, the last 20 years within the independent provision of education and care. Richard was formerly Commercial Director with a listed health and care group, prior to which he held various senior financial positions with an international retail group.

Victoria Finn

Group Human Resources Director

• BSc Management
• MCIPD

Vicky has been with the SENAD Group since its creation in 2003, working her way up the Human Resources (HR) career ladder to Group Human Resources Director. She holds a Management Degree and a Post Graduate Qualification (PQS) from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), her years of senior level HR experience make her a Chartered Member.

Vicky has a wide ranging role across the Group and leads an effective HR team that encompasses Training and Development. Vicky is responsible for the Groups Organisational Development Strategy, ensuring Employment Law and best practice employment models are implemented and she also leads on all employee relations matters and retention and reward planning.

The SENAD HR team continue to lead the way in terms of innovative recruitment and retention strategies, including the management of large scale recruitment campaigns across the UK and EU.

Nina Sharpe

Adult Care Director

• Level 7 Leadership and Management
• Level 5 Diploma Health and Social Care
• B.Sc. Hons. Social and Cultural Studies

Nina has been part of the community support sector for 14 years and was welcomed into the SENAD Group in 2014. She is responsible for all operational aspects of the groups adult provision, both residential and community based support.

Following graduation Nina started her career as a support worker and has progressed her way through the management roles to her current role, giving her a thorough and workable understanding of the needs of service users, their families and staff.

Nina is an innovative and creative leader with considerable experience in driving organisational improvement and change to facilitate long term plans and strategies. Qualified to Level 7 Leadership and Management, Nina is experienced in collaboration and partnership working, change management and people development.

Suzanne Pennington

Director of Education

• DipEd
• B.Ed(Hons)SEN
• AdvDipEd (SEN)
• NPQH

After being Head Teacher of a large Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ special school in Buckinghamshire, Suzanne relocated to Derbyshire in 2012 and became the Head Teacher at SENAD’s Pegasus School, she then successfully commissioned and set up both Ecclesbourne Lodge and OneNineFive transitional homes as she struggled to find suitable adult provision for Pegasus School leavers. Suzanne then joined St Andrew’s School in Derby as Head Teacher; a ‘Good’ school with a residential department that was judged to be ‘Outstanding’ at the first inspection under her tenure.

Suzanne is passionate about coaching and mentoring staff to achieve the best outcomes – for themselves and for the young people with whom they work. Suzanne was a Director of the Derby Teaching School’s Alliance, working across the City to provide high quality training for staff in all school settings. The focus was ensuring equality of opportunity and inclusion for learners with additional needs.

Suzanne has worked for over 30 years in specialist settings advocating for adults and young people with SEND. She has been successful at leading schools, colleges and adult settings to become highly effective organisations, also contributing to the development of specialist educational services locally through focus groups and working parties, countrywide through the Department for Education action groups; and internationally in Moscow and Japan.

Mark Ryder

Director of Care

• CQSW
• PQ1
• PQCCA
• PTA
• Safeguarding Lead Level 2
• IOSH

Mark started his career as a qualified Social Worker and was then a Care Inspector for 11 years, 7 of which with Ofsted. In 2014 he joined SENAD’s Alderwasley Hall School as the Head of Care and was part of the team in getting the care provisions to ‘Outstanding’ at both the Lower and Upper School sites for three successive years.

Mark has since worked with a large Special Education Needs (SEN) provider as their Senior Regional Operations Manager where he was the Responsible Individual for 5 children’s homes and led on compliance for a further 27 homes. He was also the National Lead Safeguarding Manager for this group and more lately, he leads the care division with a group specialising in SEN and EBD (Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties) children’s homes in the Midlands area.

Mark has successfully registered a number of specialist homes and received good and outstanding Ofsted grades for newly created and developing services. He is committed to excellent outcomes for young people and is a strong advocate for them, Mark brings a wealth of experience to the role and is looking forward to meeting with and supporting both previous and new colleagues.

Kelly Watson

Quality and Compliance Manager (Children)

• Level 5 Registered Managers Award
• Level 4 Health and Social Care Award
• DSL (Designated Safeguarding Lead)

Kelly has worked within children’s residential homes since 2006.  Her career started as a part time admin support and quickly progressed to supporting young people who displayed challenging behaviours.  Within a few years of starting her role she had progressed to become a Registered Manager at the SENAD Groups Pegasus School

All of the homes managed by Kelly achieved either a good our outstanding grading from the Regulator Ofsted.  Her expectations and aspirations for children and young people are high.

Kelly has spent time helping her then regional manager manage a region of approx. 10 homes and being a safeguarding point of contact.

To further develop her knowledge of autism, additional needs and challenging behaviours she spent time working for a local charity managing funded tenders to ensure the children, young people and adults received their allocated support hours.  This role required her to build positive relationships with persons being cared for, their families and other support services involved within their care.

Working for this charity helped Kelly manage a large provision for SENAD with complex children and a large staff team.  She has recently gone on to support homes which have been in crisis, quality assurance visits and help create action plans to improve services.

She has also delivered training to teams both small and large to equip staff with further edcuation, knowledge and develop their practice.

Ginette Clarke

Group Training and Development Manager

As a qualified learning and development professional, Ginette has worked for 14 years in the education sector and during this time she has supported in excess of 12,000 individuals to gain new skills and qualifications, a fact she takes great pride in.

In her early career she was lucky enough to work with a number of government organisations to manage the delivery of both ESF (European Social Fund) and SFA (Skills Funding Agency) funded Apprenticeship and Adult qualifications worth over £8 million. During this time she worked in schools with young people to support their career choices and provide opportunities to access training beyond their school years. Her role before joining the SENAD Group was with a national children’s nursery group, where she held responsibility for the learning and development of over 4000 staff across 62 locations.

Ginette is a qualified trainer and has delivered skills development across a range of subject areas including Safeguarding, Mentoring, Supervisions and Management Skills. She joined the SENAD Group in January 2018 as Group Training and Development Manager and looks forward to bringing her experience in the continual improvement of learning opportunities available to staff and her passion to support individuals to embrace a learning culture to the role.

Craig Barrington

Group Health and Safety Officer

Craig joined the head office team as Group Health and Safety Officer in November 2022. He brings a wide range of skills gained from service in HM Forces and his work in the commercial and public sectors.

Craig has a background in Health and Safety having completed the NEBOSH national certificate with Distinction and is currently completing the Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health & Safety.

Craig also has extensive knowledge of Fire Safety, including systems design(FIA qualified) & Fire Risk Assessment (trained at the Fire Service College). He has further experience and knowledge of security systems and operations .

Craig has professional memberships of Institute of Occupational Health & Safety (Tech.IOSH) and The Security Institute (Msyl).

Angela Hill

Parent Support Officer

• Certificate in Education
• A1 Assessors Award in Health and Social Care
• Advanced GNVQ Health and Social Care
• Level 3 Supporting in the classroom

Since completing the Advanced GNVQ in Health and Social Care Angela has primarily worked within the educational environment. She began her career by supporting SEN students in the classroom and the community as a Learning Support Assistant. The skills and knowledge gained in this role enabled her to complete the Certificate in Education.
In recent years she has worked in a Sixth Form Academy as a Learning Mentor, supporting A level students with learning difficulties to progress to university or into work. Angela has a broad knowledge of the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and the support they require to fulfil their potential.

Jenny Fearn

Head of Sales and Marketing

• BA (Hons) Social Science, History and Religious Studies
• Chartered Institute of Marketing Professional Diploma

Jenny joined The SENAD Group in June 2007. Her role is to support the Groups strong customer relationships by ensuring that efficient and effective communication channels are in place both internally and externally. Jenny has over 25 years experience of delivering sales and marketing solutions to ‘person centred’ service sector businesses including national recruitment consultancies, the education sector and the 3rd sector. Prior to joining The SENAD Group Jenny worked as Business Development Manager for VOICE UK, a national charity supporting people with learning disabilities who have been victims of crime. Through this work she has gained an understanding of the challenges facing both children and adults with learning difficulties.

Stacey Parker

Head of Finance

• ACA

Stacey joined the SENAD Group in January 2009. Prior to this she worked for one of the midlands largest firm of accountants and business advisors, where she progressed from Trainee Accounting Technician to Student Chartered Accountant and latterly Audit Associate.

Liam Parsons

Finance Manager

• BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance

Liam joined the SENAD Group in December 2013 as a finance assistant and was promoted to his current position of Finance Manager in January 2017. His main responsibilities are to produce the management accounts for Aran Hall, Rowden House School, Senad Community and the adult homes, as well as assisting the Finance Director.
Prior to joining the SENAD Group he worked as a management accountant for a leading company in digital marketing and retail solutions.

Jamie Woodward

Financial Accountant

• AAT Qualified – Diploma in Accounting
• CIMA – Operational Level

Jamie joined the SENAD Group in March 2017 as a Financial Accountant. His main responsibilities are to produce the management accounts for Alderwasley, Bladon and Pegasus schools and to assist the Finance Manager.

Prior to joining the SENAD Group between the years of 2009 to 2016 he worked in the accounts departments for a recruitment agency, veterinary practice and a global boiler manufacturer where he progressed through a number of roles from a Finance Assistant to a Financial Controller.

Michael Crowcroft

Group Transport Manager

Michael has worked in the Transport Industry for over 25 years. He holds a Certificate of Professional Competence in both National and International Road Transport Operations and before joining SENAD owned a coach company in the South Yorkshire Area. He has been the Group Transport Manager since 2006 and has implemented many safety practices into the transport system, ensuring both staff and service users are transported safely and efficiently at all times.

Paul Munyard

Group Property and Facilities Manager

• NEBOSH Construction Certificate
• NEBOSH General Certificate in Health and Safety
• Management Diploma

Paul joined the SENAD Group in late 2016 as the Group Property and Facilities Manager. Within this role Paul manages the Maintenance and Internal projects teams as well as overseeing capital projects, planned property schedules and maintenance schedules across a broad range of properties from modern offices to Grade II* listed buildings.

Prior to joining the SENAD Group Paul worked for a large charity as Head of Facilities working closely with the trustees and CEO to carry out a large site development as well as overhauling the facilities services being delivered. Paul has worked within Care and Education settings for the past 20 + years gaining a broad range of skills and experiences.

Neil Owen

Group IT Manager

• BTEC National Cert. Computer Studies
• City & Guilds 7307 Certificate In Delivering Learning / Teaching Adults

Neil joined the group in July 1991 and having undertaken various IT based roles, he became Group IT Manager in 2003.

Neil is responsible for all IT usage through the SENAD group, and as such he advises the group on IT matters and works with them to implement new initiatives and technologies.

During 2000 Neil worked with an associated company (Ruward Systems – Holland) developing commercially available software to complement the Manual Abilities Scanning Test (MAST) system. This software was produced primarily for use in the prison / rehabilitation systems of Holland and Spain.

Rhys Hickingbottom

IT Technician

• Microsoft Certification in Windows Operating System
• BTEC Networking and System Support

Rhys joined the SENAD Group in November 2014 as an IT Technician, after achieving a BTEC in Networking and System Support at Joseph Wright College. In 2015 he gained a Microsoft certification in Windows Operating Systems.

His role is to support and develop IT systems across the group. In order to gain maximum benefit from fast-paced technology changes, Rhys is implementing system management tools to streamline control over mobile devices for the group.
Rhys is also working alongside the school-based IT members to help them implement cloud-based technologies such as Azure and VOIP.

Lisa Booth

Payroll Manager

With over 25 years of payroll experience Lisa joined the SENAD Group in August 2011, following the centralising of all SENAD payrolls and the initial implementation of the Groups time and attendance system.

Her previous experience includes managing a busy Bureau service delivery team with clients including local authorities, education, police, finance, and retail customers with 50 to over 15,000 staff. Her achievements include coordinating the submission of over 250 tax year ends for over 150 clients and implementing a biometric time and attendance system and a new payroll database.

Lisa currently manages a team of two, liaising with Human Resource Teams and local house managers to coordinate the collection of the Group payroll data.

Alex Brown

Senior Payroll Officer

• Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education – Level 3 Payroll Administrator

Alex joined the SENAD Group in July 2017 having spent 8 years as a criminal legal secretary. In October 2022 she was promotoed to Senior Payroll officer, supporting 2 Payroll Officers. Her main role is managing the day-to-day payroll activities, specialising in teacher’s pension. She joining the team she has helped to improve many payroll procedures, particularly around teacher’s pension administration.

Marie McCarthy

Payroll Administrator

Marie joined the SENAD Group in July 2017, as pat of the Business Support Team. In April 2018 she joined the Payroll Department team, managing a variety of tasks in order to ensure we meet our deadlines. Prior to joining The SENAD Group Marie worked in Customer Services at Volkswagen and Egg Bank.

Kelly Saxton

PA to Directors.

• HND Business and Finance – Salford University College

Kelly joined The SENAD Group in August 2004 after moving to Derbyshire from Hertfordshire. Her role is to provide secretarial and administration support to the Directors,  as well as the overall running of the Central Office in Derby which includes the management of the Business Support Team.

Kelly has several years experience of working in administration and secretarial roles and prior to joining The SENAD Group, worked as a secretary to two Directors and four Associate Directors of a pharmaceutical company.

Jeannette Fowler

Business Support and Compliance Officer

• BSc Biology with History
• MA Urban History

Jeannette joined the SENAD Group as Receptionist in 2007. In 2008 she moved into the administration team. She progressed to her current role of Business Support and Compliance Officer in 2018.