Upcoming Webinar: Children’s Rights and Advocacy Services in the United Kingdom

The webinar will feature a 60-minute presentation from three experts in juvenile justice: Corinne Ranson, Lee Manning, and Kelly DuQuesnay. The session will focus on the role of child advocates, who help children navigate decisions and environments that could be challenging, such as interactions with adults they might not feel safe around. The goal of this webinar is to enhance understanding of how child advocacy can work effectively and provide practical insights into managing child advocates in the corrections space. 

Corinne Ranson is the National Development Programme Manager for Your Rights Your Voice, a program providing advocacy and children’s rights information to children in the 4 youth offending institutions and one secure training centre in England and Wales as well as one secure children’s home. She works for Barnardo’s, one of the UK's largest children’s charities. With a career that began 20 years ago in open access youth club settings, Corinne has considerable experience, having worked as a case manager for the Oldham Youth Justice Service and managing the Early Help family work teams and Youth Justice Service teams in Greater Manchester. For the past 2 years, she has worked on Your Rights Your Voice, where she spends much of her time challenging the systems within the secure estate that are not child-focused or trauma-informed.

 

Lee Manning is the Head of Operational Contract Management for the Youth Custody Service at His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service in the United Kingdom. His career with His Majesty’s Prison Service spans almost 13 years, beginning as a prison officer in a juvenile prison known as Warren Hill in 2012. Since then, he has worked in multiple roles, including Senior Officer and Specialist Therapeutic Community Facilitator, managing contracts covering the Community Rehabilitation Companies, and working in a national contract management capability and development role for the prison and probation service as a whole. His current role includes oversight of Secure Children's Homes, a Secure Training Centre, and educational delivery in Youth Offending Institutions.

 

Kelly DuQuesnay is an operational contract manager for the Youth Custody Service, part of a small team responsible for the delivery of education in the public youth offending institutes (YOI’s). She also manages the contract for Advocacy services. Kelly began her career in 1997 at HMP Holme House in Stockton on Tees and also worked at HMP Ranby. Over the 11 years she worked there, she held various roles including voluntary sector co-ordinator, managing the custody and resettlement departments, audits team and a training manager. In 2008, she moved into youth custody with the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and in 2017, she transitioned to the Youth Custody Service to oversee contract delivery.