About Us

Annette Mountford MBE BA RGN HV
One of the three co-founders of Family Links. She worked as a health visitor for 13 years. Annette combined her experience in health, education and parenthood to introduce the Nurturing Programme to the UK in 1992. From 1997 she developed the children's programme for schools ensuring it met the PSHCE curriculum and lead many Circle Times. She also sat on Department of Children, Schools and Families Committee on best practice in parenting. She contributed towards The Parenting Puzzle and was editorial advisor to The Parenting Puzzle DVD.

Verity Lowe BEd MA
With 20 years' teaching experience, Verity worked as Social Inclusion
Co-ordinator for the Wolverhampton Education Action Zone, co-ordinated a multi-agency Behaviour Support Team, and was for several years Area Co-ordinator for Wolverhampton before joining Family Links as Programme Director and becoming a member of the national training team.

Darran Draper BSc (Hons) NNEB
Darran has extensive experience of working with parents, with posts including Nursery Nurse, Fathers’ worker, Learning Mentor and Parenting Co-ordinator. Darran joined us from the Pyramid for Parents programme, and has knowledge of many parenting programmes as well as vast experience training facilitators. He is also the stepfather to four young men and is be based in the North West.

Gillian Warland BSc (Hons), Cert Teaching Adults, Cert HE Prof Education Studies
Gillian is an experienced adult learning practitioner. She previously worked for Oxfordshire County Council as a Team Manager for the Parenting and Family Learning Team within the Adult Learning Service. She also delivered parenting programmes as a Family Outreach Worker and worked as an Adult Learning Tutor.

Some of our Freelancers

Helen Gamble BTEC, BA (Hons) Deaf Studies & Theatre Studies
Helen was a Parent Group Co-ordinator for an energetic children's charity Believe 2 Achieve based in Wolverhampton. She started her career as a nursery nurse and  then moved into sexual health promotion,  working with teenage parents. Helen has alot of experience in running the Family Links Nurturing Programme with parents and has facilitated more than 20 groups since training in 2002. She qualified as a National Trainer in 2005.

Deborah Birch BA (Hons) Psychology & Behaviour in Organisations
Debs has been working with parents since 1997 after her own children began school. She worked as a Community Worker for Barnardo’s then worked for a short time with Parentline Plus. Since 2002 she has been working for Ferries Family Groups, a local family support charity doing both one-to-one and group work with parents.

Christine Chapman BA
Christine has been involved with working with families for several years. Initally she started working with Action for Children and then moved on to work as a Home-Start Senior Organiser.  She currently trains freelance for Family Links in Oxford and Surrey and for Surrey Parenting Education and Support. She has recently been a tutor on the City and Guilds Working with Parents QCF Qualification.

Jean Deacon RGN, RMW, HV Cert
Jean is a Health Visitor within School Nursing in the East Riding of Yorkshire. For the last four years she has been on secondment with East Riding Local Authority. She works in a dual role as Parenting Coordinator East Riding wide to develop quality services for all parents/carers within their locality, also as a Parenting Coordinator with the Youth Offending Team. Subsequently she was a Project Manager for the Early Support Parenting Pathfinder Project.

Stephanie Ward MSc in Health Education & Health Promotion
PGCE
Steph's experience in the parenting field started with the National Childbirth Trust where she is now a tutor, training their antenatal teachers.  As a Health Promotion Specialist she had a remit for family and child health.  Her involvement with Family Links began in 2002.  She still runs both antenatal classes for the NCT and parent groups with Family Links so that she still keeps up to date at the grass roots level.

Vicky Elbourne, BA Community Theatre Arts and Post grad in Dramatherapy
Vicky works for CAMHS (Child and adolescence mental health service) in North East Lincolnshire. She divides her time between the child and family unit as a therapist supporting children who are referred for various mental health problems and is also part of the family therapy team. She also works within the local authority Healthy Schools team where she facilitates training programmes for staff and children.

Louise Capstick, BA
Louise joined the freelance training team at Family Links in 2008. She also provides parenting support and training to adoptive parents in Oxfordshire, including a buddy scheme and a range of parenting courses and workshops. She is a national trainer for the Henry Project. She has qualifications in youth work, counselling skills, brief solution focussed therapy, and in teaching adults. She has trained and run parenting groups using the Nurturing Programme, the Incredible Years and the Parents Together parenting programmes.