ParentAssess 10 Year Anniversary Conference

The Past. The Present. The Possibility.
Celebrating 10 Years of ParentAssess: Building the Future Together

Thursday 5^th November 2026 - Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes – Home of the Enigma Code!

This is a must-attend event for professionals working across children's social care, early help, family support and the family justice sector

Price includes entry to the event, refreshments throughout the day as well as lunch. £82.50 + VAT (£99)!

A full day of CPD (certificate of attendance provided on request) with lunch and refreshments included.

Conference Programme: 

The People Behind the Presentations:

Becca Wilson, Director of Operations, ParentAssess

Becca joined ParentAssess in 2022 as a part-time administrator, bringing a background in Human Resources and business operations. Following a period of significant growth, she became the full-time Business Manager in 2023 and, when ParentAssess transitioned to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in 2024, was appointed as one of the organisation’s Directors. Becca has played a key role in ParentAssess's accelerated growth and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day running of the business. Alongside her professional role, she is also a busy mother of four, bringing both a practical and people-focused perspective to her work.

Syeda Abedin, Director of Practice, ParentAssess 

Sarah Lowe, Founder of ParentAssess

Sarah founded ParentAssess in 2016 following a long and distinguished career spanning over 40 years in social work and learning disability services. Having worked as an Independent Social Worker specialising in assessments of parents with learning disabilities since 2002, Sarah developed extensive expertise in supporting families with additional needs. She also led a Local Authority Disability Service, giving her valuable insight into both children's and adult services. Now retired, Sarah remains closely connected to ParentAssess and its ongoing development.

Claire Connors, Senior Trainer, ParentAssess

Claire is an experienced social worker, trainer, and consultant with a particular interest in trauma, coercive control, and safeguarding practice. Through her work with professionals across the social care sector, Claire supports practitioners to develop greater curiosity, strengthen analytical thinking, and improve outcomes for vulnerable families. She is especially passionate about ensuring the experiences of individuals with learning disabilities are understood and considered within assessment and intervention processes. Claire brings warmth, insight, and a thought-provoking perspective to her training and speaking engagements.

HHJ Patrick Peruško CBE, Designated Family Judge, MK & Bucks

HHJ Patrick Perusko, CBE was born in Croatia but from the age of 5 grew up in Bletchley and went to Leon School.  He was a family solicitor for 20 years in Bedford and Milton Keynes dealing with care proceedings for parents, children and local authorities as well as divorce work. He sat as a deputy district judge for 10 years and in 2008 was appointed a district judge to Milton Keynes County Court.  In 2014 he helped set up Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire FDAC, the third FDAC in the country.  In 2016 he was appointed a circuit judge and although carried on sitting in MK for a while in FDAC he was deployed to Bedfordshire.  In 2019 he set up Pan Beds FDAC which he still leads.  In 2019 he was also appointed a deputy high court judge.  He returned to MK in 2020 as Designated Family Judge.  This year he was awarded a CBE for services to the administration of justice for my FDAC work.

Lauren Crickmar: Senior Trainer, ParentAssess

Lauren is a social worker with 17 years' experience across child protection, assessment, looked after children, and court teams. After moving into independent social work, she developed a specialism in assessing parents with a learning disability and is now proud to work as a Senior Trainer with ParentAssess, supporting professionals to develop confidence and expertise in this important area of practice.

Passionate about fairness, inclusion, and relationship-based practice, Lauren is also an ADHD and neurodiversity coach, delivering training and consultancy both within and beyond social care. As a neurodivergent practitioner herself, she brings authentic insight, a reflective approach, and a strong commitment to improving outcomes for neurodivergent individuals, families, and care-experienced young people.

Alia Lewis: TV Edwards Head of Public Law Children/ Director & Co-founder of FLANC

Alia Lewis is a partner at TV Edwards Solicitors, head of public children law and has established their Neurodiversity Aware family law team. She is also a Chambers UK ranked DEI Champion, who specialises in representing neurodivergent children and adults in complex child protection cases and is committed to upholding the rights of neurodivergent individuals within family proceedings. Alia’s interest in this area stems from her lived experience as mum to her autistic son.

Alongside her casework, Alia aims to reform the family justice system via FLANC (Family Law Advice for the Neurodivergent Community), a multi award winning cross firm working group, of which Alia is a co-founding member. FLANC is dedicated to ensuring that the neurodivergent community has equal access to justice by addressing barriers to participation in family proceedings and dispute resolution. In 2023, Alia won legal aid lawyer of the year for children’s rights in recognition of this work.

Graham Brown, Trainer, ParentAssess & ISW

An experienced Early Help Worker, Social Worker and Independent Social Worker with over 20 years’ experience supporting children, young people and families across complex and challenging circumstances. Passionate about strengths-based, trauma-informed and relationship-focused practice, with particular expertise in parenting assessment and working with families who may experience professional processes as difficult or inaccessible. A ParentAssess Trainer, committed to helping practitioners think differently, adapt their approach and ensure families are genuinely heard, understood and supported to make meaningful change.

HHJ Fayyaz Afzal CBE, Designated Family Judge for South Yorkshire

HHJ Fayyaz Afzal CBE is the Designated Family Judge for South Yorkshire. He sits in Sheffield and deals with cases in the Family Court and the Court of Protection. He is also a Diversity and Community Relations Judge. He is from Rochdale and the first in his family to go to university having read law at Staffordshire University and studied for the Bar Vocational Course (as it was then) at Manchester Metropolitan University. He was Called to the Bar in 1999 and was only one of a handful of barristers with a visual impairment. He moved to Leicester to undertake pupillage and had a common law practice at New Walk Chambers before moving to No 5 Chambers where he predominantly dealt with family cases. He also sat as a Legal Assessor/Legally Qualified Chair for professional/medical regulators. He became a Deputy District Judge in 2010, a Recorder in 2015, a District Judge in 2017 and a Circuit Judge in 2020. He has a keen interest in diversity and inclusion - his work has been recognised with the award of the OBE in 2008, CBE in 2021 and being included in the Power 100 list of influential disabled people in the United Kingdom. He is a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn and a senior advocacy tutor. He is very keen to ensure that talented candidates are able to make applications for judicial appointment regardless of background. His focus on family law includes the aim of dealing with cases fairly and in a timely fashion to ensure justice for children and families.

Dr Beverley Barnett Jones h.c MBE 

Cathy Sharman, Senior Trainer, ParentAssess

Cathy has worked in social care for over 25 years.  She started out in a family centre in Belfast, working with families across the divided community.  She went on to do youth work in post-coal mining villages in Yorkshire before moving into work with care leavers, followed by 11 years in child protection.  Since 2021 she has been an Independent Social Worker, specialising in ParentAssess assessments before going on to become a Senior Trainer for ParentAssess where she developed the trauma-responsive practice and train-the-trainer courses.  She lives in West Yorkshire with her partner, two teenage children and an elderly cat.  

Azariah Hope, Futures Rerooted

Azariah Hope is a lived experience consultant, trainer and founding director of Futures Rerooted CIC working across children's social care, family justice, fostering and adoption. Drawing on over 20 years of experience in statutory involvement alongside parenting and corporate co-parenting, Azariah brings personal and professional experience to bridge gaps between professionals and families while sharing insights on risk and capacity to change. 

Rebecca Carr Hopkins, Director: Independent Social Work Matters Ltd

Rebecca qualified as a social worker in 1996, and has over thirty years experience of working with children and families. Since starting her private practice in 2007, Rebecca has trained extensively in the field of child and adult attachment. She has been trained in all of the methods for assessing attachment tied to the Dynamic Maturational Model (DMM) of Attachment and Adaptation and is authorised to teach the Infant CARE-Index, the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP-DMM) and Preschool Assessment of Attachment, the School-age Assessment of Attachment and the Adult Attachment Interview. She is also an accredited Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) guider, supervisor and trainer and is a clinical supervisor for practitioners working across health and social care services. 

Jamie Barton, Senior Trainer, ParentAssess

Jamie has worked in Children’s Services for over 20 years across a range of local authority safeguarding roles. Her career has progressed into management positions within both local authority services and Cafcass. Jamie is passionate about supporting social workers to reflect, develop and grow in their practice, while maintaining that her greatest passion remains working directly with families and undertaking assessments. At ParentAssess, Jamie brings a wealth of experience to her role as Senior Trainer and has played a leading role in the development of the ParentAssess Connected Carers Assessment framework. She enjoys the variety her role offers, combining training delivery, assessment work, and the development of new courses and frameworks that support high-quality practice across the sector.