Our Board of Trustees advises on SPPA activities, and meet monthly to hold SPPA to account and to drive forward our agenda.

We are appointing between two to five trustees at this year’s Annual General Meeting, pending the result of our Special Resolution. Trustees are standing for non-specific roles, meaning the position will be flexible to the candidate.

Who is standing for trusteeship? (A-Z)

Laurence Alfred 

Laurence Alfred is a grandfather, father and husband who has lived his life doing what he loved and believed in. I am a ‘mad’ keen Chelsea supporter (with the emphasis on ‘mad’) and torture myself on a weekly basis following my beloved blues and their misfortunes. It was while a Boy Scout that I met my first hero ‘Skip’ from whom I learnt about integrity and authenticity. I am married to Vibeke and together we have two daughters, two sons and, as I write today, four grandchildren with another due in August!

Andy Carter

Andy has worked as a Qualified Teacher and Social Worker with young people. He has extensive experience of working in a wide range of settings offering both formal and informal education to children and young people both in and on the edge of care. He's worked for ThemPra since 2010, facilitating learning in a number of situations including large and small Local Authorities, Independent Children’s homes and Camphill Communities. His career started in a special education unit in Cumbria where he saw and experienced the challenges for that group of young people within the formal education system and society. He then went on to work in a number of situations, always with a similar group of young people who offered many challenges to a traditional approach to care and education. As a response to this he adopted a social pedagogical approach to his work, which led to positive outcomes for the young people. Inspired by this, he then moved to work for ThemPra, where he is in a position to share this passion, knowledge and expertise with others.

Lowis Charfe

Lowis Charfe is a Course Leader for the BA Hons Social Pedagogy, Advocacy and Participation and MA Social Pedagogy Leadership at University of Central Lancashire. Lowis' background is as a social worker working predominantly with children and young people. Her first role was working for the Greater Manchester Probation Service as a Probation Officer for the Manchester City Youth Team.  From here Lowis spent a number of years working as a leaving care social worker for a large charity. She supported young people in their transition from being cared for to independent living and worked alongside families, foster carers, residential staff and local authority social workers.

Niina Robinson

Niina Robinson is a qualified social pedagogue both in UK and in Finland. In Finland she worked as family pedagogue with Looked After Children and Families for several years. In UK (London) she worked  for the “Head, Hearts, Hands” programme introducing and implementing social pedagogy into fostering and social work. She also has many years' of experience working in different voluntary roles with immigrants, churches, Food Bank and Fostering both in Finland, UK and other countries. Niina currently lives in Northern Ireland and has prior experience acting as a trustee of a local High School and a religious organisation. 

Joerg Schlueter 

Joerg Schlueter is a German qualified social pedagogue with years of experience of working in social pedagogical settings in both the German and Irish social care sector. Joerg set up and established Compass Child and Family services in Ireland , strongly built on social pedagogical principles, including an organisational culture and ethos mirroring such principles in its structure and ways of working with each other. Currently Joerg is leading the development and implementation of a n organisation delivering social services in Scotland.