Our strategic engagement team
Our strategic engagement leads are registered social workers working in localities with a range of stakeholders, including social workers, people with lived experience of social work, employers, and education and training providers.
Learn more about our strategic engagement team
Last updated: 1 December 2023
Matthew Devlin
Matthew is our head of strategic engagement. Matthew qualified as a social worker in 2009 and began his career at Cumbria County Council. He has held several roles within adult services, most recently a practice development worker for a social work teaching partnership between Cumbria County Council and Lancaster University, part of which contributed to a, now published, exploratory study into rural social work in Cumbria.
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Gavin Moorghen
Gavin is is our regional engagement lead for East Midlands and West Midlands. He is committed to improving standards in social work having done so in practice, developmental and senior roles for local and national social work organisations. A keen advocate of the social work profession, Gavin has regularly spoken on behalf of the social work profession at national events, on podcasts and in the national media.
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Victoria Hart
Victoria is our regional engagement lead for London. Victoria has been a social worker for over 20 years. She has worked across London in a variety of adult services, including local authority services for older adults and mental health services in a specialist community older adults mental health service and as an advanced practitioner in NHS forensic mental health services. Victoria has practised as an approved mental health professional and as a best interests assessor.
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Renée Aleong
Renée is our regional engagement lead for Yorkshire. She is a registered social worker with experience of supporting adults with substance misuse and mental health problems. Renée has held senior roles within the Ministry of Justice and statutory health and social care regulation. Renée is in the final stages of a PhD in social policy and social work at the University of York. She is passionate about achieving social change through promoting and developing evidence-based social work practice which aims at tackling systemic health and social care inequalities.
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Catherine Witt
Catherine is our regional engagement lead for the North East, East Riding of Yorkshire and Humberside. Catherine was formally the principal social worker in Sunderland working primarily with Together for Children with a role in adult services. As a principal social worker for 5 years, she was able to promote the profession and directly support front line social workers. Catherine has worked mostly in statutory services including probation, youth justice, children’s services and residential care.
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Jack Harrison
Jack is our participation officer. He has held several roles in the private, voluntary and independent sectors. Jack has also worked in the areas of events and fundraising which included working as an international events manager in Tanzania for 3 months and climbing Mt Kilimanjaro for Meningitis Research Foundation. Prior to joining us, Jack worked as a coach on an innovative employment support programme for people with physical and mental health conditions.
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Ioana Roberts
Ioana is our regional engagement lead for the Eastern region. Ioana has been a social worker for 22 years and has worked as a children and families social worker and in adults social work since 2009. She is a qualified practice educator and mentor, and led the quality assurance and professional development team for Suffolk Adult and Community Services since June 2017 as the principal practice lead and principal social worker.
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Kate Metcalf
Kate is our regional engagement lead for the South East. Kate has been a senior social worker in adults services, a best interests assessor, a practice educator, and a guest lecturer at the University of Brighton. She has 18 years’ experience of local authority adult social care work. In 2014 to 2015 Kate was a professional practice advisor at the College of Social Work where she researched and wrote practice manuals on autism and dementia.