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John Vallender

From being a director of a manufacturing retail business, John moved into formal education in 1975 where he gained 25 years teaching experience in inner city Further Education Colleges in Birmingham, as a manager and principle lecturer.

In 2000 John left formal education to concentrate on authoring and publishing interactive e-learning resources and in addition providing support to a ‘learndirect’ study programme in his local community.

In 2005 John was appointed by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), to set up and manage a quality assurance, accreditation and support programme for providers of community safety education in England. Known as LASER (Learning About Safety by Experiencing Risk), good LASER activities provide children with opportunities to learn how to recognise and deal with issues through simulation, role play and practical activity. The programme now has more than 140 members representing some 200 events at which some 200,000 children each year learn about personal safety, health and wellbeing, citizenship and aspects of criminal behaviour.

In late 2008 was appointed to set up and manage the CSEC, to contribute towards the British Government’s commitment to reduce the number and severity of unintended injuries being reported and admitted at accident and emergency departments in England.

Jason Cole

Jason has joined the CSEC team from an educational background, teaching children in a Birmingham primary school. Here he found time to develop the school’s sports and PE curriculum. This success led him to work as a School Sport Co-ordinator for a year helping to develop PE in several primary schools.

Before this time Jason completed a degree at Loughborough University, where he also spent a good deal of his time playing rugby. He combined this with coaching a successful ladies rugby premier division side. However since then rugby has taken more of a back seat as Jason has developed his sporting prowess by partaking in a wide variety of sports to a lesser or better extent.

Now with CSEC, he is working to develop partnerships with organisations involved in sport, aiming to involve them in reducing unintended injury initiatives. Jason is also involved with resource development.

Cassius Francis

Cassius has enjoyed an interesting journey to his role as a CSEC co-ordinator. On completing an architecture degree (Westminster University) he started employment as a project worker on a mentoring project. Since then he has worked in the field of mentoring and youth and community work in both London and Birmingham. He is also a qualified youth and community worker (Brunel University). Before starting work as RoSPA’s first youth liaison worker in November 2008, he ran an independent educational consultancy with wife Vanessa for five years.

Cassius will be supporting NCB to develop CSEC’s young people’s advisory group and he will work primarily in the West Midlands with teenagers as the CSEC co-ordinator.

Cassius recently discovered that he had a longstanding connection to RoSPA after finding a certificate that his grandfather had earned in 1959 for ‘having been free from accidents for which he was in any way blameworthy’ while driving trains. In his spare time Cassius enjoys walking, trips to the cinema, is a renowned gospel music DJ and a long-suffering Tottenham fan.

Craig Keegan

Craig originally from Chester, now living in Derby, is covering the East Midlands and Northern areas of the country.

Following his keen personal interest in outdoor activities Craig completed the University Of Glamorgan’s Pembrokeshire based Sports Science with Marine Pursuits HND. During his time at university Craig also began his outdoor activities instructing career and went on to continue instructing at number of centres up and down the country. More recently Craig has used his outdoor activity experience in his Sports Developmental roles within the local authorities of Salford, Derbyshire and Nottingham both at a strategic and grass roots level.

Now with CSEC, Craig is looking to use his knowledge of outdoor activities to develop practical learning experiences with young people through the use of outdoor adventurous settings, residential experiences and sports delivery both within formal centres and voluntary outdoor sports clubs.

Kathy Shortt

Before joining CSEC, Kathy worked in the Road Safety Department of RoSPA writing educational resources for teachers and road safety officers. She joined RoSPA after retiring from a long teaching career that included primary mainstream, special needs and adult education.

For the past few years, she has also worked as an education/business advisor with a Birmingham based company. This has involved organising work related learning events and workshops in local secondary schools.

Now a co-ordinator with CSEC, Kathy will be focussing on delivering safety education training to workers in child care settings.

Nicola Smith

Nicola taught Design Technology in two secondary schools in Glasgow for five years, until her allergies to metal and sawdust caused too many problems. She returned to University to complete a PhD in sustainable energy systems, before putting her two passions together as an environmental educator. Here she worked directly with children and staff in many schools, helping them to make real and sustained changes in their school and home lives. Throughout this time, she was also a warranted leader with both the Brownies and Guides for 16 years.

After relocating to Wiltshire with her family she was a childminder for a while before returning to environmental education. She has been involved in the writing of a variety of educational materials for all ages, and the development of web based resources.

Now with CSEC, she is working to help children and young people to develop the skills they need to keep themselves safe. Her main areas of responsibility are website and resource development, schools and uniformed organisations.

Christine Tame

Christine started her working career when she joined the Metropolitan Police in the mid 70’s. She was involved in many interesting investigations and community projects, before becoming an Instructor for the Cadet Corps at the Police Training School in Hendon. After 15 years service, Christine left to have a family, taking a break for four years. She then worked as a learning support to children with complex needs at a local Nursery School in the London Borough of Barnet.

Six years later Christine moved across to the East End of London working as an Accident Prevention Officer for the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Here, she co-ordinated Kerbcraft, a National Pilot Scheme delivering practical road safety training to key stage1 students.

She worked delivering home safety, and road safety education to Primary and Secondary School students, with particular responsibility within the team working in partnership with the Primary Care Trust, baby clinics and Sure Start Children Centre’s. Christine then moved back to the London Borough of Barnet after six years to set up a Sure Start Children’s Centre, delivering activities and supporting parents with children from birth to five years.

Now a member of the CSEC team, Christine is looking at what practical safety education is available to Primary School children in some of the London Boroughs. She also hopes as part of her role to engage with organisations working with young parents (aged 14 plus). She would like to work in partnership in order to deliver home safety awareness and education, building skills and confidence enabling young parent’s to make choices and decisions about safety for themselves and their children in their home.