Our Team

Rob McCabe

Strategic Lead/ CIC Director

Rob sees his role as being to ensure that the Pathfinder is DOING more, which involves lots of listening, talking, emailing, thinking, rethinking, advice-taking, laughing, some stressing and lots of appreciating the amazing people around him!

Rob has 33 years’ experience in social care. He started out in residential care and support roles within schools and further education, subsequently working as an education social worker in the Youth Offending Service, before beginning work on developing the Birmingham Pathfinder.

As a teen, Rob boxed for Birmingham Irish ABA and worked on Birmingham markets selling fruit and veg; experience which has come in handy on lots of occasions!

He has a Diploma in Social Work and BA (Hons) European Social Work Degree.

One of his favourite things in the world is to couch out to Netflix with his fam; and then fall asleep with his one-eyed cat Bob, usually before the film finishes.

Claims to fame:

Alongside Jeff Lynne from ELO and one of the blokes from Duran Duran, Rob is from Shard End.

Rob was Roman Foot Soldier No. 651 in the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Gladiator’, working in close proximity to Russell Crowe and Joaquim Phoenix. Unfortunately his much acclaimed ‘coughing wounded soldier’ performance was inexplicably cut from the final edit. Such was his standout performance, Rob is now a social worker.

Sarah Mason

Retired member of the founding team/ Patron

In 2016 Sarah was working in an SEMH school as a Special School Nurse Assistant in the next-door office to Rob, who was working in the same school as a Senior Social Worker. They began comparing notes and then started visiting families together, simply asking what the families needed. It was out of these relational conversations, and the experience of working across silos that the Birmingham Pathfinder was born.

Sarah became the first Pathfinder Coordinator and worked in that role until in 2018 her own family and health situation meant that she needed to retire to focus on her own health and on supporting her daughter. Sarah remains in close contact, however, providing help, support and advice around the strategic development of the Pathfinder.

Prior to the Pathfinder, Sarah had 40 years’ experience working in a wide range of social care settings, including as a Residential Child Care Officer, in neighbourhood offices as a Social Services Advisor, and then ten years as a School Nurse Assistant. Alongside this – as a mum of children with special needs herself – she set up a support group for parents of deaf children and been a parent representative on a hospital forum.

As well as the instrumental role Sarah played in the inception of the Pathfinder, she is also the living embodiment of our key value of ‘nurture’, to the point where she gets teased about it. She was once being called a ‘professional nan’ by one of the young people she worked with!

Sarah loves to read, either relaxing with a good novel or digging into anything factual that takes her interest. She has two Cockerpoo dogs that shadow me around the house all day, and loves visiting anywhere animal related, whether it is a zoo or a donkey sanctuary.  She’s also a big fan of comedy and loves to have a good laugh with friends and family. She says it’s the best therapy.

Clare Williams

Deputy Manager

Clare’s role is overseeing the day to day operational running of Pathfinder family support. She supervises our team of Pathfinder Coordinators and supports them with supervising the school-based Pathfinder staff.

She is also responsible for quality assurance, and for ensuring that Pathfinder values (Nurture, Commitment to Social Justice & Shared Authority) are evident throughout the work with families, colleagues and external professionals.

Over the last 19 years, Clare has worked across a variety of social care and education settings. She started out teaching in supported learning and pre-16 centres at colleges across Birmingham, and then went on to work in the Youth Offending Service as a substance misuse and mental health practitioner with young people and families who were said to be ‘hard to engage’. She then worked alongside CAHMS as a senior substance misuse practitioner for Aquarius before being seconded over to Pathfinder.

Clare is heavily involved in dog rescue; and in BSL & DDA (Breed Specific Legislation & Dangerous Dogs Act) work with dogs.  She also has rescue dogs of her own and horses whom she loves dearly. As well as riding horses, she rides a sports bike called a Yamaha R1 (which is extremely fast) and loves nothing more than riding off into the sunset to go camping. When she feels the need for speed, she books a track day and has hit speeds of 198mph!

Gemma Drummond

Lumen Christi Coordinator

Gemma works across six of the Lumen Christi primary schools.

She has worked with Pathfinder for the last 5 years. Her previous role was supporting teenagers with complex needs in a residential school setting where she worked for 14 years. This included anger management, restorative practise, safeguarding, breaking down barriers to learning, attendance and supporting families in all the challenges these bring.

Gemma loves to cook, and enjoys traveling to experience new places and – of course – the food. Her down time is walking her Cockapoo called Shelby along the canal near where she lives and spending time with friends and family. She also has a newfound love of shopping on Vinted.

Emily Loydon

Lumen Christi Coordinator

Emily works closely alongside families across the Lumen Christi primary schools.

After completing her degree, Emily worked for 14 years at an SEMH (social, emotional and metal health difficulties) residential special school, where her job was to support children with complex needs through different interventions to ensure they had a positive education. She also offered intense support for the families of the children attending the school, and it was through this work that she started working alongside Pathfinder and has been with them from the beginning.

In 2020, Emily moved to work full time with Pathfinder. She loves the ethos of Pathfinder and all the families she works with.

Outside of work, Emily loves spending time with friends and family. She is also very crafty and enjoys spending time making and creating. She also loves music and having a good dance and sing!

Rebecca Ryland

Branch Project Coordinator

Rebecca’s role is to be a coordinator for the Meadows, alongside organising the Branch Project and offering family support as a higher level family support worker.

In previous roles, Rebecca has worked as a family support worker with the Pathfinder, has been a Designated Safeguarding Lead and was also a Community Police Officer, supporting the community to come together.

Rebecca left school with limited grades, but later in life the opportunity came along to go back to college and then to undertake University – which she did – becoming the first person in her family ever to do so. She now has a Degree in Early Childhood Studies and a Post Graduate in Children’s Welfare and Wellbeing.

Rebecca was one of our first Family Support workers in the early days of the Pathfinder, joining back in 2017, and her work from that time was included in a Green Paper in conjunction with the DWP.

Gemma Cooney-Folk

Team Manager

Gemma co-manages the day to day running of Pathfinder. Her responsibilities include:-

• Supporting the strategic lead.
• Having a safeguarding eye on all cases .
• Devising school development plans.
• Facilitating positive relationships between families, schools and other external agencies .

Her previous roles have included:

• Singing serving wench
• Nanny
• Actor
• TA

All her past jobs have required a level of balance, resilience and humour. Pathfinder is the same .

Some more details about Gemma:

• Divorced
• 1 daughter at Uni
• 2 rescue fur babies
• LOVES …..Theatre ,Film, Music and Rats
• HATES……Jogging and Maths

Hollie Parrish

CIC Director

Elen Tilston

Research and Development Lead

Elen works closely with the school-based Pathfinder workers and supports them in accessing multi-agency support. She joins the school-based workers at initial meetings with families (ensuring a consistent face and positive handover if they move to another school) and then will meet regularly with the school-based workers to offer any advice on next steps in supporting the family. Elen also works closely with senior leaders in schools to explore ways Pathfinder can best support the school in terms of wider interventions, their Early Help offer and working on the school improvement plan.

Elen previously worked in an independent school with focus on supporting young people with SEN, often those who were disengaged from education. She then worked in a number of roles, initially as a one-to-one mentor covering the national curriculum with pupils who struggle in group settings, and then went on to be Head of School with SENCO responsibilities.

Elen then took a role in a newly established mainstream school as Pastoral Manager supporting the senior leadership team in creating behaviour and pastoral systems. This role developed into being the school’s Pathfinder worker which soon led her into joining the Pathfinder Core Team!

Elen loves to sleep, eat and dance (although is not so good at the latter); and also enjoys watching films and series. She dislikes maths/anything related to numbers! At the moment, Elen is desperately trying to learn Spanish and is using Duo-Lingo for this; test her if you see her but be prepared for her to go bright red and make an excuse to leave…

Mel Cole

Coordinator

Mel specialises in special needs schools, SEND, ASD & SEMH (social, emotional and mental health issues).

She has a background of family and community engagement going back 30+ years and has worked with numerous projects across the UK.

Jess Rogers

School Coordinator & Shared Authority Lead

Jess has worked for Pathfinder since 2021; she supports and oversees the work within a number schools to ensure the families’ needs are being met and positive outcomes achieved. Jess is also lead on Shared Authority, working closely with our Parent Core Team Associates to organise coffee mornings, events, training opportunities and experiences. You might see Jess and Pathfinder Associates in your school attending family days, parents evenings and school celebrations; encouraging parents to get involved and advocate for each other, as well as asking what you’d like to see in your school.

Following University, Jess worked in a domestic violence service in Birmingham, both in refuge and community settings. Jess also worked in a Secondary school as an SEMH (social, emotional and mental health) officer before moving to Early Help work in the Northfield Locality area.

Jess is a single mother to 2 children and so can relate to the struggles a lot of our families can face. Jess is obsessed with house plants and cups of tea and is always the coldest person in the office!

Sophie King

Coordinator

Sophie supports primary schools and school-based Pathfinder staff in Northfield to deliver high quality family support through the Early Help framework. She also delivers  NVR groups for parents to support them with building relationships and feeling confident when facing the challenges of parenting.

Sophie has worked in Northfield for over 20 years in a variety of roles including substance misuse, youth criminal justice and in education. She is passionate about working with people, families and organisations to identify barriers and improve their quality of life and build stronger connected communities.

Born and raised in Brum, Sophie is also passionate about the wonderful city that she calls home. She is mum to a teenager and lives with her partner and one crazy dog!

She has way too many embarrassing moments in my life to mention but is always happy to share them with others as she feels that we have more in common with one another than we have differences and it is this strength that helps us build connections, empathy and understanding.

Jenny McCabe

Knowledge and Learning Lead

Jenny works closely with Cathy, Rob and Hollie, providing support with things that need to happen in the background, like fundraising, comms, our website, and general plotting and scheming to help and support the team be able to carry on providing amazing support to our families.

Jenny’s background is originally in environmental work: she’s done everything from environmental youth work at a city farm, to working in Birmingham City Council sustainability team gathering data on carbon emissions. More recently she re-trained as a science teacher, and now, when she’s not working for the Pathfinder, she is teaching part-time at Elmfield Steiner school in Stourbridge.

When not at work, Jenny’s favourite place to be is in the garden, or the allotment or walking up a hill. Either that, or on the sofa with the cat, arguing about which movie to watch with the kids.

Cathy Stancer

Deputy Director

Arlene Hadley

Coordinator & PI/NVR Lead

Arlene’s role involves working with families to help support them through difficult times; helping to overcome hurdles encountered, preventing escalation of issues to crisis point; and helping to build resilience and empower parents to make changes and improve their lives for the better.

Previously, Arlene was a primary school teacher for 21yrs, then a foster carer for 7 years. Now that she works for the Pathfinder, she still also provides respite foster care. She also has 5 children of her own, aged between 13 and 20 years.

She loves kids, dogs and camping…..but not necessarily in that order 😉. She also recently discovered paddleboarding.

Jaidev Riyat

Birmingham Citizens Advice Bureau – Community Advisor 

Conor Mckenna

Birmingham Citizens Advice Bureau – Community Advisor 

Jean Templeton, BAhons, FCIH, DL

CIC Board Chair

Jean was Chief Executive of St Basils from 2000 retiring at end of May 2026 and prior to that had over 20 years’ experience of managing housing and neighbourhood services in a number of Local Authorities in the North East and Midlands.

Jean was chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Homelessness Taskforce and Chair of West Midlands Homelessness and Health Network and was a member of the Government’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Expert Group. She was Chair of the national Youth Homelessness Parliament from 2013-2022.

Locally, she was a member of Birmingham’s strategic Partnership Board and Birmingham Social Housing Partnership Executive.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of Birmingham in 2006 and Membership through Distinction of Faculty of Public Health in 2018. In 2019, she received the President’s Award from Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. On 13th July 2022, Jean was awarded an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University.

In July 2026 she joined the Board of Birmingham SEMH Pathfinder, pursuing a long term commitment to Universal Inclusion.

Dennis Easy

Coordinator/ Senior family support worker

Dennis works as part of the Safeguarding team based at St Thomas Aquinas Secondary, providing Pathfinder help, support, advice and care for the school’s most vulnerable children and families.

In addition, he works across various secondary schools within the South Birmingham region as part of the DLP-funded ‘Early Help’ initiative.

Dennis holds a BA (Hons) in Childhood & Youth; and a Diploma in Family Support.

Outside of work, he loves helping and volunteering in his local church

Clair Hughes

School-based family support worker

Clair helps local families and children in one of the Pathfinder schools providing early help support.

Clair was a nurse for many years at Selly Oak Hospital and briefly at the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital and she moved to working at the school in 2019 after her children were a little older.

Clair currently holds the Pathfinder award for giving the best hugs. Outside of work, Clair enjoys spending time with her family, reading, cooking and drinking too much coffee.

Lynwen Jones

School-based family support worker

Lynwen has worked for 20 years with families, young people and professionals in the broad area of Relationships and Sex Education. Before Pathfinder she was a Pastoral Manager and DSL (designated safeguarding lead) at a school for young people with Autism. She then went on to work at a school for young people with SEMH (social emotional and mental health) needs.  She volunteers in her spare time for PANTRY, working to support families to access food choice on a budget.

Lynwen lives with her family and their 20 fish. Her top tip is to avoid excessive tidying and over cleaning so that whoever and whenever someone turns up at her door they are welcome and able to make themselves at home. She loves being a Brummie but knows that her name will always sound better when said with a Welsh accent.

Chrissy King

School-based family support worker

Chrissy works alongside 5 different schools (Forestdale Primary School, Turves Green Primary School, West Heath Primary School, Holly Hill infant and Nursery School and Rednal Hill Juniors School), supporting staff and families with Early Help whilst using the values of nurture, social justice and shared authority.  Chrissy believes building a good relationship with the whole family is vital so she can develop a good understanding to support them effectively.

Chrissy was the deputy manager of several nurseries for 10 years before becoming a family support worker in a school, then finally working for the Pathfinder.

In her free time, Chrissy enjoys going for walks with her family and keeping fit.