Meet the Team

Jonathan Richards came to Wales in 1973 to train to be a doctor and worked as a general practitioner in Merthyr Tydfil from 1981 to 2015. He was Clinical Director for the Cynon Valley at Cwm Taf University Health Board from 210-2016, involved in supporting the Third Sector, integrating health and social care, quality and safeguarding. In the late 1990s he was Vice-Chair of the Diabetes UK Cymru Advisory Group for some years. He has been an External Professor of Primary Care at the University of South Wales (Glyntaff) since 1997.

He has had a special interest in the links between health and poverty since the research began to be published in the mid-1990s. He heard Professor Sir Marmot speak in 2012 and realised that he was describing behaviours that increased the risks of bad things happening not stigmatising people. His experiences in general practice informed what he knew about the complexities of untangling the relationships between determinants of health and well-being, behaviours, culture, resilience and the importance of meeting people where they are, and supporting them in ways that enable them to make the changes and choices that help to improve relationships, health and well-being.

He decided that he wanted to do something about these issues, particularly supporting families to give children the best start in life once he had retired from the NHS in 2017. Home-Start was recommended to him as an effective Charity that was making big differences for parents and families. He made contact and immediately found that the staff and volunteers were remarkable people, wise and compassionate with a passion for making real differences.

Ann qualified as a social worker and spent nearly forty years working in Local Authorities in Wales – firstly in a Children’s Department and then in Social Services Departments working with the elderly, people with disabilities and across mental health services as well as with children and their families.

She then moved on into managerial positions in children’s services where prior to retirement she spent ten years as Head of Children’s Services in a Local Authority.

Following retirement, she became an independent member of a Police Authority leading on Public Protection, worked part time in the voluntary sector for Children in Wales and chaired two Local Authority Adoption Panels, one of which she still chairs.

She has been a trustee with Home-Start since she retired – chairing Home-Start Carmarthen–Llanelli for thirteen years and then continuing as chair of the merged Home-Start Carmarthenshire prior to becoming a board member of Home-Start Cymru. She is also a trustee of a local domestic abuse services charity.

Barbara retired in 2013 having spent most of her working career in the voluntary sector working with children and families. Home-Start has been a huge part of her life since she took up the role of setting up and managing Home-Start Merton in South London in 1993 where she remained until her retirement over 20 years later. Following retirement she and her husband relocated to South Wales. It wasn’t long before she sought out Home-Start in Wales and in 2014 she joined the Board of Trustees of the former Home-Start Caerphilly, serving as Chair for the last 2 years, before joining the board of Home-Start Cymru when it came into being in 2019.

 Whilst in Merton, having developed a reputation for being innovative and creative in her approach, she was frequently invited by Home-Start UK to contribute to the development of a number of projects and new ways of working. Her proudest achievement was in 2006 when invited by Home-Start UK to represent the charity, speaking at a conference in Lithuania.

 Barbara brings a long history of living and breathing the ethos of Home-Start, having known Home-Start founder Margaret Harrison, and a strong insight and understanding of the operational side of its work alongside building strategic vision. Bringing over 20 years experience of project management Barbara is pleased to be part of driving forward an exciting future for Home-Start in Wales.

Carol Ravenscroft was appointed as Treasurer of Home Start Cymru in January 2020.

Carol is Director of Finance at Drive, a Charity providing care and support for people with learning disabilities.

Carol has over 30 years’ experience in Financial Management in various roles in the public and third sector. Carol is a Fellow of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Catriona is recently retired Chief Executive of Children in Wales  which is the national umbrella membership charity for organisations and individuals from all disciplines and sectors working with children, young people and families and which aims to make the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child a reality in Wales. Children in Wales also manages the Young Wales programme which provides a platform for children and young people to give their views direct to government. She has worked in the children and young people’s field all her professional life and was a leading member of the campaign to establish the first Children’s Commissioner in the UK and actively promoted a focus on combating child poverty in Wales.

She has been a member of many Welsh Government working groups. Currently these include the Social Services Partnership Forum, Curriculum for Wales Stakeholder Group, the Together for Children and Young People Programme Board and the Improving Outcomes for Children Ministerial Advisory Group. She is also on the Cymru Well Wales collaborative. On a UK level she was one of the 10 Commissioners on the UK Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.

Catriona co-chairs Voices from Care Cymru and she has also been on the boards of several charities such as the National Family and Parenting Institute and the Wales Council for Voluntary Action.

Internationally, Catriona was the founder President of Eurochild (2001-2010), the pan European NGO funded by the European Commission that aims to combat child poverty and social exclusion across Europe. She was President of the International Forum for Child Welfare 2008-2012 and also Vice President of the European Social Platform of NGO’s in 2010-2012.

Helen is the Director of the Bevan Commission and the Bevan Commission Academy. She has played a lead role in the establishment of the Commission and in its challenging work programme, particularly Prudent Healthcare.

Helen was instrumental in establishing the Bevan Academy, Bevan Innovators and transformation programmes, helping to drive its thinking into practice.

She was previously a Public Health Consultant with Public Health Wales and has led a major Ministerial review of health improvement interventions across Wales.

Prior to this Helen held a number of senior positions within Welsh Government Health Policy and Strategy, latterly heading up the Primary and Community Health Strategy Unit.

Helen has worked as an advisor with the World Health Organisation and also advised Russian, Spanish, New Zealand and other Governments on health policy.

Helen taught for a number of years on the WHO masters at Karolinska University in Sweden and at Bristol University as Director of a post-graduate Leadership programme for clinicians.

Ruth Sinfield’s working career has been in social care, mainly in the statutory sector but with strong links with the voluntary sector.

She qualified as a social worker in the 1970’s and worked her way up the management ladder to a senior level.

Now semiretired she continues to take an interest in vulnerable children and families. Her association with Home-Start goes back many years when she worked in partnership with them. When she retired, she was asked to join the local Home-Start management board. She became Chair just before a Wales merger was muted so was very involved from the beginning in this new organisation.