Members of The Oversight Board

David is a care experienced activist who pushes for the necessary changes to ensure all care experienced people – past and present – can realise their rights and full potential.

He is a father and a foster carer to three children with his wife. Together, in France, they run a therapeutic farm where they welcome anyone who may benefit from the mixture of animals, nature and connection.

David also teaches social work students and social educators on the importance on love, respect and equality for people experiencing “the care system”. He works collaboratively to ensure the promise is kept in full.

For a long time, Anna’s believed Scotland must do better for the children and young people in its care and has pursued that in various roles. 

As a member of The Oversight Board, she expects to see all parts of “the care system” upping their game to deliver The Promise.

Before joining the Board, she was a trustee of Who Cares? Scotland, and led work in Scottish Government to improve corporate parenting.

Anna is currently Chief Executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, and before this she was Chief Executive of the Scottish Social Services Council.

Carrie works in Highland Council, and for the last 15 years has mainly done so in Youth Justice Services.

Over her career, she has worked with children, young people, and their families in many different settings, including:

• Health and Social Care
• The Scottish Prison Service, and
• Secure Care.

Through previous roles as a practitioner and Forensic Psychologist in Training, she has delivered training on several topics to staff from many different services. She has also researched care experienced young people’s views on being cared for ‘away from home’.

She's always strived to make sure young people’s voices are heard, and that services around children and their families are both trauma-informed and psychologically informed.

As an adult with care experience, it’s always been one of Emma’s ambitions to try and help people who may be going through something similar to her. She currently works as a project worker for Barnardo’s in North and South Ayrshire, and supports care experienced children and young people as part of the intandem mentoring programme.

Emma went to college in 2021, which helped her to recognise her passion for social care. She’s currently completing an evening class to further her skills and knowledge.

Euan has a background as a social worker with children and their families, both as a frontline worker and manager. He currently works in a multiagency child protection role.

Euan was a member of the steering group which revised 2021's National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland.

Jasmin comes from a Community Learning Development background and works in education within Glasgow City Council. She has a strong passion for supporting young people to overcome barriers and achieve their full potential.

As a care experienced person herself, her contribution to The Oversight Board will combine her personal understanding of the challenges care experienced children and young people face with a professional outlook on the importance of implementing change.

She is delighted to be working alongside a team who have a diverse range of experience and who champion equality and diversity.

Jemma has a background working in residential childcare. She has a social work degree, and spent three and a half years advocating for care experienced people when working for Who Cares? Scotland. As well as this, she supported young people to be listened to as part of 1000 voices and of the Independent Care Review.

Whilst at Who Cares? Scotland she also worked as a Development Officer and a Training and Education Officer, training corporate parents on their role. She now works as a project worker for Children 1st, as part of their East Ayrshire Family Wellbeing Service.

As an adoptee, Jemma felt intrinsically drawn to work in the care sector. Her relationships, experiences, training and education have all led her to reflect on the cultures, behaviours and systems of care. She truly values the importance of the promise, and she’s committed to working with her fellow Oversight Board members to make sure that it’s kept.

Kelly has an extensive background in local government and has campaigned for almost a decade to make it work better for care experienced people and their families. A care experienced person herself, she is currently Council Leader for Midlothian— as well as a mum to two children.

From 2017 to 2022, she was Community Wellbeing Spokesperson at COSLA , where she worked across councils and with national government on key policy areas including:

• housing,
• human rights,
• domestic abuse,
• justice, and
• employability.

Kelly hopes to be a strong advocate for driving change and progressing the work of the promise, and is very excited to join the Oversight Board.

Kezia is Director of the John Smith Centre. Based at the University of Glasgow, the non-partisan organisation exists to make the positive case for politics and public service through the promotion of civilised debate and high-quality research. It also seeks to support people with the talent – but not the means – to access politics and public life.

Before joining the John Smith Centre, Kezia was a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothians region for eight years, during which she led her party through four national elections and the EU referendum. Beyond her working life, she is on the board of social transformation charity Sistema Scotland and the housing charity Shelter UK.

Lisa is a care experienced individual from the Western Isles, who lives and studies in Inverness.

She has dedicated herself to keeping children at the heart of all care related matters. Her own experience and insights helped inform the Hearings System Working Group’s Redesign Report, and have also informed changes to law around keeping brothers and sisters together. As part of Our Hearings, Our Voice, she has spoken alongside The Promise Scotland— an organisation whose work has been an inspiration to her.

Lisa is excited to be part of the Oversight Board, and to make a bigger impact on Scotland’s “care system” in the future. Her ambition is to become a social worker or lawyer, so Scotland’s future children can have a better upbringing than she did.

Lorraine is a passionate believer in the power of education and its potential to change lives.

She uses her own experiences – which include childhood trauma, care experience and adverse childhood experiences – to guide, lead and develop the learning, practice and development of herself and others. She believes that "damage done is not damage done," and that through self-care combined with healthy relationships we can heal.

Lorraine is a qualified and registered social worker. She joined Edinburgh Napier University in 2018, establishing the HUB for SUCCESS — which helps people with care experience get in, stay in and return to education.

Before this, she worked with Who Cares? Scotland for 14 years—in advocacy, rights and management roles. Prior to that Lorraine worked in community and youth work setting. She was a member of the Stop-Go Group for the Independent Care Review, and was appointed as a Board Member for the Scottish Childrens Reporters Administration (SCRA) in 2021. 

Before retiring in 2020, Maria worked in palliative care for 30 years, the last 10 of which she spent as the Chief Executive of Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS).

In CHAS, Maria saw staff working with families in ways which those families had been told weren’t possible— where babies, children and families experienced the world around them with love and joy.

Along with her colleagues, she sought ways to break through the constraints of existing models of service to create new ways of working, new collaborations and new strategic partnerships. She worked with:

• the NHS,
• local authorities,
• higher education, and
• the third sector.

All this work had the voices of children and families at its heart.

Oisín is a second year student at the University of Glasgow, studying politics alongside social and ­­public policy. He currently works as a care consultant with Each and Every Child, delivering training on reframing how we talk about care experience across different sectors.

Oisín is care experienced, and for many years has advocated and campaigned for the rights of the care experienced community. He represented this community as a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYP), and also campaigned on their behalf.

He now wants to continue his campaigning and advocacy in this new role, as he becomes a member of the Oversight Board.

As Director of Improvement at Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Ruth is responsible for the design and delivery of national programmes which support the redesign and continuous improvement of health and care services in Scotland.

She’s passionate about improving public services so that the people who need and use them receive the best possible experiences and outcomes. She has a particular interest around how to generate good ideas for change and then get them implemented in practice.

Ruth’s background is in general management in health and social care, where she spent most of her career working across mental health, substance use and learning disability services. During this time, she developed a strong commitment to ensuring change is built on a deep understanding of the needs and assets of individuals needing support and ensuring that services are co-designed with the people who use them.

Ryan’s background is in campaigning and policy work. Globally and across the UK, he’s worked through a human rights lens on issues including:

1. poverty,
2. educational attainment,
3. food systems,
4. climate change, and
5. the environment.

Ryan’s work focuses on shining a light on the positive and lifelong aspects of care. Through his time as a campaigner and activist, he has been a champion of the care experienced community— helping others gain more of an insight into their own identities, while supporting them to influence meaningful change.

Ryan is care experienced himself, having had a foster care placement for over 12 years as of 2024. He has been a key advocate for the promise since The Promise Scotland was first established, and is delighted to be a member of the Oversight Board.

Taliah Drayak is a care experienced mother of eight children. She works as an author, and volunteers with several charities focused on families and children.

She is passionate that children's rights are of utmost importance, and that every child deserves not only to have equality— but to be enabled to achieve their dreams.

Tracey has worked in the social care sector for over 25 years, where she developed and managed social care services. This has been across several policy areas including justice, problematic substance use, homelessness and mental health with a range of marginalised groups including children, young people, adults, older people, families and communities.

She has worked at a senior level for several years, driving improvement and quality assurance through service review, re-design, organisational change and strategic development and implementation.

Tracey has worked in the University of Glasgow, Scottish Government and recently Partners in Advocacy, a human rights-based charity before taking on her current post as Chief Executive Officer at Stirling Community Enterprise . Throughout her career she has volunteered with many organisations, including the Children’s Hearing System and MCR Pathways.