We are a small team here at Eastern Fostering Services. Between us, we have a wealth of experience which enables us to support our carers skilfully. Our social workers care deeply about the families they support and this is made evident in the stable and successful placements our children enjoy.
You can see what the children think about us by looking at our community page and scrolling to the bottom!
Eleanor
Eleanor is a one off! Famously set on a course for social work after being asked to leave school for “not really fitting the mould”, she quickly knew she wanted to focus on work with children and families. Moreover, with 25 years’ experience in this area and a desire to see children living happy, settled lives, Eleanor is the driving force behind Eastern Fostering Services. Eleanor is Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Sarah
Sarah has over 15 years’ experience in fostering administration support. With her organisational skills and dedication to the children and carers, Sarah is worth her weight in gold. Our carers will tell you the same themselves! Sarah loves the countryside and animals and in her spare time can be found in her garden and going for long walks.
Sandra
Sandra is our Senior Supervising Social Worker. Indeed she has over 15 years’ experience working with children in residential care and foster carers. She is a highly valued source of wisdom and fostering support to our carers. Having coached ladies’ football for 4 years, these days Sandra prefers to watch from the stands. She is a keen supporter of Ipswich Town. Oh well, nobody’s perfect.
Jo
Jo is in her element dicing with danger doing extreme sports. But when she’s not throwing herself out of planes, she puts all her passion into improving the lives of children. To this end, during her career in social work, she has built up 10 years’ experience of working with children, young people and families. Jo is based in Cambridgeshire where she recruits, assesses and supports foster carers. Jo is Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Alisha
Alisha joined EFS in January 2024 and is our Fostering Administrator. Alisha gained a BA Hons degree in Business and then worked for County Broadband in various admin roles for 6 years.
She enjoys spending time with her family on days out, loves animals, making lots of memories and going on adventures. She loves going on walks and exploring new places. Her dream is to travel the world. She is very family orientated and lives with her husband, daughter and 2 tortoises, Timmy and Harold. She is outgoing, bubbly and very chatty…when she was younger, little miss chatterbox was her most common reference from the Mr Men and Little Miss books!
Daisy
My name is Daisy and I am the Practice Manager for EFS. I have just joined the team after 11 years in local authority predominantly within fostering and adoption. I am a bit of a trauma geek and love anything neuroscience-y! I am passionate about my job and cannot see myself doing anything else.
Outside of work I spend my time with my pack of pointers and renovating my 600-year-old home with my husband. I love rare plants and feel my best self when out exploring the south west countryside. Oh, and although I am teeny (but mighty!), I love playing Rugby as a winger with Hadleigh Ewes!
Mia
Fostering Family Recruitment Co-ordinator
Before starting with EFS I worked with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in residential settings for 11 years. I have always been passionate about making a positive difference to the lives of children in need.
I live in a small village with my partner, my dog Maggie and my two rabbits Ethel and Hodor. I enjoy walking the fields around my village and finding new places for lunch, particularly in the sunshine!
When I’m not exploring the countryside, I’m at home binge watching a great series, drawing, and painting or re-reading Harry Potter for the 15th time!
Emily
Meet Emily, our Placements’ Officer. If you’re approved as a foster carer, you’ll get to know Emily very well. Emily’s career embodies her commitment and passion to the children and foster carers we support. She started out in neonatal nursing before moving to a charity supporting parents of children who were struggling with mental health difficulties, offering parent support groups and facilitating training. She came to EFS after working in a Local Authority children’s residential home.
She lives in Suffolk with her family which includes 3 children and Ted, the Airedale terrier. Music is another passion of Emily’s and she gets to as many concerts as she can fit in to her busy life. When she does get a moment to herself, she enjoys channeling her creativity into baking. We feel another Bake Off is well overdue!
Lizzy
I have been a qualified social worker since 2017 and started my journey in Essex and later in Norfolk, working with children in care, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and fostering recruitment. I moved to Norfolk with my partner and whilst working for the LA I found EFS and took the leap. My heart has always been led to working with children in care and helping to improve the lives of those who cannot live with their birth families.
Everyone who knows me, knows my 2 cats Milo and Misty are basically my children, I am a bit cat crazy! I love to travel the world and learn about different cultures. But normally I am at home under a blanket watching Netflix or playing board games.
Camilla
Camilla is a jack of all trades, but the one she’s most proud of is being a foster carer. Her first love was dancing which then led on to acting, and Camilla has performed in many stage productions as well as some TV, film and radio work.
At the same time, she was running her own business, a designer second-hand ladies clothes shop in London called Deuxieme. After 18 years of the two concurrent careers, Camilla decided to have a complete change and moved to Essex to become a Foster Carer!
This was initially inspired by doing some mentoring for the children’s charity Kids Company in London and feeling strongly about wanting to help children with difficult backgrounds. Her fostering journey began with two elderly cats, brothers Nelson and Napoleon, who had been left behind by their previous owner, but shortly after, her foster daughter arrived!
Seeing first-hand what amazing work EFS and all the carers do, when the opportunity came up to come on board to help with recruitment and marketing for EFS, Camilla jumped at it and is tickled pink to be on the team! Especially because her hilarious Toy Poodle, Audrey, can also be part of the EFS canine team!
Sian
I qualified in 2007 as a social worker, where I worked for LA children in care, moving on to LA fostering for the best part of 10 years, followed by some time in adoption. I left LA to work for the NHS and Perinatal mental Health, when I decided, I would like to go back to fostering! So here I am!
I’m married to James and we have 3 sons. I try and do my best to love exercise, body combat being my fave! but my favourite things of all are my 2 doggies, Luna and Ivy who are treated like the daughters I never had lol! A little fact about me, im a trained florist and in my spare time I have cobbled together a few weddings and funerals, although I prefer to just potter with the one vase these days!
Louise
Louise has spent the majority of her working life in Customer Service and Administration roles.
She enjoys talking to people and is often referred to as a problem solver.
During freetime, she enjoys baking, travelling and is an enthusiastic beginner at sewing.
She lives at home with her husband and their fur baby ‘’Boots’ who is a Maine Coon Siamese cross.
Sam
Sam first joined the EFS team as a student social worker and we knew she had something special. Following graduation, she worked for Family Support and Protection at a Local Authority before coming back to EFS. Her background is as an Early Years Practitioner, working in a nursery with groups of pre-school children and also one-to-one support and supervision of children with SEN. During her time at the nursery, Sam worked with some children who were under social care and that was what inspired her to pursue a career in social work. Sam always has a house full at home, she is a working mum and step-mum, she is also animal mad and has two dogs – including Dolly, who is a regular feature in the EFS office. Sam rides horses and advocates their therapeutic input for children, so in her ‘spare time’ Sam will typically be outdoors!
Paul
Paul is our Children and Young People’s Participation Worker. Having been a foster carer for 7 years, he brings a great deal of experience to the role. Following a general EFS theme of not really loving school, Paul has always loved people and has spent his working life in a variety of people-focussed roles. His passion lies in making a positive difference in the lives of children and young people but that’s not to say he neglects the adults. Having lost an incredible 7 stone in weight, Paul now helps inspire others to do the same in his spare time as a Weight Loss Consultant. Whilst we may not have to direct our efforts at keeping Paul away from the cakes, we do frequently need to come between him and the karaoke machine. An altruistic act on the part of the EFS team who want to prevent suffering in all its forms, an approach which I am sure his wife and 3 year old French Bulldog, Winston, will fully support!
Emma
After qualifying as a social worker, Emma worked in child protection for Essex Local Authority for 13 years. She was incredibly passionate about protecting children and supporting families, especially the hard-to-reach families. She joined Eastern Fostering Services to learn new skills in a different area of social work and had always said she would leave child protection only to go into fostering. Her wish was our command! Emma loves being a Supervising Social Worker and is rightly proud of the support she offers our carers and children.
Emma is not only a mother herself, she is also a grandmother! You would not guess this by looking at her or her wardrobe, which she adds to regularly whilst indulging in her passion for clothes and shoes shopping.
She loves Spain and the sunshine generally and enjoys being by the sea or in the countryside. A little-known fact about Emma is her obsession with sausage dogs; they adorn most objects in her home, from cushions to mugs! Reassuringly, she does have a living, breathing sausage dog called Winnie, who probably quite enjoys all the adoration.
Yvette
Yvette has worked for many years in Admin support, mainly in the Insurance world. She worked for 10 years for a Lloyd’s Underwriting Syndicate, in Underwriting Support, ending up as Team Leader.
Due to her love of horses, she took time out, and returned to education to do a degree in Equine Science. After which she pursued a career within the equine field for a while, before returning to the world of insurance.
Since having her daughter she has helped out at the school as an MDA and the rest of her time is spent looking after her daughter as well socialising and exercising.
