Hello, I’m Shelley

I'm an independent, freelance consultant specialising in the prevention of violence and abuse against women and children, working from a systems change and relational practice perspective. I live in Plymouth with my family, close to the beach and the moors, and I'm genuinely excited about this chapter of working for myself.

What I bring

I've spent 25 years working across children's services, domestic abuse, sexual violence and abuse, commissioning and community development.

For eight years I led a place-based Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) prevention programme, Together for Childhood, working with over 120 stakeholders across education, police, the local authority, prisons, military police, community leaders, and children and young people themselves. Under that programme, CSA prevention was adopted as a strategic priority across every local statutory board. It's since informed national government practice, international conferences and journal articles, including a citation in the European Journal of Victimology and Offender Treatment.

I've been a keynote speaker at the NOTA conference, and my commissioning background includes redesigning children's and young people's services and a domestic abuse system, including a mental health in schools pipeline built from the Government Future in Mind report.

I hold a degree in community development and social policy and two qualifications from the Chartered Management Institute: a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management, and a Level 7 senior leadership qualification, achieved with distinction.

In 2018 and 2019 I was awarded a Devon and Cornwall Police SuperIntendent’s Award for ‘selflessness’ through demonstrating my commitment to partnership working.

I'm also co-founder of the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network, a ground-up movement with over 1,200 members. I co-produced the Network's Approach document and helped create the trauma lens now used routinely across Plymouth. I was formerly Chair of Directors of its Community Interest Company, and I still co-facilitate the Justice Branch voluntarily.

How I work

'We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.'
— Mahatma Gandhi

I work relationally, in the way my community development training first taught me: change happens through the relationships built along the way, not just the plan on paper.

I work in a trauma-informed way, holding in mind what people have been through and how that shapes what they need now.

I keep learning. I stay open to reflecting and being challenged, kindly, on my thinking, my approaches and my ideas. It's how I've got to where I am, and I don't expect that to stop.

And I work from strengths. I start with what's already working, not with what's wrong, because that's where the building blocks for change actually are.

That same training is also where my values come from: social justice, equity and anti-discriminatory practice aren't things I add onto the work, they're where it starts.

I believe meaningful involvement of people with lived and living experience isn't an add-on, it's a design principle. That belief runs through everything above, and it's also why part of this site is given over to my own family's story.