Group Executive Committee
Meet your committee
President – Chris Roberts
Chris Roberts is a Senior Adviser for Safeguarding & Inclusion in London, where he leads improvement and support services to strengthen school safeguarding and inclusive practice. His role builds on more than twenty years of experience in education, welfare, and multiagency safeguarding, gained through a series of senior positions in London and Kent. These include serving as a Head of Service in two local authorities, where he oversaw attendance, alternative provision and targeted support services for vulnerable learners.
Chris began his career in education working in a further education college before going onto work in local government on education welfare and inclusion, where he worked with schools, families and other local authority services to remove barriers to learning and ensure that children are supported to thrive. In his current role he works closely with school leaders, social care partners and wider agencies to champion safe and inclusive practice across all education settings. Chris is also a trustee with multi-academy trust and was elected President of Prospect’s Education & Children’s Services Group in 2026.
Vice President – Fraser Baillie
I have served for two years as a member of the Children’s Services Group of Prospect. I am very proud to have been elected as one of the group’s two vice-presidents (2026 to 2028).
I worked as a teacher, a vice-principal and a principal in four schools across Northern Ireland for nearly thirty years. After my time in school, I moved into my local authority as a school improvement professional.
In this role I am responsible for strategic and leadership support for 65 primary schools and one special school. In this role I am very privileged to work with a broad range of schools, from the largest primary school in the country to a two-teacher rural primary school. Over the last two years I have had an exciting opportunity to help project manage the development of a new special school. Over the next decade this school will grow across three sites and cater for a broad range of children and young people with additional needs.
One of my key interests is school development planning. Over the last year I have been the project lead in developing and delivering updated professional learning to over 700 school leaders.
I am also a Senior Associate for AoEA and I was recently published in one of their leadership books.
I live outside Belfast in Jordanstown with my wife, son and dog, Millie. We enjoy travelling around Europe in our VW camper. No educational journals allowed!
Vice President - Siân Rowles
Working in education since the mid 1990s, Siân has taught and led in secondary schools in England, Wales and the Middle East. During this time she also contributed to leadership development programmes, developed an innovative curriculum offer and facilitated a dynamic educational programme across 26 schools.
In 2014, she returned to Wales as a school improvement adviser committed to supporting schools to realise the ambition of Curriculum for Wales. A diverse and evolving portfolio includes direct support of individual schools, clusters of schools, networks such as Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, Language Strategy and supporting SACRE/SACRVE. Her current EdD research considers how we might better bridge the gap in writing progress between years 6 and 7, by collectively growing increasingly effective writers.
While school-based, Siân was a member of a teaching union, but joined Prospect when moving to system leadership. The expectations of the middle tier in Wales have changed significantly over time, particularly through the middle tier review. Prospect has supported many members across Wales to carefully navigate the changes to system level support in recent years.
Beyond work, Siân can be found dog-walking and/or swimming on the beaches of West Wales, watching local rugby, visiting and skiing with family in Norway, or battling brambles in her garden.
Member of Council – Ian Benson
Ian Benson is a mathematician and informatics researcher and Director of a social enterprise, Sociality Mathematics CIC, asset-locked to Churchill College in the University of Cambridge. He has been a member of Prospect ECS for 10 years.
Sociality works with mathematics teachers, schools and local education authorities to replicate and extend Caleb Gattegno's early algebra curriculum and pedagogy.
Ian began his career developing CAD systems and FORTRAN compilers. He served as a trade union officer for the computer industry, chairing the staff side in ICL national negotiations. He represented the TUC as chair of the NEDC Computer Sector Working Group, which reported on "Computer Manpower in the Eighties." In 1985 he co-founded with the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, SRI International's Cambridge computer science research centre - SRI’s first such offshore centre. From 1989-91 he had a private practice in work group research and consultancy for which he was awarded a doctorate in computer science.
His dissertation, "Reasoning about contingent events in distributed systems" established a technical framework for analysis, simulation and governance of work group processes. It was commercialised as a system description and organisation development method and CASE tool by Sybase (formerly OASiS). He further refined it as the Sociality® method for systems development which was applied to develop the first website for NAEIAC and several related specialist groups, including NAMA (mathematics), NAAOSEN (SEN) and AAIAD (Art and Design).
Between 2015-2020 he served as a General Councillor and Trustee of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics. He was a member of the 2024 Welsh Government Research, Evidence and Advice group for Mathematics and Numeracy. He has published five books and edited collections on computer technology and employment, a book on "Primary Mathematics: Lessons from the Gattegno School," and over 80 articles, conference sessions and technical reports.
Ian has been a visiting scholar (Computer Science) at Stanford University, a visiting professor (Informatics) at Theseus Institute, Sophia Antipolis and Kingston University (with Mathematics) and an honorary research fellow at the Universities of Roehampton (Education) and Glasgow (School of Computing).
Member of Council – Lisa Bradbury
Lisa has worked in Education for over 40 years – 20 years as a teacher and senior leader prior to work with the General Teaching Council and the Centre for the use of Research and Evidence in Education. These posts focused on improving the quality and impact of professional learning, CPD and Coaching and Mentoring.
Previously a member of a teaching union, she joined Prospect in 2015 on accepting a post with Sandwell LA. Now at Worcestershire LA she co-leads the school improvement team. Alongside the support of maintained schools Lisa works extensively on Inclusion programmes and projects building collaboration and partnership with academies, foster increased engagement with evidence-based practices and improve the quality of impact and evaluation.
Her interest in coaching continues by acting as a mentor for Birmingham University’s Masters in Educational Leadership.
Member of Council – Angela Ford
Angela Ford has worked in, and led, youth and young people’s services in local government for 25 years. In recent years, Angela has overseen the development of system-wide programmes supporting children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health across schools, communities, homes and the digital environment. She ensures that all developments are evidence-based and strongly informed by the lived experiences of children and their families. Angela also has the privilege of overseeing youth participation in her area. Her work is rooted in partnership with the local authority, health services, the VCSE sector and families.
Member of Council – Diana Robinson
Diana has been a member of Prospect since 1996 (NAEIAC, Aspect) when she joined Kent County Council’s Advisory Service, having been previously a HT in two primary schools.
In her advisory role she principally provided advice, support and challenge to special schools and Pupil Referral Units, but also to primary and secondary schools about their SEN provision, or the quality of their Specialist Resource Provision.
Prior to joining the Advisory Service she had completed an MA(SEN) at Canterbury Christ Church University, and during her time in the Advisory Service she completed Ofsted training, and the SIP accreditation training for Secondary, Primary and Special schools during 2007.
In the days of NAEIAC, Diana was an associate member of the GEC due to her involvement in a national group providing leadership and support to SEN Advisers across the country, and she also had the opportunity to represent this organisation at the Special Education Consortium steering group, which is a large group of union and third sector organisations which have an interest in SEN and can successfully lobby government by amplifying the views of the single organisations within it. She has just finished a three year term as the Chair of SEC.
Diana now works for her own company providing advisory work to LAs, MATs and to be the SEN Expert in Independent Review Panels. Her contribution to these results in a very high proportion of ‘Quash and direct to reconsider’ outcomes.
While she was employed there were many restructures within the LA, and Prospect was always actively engaged in them, also she was aware of individual members who needed Prospect support and was very reassured that both these types of support was available. Now retired from employment, she is pleased to be able to continue to contribute to the union functions of Prospect by her subscriptions and her active involvement in GEC.
Member of Council – Glenn Walsh
Glenn has worked in education for 35 years starting out as a mathematics teacher in a large urban secondary school before moving into an ICT advisory role with the local authority.
In 2007 Glenn moved into school improvement and has successfully supported a number of post-primary schools which had been placed in special measures.
Glenn is presently a Head of Service for School Improvement with the Education Authority in Northern Ireland.
Glenn is interested in environmental issues, waste reduction and encouraging the right-to-repair agenda.
Glenn started out as a member of NAEIAC in 1998 and through amalgamations became a member of Prospect in 2012 and has 27 years of unbroken membership of the union. Glenn joined the ECS GEC in 2019 and completed the Prospect local reps training in 2025. Glenn has supported members with local employment issues in Northern Ireland.
Glenn served as ECS Group President between 2022 and 2026.