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Leslie-Anne Newton, Northern Ireland Director
Leslie-Anne has worked in the charitable sector for over 20 years, promoting the rights of children and adults in a variety of settings.
She started her career in England as a Crisis Advocate supporting people with a learning disability and then moved into a role empowering children’s participation in service design and delivery with the NSPCC. Before joining ARC NI, she was responsible for all programmes commissioned by Save the Children and delivered through partner organisations across Northern Ireland.
In ARC NI, Leslie-Anne supports stakeholders in the learning disability sector to connect, strategise and collaborate.
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Stephen Walker, PA to NI Director
Stephen has been a Personal Assistant since 1993 where he provided secretarial support to the Chief Executive of The Care Sector Consultancy (CSC). In 1999, ARC UK awarded a contract to CSC to establish if there was a need for a branch of its organisation in Northern Ireland. As ARC NI’s membership grew through the consultancy support of CSC so did Stephen’s role and responsibilities and in 2005 he was appointed PA to the ARC NI Director. Stephen currently oversees all aspects of administration for the Northern Ireland office including organising meetings and events, maintaining the ARC website and producing the e-newsletter and bulletins.
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Louise Hughes, Training Co-ordinator
Louise is responsible for the development of good quality practice through the co-ordination and facilitation of ARC’s training and consultancy. Louise previously led the ‘Lost for Words’ Project and is currently coordinating the Getting Started Project, a pre recruitment-training programme encouraging people to consider working in the social care sector.
Louise has worked for over twenty five years with children and adults who have severe learning disabilities and or serious mental health issues; this has been predominately in the area of education and training. She was inspired to work in this area by her younger brother, Wayne, who had severe learning disabilities and sadly died at the age of 25. Louise feels that being Wayne’s sister has given her personal insight and empathy from a family’s point of view. Louise is committed to helping ensure that people with a learning disability are supported to lead a full and valued life.
ARC UK has a Strategic Leadership Team lead by Máire Gallagher, Managing Director and consists of: