Meet our Team

Les Mitchell became involved in fostering around 16 years ago and was a foster carer with his wife for 10 years.

Les has a strong belief that children need to be heard and to have a safe place to live their lives to their full potential in a loving family environment. Les learnt British Sign Language and is now qualified to teach this. Les is married and father to two boys.

Mary has over 28 years working in statutory childrens' services and has worked on the front line in Child Protection and Safeguarding, both as a Social Worker, Manager, Safeguarding Advisor and Trainer.

Mary has worked within the Fostering sector for the last 11 years and was previously a Registered Manager for an IFA in Kent. She she is registered with Social Work England and has extensive knowledge, skills and understanding of the complexities of working with children and families.

Lisa has been a qualified social worker for the past 8 years, working mainly within the Local Authority and has spent her last 3 years within the Children in Care team.

Lisa has since worked as an independent social worker for several Independent Fostering Agencies as a Form F assessor, Independent Reviewing Officer, and Supervising Social Worker. Lisa has extensive experience of child protection, working within the Initial Assessment Team and Children’s Social Work team when she first qualified and the skills that she has gained over the past 8 years have provided her with the ability to take on the role of Registered Manager. Lisa is happily married with two adult children and her two babies, Bobby and Teddy who are cocker spaniels.

Jenny qualified as a social worker in 2014, Her first placement was working in an independent private fostering agency, for her second placement she worked in an Older People’s Mental Health Team which was hospital based.

On qualifying Jenny worked for an independent fostering agency as a supervising social worker, which gave her the experience of working with a large caseload and completing form f assessments. Now she currently works 4 days a week at Lighthouse Fostering, the rest of the time I am a mum to two young boys and have an older step-daughter.

Shannon joined the Lighthouse Fostering team in 2022. Prior to this Shannon worked for a local authority as a Child in Care Social Worker.

Shannon spent 2 and a half years building rapport with the young people, which is something that Shannon prides herself on and believes is one of her strengths. Shannon worked collaboratively with the professional network around the child, taking a holistic approach to the care planning, to achieve the best possible outcome. Shannon’s priority within this was to ensure that the young person’s overall needs were being met, whilst ensuring placement stability so that the young person has a secure base allowing them to thrive and grow as an individual. Shannon also completed two placements before her qualifying, one was a voluntary setting for adults with mental health and the other within the front-line Child Protection team.

Shannon feels that she has a lot of transferable skills that are usable within the fostering sector and is excited to be supporting young people via their foster carers. Shannon grew up in a fostering household.

Simon joined Lighthouse Fostering Team as a Supervising Social Worker in May 2023 and prior to joining, following his graduation from University of Kent in 2021, he worked for a year and a half as a frontline social worker within an assessment team in Medway.

Previously Simon volunteered as a mentor for the Young Lives Foundation, this experience gave him an insight into some of the challenges young person’s face but how important it is for them to have a voice and be listened to without judgement or obligation.

Jane joined Lighthouse in 2021. Her role within the agency is varied, she undertakes the role of Administration/Placements and Referrals/Training, alongside using her experience to support the supervising social workers as a Social Worker Support Officer.

Jane comes with a wealth of experience within Childrens Social Care, where she was an Assessments and Placements Officer, seeking school placements and writing Education Health Care Plans for the SEN department. Jane has previous experience working for two other Independent Fostering Agencies in Kent as part of their Referrals, Fostering Panel and Administration Team.

Emma has worked for Lighthouse Fostering since October 2015. Emma previously worked within the Vocational Team at Sandwich Technology School, working closely with students who attended Vocational College placements and coordinating Work Experience for 250 students each Cohort.

Emma works part-time alongside her role as single mum to 3 boys. Emma is responsible for the smooth running of all administration tasks, foster carer recruitment and coordinates the recruitment of staff and maintaining current staff personnel files. Emma is also the Panel Administrator for Lighthouse Fostering.

Bridget has recently joined Lighthouse Fostering and will be supporting the work with Foster Carers, children, young people and supervising social workers.

She has an extensive background working in residential care, fostering and looked after children.