 | Disabled Parents Network (DPN) is a national organisation of and for disabled people who are parents or who hope to become parents, and their families, friends and supporters. |  Contact Us 0300 3300 639 |
| Disabled Parents Network (DPN) is a national organisation of and for disabled people who are parents or who hope to become parents, and their families, friends and supporters. | Contact Us 0300 3300 639 |
At least 70% of DPN's Management Committee must be disabled parents and all the officers and members of the Management Committee serve on a voluntary basis as well as carrying out other volunteering roles for DPN.
DPN’s present Trustees live in various parts of England and the Board meets bi-monthly in Milton Keynes and there are other occasional meetings. The Trustees are not remunerated but out of pocket expenses can be reimbursed.
Elections take place every year at our Annual General Meeting.
Simone was born with impairments resulting from Thalidomide and lives with her twelve year old daughter in Reading, Berkshire.
Simone’s involvement with Disabled Parents Network began in 1998 following an unsuccessful attempt to obtain support in her parenting role. She became determined to play a part in bringing about change for disabled parents.
Since 2002, Simone has been a recipient of Direct Payments, and employs five members of staff to support her.
Simone Chairs the Reading Physical Disability and Sensory Needs Partnership Board, and has been directly involved in creating a Disabled Parents Protocol for Reading Borough Council, and a Young Carers Strategy for Reading.
Simone is a member of the Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board - a Non Departmental Public Body accountable to the Department for Work and Pensions and the Secretary of State. Until recently she also served as an Appeals Panel Member for Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance appeals tribunal hearings and as Vice-Chair to her daughter's primary school Governing Body.
Simone has written and contributed to a number of published articles and features relating to her impairment and her experiences as a disabled parent and regularly makes presentations at national and local events.
Self-employed stay-at-home disabled Dad, Steve, used to be a Church leader, youthworker, counsellor, writer, educational consultant, and director of a webhosting company before Fibromyalgia & CFS prevented him from working.
Steve oversees the day-to-day operational activity of Disabled Parents Network, particularly the Support Service and Staff, and looks after all the techy whizz-bang bits of DPN - the website and support enquiry log - and provides similar services for other charities and organisations. Steve is also currently responsible for our 'Member Services' - membership, volunteering and newsletter - and Human Resources.
Steve first got involved with DPN in October 2007 as the Local Network Link for Thurrock, Essex where he lives with his wife and 3 year old son, and has gradually become involved in several other groups as a result. He is Secretary of Thurrock Disability Network, South West Essex Local Area Representative - Essex Coalition of Disabled People, 'enter and view' co-ordinator - Thurrock LINk (health and social care Local Involvement Network), and Essex/London Regional Co-ordinator - Fibromyalgia Association UK.
Andrew is Company Secretary and Administrator for the Research Institute for Consumer Affairs (RICA), and an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.
He has been visually impaired since birth with hereditary cone-rod dystrophy.
Andrew lives in Bedfordshire and is married with two children. He enjoys reading, music, history and football, but reluctantly admits to being a season ticket holder at the mighty Watford FC!
Angela has worked at Action for Advocacy for 5 years, as Office Manager and Head of Finance and Administration, where she has been responsible for all book-keeping, financial reporting, budgeting/forecasting, and annual audited accounts.
Angela's professional background, experience of being a disabled aunt, and enthusiasm for supporting the work of DPN make her an excellent Trustee and Treasurer.
Andrew's professional background in project and programme management, fundraising and public relations puts him in a good position to support the numerous charities and organisations that he is involved in, including TAMBA, Shelter, and his local infant school PTA.
Becoming disabled with a form of reactive arthritis in 1996 after working for a humanitarian aid agency in field duties in Rwanda, and having a congenital cardiac condition, don't stop Andrew from being a Parish Councilor, officer of the Southern Parishes Joint Committee, Co-Chair of Bucks Disability Service, a Trustee of Bucks Disability Information Network and Trustee of Disabled Parents Network!
Despite the difficulties of being a single disabled parent, Terri and her 3 teenage daughters have always led a very active life. Terri says "We like to socialize, meet new people, go on holiday, music, reading, sharing and, I would love to parachute jump but medically not allowed. As the girls grow up they remain my priority but I am able to spend more time on other things that interest me - travel, health and social, raising awareness of the barriers people face and the right to an independent life."
Terri has been involved with DPN for a number of years as the Local Network Link for Wigan and Leigh, and has represented DPN at many events up and down the country before joining the Board of Trustees in March 2009.
A Belgian national and the 41 year old disabled father of a 16-month-old son, Patrick was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the end of 2002. He worked for over 6 years in private practice as a solicitor specialising in aircraft financing, leasing and aviation law for a large London law firm, and then in Brussels for Deutsche Post/DHL as a legal advisor to the aviation team in support of DHL's global airline operations, becoming a company director of one of the airlines in the Deutsche Post group and promoted to head up the aviation legal department early in 2005.
Patrick returned to the UK with his wife and son in August 2008 after giving up work and gets many hours of pleasure spending time with family and friends and watching his son grow up.
The newest member of the team, Helen has already made an impact. Getting an oxygen cylinder from Milton Keynes to Liverpool isn't the easiest thing to do... but then we thought leaving it in the car park in the first place was quite an achievement in itself!
Helen's background will be invaluable to DPN. As Helen says herself, 'I began to think that I could actually make a real difference to the lives of many other thousands of Disabled parents, even though my health means I cannot work full time at this time, DPN is an exciting team of people I would love to be part of, and I could use both my Lawyer and advocacy training, HR background, policy making experience and business and personnel management experience to help bring about real change through DPN... I would love the chance to be part of a team that provides an advocacy service for disabled people in every area of their lives; I want to help put DPN and its growing range of services onto the radar of social care and local councils to bring about a better understanding of the needs of disabled parents. If DPN stops one parent from going through the hell that I did in the assessment process, or worse, then it is worth it just for that.'
Paizah used to be a special needs teacher and lecturer, graduated from London University and City University, and has five girls.
She has been working with voluntary and community groups for disabled people for the past 14 years, was on the management committee, panel of task force, panel of recruitment team and representative to local partnership strategic plan. Paizah is currently project manager of a limited company providing services to people with hearing disabilities and mild mental health issues, and was recently co-opted as a Trustee.
last updated: 27 Jul 09
tags : trustees about profiles
Registered Office: Disabled Parents Network, Suite 37-40 Cherry Orchard North, Swindon, SN2 8UH. Registered Charity No: 1087662