A highly experienced social worker with a background in the family court system, Fareena Shaheed contributes a wealth of skills to Child-Centred Practice – particularly around quality assurance and continuous practice development and improvement processes.

With 20 years of experience in the sector, Fareena began her career as Assistant Warden at the Elizabeth Fry Probation and Bail Hostel before moving into social work as Care Manager for Slough Borough Council where she undertook responsibilities in the following areas: assessments, family support, child protection, care proceedings, transition to independence and working with children in care.

Following a carer support position with Thames Valley Foster Care, Fareena become a Family Court Adviser with CAFCASS. In this role, Fareena introduced procedures to quality assure team reports and this system was later adopted and developed throughout the organisation. Following promotion to Service Manager within CAFCASS, Fareena was the lead in the South East region on the Children’s Rights Agenda.

Most recently, Fareena held a position as Area Child Care Co-ordinator with Surrey County Council. This was a quality assurance and safeguarding role, focusing on continuous practice development and improvement.  It included providing CP and case consultation for ATMs and practitioners; delivering training and workshops; contributing to training and development programmes (including the planning and delivery of PLO training); and working with teams in a targeted and time limited manner in order to bring about change in practice. Fareena was also Surrey’s Link Officer with Research in Practice and the social care representative on the Family Justice Council.

With a strong commitment to supporting disadvantaged groups, Fareena has previously held the position of Vice-Chair of the management committee for SAHARA, a refuge for Asian women fleeing domestic abuse, and she is currently a trustee of Platform51, an organisation which works with disadvantaged young women.