About Us

Building Confidence and Empowerment

• Training
• Workshops
• Conferences
• Support Groups
• 1:1 support
• Facebook Group
• Lending SPACE
• Inclusive activities
• Training for Professionals
• Neurodiversity in the Workplace
• Alternative Provision
• Neurodiversity services

Social
Opportunities

• Teen Events
• Sibling Events
• Early and Primary Years Events
• Bespoke Social Groups
• Inclusive Activities

Reducing
Isolation

• Parent/Carer Events
• Family Events
• Building Communities
• Promoting Inclusion
• Facebook Group
• SBLO

Dean Beadle

Dean has toured the UK for over fourteen years sharing his experiences of being autistic. He has also delivered keynotes in Ireland, Denmark, Belgium and Germany as well as undertaking four seminar tours of Australia and New Zealand. In recent years he has also become an in demand inset trainer and delivers training to staff across the UK. To date Dean has delivered over 800 keynotes, lectures and training sessions. He is also an experienced journalist and in 2012, this part of Dean’s career culminated in him being appointed editor of the National Autistic Society’s ‘Autism in Practice’ newsletter which had subscribers in 90 countries.

Dean is Patron of SPACE and is also a patron for ONE to ONE Enfield, a charity providing meaningful activities for LD/autistic adults. He is honorary president of APCymru- an autistic led parent charity in Cardiff.

Emma Weaver

Emma is Director of Early Years Service at the ADHD Foundation.

As the Director of the Neurodiversity Early Years Service at the ADHD Foundation Emma has a real passion for early identification and intervention for neurodevelopmental conditions. Her role at the ADHD Foundation is to work alongside early years settings, parents and carers of children in the early years and young children presenting with traits of neurodiversity.

Karen Spencer, Acting CEO

Karen entered the SEND world via her son’s diagnosis of Autism in 2011, stumbled across SPACE a few years later and hasn’t looked back. Leaving her previous life of working in London and local Law Firms, Karen is now General Manger of the Charity overseeing the day to day running of the organisation as part of the Senior Leadership Team. Karen still works directly with families and professionals as she loves seeing first-hand the positive impact that SPACE has with their “whole family approach”. 

Nicky Chaperlin, COO

Nicky really began her journey into the SEND world with the Autism and ADHD diagnosis of her son in 2007. She stumbled across SPACE in its very early days and immediately felt the importance of that sense of community and inclusion. Nicky brought her experience of working as a teacher and acting head in a therapeutic setting to SPACE. With fellow likeminded team members, fuelled with passion and a determination to make the SEND world a better one they shaped SPACE to the organisation you see today. Nicky is one of the Senior Leadership team and is hands on with all training, support, activities , events and of course tea making. Nicky is still very much walking the walk on her own journey with the recent Autism diagnosis for her daughter and her son entering the world of Post- 16.

Debbie Gilbert, Office Manager

Debbie’s experience of the SEND world began with the autism diagnosis of the eldest of her two sons when he joined his pre-school. Now they are both teenagers, Debbie brings her organisation and computer skills from her previous IT Support career to our office as SPACE’s Charity Administrator.

Debbie has a passion for hiking and the outdoors and loves volunteering as a Scout and Cub Leader with the local Scout Group.

Chris Russell, Training Lead and Family Support Manager

Chris brings with him almost 20 years of experience working in the world of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), most recently as Hertfordshire County Council’s DSPL4 Area Manager and SEND Lead.

Chris’s career has been dedicated to working with disabled children and young people and he is passionate about implementing change and delivering support and services that makes a real and direct difference. He has previously run an autism provision in a mainstream school, taught braille, white cane skills and Makaton and accredited the UK’s second mainstream school with the National Autistic Society.

Hayley Clyne, Lead SEND Family Support Worker

Hayley joined SPACE after six years working as an Autism and ADHD Family Support Worker. She is a proud mum of two young adults, one with additional and complex needs, and both she and her daughter are diagnosed with ADHD.

Her lived experience as a neurodivergent parent gives her a deep understanding of the challenges families face and the importance of empathy, practical strategies, and early support.

Before moving into family support, Hayley worked as a 1:1 Inclusion Practitioner and helped set up a base for children with additional needs. She has completed extensive training in areas including Therapeutic Life Coaching, Grief Recovery, Mediation, Mental Health First Aid, Protective Behaviours, Managing Challenging Behaviour, Hertfordshire Steps, and Autism and ADHD education and training.

Lisa Flanagan, SEND Family Support Worker

Lisa has over 25 years of experience working with in the Early year’s education environment. The last ten years of this Lisa has specialised in working with children with disabilities from being a SENCO in a preschool, working in a specialist ASD provision school and working for Hertfordshire county council’s Speech Language and Communication advisor team where she planned and ran the Early year’s autism support group. She was also part of a team who deliver the National Autistic Society EarlyBird parent programme, supporting parents and give them the strategies to support at home.  

Lisa has two adult children, who both have needed extra support during their early teenage years with different medical needs.  

Lisa is trained in PECs – Picture exchange communication systems, TEACCH , Makaton, EKLAN – speech and language course , 10 week Autism course with Pinewood school and is Earlybird trained by the NAS, Attention Autism.

Mel Whitehead, SEND Family Support Worker

Mel joined the SPACE community when one of her children began struggling at school and she started looking for answers and much needed support. She started to learn as much as she could about neurodiversity through attending workshops and courses.  In learning new skills and finding the confidence to face the challenging world of SEND, Mel was determined that she would share her experiences, empathy and knowledge with those treading a similar path.

She began volunteering for SPACE in 2022 at Lending SPACE and helping to deliver Starting SPACE.  Mel then went on to support the training team delivering workshops and courses and joined as part of the Family Support team in January 2024. 

Tanya Dance, Alternative Provision Manager

Tanya moved into the area of SEND in 2008 when she joined Herts Family Information Service before joining SENDIASS in 2014 just as the new reforms came in. During her time at SENDIASS she learnt from the ground up and in the 2 yrs before leaving to join us became a SENDIASS Adviser. During this time she built up a wealth of knowledge which will be of huge value to the families she now supports at SPACE. Tanya is our Alternative Provision Manager, and you will also find her delivering training and doing 1:1 family support.

Sophia Christophi, Trainer and Mentor

Sophia is a neurodivergent adult who gave her first public talk at SPACE’s Welwyn Support Group in 2018. Since then, she has delivered more than 30 workshops covering topics such as Understanding Autism, Autistic Girls, and Tourette syndrome. Sophia now also works as the SBLO and Services Administrator. She has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Hertfordshire. 

Suzie Daniels, Marketing and Engagement Manager

Suzie is mum to two primary aged girls, the eldest of whom is autistic. She discovered SPACE in 2017 whilst on the pathway to diagnosis and attended a number of training courses and workshops. In 2019 she ran her first (and probably only!) half marathon to raise funds for them. Previously Suzie has has leadership positions in both the private and not-for-profit sectors specialising in general management, marketing, communications and digital, most recently at Amnesty International UK. She took a career break to look after her children when they were younger and answered a call out from SPACE in early 2021 for volunteers, working for them in a voluntary capacity on a number of projects before becoming a member of staff.  

Patty Quiroz, Community Engagement Officer

Patty’s journey started with having a family member being diagnosed with ADHD. Growing up with that knowledge was where the learning began but only until her own son began to struggle at school and was showing signs of ADHD, ASD and SPD did she begin to investigate further. In 2015 (after reading everything she could) she decided to reach out for further family support, in the way of activities and meeting other parents. She went to one support group and decided she wanted to be part of THIS charity and offered to create flyers that she felt would promote SPACE in a way that matched the knowledge and support that was being offered already. Working with families and watching how those families/children ‘find their tribe’ is the most rewarding part of her role.

Layla De Freitas, Marketing and Fundraising Co-ordinator

Layla found herself in the SEND world when one of her daughters were placed on the autism pathway in 2023, receiving her diagnosis in 2024. Being on the receiving end as a parent/carer of SPACE services, she was super grateful of the support received and was blown away by all the work they do as a charity.

With her three young children starting nursery, Layla noticed a job opening at SPACE around the same time – she brings almost 10 years’ experience in marketing, communications and social media.

Louise Murray, Finance

Louise’s experience of the SEND world began with the autism diagnosis of the youngest of her three children at pre-school age. Louise attended many courses which were ‘invaluable’ in both normalising and supporting her with the diagnosis, which left her with a strong desire to work for SPACE. Louise brings her organisation and computer skills from her previous career to our Lending SPACE community hub as Lending SPACE Administrator.

Louise enjoys walking her dog, exercising and looking after her family.

Daniella Hall, Lending SPACE

Daniella has worked in education for over 15 years and within this time has held many leadership positions. Daniella has navigated the world of SEND both as a parent and as an experienced SENCO. She has supported many children and families with a diverse range of needs and disabilities. She has a passion for SEND and drive to try and improve the experiences for children with additional needs. 

Katy Rowland, Lending SPACE

Katy has three children diagnosed with autism , she first entered the SEND world in 2005 with her eldest. Katy discovered SPACE in 2015 when she had first hand experiences of the support groups and and how helpful it was for the whole family.  She soon become a volunteer and is now working at Lending SPACE.

Rebecca Sears, Lending SPACE

Rebecca got into the SEND world when her eldest child received a diagnosis of ASD/ADHD at 6 years old. Her Son received the same diagnosis 4 years later. She attended multiple courses including several run by SPACE and having been a Veterinary Nurse for 20 years started working for Herts SENDIASS where she trained to support parents with EHCP applications. She now works at the SPACE lending library.

Lynn Heathcote Sharif, Chair

Lyn worked in advertising and marketing for over 20 years before becoming a mum to her 3 children she now helps run a successful architect and structural engineering consultancy.

She initially got involved with SPACE as one of her children was struggling with Dyspraxia and discovered how little help was available and found the information and support from SPACE invaluable.

She is feels truly honoured to be Chair of such a inspirational charity.

Polly Kerr

Polly is a Senior Associate Solicitor at Tees Law and Head of Education Law with an emphasis on SEND.

She has extensive experience representing parents of children with special needs in the tribunal. Polly delivers training to schools, local authorities and parents relating to Special Educational Needs and the law in practice and is a governor at a special needs school in Herts.

When she does get some ‘down time’ it largely centres around spending as much family time as possible with her husband and their sons, the youngest of whom has a diagnosis of ASD.

Mark Wilson

Mark has worked in the Banking industry since 1985. The majority of his career was spent at a large UK high street bank in various locations around central London and then latterly in Hertfordshire. In 2013 he joined Handelsbanken UK PLC, helping set up their branch in Hertford, where he remains today. Mark is an Account Manager, looking after personal customers for their banking, mortgages and wealth management requirements. He is married to Jo and they have two sons. They are a family of season ticket holding Tottenham Hotspur supporters. I also have a passion for playing golf.

Dr Sharmishtha Sarkar (Sharmi)

Sharmi is a Consultant Community Paediatrican. She has worked in Paediatrics for more than 20 years and is based both at Lister Hospital, Stevenage and the QE2 Hospital in WGC. She specialises in children’s developmental problems such as Developmental Delay, AS, ADHD, Dyspraxia and genetic conditions such as Down syndrome. She also has a keen interest and specialises in neurological conditions that are chronic and affect the child’s development such as Epilepsy. Her main work involves not only working with children and their carers/parents but also working with school/nursery and other professionals from health, education and social care in an effort to produce the best outcome for the child and family.

Donna Chamberlain

Donna is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. She works in private practice having previously worked in a number of NHS and educational settings. She has carried out and published research on a variety of areas including social skills training with children and self injurious behaviour in people with severe learning difficulties. Donna is particularly interested in children’s development during middle-childhood and the problems associated with this period. In her private practice she predominantly employs cognitive Behaviour Therapy to help children and adults who are experiencing anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and/or behavioural problems.

Victoria Kemp

Victoria is a Vice President in Human Resources at IHS Markit and Global Head of Talent, including employee engagement, performance and Graduate development. She has been an HR professional for 20+ years, predominantly within the Financial Services Industry, and has extensive experience across all areas of HR – including employment law, employment policies, employee relations, recruiting, learning and development, performance and engagement. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her husband and 2 daughters.