Iain Forbes

Strategic Development Manager
iain@scottishmentoringnetwork.co.uk

Formerly a senior executive in the media Iain brings considerable experience of public/private collaborations having been nine years as Chair of the Glasgow Education/Business Partnership followed by three years chairing the Glasgow Childcare Partnership. Having trained and worked in human resources Iain moved to general management where he retained his keen interest in people and, in particular their development. He views his role as helping maximise the use of and sharing the wealth of experience and knowledge which exists in all walks of life in Scotland through supporting and influencing the effective organisation and development of mentoring networks and projects across the country.

Outside work Iain is past Chair of the Variety Club Children's Charity in Scotland and is currently Sunshine Coach Convener. He is also a keen sports fan and plays bowls (reasonably) and golf (badly)!

Sarah Rainey

Network Development and Support Officer
sarah@scottishmentoringnetwork.co.uk

Sarah is the Network Development & Support Officer at Scottish Mentoring Network, working on developing local and thematic networks of organisations involved in mentoring across Scotland.

Sarah has previously worked for Renfrewshire CVS where she developed a support network for local community and voluntary sector participants in the Community Planning process. Sarah has also managed an ESF funded project which involved developing the capacity of local voluntary sector organisations to sell their services in order for them to generate sustainable income. The work was part of a European wide research project into public/private partnerships and her findings and lessons learned were fed back at a national level to the Scottish and Westminster Governments and at a European level to the transnational partners.

Before taking on her role at SMN Sarah had spent 14 months travelling in Australia and S.E Asia where she took the opportunity to volunteer with Social Ventures Australia as part of their Leadership and Learning team.

In her spare time Sarah enjoys socialising with friends and exploring new places.

Lynsey Straiton

Administrator
lynsey@scottishmentoringnetwork.co.uk

Lynsey is the Administrator at Scottish Mentoring Network, providing support to the Strategic Development Manager and the Network Development and Support Officer.

Lynsey has a BA in Business from the University of Strathclyde and has previously worked for Keep Scotland Beautiful, providing administrative support to the charity's 'Keep Scotland Tidy' campaigns and 'People and Places Programme'. Prior to this, she worked in the Events Management Team of Scottish Development International, which is part of Scottish Enterprise.

Her role within Scottish Mentoring Network is to provide administrative support to the network and to its members as needed. Lynsey is the first point of contact for the network, assisting with the management of the membership programme, updating the website, providing events support an helping with the networks day to day organisation.

Outside of work, Lynsey enjoys socialising in Glasgow and Stirling and is an avid Formula One motor racing fan.

Jacqueline Thomas

Co-ordinator of Glasgow Mentoring Network (Category – Local)
enquiries@glasgowmentoringnetwork.co.uk

Jacqueline is the current vice-chair of the Scottish Mentoring Network, and the co-ordinator of Glasgow Mentoring Network.

After spending the early part of her career working in the private sector as a commercial risk broker, Jacqueline changed direction to concentrate on her real interest, people.

From 1991 she was employed by CSV in Glasgow, to design, develop and deliver personal development programmes for people overcoming physical and mental illness.

In the latter stages of her employment with CSV she became increasingly interested in the concept of Mentoring for professional development and, in 1999, moved from there to take up the role of co-ordinator for Glasgow Mentoring Network, the first formal best practice forum dedicated to mentoring in Scotland.

Through this work she became aware of the huge need to establish a national forum for Scotland and has spent much of her time in the last three years working towards creating this.

Now that SMN limited exists to take on this remit, Jacqueline's commitment to supporting the development of Mentoring, particularly in terms of the quality of provision in Scotland, continues through both her work with GMN and with the board of SMN.

Morag Cassidy

Scottish Public Sector Development Manager – Remploy UK (Category – General)

Morag is the Scottish Public Sector Development Manager for Remploy UK - the leading provider of both supported employment and support to access and retain mainstream employment for people with disabilities in the UK. In addition, Morag is actively involved in the Lone Parent Peer Mentoring Service which is currently funded by the Scottish Government and was developed and delivered by One Plus. Morag has been instrumental in the development of a wide range of mentoring services over the last seven years, including Peer Group Mentoring for Lone Parents, Mentoring as part of the After-Care programme on the One Plus Training Courses, and mentoring support to enable lone parents to move into sustainable employment.

Morag has qualifications in Social Work, teaching in FE, counselling, training and assessment and in Sign Language. Her background is in, Consultancy, Project Management, social work and training and education within both commercial organisations and the voluntary sector.

Morag enjoys life and both works and plays hard, enjoying a very active social life whilst bringing up her young grandchildren.

Anne Chirnside

Head of Wider Access and Retention Services (Category – Local)
a.chirnside@napier.ac.uk

The first part of Anne Chirnside's career was spent abroad, teaching English with the British Council in a range of countries, from Finland to Oman. During this time, she was able to develop her interest in working with people from very diverse backgrounds and cultures. On returning to Scotland, she taught at the Institute for Applied Language Studies, University of Edinburgh.

After completing a Masters in Education, she became interested in supporting student learning, and worked for several years at Stevenson College Edinburgh, latterly as manager of the Student Support Service. In September 2004, she joined Edinburgh Napier University and is now Head of Wider Access and Retention Services, with responsibility for a range of activities focused on enhancing the student experience. One of these key activities is mentoring: student peer mentoring and employer mentoring.

Throughout her career, Anne has been interested in how students learn and the effect of barriers to learning on individual achievement. Student peer mentoring is a highly effective way of providing informal, credible and realistic support for learning, which also gives mentors a value added experience for their CVs. Employer mentoring offers students from non-traditional backgrounds the chance to be mentored in the workplace by a professional person and thus enhance their employability skills. Anne is convinced of the value of mentoring and keen to support the SMN in their work with mentoring programmes across the country.

John Cran

Director of Oilean (Category – Local)
j.cran@btconnect.com

John has a degree in Law (Glasgow University), a Diploma in Social Work (CQSW) (Glasgow University) and a Certificate in Social Work Management (University of Stirling).

As a qualified professional service provision manager, much of his work has been in complex social care settings working with young people in need and adults with learning disabilities.

John established Oilean in 2003. Oilean delivers SVQ qualifications to small and medium sized care providers.

He is an adviser to the Ribban Trust, a charity supporting the education of children in a remote area of Kenya and is also the coordinator of an ESF Leonardo funded European partnership involving a college in Poland, a Care provider in Bulgaria and Oilean.

Cameron Payn

(Category – General)

Cameron previously worked in the Scottish Government Human Resources Division as the Head of Interchange responsible for secondments in and out of the Scottish Government. He was seconded to the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives in April 2006 as the Regional Coordinator for the East Region.

Previous post from December 2001 to April 2006 was with Scotland against Drugs as Employment Projects Coordinator on secondment from The Scottish Government. Before this, Cameron was on a 4 year secondment to Scottish Business in the Community as Director of Development. Prior to that he had worked in a number of areas in the Government including Scottish Courts Administration as an Auditor and Central Pay Section. Latterly Cameron worked in the Pensions Agency dealing with National Health Service Pensions.

Hobbies – Golf, Hill walking and skiing. Cameron holds the rank of Major in the Territorial Army where he is currently second in Command of 32nd (Scottish) Signal Regiment.

Isabel Kane

(Category – Co-opted)
ink@zet.net