We have a strong team who are united in our passion to support as many families as we can, we know first-hand how tough life can be and we want to help make life a little easier for as many people as possible.
Elaine Pearce - Chief Executive Officer
Joined PODS in early 2017 after attending an event, she felt inspired by the work and support they offered, this encouraged her to become more involved. Initially enrolling on the Parent Rep training as a volunteer, this developed into her taking the role of Project Manager and later becoming the CEO.
Her role oversees the day to day running of the charity, part of which is ensuring we have suitable funding in place, along with supporting staff/volunteers and developing new services/projects to better support our community.
She has 4 children, a young adult daughter (Kimberley) who has ADHD and is on the ASD pathway, a set of twins (Ryan & Luke) who are in Secondary school and her youngest (Ben) who is also in Secondary school. Ryan has many additional needs including Autism, Epilepsy, Sensory Processing Disorder, OCD, ODD, Dyslexia, Selective Mutism and Hypermobility to name but a few. From her own challenges and experiences, she has a good understanding of the difficulties faced by families surrounding both diagnosis and support. Her drive and passion is to help, support and make a difference to as many families as possible.
Jayne Stevens - Strategic Lead
Over the years she has seen the Charity side of things grow, but her heart and expertise has remained in Parent Participation where she sits in her role as Strategic Lead. As the Charity has expanded, parent carer voices come from all the other areas and are collated into the ‘forum’. Her professional and personal foundation are based on strong relationships and an open communication at all levels.
Kerrie Seagrave - Member Support Co-ordinator
She has been part of the PODS Team since June 2017, where she started as PODS Administration Co-ordinator. In May 2021, I took on the role of PODS Member Support Co-ordinator and she now looks after the Befriending Scheme and a lovely team of Befrienders as well as looking after the members database, producing the newsletters and weekly E bulletins amongst other tasks, she is also qualified as a counsellor and delivers 1-1 support.
Being part of the PODS team is extremely important to her, as she knows from personal experience just how much being a member of PODS and accessing the Befriending Scheme can help a parent. She became a member of PODS in January 2014, following attending a PODS Family Group, she felt very alone and isolated, as she and her family had recently moved to Telford and didn’t have any family or friends in the area. This soon changed and she felt very supported by PODS.
Joanne Smith - Events and Fundraising Coordinator
She has previously worked in a special needs school, and as part of a community support team in Lichfield. Joanne moved to Telford from Lichfield in Staffordshire in February 2019 with her family. She has 2 young adult sons, one of which has mental health issues of ASA, ADHD, and BPD. Her other son has severe physical disabilities as Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Scoliosis, tube fed, to mention just a few. She also has a younger son who is in secondary school, who is a pleasant and very helpful young man.
Uma Bhatia - Family Engagement & Education Lead
Uma joined the PODS team in October 2019. She has 2 children Vani who is a young adult and recently completed studying at university and Om who is in Secondary school. She became a PODS member in early 2015 shortly after her son’s diagnosis of ASD. She found the Family Groups and workshops run by PODS very useful and regularly attended these sessions. She went on to develop a peer network of friends at the PODS sessions, who all had children with additional needs, she felt they could all relate with each other’s experiences and challenges.
She realised that sharing of her experiences and learnings could help other parents / carers in similar situations. She is motivated to work for the betterment of the special-needs community in general. In PODS, she found an avenue to express herself and work with a group of likeminded people determined to make a positive difference in the lives of families with kids with additional needs.
She has undertaken both the Parent Rep and Befriender training. She was involved in the successful pilot run of the Lego Therapy Club as a volunteer and now heads up the sessions. She loves interacting with children and parents/carers and find the engagement at Family Groups and Lego Club very rewarding. She has further trained and gained qualifications from IPSEA enabling her to give advice around education.
Matthew Downes-Ward - PFA (Preparing for Adulthood) Navigator
Matt has been a longstanding member of PODS for many years, he is also trained as a Befriender and has volunteered over the last few years. In 2022 he took on the exciting new role of PFA Navigator, his previous experience is in Law and Education, teaching from entry level qualifications to GCSE for Post-16’s. He is currently a school Governor and has children with additional needs that are within the age range that his role focuses on.
As the PFA Navigator, he is here to help support young people and their families in their quest for independent living. This includes signposting families to services, discussing post-16 options (including education and employment), looking into life skills, addressing social inclusion, housing difficulties, and ongoing healthcare needs.
Jane Smith - Support & Activity Lead
Jane started at PODS at the start of December 2025 but has been member of PODS for a few years. She has over 20 years of experience supporting families whose children have complex additional needs, both medically and educationally.
She has previously worked within a local Special School, been part of the management team for a local care agency who provide PA Support to families and has worked more than 15 years within the NHS for the CCNs in Walsall.
She is married and has 2 children, a daughter (Zoe) who attends secondary school, and a son (Fraser) who attends primary school. Fraser has mild/moderate bilateral hearing loss for which he wears hearing aids daily.
Kelly Lord - Perinatal & Infant Support
Kelly has been a member of PODS for the last year or so and regularly attended Blossom & Bloom stay & Play group.
She has more than a decade of experience in working with children from ages 0-17 years old, giving her a wealth of knowledge, and experience in working with children.
Also Working in nursery settings over the past decade has allowed her to assist, and support various children and their families with additional needs, this includes multidisciplinary working with other agencies such as social workers, nurses, doctors, physiotherapists etc. It also involves signposting families to further support and just offering a empathy.
She has 3 children of her own, 2 girls aged 15 and 10 years old, she also has a little boy aged 3 with SEND needs, recently diagnosed with ASD.
Her role at PODS, and is to lighten the load, and improve the well-being and manageability of the journey with our parents. She intends to do this by continuing to offer guidance, and compassion for the journey ahead. Providing a listening ear, attending appointments, doing home visits, explain unknown jargon, and offer practical advice.