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.
Jeannie Lear - SEND Engagement Lead
Jeannie has been the PODS SEND Engagement Lead since February 2021. She first got involved with PODS at the start of 2020 volunteering at Uma’s Lego Sessions. Since then, she has been running PODS Activity sessions, which started off as craft activites over Zoom due to Covid. Thanks and the removal of restrictions and further funding she has been able to continue and is now providing a variety of sessions across Telford with support from the brilliant PODS team.
Her role has progressed to also providing sensory sessions, which supports young children and parents/carers. She feels she has been fortunate to meet many PODS members and gain a better understanding of what families need in Telford. Before joining PODS, she studied Childhood Studies at college and university alongside working as a teaching assistant in Early Years and at Haughton School.
Her previous experience has always gravitated towards supporting children with SEND, something she credits to her late sister who had SEND. From a young age she knew that supporting children, young people and families with SEND was something she wanted to do, and she feels very lucky to be working with PODS today.
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.
Louise Browne-Quinn - Perinatal and infant disability support worker.
Louise has 4 children, 3 of whom have additional needs, she joined us in 2023 after being a member for many years accessing services for her older children. She has been very much looking forward to starting her new role and ensuring families have the support they require when they need it the most.
She has gained a wealth of lived experience in her journey, her son had a postnatal diagnosis of complex disabilities shortly after his birth. Now her son is in school, she is hoping to create a difference in this role to ensure no one goes through the journey alone like she had too.
Her desire is that no one feels alone when receiving a perinatal or infant disability diagnosis, she hopes to provide support and guidance for the journey ahead. She will help in a manner of ways, such as being a listening ear, attending appointments, explaining unknown jargon and offering practical advice. Whatever families may face, every step of the way she will be there, ensuring families are supported as that is the most important thing to her.
Tammie Kellett - PA Support worker
Tammie is our newest member of the team, she has 2 children, she joined us as a member of staff in 2024 after being a member for many years. She has been very much looking forward to starting her new role and ensuring children and adults have the support they require when they need it the most.
She is passionate about helping families navigate challenges, access resources, and build resilience. She genuinely cares about the well-being of the families I work with, and I am excited to get to know each family, child and young adult, understand their unique needs, and offer tailored support that makes a real difference.