This hybrid seminar is brought to you by the Garden Court Chambers Children’s Rights Team and the National Association of Youth Justice.
RSVP here
| Date: | Tuesday 10 March 2026 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 12.30pm-3.00pm (incl. refreshments and networking) |
| Venue: | Garden Court Chambers, 9 Carmelite Street, London, EC4Y 0DR and Online |
| Cost: | Free for members |
| Areas of Law: | Children Law, Children’s Rights, Youth Justice & Child Rights |
NAYJ and Garden Court Chambers’ Children’s Rights team are delighted to be hosting this special Seminar focusing on relational practice. This seminar will explore how practitioners develop and sustain relationships and consider the wider organisational and systemic factors that shape the conditions for practice.
The session will include practice-based insights and reflections from the field, followed by a discussion and Q&A with speakers and participants. This seminar will be of particular interest to practitioners, managers, researchers, policymakers, and all those committed to creating a youth justice system that works with children.
Speakers:
Kate Aubrey-Johnson, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Kate is a youth justice specialist barrister and mediator at Garden Court Chambers with experience as a criminal defence practitioner and public lawyer. Kate is co-author of the leading textbook Youth Justice Law and Practice (LAG, 2019). She is a youth justice expert and is regularly called upon to give lectures and deliver training. She chairs the Ministry of Justice’s Working Group on Youth Advocacy and works in an advisory capacity in the youth justice sector. Kate is working closely with the Law Society, the Criminal Bar Association and the Inns of Court College of Advocacy to ensure lawyers have the specialist skills and expertise to represent children. Kate was Highly Commended in Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (ECPAT) UK’s ‘Children’s Champion Awards’ for her commitment to supporting child victims of trafficking. Kate has an extensive knowledge of children’s rights law and also works as a SEND mediator.
Dr Laura Janes KC (Hon), NAYJ
Dr Laura Janes KC (Hon) is a consultant solicitor specialising in prison law, criminal appeals, community care, mental health and public law at Scott-Moncrieff & Associates Ltd and GT Stewart Solicitors & Advocates. She has particular expertise in representing children, young adults and vulnerable people in detention in both penal and mental health settings. She is a trustee of the National Association for Youth Justice. Laura is a visiting academic at South Bank University in the Law department. She has a professional doctorate in youth justice.
A youth justice-experienced young person in conversation with Laura Janes
Dr Ali Wigzell, University of Nottingham
Dr Ali Wigzell is an Assistant Professor in Criminology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy. Before this, she was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Affiliated Lecturer at the Institute for Criminology at the University of Cambridge (2020 – 2024). This research focused on the emotional and ethical dimensions of youth justice intervention, with a particular interest in the place, nature and effects of ‘care’ and ‘professional love’ in such contexts. Ali completed her PhD at the Institute of Criminology in 2020, examining children’s and practitioners’ perspectives and experiences of everyday youth justice supervision in England. Prior to and alongside her PhD, Ali worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck University. Ali’s research interests include youth justice, desistance, and the emotional and moral dimensions of criminology and criminal justice. Ali is currently co-director of the Criminal Justice Research Centre at the University of Nottingham, a co-chair of the charity, the National Association for Youth Justice and book review editor for Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Luke Billingham, Hackney Quest/ Open University
Luke Billingham is a youth worker at Hackney Quest, an independent charity based in North East London, and an academic researcher at the Open University. At Hackney Quest, he has two focuses: (1) providing support to young people who are experiencing complex difficulties, especially in relation to the education system, and (2) working alongside young people on projects to improve the Hackney Wick area. At the Open University, his work focuses on violence reduction policymaking. In 2022, he published his first book, Against Youth Violence, co-authored with Keir Irwin-Rogers, which seeks to reframe the issue of violence between young people in Britain. In addition, Luke has published a number of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on issues such as violence, school exclusions, and social infrastructure for young people. Luke is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Sociology Department of Durham University and an Associate Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Luke was part of the parliamentary Youth Violence Commission team which delivered its final report in 2020. Luke undertakes voluntary roles for Haven Distribution and New Bridge Foundation, both of which support people in prison.
Zoya Wallington, Rounded
Zoya Wallington is an equity-centred researcher and evaluator who has supported leading UK charities, councils and school groups to explore the impact of their work. She is a qualified youth worker and draws on her experience working one to one with young people to inform her co-design methods. As a mixed methods researcher, Zoya specialises in combining qualitative insights with data analysis and visualisation to build deeper insight alongside communities who are underserved by services and commissioners. Zoya leads an interdisciplinary team of therapists and researchers at the cross section of disability and mental health. Zoya and her team are learning partners for the DfE SAFE Taskforce in Southwark, co-designing school based psychotherapy for young people and families who are at risk from violence and its wider impacts. The aim of Zoya’s work is to ensure that all children and young people can access learning and support which is built on a solid understanding of their everyday lives.
Mike Farrington, Concrete Rose
Since graduating from in 2003, Mike has dedicated himself to supporting the most underserved, vulnerable and isolated young people in a variety of settings including the Prince’s Trust, Pupil Referral Units and the voluntary sector. Between 2015-2020 Mike managed the 15 strong Youth Development Team at Romsey Mill, supporting over 1,000 ‘at risk’ young people per week across Cambridge City, South Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Mike founded Concrete Rose Collective in 2020 in response to rising youth homelessness, with a vision to provide accommodation and support for young people ‘at risk’ of homelessness including care leavers, and those estranged from family.
