Conference Keynote Speakers

This page will be updated as further speakers are announced.

Carli Whittaker, Royal College of Nursing, Head of Nursing Practice, Children and Young People

Originally a Sydney-sider, after qualifying and practicing as a registered nurse in Australia, the plan was to come and travel the UK and Europe for 2 years, this was over 20 years ago. Carli is both adult and paediatric nurse by profession, however area of specialism is Paediatric Critical Care. Carli is the President of the Paediatric Critical Care Society (PCCS), the first nurse and female to hold the role within the Society, PCCS is a professional, multi-disciplinary, membership organisation representing the interests of those delivering paediatric critical care in the UK (United Kingdom) for the benefit of Children and Young People and their families.

Carli’s interests predominantly focuses in Paediatric Critical Care with her PhD in the exploration of children’s nurses and the retention challenges faced. However, Carli is also interested in the education, simulation, CYP leadership and CYP health inequalities. Carli is passionate about broadening the scope and profile of Children’s Nursing not only in the UK, but globally. She works in partnership with the NHS, private and independent sector, and professional, statutory and regulatory bodies.

Professor Bernie Carter PhD BSc RN, RN(Child), Professor of Children's Nursing, Edge Hill University

Bernie's research focuses on children and young people whose lives are disrupted by pain, illness, disability, complex health care needs and disadvantage, and the ways in which this affects their parents, brothers and sisters and family life. She is particularly interested in the challenges of assessing the pain of children with profound cognitive impairment. Much of her research is creative, narrative, appreciative, participatory and arts/activities based. She works closely with children and families throughout her research to ensure her work is robust and grounded in the lives of the participants. On a good day, Bernie loves writing about research (although on bad day's it can make her cry).

Professor Sarah Neill -Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth

Sarah is a children’s nursing academic with over 25 years’ experience in higher education, initially focussed on teaching and learning for the next generation of children’s nurses, then gradually more focussed on research. Sarah Co-leads the Fit for Children and Young People () project with her colleague Dr Matt Carey as she is passionate about ensuring children’s nursing education is fit for purpose.

Sarah’s research is mainly focussed on acute childhood illness in children under five years of age, predominantly in the home and in first contact health services, such as primary, urgent and emergency care. She works collaboratively with parents and health professionals to understand patient and professional experiences and decision making. This evidence she applies to the development of interventions to improve access to care for acutely ill children.

Sarah leads the Acutely Sick Kid Safety Netting Interventions for Families () research programme and was the Chief Investigator on the Before Arrival at Hospital () NIHR RfPB funded project. She is currently Co-leading another NIHR RfPB funded project: Acutely Sick Kid Digital Interventions for Parents from under-represented Communities () project. Sarah is a qualitative researcher with a specific interest in Glaserian grounded theory. Internationally Sarah co-chairs the International Network for Child and Family Centred Care and the Conference Planning Committee of the International Family Nursing Association .

Dr Matthew Carey – Associate Professor in Child Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth

Matt is a passionate children’s nurse with a background in critical care who joined the University of Plymouth in 2012 as a lecturer in child health nursing. For the past 12 years Matt has facilitated the training and education of future generations of children’s nurses and qualified professionals, leading to an Inspirational Teacher SSTAR Award in 2019, voted by students. After completing his PhD Matt gradually moved to focus more on research, leading to a promotion as an Associate Professor in Child Health Nursing.

Matt’s research interests are centred on children’s nursing education, children, young people (CYP) and their families as well as critical care. Matt is Chief Investigator on a number of research projects including the Fit for Children and Young People () project and the ASTOUND study. The Fit4CYP project, co-led with Professor Sarah Neill was established to ensure that children’s nursing education is fit for purpose. The ASTOUND Study, has been established with an expert panel representing 34 countries to explore the global provision of pre-registration education for the preparation of student nurses to care for neonates, infants, CYP and their families.

Matt is also the award holder for the NIHR Undergraduate Research Internship Programme, to develop pre-registration student nurses as research leaders of the future. In addition, Matt is the Postgraduate Research Coordinator and the Research Leader for Child and Family Health within the School of Nursing of Midwifery.

Rebecca (Becks) Daniels BEM, Community Children's Matron, East London NHS Foundation Trust

Rebecca is a passionate children’s nurse with 25yrs clinical and educational experience, including 19yrs community based children’s nursing, where she currently works as community children’s matron in East London. She is an advocate for children and young people (CYP) with complex health needs, supporting their rights to be included in all aspects of community living, alongside their peers, to ensure they can reach their potential, however short their life might be.

In 2020 Rebecca was awarded the Queen’s Nurse title and during the COVID19 pandemic connected with other children’s nurses, to tackle an inequality for clinically vulnerable CYP with complex health needs, requiring aerosol generating procedures (AGPs), as they were excluded from education. A national community children’s nursing (CCN) network was set up, and Rebecca continues to chair the network, as CCN project lead at The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI). She is passionate about influencing policy, and promoting the voice of CYP with complex needs in policy decision making.

She aspires for community children’s nursing to be a larger core component of pre registration training and for all CCNs to have the specialist practioner qualification (SPQ), recognising and raising the profile of the advance clinical practice of CCNs across the UK.

Dr Kerry Gaskin, Professor of Congenital Cardiac Nursing, Birmingham City University

Prof Gaskin has 20 years of senior academic experience, leading departments (Midwifery, Paramedic, Advanced Practice/CPD) and managing academic teams, leading undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses, coordinating research and knowledge exchange within the school of nursing and midwifery and empowering academic, clinical staff and students to engage in academic and research professional development. She has supervised many masters’ students and is currently supervising 5 PhD students.

A Registered Children’s Nurse and Adult Nurse, Kerry worked in Children’s Cardiac Intensive Care, Paediatric Intensive Care and High Dependency Care at several specialist Children’s Cardiac Units and Children’s Hospitals in the UK before moving into academia in 2005. Her research focuses on parental experiences and home assessment using an early warning tool called the Congenital Heart Assessment Tool (CHAT), to enable parents to identify signs of deterioration in their infant and to make prompt contact with the appropriate health care professional.

Kerry is a mixed-methods researcher with a particular interest in congenital heart disease and congenital cardiac nursing, she has led numerous pedagogical and clinical research studies and received funding through SPARK The Midlands, NIHR Wessex ARC, NIHR i4iFAST, The Health Foundation and Heart Research UK. She is Chair of the Congenital Cardiac Nurses Association (CCNA) UK, Associate Editor for Evidence Based Nursing and on the Editorial Board of Journal of Paramedic Practice providing paediatric expertise.