Speaker
Joanna Foster
Consultant
Biography
After graduating from Oxford University, Joanna gained over sixteen years’ experience of working in the public, charitable and voluntary sectors, including ten years managing the London Fire Brigade’s Juvenile Firesetters Intervention Scheme. As manager, Joanna worked with hundreds of London’s most at-risk children and families, and re-shaped the JFIS programme in line with statutory requirements to ensure the highest possible standards for clients and staff. Using her working knowledge and training in children’s safeguarding and wellbeing, Joanna worked closely with the London Child Protection Committee to introduce juvenile firesetting behaviour into the London Child Protection Procedures for the first time. In 2010, Joanna’s work with two clients was filmed as part of the BBC2 documentary series Wonderland, in an episode entitled ‘The Kids That Play With Fire’. In June 2013 Joanna launched fabtic, a company specialising in juvenile firesetting behaviour. Joanna now delivers training, consultancy and supervision services to front-line practitioners. She continues to work directly with children and teenagers who set fires, working both privately with families and via referrals from public sector organisations. Joanna’s professional clients include practitioners from the NHS, CAHMS, HMPPS, YOT, forensic psychology, fire services, police, education, social care, academia, arts therapies, secure units and mental health services. She has also trained practitioners in the US. She has also developed and delivered workshops tailored specifically to parents and carers whose children set fires. Although specialising in juvenile firesetting, Joanna’s work and studies enable her to deliver training and workshops that cover the spectrum of children and families’ wellbeing needs.
Joanna has a Post Graduate Certificate (PGC) in Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health, and recently completed her Master’s in Applied Criminology, Penology and Management at Cambridge University.