Our Team
At Newham, our commitment to systemic practice is underpinned by our investment in a service structure that allows great social work to shine.
We have a united, dynamic and ambitious leadership team across social care and education, with a shared ambition to deliver the best possible outcomes for all of Newham’s children and young people and make the borough a Centre of Excellence for children’s social care.
Tim Aldridge
Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services
A qualified social worker, Tim started his career as a residential care worker and has been working in Children’s Social Care for more than 20 years.
Tim is committed to an organisational culture that creates the right environment for good social work practice to evolve and thrive. He has a keen interest in Early Help and Early Intervention, and the role these play in delivering better outcomes and managing demand for services.
Tim has been Newham’s DCS since autumn 2019, having previously led the team that took Havering Council’s Children’s Services from “requires improvement” to “good”. He is sector-led improvement lead on the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS) and chairs the North-East London Teaching Partnership and the North-East London Commissioning Partnership.
Tim is also a trustee on the board of Frontline, a national charity dedicated to developing excellent social work practice and leadership to create social change for children without a safe or stable home.
Dave Tapsell
Director of Clinical Practice
Dave is a systemic Family Therapist and Social Worker who has been with Newham since June 2020. Newham is the only local authority in the country to have a Director of Clinical Practice, with the newly created position demonstrating our commitment to a practice model that is relational in approach, using systemic ideas to effect change.
Dave leads a dedicated team of four practitioners dual-trained as social workers and systemic family therapists. Together, Dave and his team play a crucial role in supporting social workers and managers to apply systemic ideas to practice – improving outcomes for children and families by building an organisational culture that allows social work to flourish and enhances social workers’ opportunities to develop.
Emma Cockerell
Director of Operations Children’s Social Care & Safeguarding
Emma’s 25 years’ experience includes roles as a volunteer; Community Family Worker; Teaching Assistant; Residential Social Worker, and Social Worker in roles across the whole of the child’s journey – from assessment to permanence and onto being a practice manager, service manager and head of service.
In Emma's most recent role before Newham, she was Head of Commissioning, Quality and Practice – overseeing safeguarding Quality Assurance across children’s and adult’s social work, SEND and YOS, and managing commissioned services including placements and specialist domestic abuse services. Emma also managed the Local Safeguarding Children’s Partnership, data and insight and learning and development.
Beverley Halligan
Principal Social Worker, Children and Families, Assistant Director of Professional Standards
As Principal Social Worker (PSW), Beverley is relentless in working with the senior leadership team to create a culture where social work – and social workers – can flourish.
Beverley believes that the workforce is the organisation’s greatest asset and champions the rights of practitioners to be cared for and supported to grow and develop. As head of Newham’s Social Care Academy, Beverley is leading a training and development offer that adapts and grows to meet the individual needs of practitioners.
Beverley has been PSW in Newham for six years and has worked in children’s social care for more than 30 years, with much of her career spent in Newham. In a range of roles, from social worker to team manager and independent reviewing officer, Beverley has always maintained a strong commitment to delivering social work interventions that improve outcomes for children and families.
