Women's Aid national conference 2025

Date: Thursday 10th (public day) and Friday 11th (members only) July 2025

Venue: East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham NG7 2RJ

Empowered Together: Celebrating Solidarity and Building Connections 

This flagship event will bring together the Women’s Aid federation of member organisations with a broad range of expert voices on domestic abuse at a national and local level. The event will provide a space to reflect on progress one year on from the government’s pledge to half VAWG, as well as provide opportunities to collaborate on solutions to the challenges still facing survivors and specialist services. 

We would love to see you there and tickets are available to purchase via the link below. 
If you have any questions, please contact us at events@womensaid.org.uk, where we’ll be happy to help.

Confirmed speakers include…

Malika Adeel-Azam is a passionate advocate for women’s safety and empowerment, currently serving as Quality Assurance Manager at the Anah Project. With nearly 20 years of experience in the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector, she has held impactful roles including Domestic Abuse Support Worker, Team Leader and Funding Officer.

Her career began in youth work following the Bradford Riots, where she saw first-hand how investing in the most marginalised could rebuild not just lives, but entire communities—a lesson that ignited her lifelong mission to drive meaningful change.

In her current role, Malika overseas refuge operations, policy implementation, frontline staff supervision and crisis response. She also leads on strategic service delivery, grant management, and fundraising—including securing and managing major funding. She has developed specialist resources for women with complex needs, supported asset-building for the organisation, and delivers training to professionals on domestic abuse awareness and complex needs and training to service users driving empowerment toward success.

She also advocates for BME women through local and national platforms. With a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Criminology, Malika brings a deep understanding of human behaviour and social justice to her leadership—combining compassion, advocacy, and dedication to create lasting change for women and communities.

Julia Cattanach is a dedicated leader who heads the Legal, Compliance, and Risk functions for Experian UK&I. She joined Experian in September 2016 as the Chief Risk Officer and has played a crucial role in guiding the business through its regulatory maturity journey. 

Julia is also passionate about supporting and finding effective solutions for those affected by economic abuse through products and services, innovation, customer service, and government relations. 

With a rich background in retail financial services, Julia has held various leadership roles in Legal and Compliance functions and is also a qualified solicitor. Originally from New Zealand, Julia now resides in Nottingham with her husband and son. 

Francesca Jarvis Francesca Jarvis is a London-based practitioner working at the intersection of gender justice, trauma, and technology. With over a decade of experience in the gender-based violence sector, she leads Survivor Services at Chayn, a global nonprofit creating open, trauma-informed resources for survivors of gender-based violence. She leads on Bloom—Chayn’s flagship trauma support platform. Her role spans project management, service design, and content strategy.

Francesca’s work has always been based in the relational—from youth work to frontline sexual violence work, including many years as a practicing ISVA. She is experienced in service management, policy consultancy, and cross-sector collaboration. Francesca’s work focuses on trauma-informed, survivor-centred practices across non-profit and tech spaces. Passionate about building sustainable practices and integrating an ethics of care, Francesca is interested in how we imagine and create more just and sustainable systems and spaces. 

Nic is the co-lead of the Domestic Abuse Awareness Champions within Experian, ensuring colleagues understand the support available, and where to find resources, such as Experian’s Domestic Abuse policy. The Champions are established Mental Health First Aiders who have recieved additional training in tackling and preventing Domestic Abuse from the Women’s Aid team. Nic also leads the Communities pillar of the Women in Experian network (Experian’s largest Employee Resource Group), working in partnership with Women’s Aid, to ensure everyone in the network has access to training and resources to support themselves, friends / families and colleagues. 

I commenced my journey in the domestic abuse sector in 1992 as a Trustee for Basildon Women’s Aid, moving into volunteering and then paid work.  I have worked for what is now Changing Pathways for over 28 years, holding many different positions including Children’s Practitioner, Refuge Practitioner, Outreach Practitioner and Health IDVA.

I am an accredited Independent Domestic Abuse Advisor (IDVA), Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) and Older Person Violence Advisor (OPVA) & Leadership accredited.  I was integral in setting up a hospital Health IDVA service and worked closely with hospital partners and this service continues to thrive supporting victims of domestic abuse within the hospital setting.   

I am now the Operations Manager for Thurrock Refuges providing safe accommodations for victims and their children that have fled to a place of safety. 

I am a survivor of domestic abuse, and this lived experience drives my passion to support survivors to be safe and recover from their abuse.  I am committed to my continuous professional development and in my free time I enjoy quality time with family and friends. 

Ejaye Moran Founder of Counselling and Therapeutic Services within My Sisters Place,  Ejaye has for the past 22 years specialised in the Domestic and Sexual Abuse fields developing and delivering innovative trauma informed services and projects that continue to meet the needs of survivors who have experienced complex trauma. They are an accredited Trauma Therapist, EMDR Practitioner, Clinical Supervisor and Trainer and developed the ‘TIME’ model and TIME training programme:  a ‘whole organisational approach’, for services wishing to integrate and embed trauma Informed practice into their frontline services which has to date trained over 3000 practitioners nationally. They are the recent recipient of the EMDR UK – ‘Sian Morgan Award 2025’ for their trauma work within the Charity Sector.

Kate has worked for almost three decades in the retail banking sector with a career that spans roles in frontline customer delivery, programme management, corporate communications, and responsible business.  

In 2020, she helped to create, and now leads, TSB’s responsible business programme the ‘Do What Matters Plan’. She’s responsible for driving the Bank’s social and environmental commitments under the Plan that, together, promote financial and social inclusion, encourage good business practice, and support a just transition to a greener planet. 

Devoted to doing what matters for people, Kate has steered TSB’s support for victim-survivors of domestic abuse. She is most proud of TSB’s Emergency Flee fund, launched in December 2022, that offers TSB customers and colleagues, who are victim-survivors of domestic abuse, between £50 and £500 to escape an abusive relationship.  

Outside of her day job, she chairs TSB’s Inclusion network, is a workplace mediator, and a mentor to people both inside and out of the bank.

Cathy Page is a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. She oversees Supported Housing, Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation, and Home Adaptations (Disabled Facilities Grant). With eight years of experience in housing with care and support, Cathy previously held various roles at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, including Head of Operations for Broadband Delivery UK, Head of Domestic and European Tourism, and Head of Community Sport and Olympic Legacy.

Sam Smethers is the CEO of Surviving Economic Abuse. Before this, she was the CEO of the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading feminist campaigning charity. Sam is also the Chair of the campaigning charity Pregnant Then Screwed and Deputy Chair of BPAS, the UK’s largest abortion provider.  

Emma is a seasoned Regulatory Government Affairs specialist with over twenty years’ experience and a background in global policy issues in the financial services and data sectors. She has helped shape significant legislative frameworks like the new UK Data Protection Legislative Framework and contributed to key regulatory policy developments including the Future of Credit White Paper. This paper became the foundation for the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Competition Market Study Remedy for the investigation into Credit Information Markets, Emma is also deeply committed to supporting vulnerable consumers, particularly those affected by economic abuse. 

Prior to joining Experian UK&I in 2014, Emma worked with the Conservative Party, the European Parliament in Brussels, and DLA Piper UK LLP. 

John is a leading expert in personal credit scores and leads the company’s public education programme. This is focused on explaining credit reports & scores, lending decisions and promoting a range of financial education initiatives.

John joined Experian in 2012, managing teams in our Customer Servicing area for a few years before moving to Consumer Affairs in 2017. He is the lead spokesperson for Experian in local and national media, as well as working closely with the free debt advice sector.

John has spent a number of years supporting the UK’s most financially vulnerable people. Working on initiatives to support victims of domestic abuse, problem gambling and people with disabilities.

A woman clapping at Women's Aid's National Conference 2023

Thank you for organising such an inspiring conference, I thoroughly enjoyed and felt like I took away a lot of information that will help within my day to day work.

A woman smiling attending Women's Aid's National Conference 2023

Fabulous event - surpassed my expectations. Relevant, interesting and I felt part of something.

A woman talking attending Women's Aid's National Conference 2023

It was my first Women's Aid conference. I thought it was brilliant. The Women's Aid team are incredibly helpful and friendly and I felt privileged to be there with such an amazing network.

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