Meet the Team

Jade Craswell

CEO

With over 15 years' leadership experience and working in Primary Education predominantly focused on Early Years Provision, I have a passion for making a difference to the lives of young children. I feel strongly that all children deserve a quality education in the early years as this time is so crucial to child development. Two years ago I moved into the Charity Sector where I have developed the leadership skills I gained in education and have expanded my knowledge of how charities operate.

My aim is to provide the strategic leadership, vision and direction to help PATA deliver its mission to support the Early Years Education and Children's Play sectors in Gloucestershire and beyond.

Wendy Beale

Finance & Payroll Manager

My role involves all of the PATA and PMG’s finances and overseeing of our payroll service. Previous roles included software engineer, senior programmer and book-keeper to my husband. Whilst raising my children I did lots of volunteering: at my local toddler group, Treasurer at playgroup, school PTA and at the Gloucester PATA branch where I also ran the consortium, toy library and crèche. I joined PATA in 2000 as a financial assistant. 

Helen Ducker

Operations Manager

My main responsibilities are to offer support to our PMG’s, co-ordinate our membership and collate and produce much of our marketing materials and training brochures. Previous to PATA I worked in the training department of an exam board before re-locating to Moldova to run community projects and raise my family. We returned to the UK in 2014 and I joined PATA the following year. 

Julie Rees

PMG Area Manager

My role is to oversee the running of the PATA Managed Groups, including line management responsibility for each of the PMG Early Years Managers and the PMG Early Years Curriculum Lead. I have been working in childcare settings for over 20 years carrying out a variety of management roles. Whilst I consider I have vast experience, I am always keen to learn and develop new practices. I put my team first and highly value building relationships through my honest and open approach.

Jo Smith

PMG Lead SENDCo

Karen Hendry

Payroll Administrator

I started working for PATA in 2021, part-time, processing payrolls for our clients and supporting them with their enquiries. I have previously volunteered within early years, running a toddler group, chairing a local playgroup that my sons attended, and then working for them as a keyworker qualifying in an early year’s level 3 qualification. My employment prior to that though has been predominantly in finance one way or another and I still currently also work part-time for another local playgroup as their financial administrator. 

Rebecca Atkinson

Finance & Payroll Administrator

I have worked within the Payroll team at PATA since September 2019, processing payrolls for our members. My role also includes handling the funding process for the settings that we manage and some internal finance duties. I previously worked in London as a Retail Merchandiser before relocating to start a family. I volunteered on the local Playgroup committee, staying on as their Financial Administrator when my son moved on to school. 

Lisa Bell
Finance Administrator

My role at PATA is to support the finance department. I manage internal finances and support the handling of funding process for our PMG's. I work in the office 2 days a week and have worked for PATA for over a decade and volunteered on a playgroup committee when my two children were younger.

Michelle King

Setting, Support & Development Officer

My role is to offer support to various aspects of the organisation. As well as providing admin support in the office my experience also enables me to work within the PMG's and offer support to our members which also includes training. I joined PATA in 2018 after 12 years as an early years educator and I managed my local setting for the last 5 years of this time. I help run various local groups in my village (rock hunting, village trails etc.) and I am on the board of trustees for my local village hall.

Kurtis Windridge

Payroll Assistant & Office Administrator

I joined PATA as an Apprentice in May 2019 after completing a Level 3 Games Design qualification at Gloucester College. I achieved my Level 3 Business Administration qualification whilst working at PATA on November 2020. My main duties are supporting Rachel with training courses and dealing with parts of PMG related information.

Rachel McKie

Training Co-ordinator

I work in the office 3 days a week and co-ordinate all the training. I worked for the Bank of England, Trading Standards and GlosCol as an Apprenticeship Co-ordinator before joining PATA. I previously volunteered at my local playgroup on the committee.

Kate Beevers

PMG Curriculum Lead

My role is to support our PMG's in the planning and delivery of an ambitious and stimulating curriculum. Together we enable the unique child to have the best possible start to their learning journey and help prepare them for their next step of starting school. I am a qualified teacher; my qualifications include a Master's degree in Early Years Education. I joined PATA in 2007 as a toddler Support Worker with over 30 years' experience of teaching and volunteering in primary schools, playgroups and after school clubs. I also deliver some of the PATA workshops to our member settings..

Helen Phelps

Marketing, Premises & Procurement Officer 

I joined PATA via the GEM project, as a learner and volunteer to refresh my knowledge before becoming part of the PMG team as a practitioner. I now work within the admin team at Head Office where I support both our PMG teams and PATA Member settings, I'm involved in a wide range of areas from general admin, marketing, procurement, facilities and training.  I also provide bank cover to the PMGs if I'm needed.