SSI Consultancy Team
SSI provides bespoke training for national and international sport organisation boards. We are fortunate to be able to draw on a rich international network of expertise within SSI to support our consultancy work, including members of the:
- SSI Research Committee – international experts in safeguarding and safe sport research.
- SSI Athlete Voice for Safe Sport Group – advising on best practices for trauma-informed athlete engagement.
- SSI Advisory Council – worldwide leaders in sports, safeguarding, and athlete advocacy organisations.
Our consultants work at all levels in sport including with inter-governmental bodies, governmental and non-governmental agencies, international federations, national sports bodies, competitive sport delivery organisations and sport for development organisations.
Marcella Leonard MBE
Marcella is Director of Leonard Consultancy and qualified as a social worker in 1989. Marcella has specialised in assessment and treatment in the fields of sexuality, sexual deviancy and trauma with both victims and perpetrators. Marcella co-ordinated the management of sex and violent offenders in Northern Ireland and has worked with several jurisdictions to establish their statutory management of sex and violent offenders.
As Director of Leonard Consultancy, Marcella works internationally including Abu Dhabi, Gibraltar, Australia, New Zealand, Norway as well as throughout UK and Ireland. She delivers specialist safeguarding training to sports, criminal justice, religious, educational, social care, voluntary and statutory organisations which includes assessing and managing sexual and violent risk, consultancy, strategic and safeguarding policy development. She undertakes Case Management Reviews for organisations, training safeguarding officers and assisting organisations strategically and operationally to have robust safeguarding for children and adults at risk. Marcella’s practice, as a therapist with victims and survivors, is grounded in a trauma informed humanistic approach which is also embedded in her training and consultancy work.
Marcella has written several book chapters and co-authored articles in relevant professional journals and regularly provides expert opinion to media outlets as well as expert advisor to several documentaries for television productions. She is co-author of the AIM3 Adolescent Model of Assessment with Professor Simon Hackett and the CASP-R Ability to Protect and Supervise – Risk assessment model with Gareth Mc Gibbon.
Marcella is currently a panel member of the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse redress scheme assisting in the analysis of the harm caused to people when they were children whilst resident in child care and criminal justice institutions.
Marcella has been appointed as the lead social work panel member to review Historical Clerical Child Abuse throughout Northern Ireland on behalf of the Northern Ireland government. Marcella has been awarded NSPCC and Association of Child Protection Practitioners UK Child Protection Trainer of the Year 2019.
Neal Anderson, MSc, MUKCP
- Chief Operating Officer of Safe Sport International (SSI).
- UKCP Registered Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor.
- Associate Lecturer at the University of Cumbria, UK.
- Represents SSI on advisory groups of the International Safeguards for Children in Sport, the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, and the Global Observatory for Gender Equality in Sport.
Neal Anderson is an experienced leader of delivery and change initiatives with professional and membership organisations. He has extensive relationships with chartered professional bodies, national governing bodies of sport, further and higher education institutions, helping to shape common standards of professional practice and effective joint working.
Neal specialises in developing professional standards of practice, education and training, and organisational development, with a strong track record of designing and delivering new initiatives and brings significant experience in strategic planning, financial control and staff coaching to support organisational stability and growth. Neal is an applied researcher in the field of therapeutic use of outdoor adventurous sports, including co-author of Outdoor Mental Health Interventions Model and Sustainability Indicators when utilising Nature for Mental Health, and is a registered psychotherapist, and clinical supervisor supporting the health, wellbeing and performance of individuals, senior leaders, athletes and all affected by trauma.
Duncan Sheppard
Duncan Sheppard is an independent safeguarding consultant with extensive experience in criminal justice, public protection and safeguarding, working with victims, families and individuals who have committed sexual and violent harm. He is committed to preventing abuse of children and adults by learning from the experiences of victims, families and organisations where harm has occurred, and has focused his consultancy work on improving practice and systems in response to that learning.
Duncan is a senior leader specialising in developing organisational safeguarding strategy and culture, translating high-level objectives into pragmatic solutions tailored to different contexts. He has significant experience across religious, sporting, charitable and public sector organisations, and regularly works with management boards, government departments, trustees and partners in the UK and internationally.
Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Duncan served as the national police lead for the management of sexual and violent offenders in England and Wales. In this role he was responsible for the national strategic and operational implementation of policy and procedures across all police forces.
Anne Tiivas, OBE
Anne Tiivas OBE is the Chair of Safe Sport International (SSI), the leading global charity focused on safeguarding athletes of all ages. SSI is known worldwide for its three key areas of focus: research, education, training and consultancy, and athlete voice.
Anne is the former Director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) where she worked for nearly 18 years until September 2019. In 2016, the CPSU received the UNICEF International Safeguarding Children in Sport award at the Beyond Sport Summit. Read more.
Mark Mungal
Mark is a Director and co-founder of the Caribbean Sport and Development Agency. Recognised as a thought-leader in the international sport for development fraternity, Mark has served on several international, regional and national agencies over the years, including the Commonwealth Advisory Body on Sport (CABOS), the CARICOM Physical Education and Sport Advisory Committee and the CARICOM Task Force for Child Rights and Child Protection.
Mark is presently serving on the International Safeguarding Children in Sport Advisory Board, the UNICEF /Barcelona Foundation Sport for Development for Children Working Group, the Trinidad and Tobago NCD Alliance and the First Citizens Sports Foundation.
Janice Shardlow
Janice is a lawyer who specialises in governance and integrity issues and is an Associate Consultant to Safe Sport International, working with International Sports Federation to support their development of policy and guidance.
Janice’s specific focus is on assisting organisations to put in place effective structures and systems and on providing bespoke training. In her previous role as General Counsel at the British Equestrian Federation, Janice was responsible for all legal, governance and integrity issues, lead on the restructuring of the safeguarding system and managed the safeguarding function. She has practical experience of safeguarding litigation and in her role as a Sports Resolution Specialist Arbitrator has acted in a number of safeguarding related cases.
Janice currently sits on the Audit and Compliance Committee of the international equestrian federation (FEI), the Judicial Commission of the international hockey federation (FIH) and the Anti-Doping Committee of the international paralympic committee (IPC). She is a Board member of the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council Audit and Assurance Board and Legal Director of Governance United, providing strategic advice on sport governance and assurance issues both nationally and internationally. She is an Associate Lecturer in International Sport Law at Birkbeck College, University of London.