Janet Stearns is a qualified nurse, midwife, health visitor, teacher and play therapist.
She has over 25 years experience in teaching childcare in colleges and is an experienced examiner and external moderator for childcare qualifications.
She currently provides professional development and training for practitioners in children's services and works both as a university lecturer and a consultant for developing new childcare qualifications.
Claire Schmieder has opened and run nurseries and kindergartens forr over 16 years and was a Registered Nursery Inspector for OFSTED for 4.
She has also taught childcare courses at levels 2,3,4 and 5 at Weymouth College and Bournemouth and Poole College, as well as running online courses.
She is currently an Early Learning Consultant for Poole Local Authority.
Mark Walsh is a registered nurse and a qualified teacher. Mark has taught academic and employment-based courses to health and social care, nursing and child care students in a number of further and higher education institutions. He is an experienced writer of textbook, teacher support and distance learning learning materials and has worked as a moderator, principal examiner and chair of examiners for major awarding bodies. Mark currently tutors for The Open University and provides mental health training and support for tutors and students in further and higher education.
Elaine Millar trained and worked for many years as a general and psychiatric nurse in both child and adult fields. After spending some time working in a hostel for teenagers who were leaving care and looking after disadvantaged children from inner city Philadelphia, USA she completed a psychology degree and moved into research nursing. More recently she has combined raising a family with writing books and distance learning courses in health and social care.