Emily was born in Holloway, London, residing in Palmers Green with her family before settling in Enfield. At the age of 18, Emily embarked on a career as an estate agent. Discovering that she had a natural entrepreneurial streak, Emily quickly excelled in the industry and progressed to working for large UK housebuilders and boasted an enviable profile in the sector, becoming a director of the company she worked at by the time she was 31. In 2004, Emily made the decision to branch out on her own by launching her own business: a project-directing consultancy operating across the UK, Turkey, Italy and Dubai.

Tragically, Emily experienced the care system herself when her sister died and Emily had to fight to secure custody of her two nieces. Out of concern for what might have happened to her nieces came the idea for Serenity Welfare, with Emily determined to stand up for extremely vulnerable young people in memory of her sister.

Serenity Welfare was born in 2016 out of Emily’s determination to find a new way of treating at-risk children with dignity and compassion. From the beginning, her focus was very much on the wellbeing of young people and showing them that they were valued members of society.

Serenity Welfare’s mission statement is to treat people how you would like to be treated and the organisation prides itself on providing safe, comfortable and secure transport services to ensure each child and young person feels a sense of self-worth in a relaxed environment. They have a 100 per cent success rate in ‘stress free’, compassionate and therapeutic journeys.

Serenity Welfare also offers 24/7 wrap around care, crisis intervention services, talks and presentations on gangs and county lines, and high-quality mentoring services so that vulnerable children receive the positive and consistent nurturing they need.

The organisation’s staff are fully trained in de-escalation and mentoring and have never used and vow to never use handcuffs to restrain children. One young person that Serenity Welfare transported even requested a court judge to place them into their care, which culminated in the opening of its first residential home.

Emily was shocked to discover that vulnerable children and young people in the UK are still being handcuffed or restrained. Too often, vulnerable children - such as those in care or those being exploited by vicious county lines gangs - are treated as criminals rather than victims who require care and support to rebuild their lives.

Having proven through its own approach that such a hostile means of transporting children is unnecessary and that all children should be treated with kindness and respect, Emily launched the ‘Hope instead of Handcuffs’ campaign to push for a change in the law around the use of physical restraints and handcuffs on children and young people within the care system.

The campaign’s core objective is for the government to ban the handcuffing, restraining, or caging of children except when there is a considerable risk of the child harming themselves or others.

Emily and the rest of her campaign team have worked tirelessly to lobby the governments of each UK nation to ban this appalling practice. In October 2022, the campaign made a breakthrough in Wales, which become the first UK nation to protect innocent children in care from being handcuffed or restrained when being transported between care settings, under landmark new regulations introduced by the Welsh Government.

Since launching the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign, Emily has featured across national media including the Sunday Express, Daily Mirror, Sky News and the Guardian, and has spoken at major public sector events to shine a light on issues affecting vulnerable children in care, from mental health issues to county line gang grooming.

Tragically, Emily experienced the care system herself when her sister died and Emily had to fight to secure custody of her two nieces. Out of concern for what might have happened to her nieces came the idea for Serenity Welfare, with Emily determined to stand up for extremely vulnerable young people in memory of her sister.

Serenity Welfare was born in 2016 out of Emily’s determination to find a new way of treating at-risk children with dignity and compassion. From the beginning, her focus was very much on the wellbeing of young people and showing them that they were valued members of society.

Serenity Welfare’s mission statement is to treat people how you would like to be treated and the organisation prides itself on providing safe, comfortable and secure transport services to ensure each child and young person feels a sense of self-worth in a relaxed environment. They have a 100 per cent success rate in ‘stress free’, compassionate and therapeutic journeys.

Serenity Welfare also offers 24/7 wrap around care, crisis intervention services, talks and presentations on gangs and county lines, and high-quality mentoring services so that vulnerable children receive the positive and consistent nurturing they need.

The organisation’s staff are fully trained in de-escalation and mentoring and have never used and vow to never use handcuffs to restrain children. One young person that Serenity Welfare transported even requested a court judge to place them into their care, which culminated in the opening of its first residential home.

•   Best Businesswoman Award – Best Business Woman working with Children & Families 2021

•   Great British Businesswoman Award – Social Enterprise Businesswoman of the Year 2022

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