Our board of trustees

Mervyn Erskine

Chair

Mervyn has been a foster carer since 2001. With his wife and family, they have looked after more than 100 children and currently have three boys with them long-term. Professionally, Mervyn is retired but previously was director of a large IT company.

Kate Brash

Trustee

Kate is a HR director who has been fostering with her husband for over a decade, caring for children with a range of needs on short-term, long-term, emergency, rehabilitative and respite basis.

She is passionate about improving outcomes for children and making a difference to the lives of children, young people and foster carers. She is engaged in addressing retention and recruitment issues and giving foster carers a louder voice.

Lyssa Elster

Trustee

Lyssa and her partner are long-term foster carers, which she believes is a framework that works in the best interests of a child.

Lyssa is chief executive of a leisure business, has been involved in adoption panels and was formerly a trustee of Adoption UK. One of Lyssa’s goals is to help care experienced young people receive better support as they go into adulthood.  

Frank Harasiwka

Trustee

Frank and his wife have been long-term foster carers for six years. Frank has served as a local councillor with committee oversight responsibilities in respect of Children Services.

Frank is a Chartered Secretary and holds an MBA. He has discharged senior finance and operations roles in plc, not-for-profit and governmental entities. He is a trustee and co-founder of a community nursery and has previously served for 30 years on number of school governing boards.

Frank is committed to supporting foster carers so that they can be the best advocates they can on behalf of children in their care.

Stuart Lewis

Trustee

Stuart is a foster carer with Edinburgh City Council specialist disability care team. He is married with two birth children, and together they enjoy the richness that fostering adds to their family.

In addition, Stuart is a director within the public sector. He is the Scottish representative on the The Fostering Network board, bringing knowledge of the fostering sector in Scotland, along with his skills in digital, data, and IT.

Caroline Malcolm

Trustee

Caroline has been a foster carer for 12 years, primarily looking after teenagers. She supports local foster carers, practices as an ordained Minister, volunteers with the police as a chaplain and is a qualified specialist counsellor. 

Caroline’s motivation in becoming a trustee of The Fostering Network is to raise the profile of foster carers to ensure they are seen as professionals. 

Nigel McCartney

Trustee

Nigel fosters sibling groups with his wife and his two children, who are at university. As a family they have experience of caring for a wide range of age groups and levels of trauma. Together, they undertook a six-month course in therapeutic fostering which they found very helpful.

Currently, Nigel is an education champion for children in care within Suffolk and has been a school governor/chair of governors for more than 15 years. He also sits on the Suffolk foster carers' retention committee. In his day job he runs a technology/IT company he started over three decades ago. His passion as a trustee is to make fostering in the UK a recognised professional role to help children in care get the very best life chances.

Matthew Page

Trustee

Matthew grew up in foster care from the age of three and later became a foster carer as an adult. Matthew is keen to use his own story to amplify the voices of children and be part of genuine change.

His experience of the care system has helped shape his passion to give back to society. Matthew identifies as mixed heritage and part of the LGBTQ+ community and says he wants to inspire others in care to embrace who they are.

Chris Pope

Trustee

Chris is a foster carer for twin boys with complex needs. Previously, a training development manager and adviser in the RAF and in local government, he has also been a local authority fostering panel member.

He has more than 30 years of experience as a governor in schools, academies and colleges. As a trustee, Chris aims to represent the views and opinions of foster families, carers and children, and to support and promote the objectives of The Fostering Network.

Paul Seath

Trustee

Paul and his wife are foster carers and the first child they looked after is still with them today. Family life is busy, combined with his role as partner at a law firm which represents charities.

Paul hopes to use his personal and professional experience to continue building on the work The Fostering Network does. He wants to see support for foster carers grow and greater recognition of the contribution of social worker teams. 

Ishara Tewary

Trustee

Waiting for bio

Jonathan Walsh

Trustee

Jonathan grew up as one of nine children and together with his wife became a foster carer in 2012. As a foster carer, he enjoys giving children a home and providing them with some of the support he took for granted when growing up.

Jonathan works as a property solicitor and has been a charity trustee for Bagbooks since 2007. As a trustee for The Fostering Network, Jonathan aims to ensure that the wonderful, unsung work of foster carers, is well supported.