FAST about us

We are two professionals with years of experience working in Children's Services supporting families, parents and children.
We wanted to operate our own social enterprise to be able to work in a bespoke way to meet families’ needs and be in control of our own service without the constraints of government structure to work flexibly with families and partners.
We have good networks with professionals from services in all areas of support, and understand the specialist services and what they can offer but are also aware of their restraints in both time and finances.
We feel it's of the utmost importance to listen to families and support them in the way they need and provide a service that plugs the gaps where existing services cannot.
Of the two Directors, we have all worked with families with complex issues, families in need and crisis. We have a sound understanding of the safeguarding of children, value the importance of early intervention and the need to support them before things deteriorate.

We will also employ a team of experienced support workers who have worked with children with additional needs in various settings.

Laura trained as a primary school teacher and worked in Southern Devon as a Team Leader for the Inclusion Service for over 9 years. She ran therapeutic activity clubs in schools for children identified as having low self-esteem. Laura went on to work with children with disabilities and special needs supporting them to access social activities, in particular travel training. She ran the STARS sibling service, organising and taking the siblings of children with additional needs on respite outings and giving them the opportunity to meet others in a similar situation to them.

Laura worked in families' homes supporting parents to implement routines and boundaries for children with challenging behaviour. Laura was the Southern PEIPco (Parental Early Intervention Programmes Co-ordinator); she co-ordinated the areas evidence based parenting programmes and she is an experienced facilitator in delivering evidence based parenting and family programmes.

Laura went to the University of Plymouth's Rolle College in Exmouth and qualified with a BA(hons) Education (combined with Mathematics) and also studied Mathematics, Psychology and Art & Design at A-level at Coombeshead College in Newton Abbot. She worked in Children's services for nearly ten years where she took part in continuous professional development.

Laura's training includes Safeguarding (level 3), Paediatric First Aid, Conflict Resolution, Risk Assessment, Manual Handling, Epilepsy/Epipen training, AXS Pathways/CAF, Working with Parents, Incredible Years Parenting Programme Facilitator, Strengthening Families Programme Facilitator and Cook4life Facilitator Training.

Laura likes walking, art, swimming and enjoying the countryside.

James Highet, Managing Director
James started off his career in Children's Services in business support with the Devon Integrated Children's Services AXS Pathway before becoming the Early Help Co-ordinator for South and West Devon with Devon Children and Young People's Services.

He has a multi-agency approach to working and is often the first point of contact for parents/carers and professionals.

He is very much involved in the Children's Services support networks and endeavours to support professionals from any service, making sure they have access to the right information to ensure the needs of families they're working with do not go unmet.

James' role also includes facilitating the moves between the thresholds of Local Authority Social Care and responding to safeguarding concerns raised by Devon's MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub). James also has experience in office management and project management.

James was educated at Nottingham Trent University obtaining a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Applied Biology, he also studied Biology, Art & Design and Economics at A-level at Kingsbridge Community College, and has had continuous professional development within Devon Children and Young People's Services.

James' relevant training includes Children's Safeguarding (level 3), AXS Pathways/CAF training, Working with Resistant Families, Tackling Domestic Violence and Abuse, Reducing the Impact of Parental Mental Ill Health on Children and Young People, Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness and Safer Recruitment.

James is also an Incredible Years Parenting Programme Facilitator with a certificate in Paediatric First Aid.

James is passionate about mountain biking and enjoys hitting the trails both in the UK and abroad for fun and competitively. He recently obtained the CTC Mountain Bike (Trail) Leader Award to enable him to share his love of the sport with others.