Creative Spark: Key Note Presentation
10am | Wednesday 22 October | University Centre Peterborough

Bringing Safeguarding To Life: Colin Michel and Luke Billingham from Resonant Collaboration, focus on “relational practise” when building conducive professional relationships and settings with young people.

Meet the speakers:

Colin Michel

Colin Michel is a facilitator, researcher, and consultant with over twenty years’ experience in child and youth services across education, local government, the NHS, and the voluntary sector. He is Founder and Co-Director of Resonant Collaboration, a UK social enterprise that brings relational practice to life in youth safeguarding, and has co-authored papers and local safeguarding practice reviews. Colin has led programmes in inclusive education, adolescent safeguarding, early help, and violence reduction, and authored Adolescent Safeguarding in London: A Handbook for Collaboration. He holds postgraduate degrees in Cultural Studies, Adult Education, and System-Psychodynamic Consulting, will start a PhD at the University of Sussex in October 2025, and volunteers in roles supporting children, families, and communities.

Luke Billingham

Luke Billingham is a youth worker at Hackney Quest, an independent charity in North East London, and an academic researcher at the Open University, where his work focuses on violence reduction policymaking. At Hackney Quest, he supports young people facing complex challenges, particularly within the education system, and collaborates with youth on projects to improve the Hackney Wick area. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Sociology Department at Durham University and an Associate Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. In 2022, he co-authored his first book, Against Youth Violence (with Keir Irwin-Rogers), and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on violence, school exclusions, and social infrastructure for young people. Luke was part of the parliamentary Youth Violence Commission, which delivered its final report in 2020, and undertakes voluntary roles with Haven Distribution and New Bridge Foundation, supporting people in prison.