GambleAware Annual Conference Delegates page

Conference agenda

GambleAware’s final Annual Conference promises a varied and engaging agenda, featuring a range of lived experience community members and leaders from a variety of sectors to share their insights and experience on addressing this serious public health issue.

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Speakers

Our engaging agenda features key expert contributors from a range of sectors which we hope will elicit interesting debate and conversation. If you would like to submit questions and comments to the speakers prior to the conference please do so using the link below.

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Liz Barclay

Liz Barclay is the Small Business Commissioner for the UK. She has a background in broadcasting and journalism specialising in small business, personal finance and consumer affairs and is author of several business books. She is also Chair of the Fair by Design Campaign (to tackle the poverty premium) and a non-executive Director of the Lending Standards Board and CCA Global.

Andy Boucher, GambleAware Chair

Andy Boucher was appointed Chair of the GambleAware Board of Trustees in April 2025. Alongside working with GambleAware, his other roles include Chair of Sir George Monoux Sixth form college, London Place Director for Business in the Community, Partnership Director for the Social Mobility Business Partnership and Vice Chair and Honorary Secretary of the charity Making the Leap.

Baroness Twycross, Minister for Gambling and Heritage

Baroness Twycross was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 23 July 2024. She is the Minister for Gambling and speaks on behalf of DCMS for all business in the House of Lords. Prior to being appointed a Minister, she was London's first Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience and a London Assembly member.

Ruth Champion, Director of Systems Commissioning

Ruth is a psychologist who has worked in the gambling treatment sector since 2003, having come from a background of working with people with acquired brain injuries. Over the last 2 years, as the Director of Systems commissioning, Ruth has also been instrumental in redesigning and recommissioning the gambling treatment and support system across GB, now known as the NGSN.

Steve Girling, Reframe Coaching

Steve Girling is in the eighth year of his personal recovery from a Gambling Addiction. Part of Steve’s recovery involved serving time in Prison, because of his addiction. Steve is now the Co-Host of Hold or Fold, a podcast by National Prison Radio and is the Co-Founder of the national charity, Reframe Coaching, who provide Recovery Coaching support to individuals who have been affected by Gambling.

Khudeja Amer-Sharif, Sharma Women’s Centre

Khudeja has over 30 years of experience in leadership roles in Finance, Education and Voluntary Sector, leading diverse teams of professionals in new levels of success. She has implemented organisational change, spearheading the Equalities and Diversity agenda. As CEO for Shama women’s Centre, Khudeja has pioneered innovative mental health support programmes, exceeding KPI’s, improving outcomes in education, work and health inequalities.

Gwyn Thomas de Chroustchoff, Big Issue

Gwyn manages various support services as part of the Big Issue's work with people in poverty. He oversees a gambling harm information outreach and support service in Scotland, England and Wales, supporting those in poverty with information and support around gambling harms, screening for risk from gambling harms and access to treatment, as well as access to mental health and financial support.

Darren Crocker, Simon Community Scotland

Darren is the Gambling Harm Programme Lead for Simon Community Scotland, and has lived experience of gambling harm. A main focus of his role is addressing gambling-related harm within the context of housing instability and those who are experiencing/at risk of homelessness. Simon Community Scotland develops programmes that train staff, build collaborative partnerships, and provide practical support pathways to those most affected

Nadine Ashworth, ThrivinTogether

Nadine Ashworth is the Founder of thrivin’ together cic, a women-only, lived experience led organisation dedicated to meeting women impacted by gambling addiction where they're at.  Drawing on both lived and professional experience, Nadine champions peer-led, holistic approaches that empower individuals to heal, connect and thrive. Nadine advocates for women who are easily overlooked in the male-default landscape of gambling recovery.

Nicola Jaques, GambleAware Lived Experience Council

Nicola is a lived experience advocate, MBE recognised for her work in gambling harm reduction with regional treatment provider Beacon Counselling Trust. She is Chair of the GambleAware Lived Experience Council. Nicola’s advocacy is rooted in unifying purpose, ensuring that lived experience is not only heard but actively shapes the future of gambling harm prevention, education, treatment, support and recovery.

Bianca Colclough, GambleAware Lived Experience Council

Bianca’s lived experience of gambling harms is intertwined with a professional career and childhood trauma, “I guess you could say I became an expert of wearing a mask from a young age!” Sharing her story was empowering but it has also enabled her to capture the key elements of gambling harms to raise awareness and build a career in the industry. She is a proud parent to two young children who are her key driver to securing a safer future for the next generation.

Suhail Patel, Lived Experience Co-ordinator

Suhail Patel works as a Lived Experience Coordinator at GambleAware, helping ensure the voices of those impacted by gambling harm shape support services and future commissioning. He builds partnerships, strengthens lived-experience leadership, and champions compassionate, community-led systems.

Lucy Harte, Deputy Director of Multiagency Operations, Care Quality Commission

Biography to follow

Baroness Clare Gerada of Kennington DBE

A General Practitioner for more than 30 years, having first trained in psychiatry, Clare has been working at the interface of mental health and primary care for her professional life, mainly in the field of addiction. Since 2019, she has been leading the Primary Care Gambling Service, a GP led, intermediate service for those with problems relating to gambling. Clare is also past President of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Baroness Hilary Armstrong

Baroness Hilary Armstrong became Minister of State for Local Government and Housing in 1997. In 2001 she became Chief Whip, and in 2005, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office. She was appointed to the House of Lords in July 2010 and was Chair of the Public Services Committee until January 2023. She is currently Chairing the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods alongside Local Trust, and is also the first Chair of the Government’s Digital Inclusion Action Committee.

Jonathan Simmons, NPC

Jonathan joined NPC in November 2024 as CEO. He has 25 years’ experience delivering purpose driven projects. He’s worked with many different organisations delivering digital transformation, organisational redesign, large scale participatory design projects, brand redevelopment, and impact investment strategies. He founded Zone (originally called Public Zone), a digital agency initially focused on charities which became the UK’s leading independent digital agency.

Nigel Huddlestone, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Nigel Huddletsone MP was first elected as Member of Parliament for Mid Worcestershire in the May 2015 General Election. In 2024, he was appointed Co-chair of the Conservative Party. In July 2025, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, with the aim of holding the Government to account on important policy areas such as sport, the BBC, media regulation, tourism, heritage, civil society, youth, the arts, lotteries and gambling. 

Neil Platt, Beacon Counselling Trust

Neil Platt, is the Clinical Director of the Beacon Counselling Trust, one of the founding members of the NGSN. Neil has been working in the Gambling Harms field, both nationally and internationally, for nearly 15 years, leading a comprehensive and muti-skilled  team at Beacon, delivering education, early intervention, treatment and recovery  approaches to population wide audiences.

Ian Semel, Breakeven

Ian Semel has been involved in gambling for over 40 years. He spent 20 years as a pathological gambler and the last 25 years as a treatment provider for anybody affected by problematic gambling with Breakeven, a charity Ian started in 2001. Breakeven, is a member of the NGSN (National Gambling Support Network). Over the years Breakeven has delivered over a quarter of a million sessions and Ian has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes debating problem gambling issues.

Colin Hughes, Wigan Public Health

Colin has held public health portfolios that include vulnerable people, substance misuse, gambling related harms, tobacco control and sexual health. Currently, he is working in the public health team in Wigan on the Mental Wellbeing Transformation in which Gambling Related Harms is embedded. As programme manager, Colin is also guiding Men's Health work and supporting the workforce development offer in his role as an assessor for UKPHR programme.

Inspector Sue Stribling, Merseyside Police

Biography to follow

Ian Whiteside, Beacon Counselling Trust

Ian is the Early Intervention and Education Programmes Manager at Beacon Counselling Trust. Ian is a professional Youth and Community Worker, with an MSc in Drug Use and Addictions and over 25 years’ experience working in the field. Ian supports the work Beacon deliver by ensuring their early intervention and education programmes are integral in its public health approaches and local systems work through the delivery of their core programmes, and universal education and prevention initiatives.

Tim Miller, Gambling Commission

Prior to joining the Commission in 2016, Tim was head of policy and communications at the Local Government Ombudsman and prior to that was head of public affairs at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. In his role at the Commission, Tim is responsible for the Commission’s Research and Policy functions and leads the Commission’s programme of work to implement the British Government’s Gambling White Paper. He is also currently acting Executive Director for Operations at the Commission.

Haroon Chowdry, Director of Evidence and Insights, GambleAware

Haroon Chowdry is the Director of Evidence & Insights at GambleAware. He oversees the organisation's research, evaluation, analysis and insights to build the evidence base on gambling harms, including the experiences of different communities and what works to prevent or reduce harm. He also leads the organisation's work to improve our understanding of inequalities in gambling harms and how to address them.

Dan Riley, GambleAware

Dan has worked as a researcher over 10 years’, working across different policy areas and health challenges. At GambleAware he leads on the commissioning of research to inform and evaluate marketing activities, such as the highly impactful stigma campaign, updated branding guidelines, and health warning recommendations. Dan also leads GambleAware's policy function, ensuring positions are evidence-led and rooted in public health principles.

Alex Ballinger MP

Biography to follow

Dr James Noyes, Social Market Foundation

Dr James Noyes is a Senior Fellow of the Social Market Foundation. He previously helped lead the Labour Party’s policy agenda on gambling reform and is the author of a number of reports on the subject.

Sam Starsmore, YGAM 

Sam Starsmore is the Programme Lead: Education at Ygam and Deputy Chair at the GambleAware Lived Experience Council. After experiencing a devastating gambling addiction, he now uses his lived experience to raise awareness of gaming and gambling harms and to safeguard future generations. In his role, he leads the delivery of evidence-based education and advocates for stronger protections for young people.

Alistair Barfield, Deflect & Protect CIC

Ali is an autistic/ADHD man who is passionate about neurodiversity and radicalism.  He is the Director and Founder of 'Deflect and Protect CIC' a nonprofit that delivers training and consultancy assisting young people with Internet related harms. A particular focus of deflect and protect is the proliferation of gambling content designed to appeal to young people.

Anna Hargrave, Transition Chief Executive, GambleAware

Biography to follow

Watch live

Live streaming will start here at 9.30am on 10 December 2025.

Poster presentations and resources

National Gambling Support Network

University of Brighton: GambLGBTQ+ exhibition

GambLGBTQ+ is a study aimed at understanding gambling in LGBTQ+ communities in Great Britain. It is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Brighton, LGBT Switchboard Brighton and Hove, and YouGov. The study used multiple research methods to develop the first extensive evidence-base of gambling and the associated harms for those who are part of LGBTQ+ communities in Great Britain.

GambLGBTQ+

GambleAware Legacy Report: summary outputs

The GambleAware Legacy Report will serve as a strategic record of learning and reflection on the charity’s role in the field of gambling harm prevention, support, and treatment. We are sharing here some early outputs from the report development to date. The full report will be published in January 2026.

The voice of lived experience

Watch our videos to find out more about who we are, the work we do, and how our advice and tools are helping people with gambling harms find the right support for them.

Our videos

Voices of lived experience

Acceleration of harm through online gambling products (1 min 23 secs)

How gambling can impact you (1 min 33 secs)

Gambling isn't just about the money (6 mins 08 secs)

How gambling impacts loved ones (6 mins 48 secs)

Understanding the risks of gambling (5 mins 29 secs)

Contact us

Got a question? Having problems with the live stream? Contact us events@gambleaware.org

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Find support in your area Call 0808 8020 133

GambleAware Annual Conference 2025

On this page:

Conference agenda

Speakers

Liz Barclay

Andy Boucher, GambleAware Chair

Baroness Twycross, Minister for Gambling and Heritage

Ruth Champion, Director of Systems Commissioning

Steve Girling, Reframe Coaching

Khudeja Amer-Sharif, Sharma Women’s Centre

Gwyn Thomas de Chroustchoff, Big Issue

Darren Crocker, Simon Community Scotland

Nadine Ashworth, ThrivinTogether

Nicola Jaques, GambleAware Lived Experience Council

Bianca Colclough, GambleAware Lived Experience Council

Suhail Patel, Lived Experience Co-ordinator

Lucy Harte, Deputy Director of Multiagency Operations, Care Quality Commission

Baroness Clare Gerada of Kennington DBE

Baroness Hilary Armstrong

Jonathan Simmons, NPC

Nigel Huddlestone, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Neil Platt, Beacon Counselling Trust

Ian Semel, Breakeven

Colin Hughes, Wigan Public Health

Inspector Sue Stribling, Merseyside Police

Ian Whiteside, Beacon Counselling Trust

Tim Miller, Gambling Commission

Haroon Chowdry, Director of Evidence and Insights, GambleAware

Dan Riley, GambleAware

Alex Ballinger MP

Dr James Noyes, Social Market Foundation

Sam Starsmore, YGAM

Alistair Barfield, Deflect & Protect CIC

Anna Hargrave, Transition Chief Executive, GambleAware

Watch live

Poster presentations and resources

Voices of lived experience

Contact us

However you’re feeling right now, we’re here to help.