“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”
Hans-Otto Pörtner IPCC
About Us
CCPAST: who are we?
CCPAST is the Climate Child Protection and Safeguarding Team. We are a group of professionals working in safeguarding roles who are concerned that children are suffering significant harm due to the unfolding Climate Emergency. This harm is sourced in chronic neglect of their physical and emotional needs and is now causing, and at risk of causing, significant physical and emotional harm.
Our focus is the needs of the child. We uphold the principles held within the child protection framework of working together in an evidence-based way to prioritise the welfare of the child.
The team
Ruth Allen
Ruth is a registered social worker with a degree in Psychology, an MSW/DipSW, and a two-year psychology internship. She has practiced as a social worker and psychologist in the forensic/ child protection area for 25 years.
She became active in addressing the climate crisis as a mother and social worker who recognised the differential impacts to children of environmental breakdown. She established a network of climate hubs which based itself in community organising. This enabled conversations with others in safeguarding roles and from here the application of our safeguarding framework to climate breakdown, CCPAST, evolved.
Sarah Yapp
Sarah has worked 22 years as a therapist, and seven years as mental health recovery coach, and social prescriber with safeguarding duties for both children and vulnerable adults.
Working in general practice opened her eyes to the connections between ill health and climate breakdown and she recognised that this was a safeguarding issue. She helped to establish CCPAST in response to the risks posed by climatic and environmental destruction.
Trudi Warner
I have an MA in Social work from UEA from 1995. I went on to work for Essex County Council, latterly with CAMHS where I became a senior social worker. From 1995 till 2002 I had a part time post with a charity project in London supporting families affected by HIV.
I gave up social work to concentrate on environmental concerns which I felt were impacting on all children globally. I wanted to be an agent of change and strongly believe my social work values have informed and underpinned my climate activism. My most recent work as a campaigner has been featured in Professional social work and I now have a public profile, since my arrest in March 2023.
Ali Rowe
Ali is a health justice campaigner and communications strategist, with a formative background as a mental health nurse, specialising in CAMHs and narrative therapy. She has worked with young people in global movements. Her philosophy is deeply embedded in person-focused community building, and as such her trusted network covers a wide range of other stakeholders in environmental breakdown, ranging over business, health, youth, global majority communities, creative industries, academia and politics.
Rachie Ross
Rachie has worked with young people for over 30 years; as a teacher of students with complex additional needs, as a youth worker and a therapeutic coach specialising in adolescence. Working alongside teenagers with eco grief shone a bright light on the disconnect - how can we safeguard the most vulnerable when no one seems to be talking about climate breakdown and contextual safeguarding? CCPAST was born out of this void.
Rachie is a mother of three and as a theologian speaks regularly into faith spaces about community and individual responsibility in these days of climate collapse.