Meet Our Team

Donna Vella - Director and Responsible Individual

Im Donna Vella one of the directors for Ph55 and currently working towards RI.

I am also the Designated Safeguarding Lead

I came into fostering via Terri, my partner as when we were courting, she was an established foster parent with a young person.  

Once we lived together, we went into fostering together 15 years ago and have continued to do so.  We started forming an idea to open our own agency a few years ago as we have seen poor practise over the years along with exceptional practise.  It is my belief all foster practise should be exceptional.  In 2021 we bagan to sew the seeds and in Dec 2021 we opened our office and registered our company.  

I have a varied background in terms of work experience but by far the most enjoyable has been working in education and fostering.  Both hard and at times challenging but equally rewarding.

Terri Jenkins - Director

My name is Terri Jenkins I am 51 years young. I have wanted to be a foster parent from a very early age as my parents were foster parents when I was younger. This gave me a slight insight in what it meant to give a home to children and young people and that fostering was also so much more than this.. For nearly 20 years, I have been a foster parent myself, with many highs and lows through the years and I wouldn’t change a thing!

For many years now my partner and I have wanted to be in a position to open up our own Independent Fostering Agency and we have! My background is varied having worked for a children’s residential company dealing with very challenging children, where I was deputy manager with a level 3 playworker qualification. I believe having the experience from both being a foster parent and having worked within residential has enabled me to see different aspects of the pressure faced as well as celebrating the achievements big or small. 

We want our fostering agency to embrace an ethos from a foster parent's perspective; they are our priority, without them we do not have an agency and we want them to be valued, supported and trained to successfully meet the needs of the children and young people placed with them and together we will achieve positive outcomes for the children and young people.

Sarah Ellis - Fostering service manager

I am Sarah Ellis, the Fostering service manager for Phoenix55 Fostering Service. I qualified as a social worker in 1998 and have had the opportunity to develop my practice and experience in working with a number of Local Authority's and Independent Fostering agency's. In 2013, I helped develop a fostering agency and was able to experience first-hand what works and what does not work within an Independent fostering service and what support constitutes as effective support for foster carers and what isn't.  

I am proud to be part of the strong caring ethos within this fostering agency and work alongside Donna and Terri who are experienced foster parents. In working closely with foster parents, it has allowed me an insight into their daily lives and what it takes to enable a child and/or young person to thrive and reach their own individual potential.  To fulfil this journey for the child it is essential that foster parents are able to access the support and help that provides the structure to empower foster parents to meet the complex needs of children and young people placed within their care. 

I am lucky to continue with my qualification, MA in Clinical Counselling this year which has enhanced and developed my skills base from a therapeutic aspect that will support the infrastructure of what Phoenix55 offers for their foster parents. 

Finally, it is my privilege to be part of a growing agency where its foundations are built from a foster parent's perspective.