"I feel free. With the dressing up, you can’t do that all the time but I feel I can be myself!" Boatemaa first joined the Lickety family as a participant at Big Porridge & Play Maryhill in 2018. In 2019 she became a Storyplay Champion Volunteer together with her older child, and during the pandemic her family helped us develop Storyplay online and welcome families to our first ever sessions on Zoom. In 2021 Boatemaa joined our board and she continues to be a very important part of Licketyspit!

Catherine is a Communications Officer at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). She promotes the national directors of CIH as thought leaders in the housing sector and the organisation itself as the professional body for people who work in housing and the home of professional standards. A former journalist, Catherine has worked in numerous communications roles in the third sector, education, theatre and museums & galleries. Her work at Children in Scotland developed a passion for children’s rights and a belief in the transformational power of art, music and play. As a child, Catherine’s favourite games were creating stories about flower fairies in the garden and tearing around the neighbourhood on her Chopper bike with friends.

Esther is a Service Manager at Scottish Refugee Council (SRC). She has worked at Scottish Refugee Council since 2005 and is currently managing asylum projects including the family service, where she has led on collaborations with Licketyspit! She has a background in child development, educational psychology and mental health. Esther's favourite childhood games were nhodo (played with stones on the ground) and pada (hopscotch)!  

Morag is a Consultant Psychiatrist with over 30 years experience working in various roles in the NHS, for the last decade with the community mental health services in Stirlingshire. As a child Morag enjoyed playing imaginary games outside and making potions and perfume with flowers from the garden

Alison is Head of Research, BBC performance at Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator. She oversees the range of research that Ofcom carries out to assess the BBC’s performance. She was previously head of media literacy research at Ofcom, with responsibility for various datasets about the media habits and opinions of children aged 3–15 and their parents, and adults aged 16+. Licketyspit’s focus on face to face engagement and interaction is a useful complement to the mediated communications that are increasingly the norm for both adults and children. Alison’s favourite childhood games were: endless games of Monopoly with her older sister, gradually working out the best strategies and which properties to go for – Whitechapel and the Old Kent Road were often surprisingly useful!; obstacle courses around the garden when visiting cousins; an ongoing make-believe acting-out story with friends and sister revolving around the antics of a young child and her harassed parents – not a whole lot happened but that was part of its fun!