Jo Ferris is the FE/HE Prevent Coordinator for the South East Region working for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Prevent is the governments programme to target the threat of terrorism and violent extremism. It is intended to safeguard vulnerable young people from being exploited by violent and extreme ideologies.

Jo is a retired police officer from Thames Valley and she spent the majority of her career in various safeguarding roles. She was a detective in the Child Abuse and Domestic Abuse Investigation Units. She became the Detective Inspector in charge of a safeguarding team dealing with child abuse, domestic abuse, vulnerable adults and registered sex offenders.

Jo introduced MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) for Thames Valley Police. This enabled harm reduction and risk management for victims of domestic abuse through a multi agency panel.

In 2000, Jo was the police lead for a national pilot project in two secondary schools in Reading Berkshire. The objective was to raise standards in attainment and behaviour through utilising early identification, intervention and prevention strategies. This was successful and has now been embedded in education as the Safer Schools partnership. Jo was also a trustee of a charity for a local community domestic violence perpetrators programme, challenging the violence and abuse using the cognitive approach to changing behaviours.