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A team of researchers and practitioners advising and supporting the project
The project’s advisory group consists of high-level sector representatives, local authority service leads and leading academics with subject and methodology expertise. The group will meet regularly throughout the study, guiding the outputs and activities of the study to ensure:
High policy and practice relevance
Accessibility and engagement
Significant contributions to national and international research, concepts and theories
The study has been shaped and appraised by children’s services sector leaders and independent academic peers.
The advisory group is made up of the following members:
Dr Tina Haux, Advisory Group Chair.
CEO of the Social Research Association, social researcher and research impact specialist. Formerly the first Director of the Centre for Children and Families research, in the National Centre for Social Research. Tina has published widely on family policy, quantitative methods and parenthood research.
Programme Head, Welfare, The Nuffield Foundation.
Catherine is Programme Head with the Nuffield Foundation’s Welfare team. Their goal is to improve people’s lives through understanding how their welfare – their health, happiness and economic prosperity – is affected by social and economic factors. Catherine’s role is development, and management of the wide-ranging portfolio of research projects the Nuffield Foundation supports in this area. The study is funded by Nuffield Foundation, and Catherine is our link to Nuffield.
Becca Dove
Head of Camden Centre for Relational Practice and Children & Learning Transformation, Camden Council.
Vice Chair of the Families, Communities & Young People Policy Committee, Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS). Drawing on Becca's research, policy and practice expertise in the areas of family support, child well-being and early help, Becca provides key guidance and support to the project.
Senior Lecturer, Head of the Discipline of Applied Social Science and Associate Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, University of Galway, Ireland.
Carmel's research and teaching interests are in the areas of Family Support, Parenting Support, Child Protection and Welfare, Alternative Care, and supporting practitioners who work in these areas. Carmel recently completed a national review of a model of family support led in Ireland by the statutory child protection and welfare service, Tusla - Child and Family Agency.
Lesley Wilkinson
Practice Lead, Leeds Relational Practice Centre, Leeds city Council.
Lesley has extensive experience of service reform within public services. She has led on many of the government initiatives including Children Centres, Supporting Families, Parenting and more recently family hubs. In her current role she supports local authorities with sector led improvement work and is passionate about family led practice and asset based approaches that strengthen local communities. Lesley received an MBE for services to children and families in 2013.
Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Programmes, Race Equality Foundation.
Leandra leads on the Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities (SFSC) parenting programme and manages the SFSC team. She worked with Jabeer Butt in the development of the SFSC model and established the programme as a widely used parenting intervention and has published several REF reports in these areas.
Monica has 30+ years’ experience in roles including research, teaching, policy development and strategic leadership. She was Deputy Head of Early Years and Prevention at Anna Freud mental health charity for children and families, and Regional Implementation Advisor at the National Centre for Family Hubs.
She recently published ‘’Listening to the Voice of Babies: learning from Start for Life and family hubs”. Monica is conducting a qualitative inquiry into intergenerational creativity through De Montfort University/Arts Council England.
Research Associate, CASCADE (Children’s Social Care Research & Development Centre), University of Cardiff.
Dr Lee Sobo-Allen is a Research Associate at CASCADE, Cardiff University working on a realist evaluation of Family Group Conferences. Also a Research Fellow at Birmingham University exploring Strengths Based Social Work practice with older people from a Sikh community, and a Research Fellow at Newcastle University working on a NIHR project looking at improving the engagement of fathers in children's social care. He has previous experience as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work, and qualified social worker in child protection, children with disabilities and adults with learning disabilities.
Lee's PhD research explored the engagement of non-resident fathers by social workers as alternative carers for their children. Other research interests include fathers and alcohol and substance abuse, and fathers and domestic abuse.
University Fellow, School of Health & Society, University of Salford.
James is a social policy researcher with expertise in lived experience and participatory methods. His work on the Covid Realities and Changing Realities projects focused on the lived experiences of parents and carers on low incomes during the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cost-of living crisis.
Research and Evaluation Director, Starks Consultancy.
Louise has carried out research on behalf of vulnerable children, young people and families for over 20 years and has delivered many research and evaluation studies for central government, local government and voluntary and community organisations. Louise recently completed a study for the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership into the merits and challenges of online parenting courses.
Lecturer in Quantitative Social Science, University of Sheffield.
Calum's research explores socioeconomic inequalities in the child welfare system and their relationship to fiscal and social policy using quantitative research methods. His research on child welfare inequalities and the funding of local services for children and young people has been published widely across family and child health and research publications, as well as being cited by third-sector organisations including the National Children’s Bureau, Ofsted, Children England and the Department for Education.
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal.
Ana's research contributes to the areas of development, health and community psychology. Recent work has focused on evidence-based parenting interventions, evaluating efficacy and effectiveness. Her work in the field of family support includes multiple national and international collaborations, with contributions to scholarly discourse, professional practice and policy-making.
Associate Professor, Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Patty's research is concerned with understanding how parents can respond to challenging parenting situations in ways that enhances children's mental health. Patty's work spans different disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, and social work, and brings together basic and intervention research, observational, experimental, and intervention evaluation studies. Recent work includes studies focussed on parenting programs and online parenting support.
Digital Services and Service Design Lead, Action for Children.
Among Rachael's broad portfolio, Rachael has taken a lead role in developing and delivering Action for Children's 'Parent Talk' online parenting information, guidance and advice platform, and integrated e-support and 1-to-1 early help for parents, carers and families.
Lynn Giles
Children's Services Manager, Action for Children.
Lynn has worked in Children's Services for 20 years. She has managed several family support services and is currently the operational lead for Action for Children’s digital support services - ‘Parent Talk’, which offers free online support to parents/carers and ‘Sidekick’, for young people. Lynn’s areas of interest include how to fuse traditional services with digital in a way that is responsive to the needs of families.
Daisy Elliott
Former project advisor (as former Senior Policy Advisor, Action for Children). Advisory group member in a personal capacity. Currently Senior Policy Advisor, Foundations.
In collaboration with Joe Lane (former Head of Research and Policy) at Action for Children, Daisy was instrumental in establishing this research project and conducting earlier phases of the study. Drawing on her expertise of policy influencing activity and child well-being policy and practice, Daisy continues to support the project in a personal capacity.
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