Ben describes himself as a children’s services boundary spanner and highly motivated by children’s joyfulness.

His professional journey has stretched from children’s homes in Birmingham to national policy influencing on evidence-use, via commissioning local authority and NHS prevention and early intervention services.

He spent a decade at the Early Intervention Foundation and Foundations leading work to support local leaders to use diverse forms of evidence. He is the architect of Changemakers and the Early Years Transformation Academy, created the Evidence Pie and is the author of ‘Leading & delivering early childhood services: 10 insights from 20 places across England & Wales’.

Steph has spent the last decade working at the intersection of policy, research and practice at the   Early Intervention Foundation and Foundations. She has developed a keen interest in multi-sectoral thinking about evidence use and knowledge mobilisation, and in the value of diverse forms of evidence to local and national decision makers.

Whilst at the Early Intervention Foundation, Steph led work on youth violence prevention, social and emotional learning in schools, domestic abuse and family help.  She is the co-author of ‘Realising the Potential of Early Intervention’.

Prior to this, Steph was a civil servant, where she held formative policy roles on youth violence prevention and prisoner resettlement.

Natasha has extensive experience as a senior local authority children’s services leader and brings wide knowledge of children’s service practice and transformation, including projects to address issues such as parental substance misuse, domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour. 

Natasha led the development and implementation of the Troubled Families programme, and more recently had responsibility for early help, family hubs, youth justice, NEETS and emergency duty social work services. 

Following the Grenfell disaster, in 2019 she led the introduction of Family Hubs in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.  This work had a strong focus on building community confidence and voices a way of addressing deep concerns about access to services early, trauma responses, school exclusion and poverty. 

As a leader, and now a qualified coach, Natasha is passionate about developing people and nurturing practice and leadership at all levels. She has focused on the development and leadership of women and global majority colleagues as both a social justice issue and essential to offering services that have cultural competency and reflect the people we serve.

Dr Sara Bonetti is a researcher with over 20 years of experience advocating on behalf of children and families within government, non-profit and research institutions. She is also a Visiting Scholar at Middlesex University. Her research focuses on policy and leadership in early childhood education and care, with a particular focus on quality, workforce development and systems integration.

Previously she was Interim Director of the Institute of Early Years Education, a membership organization for individuals working in early childhood education and care. She was also Director of Early Years at the Education Policy Institute and an international consultant on early childhood education programs for the Education Outcomes Fund, working on projects based in Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

Before moving to the UK, she spent a decade working in the early childhood education and care sector in the United States, first as a teacher and then as a researcher for local government and research institutes.

Abigail has spent over two decades working in local authority social care, early help and education, supporting families through roles in children’s centres, frontline practice and SEND leadership.

She has led strategic work on SEND interventions, funding and system development, and later served as Head of Early Years and Prevention at Anna Freud, where she oversaw the National Centre for Family Hubs and national projects promoting joined‑up, preventative support.

Abigail brings a commitment and drive for equity, diversity and inclusion expertise to her work, ensuring that services, research and policies reflect the realities of the families they are designed for. Her lived experience as a service user and as someone who has supported family members through every stage of intervention underpins her passion for shaping support that truly feels right for families. 

Rob has a background in education but has spent the past 6 years working in ‘evidence into practice work’ in Research School and Local Authority Children’s Services.

His passion is taking a holistic approach to evidence into practice to make a meaningful difference to children and families.

Key leadership highlights: Early Talk for York from inception to city wide scale up; partnering with Nesta on Fairer Start Local; York Family Hubs; Changemakers Local Evidence Lead.

As Associate Director at Huntington Research School Rob has led major projects on social and emotional learning and poverty proofing the school day.

Stephanie is an evaluation, implementation and systems change specialist with over 15 years’ experience helping organisations use evidence to improve outcomes for babies, children, young people, and families. A research psychologist by background, she specialises in mixed-methods evaluation, implementation science and evidence-informed service improvement, with particular expertise in early years, supporting mental health across the life course, and place-based approaches.

Stephanie enjoys working at the intersection of research, policy and practice, bringing together funders, local authorities, charities and delivery organisations to translate evidence into practical action. She specialises in developing and refining theories of change, implementation strategies, learning systems and evaluations that support continuous improvement.

Before establishing her consultancy, Implement Better, Stephanie was an Associate Director at the Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI), where she led a portfolio of national evaluation and implementation projects, including the multi-site evaluation of Thrive at Five, the Early Years Library pilot trial, and the development of guidance on theory-informed implementation and process evaluations for the Youth Futures Foundation. Prior to CEI, she held senior research and academic roles at the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London.

Jenny is an executive coach, author and education consultant with over 20 years’ experience across the early years and wider education system. She works with leaders and teams to embed evidence‑informed approaches that strengthen practice, decision‑making, and outcomes for children and families.

A former Nursery Director and Deputy Headteacher, Jenny brings practical insight from leading within complex, real-world contexts, understanding the challenges leaders face in translating strategy into everyday practice. She holds Level 7 coaching qualifications and is a Chartered Manager, with a strong focus on leadership development and organisational culture.

Jenny has worked with local authorities, nursery groups, multi-academy trusts and national organisations through coaching and strategic consultancy. Her work often involves integrating research, data, and lived experience to inform decision-making and support implementation across systems.

She is particularly interested in how leaders translate insight into everyday practice in ways that are relational, inclusive, and achievable for the workforce. She is the author of a forthcoming Routledge book, Coaching for Effective Leadership in the Early Years.

Nick is a social and market research practitioner with 30 years’ research experience, having worked across a range of disciplines, including academic, social, and commercial research.  

He has a rigorous approach to research methods and developing research instruments for online and face-to-face approaches, including qualitative discussion guides, qualitative recruitment screening questionnaires, and quantitative questionnaires.  

Nick has worked for Critical Research as a Qualitative Research Director since 2014, providing a full range of qualitative and mixed-method approaches with a more comprehensive level of analysis.  He is the founder of ‘smallhut’, a micro research consultancy offering a full range of social and market research services.

Di is an experienced coach specialising in leadership and team development in the voluntary and public sector.

Previously Di worked as a civil servant on the National Reducing Parental Conflict Programme initially developing the policy and then supporting local areas to develop the cross sectoral partnerships needed to implement this policy. Di followed this with a brief period as a Senior Local Development Advisor at The Early Intervention Foundation / Foundations.

Promoting collaborative working has underpinned her 20 plus years in various roles in local authority children’s services from advisory teacher to young people’s drug and alcohol commissioning and managing family support services.

Chris Cuthbert is a specialist in Early Childhood Development (ECD), child protection, tackling inequalities and leading social change programmes for vulnerable children and families.  He is currently based at the Thomas Coram Research Unit at University College London where he is undertaking comparative research looking at systems, strategies and policies for equitable Early Childhood Development in England and Norway.

Chris was previously Global Director of Evidence, Advocacy & Campaigns at the Lumos Foundation, an International NGO founded by children ‘s author JK Rowling, that works to transform child protection systems away from harmful institutions.  Chris is a former Head of Strategy and Development at the NSPCC, where he led programmes of research, service design and policy development focussed on early childhood and child neglect.  At the NSPCC, he led the successful partnership bid for Blackpool Better Start, a £45m ten-year community-based programme aiming to improve children’s early development.  Chris is a former Senior Civil Servant with experience working in the UK Cabinet Office, Social Exclusion Unit, Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, Children & Young People’s Unit and Department of Education.

Jean Gross CBE has been a teacher, an educational psychologist, head of children’s services in a local authority, and a Visiting and Associate Fellow at three universities. She was formerly the government’s Communication Champion for children, responsible for promoting the importance of good language skills, and was a Founding Trustee of the Early Intervention Foundation. Before this she headed a charity responsible for the national Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts literacy and numeracy tutoring programmes, and led work on overcoming barriers to achievement as a Director of the government’s National Strategies.

She sits on various expert and advisory groups, including those for Thrive at Five and Blackpool Better Start. Jean is also the author of numerous articles and bestselling books on disadvantage and on special educational needs, and co-authored the Education Endowment’s guidance report Improving social and emotional learning in primary schools.

Dr Kirsten Asmussen is a developmental psychologist dedicated to making evidence work for the UK’s most disadvantaged families. Over the past 25 years, Kirsten has been responsible for a series of high-profile research projects with a strong policy focus, including the evaluation of the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners Training Offer, and the landmark review Foundations for Life: What Works to Support the Parent–Child Relationship. Kirsten is the author of the Evidence-based Parenting Practitioners Handbook (Routledge, 2011) and the 10 Steps for Evaluation Success Framework.

Now working as a freelance consultant, Kirsten previously held senior positions at the NSPCC, the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, the Early Intervention Foundation and Foundations, and the What Works Centre for Children and Families.  She has also taught at Teachers College, Barnard College and Hunter College in New York City and continues to lecture at University College London.

Stephen is a policy and engagement specialist with 25 years in senior UK civil service roles and six years as inaugural Director of the Institute for Policy and Engagement at the University of Nottingham. He now runs a consultancy translating evidence into action for universities and third sector organisations.

Clare is the Director of Better Start – a pioneering early years programme which is transforming the lives of babies, young children and their caregivers in Blackpool and now beyond. Better Start uses the latest science, research and real-world evidence, working collaboratively with communities and the workforce, to ensure that families receive tailored support in a system that works as a whole.

Clare has a master’s degree in social work and is also an honorary member of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. Clare has also been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship in the field of early intervention and prevention. She currently sits on the First 1001 Days National Steering Group and the National Parent and Infant Relationships Advisory Group.

Before joining Better Start, Clare led a career working as a social worker, team manager for Children’s Services and a Senior Development Manager for the NSPCC.