Our Team

Dez Holmes

Director – Research in Practice

e: dez.holmes@researchinpractice.org.uk

Dez is the Director of Research in Practice and Research in Practice for Adults, and sits on the Tackling Child Exploitation Programme Management Group. Prior to this, Dez was the Programme Manager at C4EO and previously worked in local government establishing and managing integrated early intervention services. Dez’s practice experience is largely within youth offending services and her research experience is focussed on Participative Action Research with vulnerable groups. Dez has spearheaded RiP’s work on Transitional Safeguarding and adolescence, and she is particularly interested in risk, resilience and participatory practice.

Nerys Anthony

Director – National Operations and Major Programmes, The Children’s Society

Speciality area of work: Strategy / Partnerships / Voluntary and Community sector / Systems Change / Developing experts by experience

e: nerys.anthony@childrenssociety.org.uk
t: 07850 500749

Nerys is a senior leader and innovator within The Children’s Society and sits on the Tackling Child Exploitation Programme Management Group. Directing a portfolio that encompasses national operational delivery, organisational-wide safeguarding and quality practice responsibility and the evidence and impact of the organisation. Nerys has direct experience of strategically managing exploitation, mental health and wellbeing, serious youth violence, restorative justice, substance misuse and hidden harm programmes. Collaboration is a key feature of her approach, and she maintains a keen interest in developing and sustaining partnerships to deliver services to meet need, and change systems for positive change. Prior to joining The Children’s Society, Nerys led Department for Education funded innovation programmes nationally, as well as the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum.

Helen Beckett

Director – Safer Young Lives Research Centre, University of Bedfordshire

Speciality area of work: CSE and related adolescent safeguarding issues

e: helen.beckett@beds.ac.uk

Helen is Director of the International Centre: Researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking and sits on the Tackling Child Exploitation Programme Management Group. Helen is also a reader in Child Protection and Children’s Rights at the University of Bedfordshire. She has twenty years’ experience of undertaking and managing applied social research, across academia and the voluntary and statutory sectors. She holds particular specialism in CSE and related adolescent safeguarding issues, and in ethics around engaging vulnerable individuals in sensitive research. Helen has published and presented widely on issues of sexual harm against children and regularly consults on research, policy and practice in this field.

Anna Racher

Partnership Manager – Research in Practice

Speciality area of work: CSE and related adolescent safeguarding issues

e: anna.racher@researchinpractice.org.uk
t: 07590 074 279

Anna is Partnership Manager for the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme, she sits on the Programme Management Group and holds responsibility for key programme relationships and leads the development and delivery of the TCE microsite. Anna is a qualified Social Worker with an early practice background in youth offending and youth inclusion and support work. As a senior local authority manager Anna developed, established and managed wider early intervention, prevention and targeted support services and systems. She then moved to work for the Department for Education as a national local authority delivery expert, working on child poverty and Early Years policy. Anna has spent the last eight years in the voluntary sector, initially as an improvement consultant working with local authorities on adoption, post adoption support and permanency planning, then as Development Manager for the NSPCC, responsible for developing the NSPCC’s national approach to CSE and emerging forms of abuse. Anna has developed national services in response to CSE, FGM, forced marriage, faith-based abuse and so-called-honour-based-violence. Most recently Anna has worked with local, place-based, partnerships to achieve system-level change designed to prevent sexual abuse.

Ellie Fairgrieve

Head of Delivery – The Children’s Society

Speciality area of work: Voluntary sector / Policy
/ Partnership working

e: ellie.fairgrieve@childrenssociety.org.uk
t: 07710396436

Ellie is Head of Delivery for the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme and is responsible for delivery of Bespoke Support Programmes nationally. Ellie has worked to develop Child Exploitation and Missing from Home and Care services at an operational and strategic level since 2015 as well as challenging the culture and ensuring children and young people who are being exploited are supported as victims, not offenders. With a background in working in the voluntary sector and CE in 2016 Ellie was the Service Manager who designed and implemented the first regional Child Exploitation service in the Country. Ellie has influenced positive change regionally in the North West and on a national policy level including reforming partnerships procedures around Child Exploitation in Merseyside and Lancashire and consulting with the Home Office and National Crime Agency on policy and campaigns. Passionate about partnership working, Ellie has been shortlisted as finalists with multi-agency colleagues previously for two partnership awards by CYPnow and The Guardian.

Alice Yeo

Head of Evidence – Safer Young Lives Research Centre, University of Bedfordshire

Speciality area of work: Applied social research; qualitative methodologies

e: alice.yeo@beds.ac.uk

Alice joined the University of Bedfordshire as Head of Evidence for the TCE Support Programme in September 2020. She has worked in applied social research for nearly 20 years; initially at NatCen Social Research and latterly running the social research consultancy, ResearchAbility. Over that time, Alice has carried out a wide range of projects for different commissioners, including central government departments and voluntary sector organisations. She has also taught widely on qualitative social research. Increasingly, Alice’s work has focused on children and young people’s wellbeing, including experiences of abuse, and the role and response of education and other services. Alice is passionate about doing robust and proportionate research and evaluation which feeds back into practice and looks forward to bringing these skills to the partnership.

Amy Hurst

Implementation Lead – Research in Practice

Speciality area of work: Partnership working / Commissioning / Policing and Community Safety

e: amy.hurst@researchinpractice.org.uk
t: 07712 323318

Amy is Implementation Lead for the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme. She works with local areas and a range of delivery partners as part of Bespoke Support Projects that seek to develop effective strategic responses to child exploitation and extra-familial harm. Amy has a background in the development and commissioning of support services for victims, offenders and communities as well as experience in partnership coordination and management within the community safety sector.

Leanne Dagger

Implementation Lead – The Children’s Society

Speciality area of work: Health, Partnership working, Trauma informed practices.

e: leanne.dagger@childrenssociety.org.uk

Leanne joined the Tackling Child Exploitation team in September 2020 as an Implementation Lead for the programme. With a background in health care, Leanne worked for the NHS for 15 years, undertaking a variety of roles within both acute and community public health services. Leanne is a qualified Nurse and Health Visitor and has undertaken post graduate study in child and family law and healthcare research. For the majority of her career Leanne worked within and lead safeguarding services for both NHS provider and commissioner organisations. More recently, and just prior to joining the Children’s Society, she worked within the charity sector establishing trauma informed wellbeing programmes to communities experiencing disadvantage and discrimination. Leanne has worked with an array of charity partners and community connections, and is passionate about community and voluntary sector engagement and partnership working. She is a keen volunteer and contributed to the delivery of the Red Box Project in her local area, actively taking steps to help tackle the inequalities of poverty faced by young people.

Craig Grady

Implementation Lead – The Children’s Society

Speciality area of work:

e: craig.grady@childrenssociety.org.uk
t: 07725 639046

Craig has worked in the Voluntary sector on Missing & Exploitation programmes over the past 6 years; predominately supporting young people in the care system in the North West. Craig has worked on national exploitation programmes and has worked predominately as a practitioner supporting young people. Craig has also worked in participatory research with care experienced young people; working to change the systems around young people at risk of or experiencing extra-familial harm. Craig is a philosophy graduate and has a background in systems thinking approaches to complex social challenges; as well as working around strategic responses to criminal exploitation in the North West.

Joe Kiff

Research Assistant – University of Bedfordshire

Speciality area of work: Research

e: joe.kiff@beds.ac.uk

Joe joined the University of Bedfordshire as Research Assistant for the TCE Support Programme in February 2021. Before joining, Joe worked for four years at Leeds City Council in a broad range of roles: providing project support for the senior leadership teams in Children’s Services, Public Health and Citizens & Communities. The most significant experience was working as a community developer to strengthen links between patient groups, primary care settings and statutory welfare services using an asset-based approach. As a graduate with an MSc in International Development at the University of Amsterdam, Joe has a background in using mixed methodology research to explore the wellbeing economics of transnational communities of seafarers using a capabilities approach. Joe’s work has increasingly focused on research into safeguarding pressures for unaccompanied asylum seeker children and partnership work around the SEND agenda.

Kirsche Walker

Research Assistant – University of Bedfordshire

Speciality area of work: Research

e: kirsche.walker@beds.ac.uk

Kirsche (She/Her) is a Research Assistant undertaking an internship with the Tackling Child Exploitation Programme. Her experience consists of over 10 years working with children and young people in participation and engagement roles that have included residentials, campaigning and research around sexual violence more broadly. During which time she has co-written and co-produced resources around peer support, and the importance of listening to children, young people and young adults with lived experiences, specifically as a form of social change. Her current role with TCE is to focus on implementing Children’s and Young People’s Voices.

Brian Bean

Programme Co-ordinator – Research in Practice

Speciality area of work: Project and finance management, business analysis

e: brian.bean@researchinpractice.org.uk

Brian joined Research in Practice in 2018 working in the programme team to deliver a portfolio of national programmes. Prior to this Brian was the Operations Manager at a not-for-profile coalition delivering integrated care management in a NY State Department of Health programme. Brian’s skills and contribution to the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme is in business analysis, project and financial management.

Andrew Willis

Programme Administrator – Research in Practice

Speciality area of work: Project and Finance Administration

e: andrew.willis@researchinpractice.org.uk

Andrew joined Research in Practice in July 2018 and was seconded to the TCE Administrator role in April 2020. Previously he worked as the Team Administrator for the South West Peninsula Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) project, working with families in care proceedings. Andrew’s skills and contribution to the programme is in project and finance administration support.