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 focused 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 – Executive Director for Youth Impact (Interim), 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, with overall responsibility for leading the programme. Prior to leading the TCE Programme Anna worked for the NSPCC, developing its national approach to CSE and leading work with local, place-based, partnerships to achieve system-level change designed to prevent sexual abuse. Anna has worked for both the Department for Education, leading a national child poverty pilot programme, and for local government, leading early intervention, prevention and targeted children’s support services. Anna is a qualified Social Worker with an early practice background in youth offending and youth inclusion and support work.

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.

Joe Kiff

Research Assistant – University of Bedfordshire

Speciality area of work: Research, well-being economics & migration

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.

Emma Curtis

Projects Coordinator – Research in Practice

Speciality area of work:

e: emma.curtis@researchinpractice.org.uk

Emma is responsible for the smooth delivery of the Tackling Child Exploitation learning events. She is the main contact for any event queries.

Beck Dabscheck

Events consultant – The Children’s Society

Speciality area of work: programme mobilising and management

e: Beck.Dabscheck@childrenssociety.org.uk

Beck is a freelance consultant specialising in working with the children and families sector and has over 25 years of experience working with voluntary and statutory organisations (in therapeutic, youth participation, policy, youth justice and programme management roles to name a few).

Beck has spent the past 3 years focused on child exploitation and extrafamilial harm and joined the TCE team in July 2021 to lead the learning programme.