RESEARCH IN PRACTICE - Key Persons


Ali Huntley

Job Titles:
  • Learning and Development Officer
Ali works with Adults partner organisations to support them in using our evidence-informed resources. She supports the Senior Learning and Development Officer to develop the Online Menu Workshop and requests for large scale projects, programmes and commissioned workshops for partners and other organisations.

Alison Domakin

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research and Development Officer
Alison has worked in the children and families sector for thirty years as a social worker, manager and academic. She is based in the children and families team at Research in Practice and leads on the delivery of resources across a number of topic areas. She is interested in developing new evidence-informed ways of learning from practice, particularly one-to-one and group supervision.

Ami Fullalove

Job Titles:
  • Learning Programme Coordinator
Ami is the Learning Programme Coordinator responsible for the delivery across the children and families and adult sectors of our national delivery programme events which include our hybrid and online conferences.

Amy Holgate

Job Titles:
  • Events Administrator and Virtual Meetings Host
Amy supports the Research in Practice Learning and CPD teams assisting with the planning, administration and hosting of their current face-to-face and online events. She has a keen interest in events having completed an Events Management degree.

Amy Rich

Job Titles:
  • Web Systems Officer
Amy works on a variety of projects and activities to develop, implement and maintain effective web systems across a range of platforms that communicate and promote the work of Research in Practice. Including uploading website content and digital materials, leading on our microsite project activities and working closely with the wider digital team on improving user experience.

Andrea Grimson

Job Titles:
  • Business Support Coordinator
Andrea manages the smooth running of our offices, supports staff recruitment and documents business processes.

Andy Couldrick

Job Titles:
  • Chairman, Birmingham Children 's Trust

Ann Aston

Job Titles:
  • Project Support Administrator
Ann provides administrative support to the Projects team. Working with the team to ensure internal and external customers are well supported and all our projects projects are well-managed.

Becca Brookfield

Job Titles:
  • Events and Projects Officer
Becca supports the planning of the Online Workshop Menu alongside the operational planning and delivery of large-scale projects, programmes and commissioned workshops.

Beverley Tarka

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Director of Adults, Health and Communities, Haringey Council

Brian Bean

Job Titles:
  • Finance Coordinator
Brian leads the management and oversight of finance coordination processes, ensuring a focus on efficiency, consistency, quality and value for money.

Carole Kaplan

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Transformation Programme Director, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust

Catrin Wallace

Job Titles:
  • Communications, Marketing and Engagement Officer
Catrin works on a range of marketing and communication projects for Research in Practice across a number of platforms, including social media, digital communications and publicity materials.

Chris Green

Job Titles:
  • Operations Coordinator
Chris leads our administration team providing organisational and administrative support to the business. He supports our workforce development, recruitment and HR practices, implementation of new business process and procedures and coordinates our office management, IT and GDPR processes.

Claire Williams

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer
Claire is currently working on the Creating Care Partnerships and ConnectED NIHR projects supporting the development of Research Practice Partnerships in Adult Social Care. She also leads on topics for the delivery programe and manages the Social Work Organisational Resilience Diagnostic (SWORD) project. She supports the Partner Engagement team around the wellbeing and resilience topics.

Clare Fielder

Job Titles:
  • Events Administrator
  • Support to the Learning Programme Coordinator
Clare provides administrative support to the Learning Programme Coordinator, with the delivery of all events across the children, families and adults national programmes.

Danielle Turney

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Professor, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen 's University Belfast

Dez Holmes

Job Titles:
  • Director
Dez is responsible for the overall leadership of Research in Practice. She is interested in knowledge mobilisation, systems leadership, adolescence, transitions, safeguarding and participative practice. For enquiries please contact Lauren Chatfield.

Dr Usha Boolaky

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Deputy Director of Horizon Scanning and Demand Signalling, NHS England

Dyfrig Williams

Job Titles:
  • Head of Learning
Dyfrig leads the development of Research in Practice learning activities, podcast and video resources across children, families and adult sectors.

Emily Smith

Job Titles:
  • Senior Learning and Development Officer
Emily supports the development of evidence-informed resources for Partners across a range of topics. This includes helping to create the content of workshops, webinars, publications and other digital resources. Emily is a qualified social worker.

Emma Rawlins

Job Titles:
  • Learning Programme Coordinator

Emma Smale

Job Titles:
  • Innovation and Development Programme Manager
Emma leads national programmes, including the Children's Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Learning Support programme, National Workload Action Group (NWAG) and other commissioned projects. Emma is passionate about convening people from different practices and parts of the system to enable learning, bringing about positive social change through collaboration. She is interested in innovation, systems change, safeguarding, transitional safeguarding, children in care and care leavers.

Ena Halford-Toledo

Job Titles:
  • Finance Officer
Ena works closely and collaboratively with various teams, ensuring that they are supported with effective finance administration and support as required.

Fidelma Hanrahan

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research Officer
Fidelma is based in the children and families team and leads on the delivery of resources across a number of practice areas. Having previously held academic research roles which focused on the experiences of young people in care and care leavers, she also champions the use of research within the organisation and has particular responsibility for ensuring quality research is embedded into all outputs.

Gem Kitcher

Job Titles:
  • Partner Engagement Administrator
Gem provides administrative support by maintaining records in our database, scheduling meetings with Partners and supporting engagement activity for both the children, families and adult Partner networks.

Geoff Owen

Job Titles:
  • Partner
  • Head of Partner Engagement
Geoff leads our Partner Engagement team and manages our Account Management service. Geoff's work focuses on developing, maintaining and strengthening the relationships between Research in Practice and our network of Partners.

Georgina Chetwynd

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer
Georgina helps produce information and content for our publications across children, families and adults services. This includes helping to design workshops, webinars and other digital content. She works with partners to support them in using our evidence-informed resources. She is a qualified social worker.

Grace Akinyemi

Job Titles:
  • Project and Contracts Officer
Grace is responsible for the project team's delivery activity. She oversees and manages the project delivery ensuring it meets contractual compliance and expectations.

Hannah Scott

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer
Hannah works with Partners in children & families, young people and adult services to support them in using our evidence-informed resources.

Helen Stacey

Job Titles:
  • Head of Evaluation and Primary Research
Helen leads the evaluation and primary research activities at Research in Practice. This includes projects and evaluations with children and young people, families, adults and carers, and professionals across the social care sector.

James Saunders

Job Titles:
  • Practice Engagement Officer
James works in the Practice Engagement team supporting partners to ensure they get maximum benefit from using our resources in practice. James is a qualified social worker with experience working in both adults' and children's teams and prior to being a social worker he spent 20 years working in a variety of educational settings

Jane Parfrement

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Chief Executive, the Staff College

Janet Boddy

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Professor of Child, Youth and Family Studies, Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth, University of Sussex

Jemma Phillips

Job Titles:
  • Events and Projects Officer
Jemma supports the planning of the Online Workshop Menu allocations for the adult services alongside the operational planning and delivery of large-scale projects, programmes and commissioned workshops.

Jess McEwen

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Manager
Jess oversees our annual delivery programme, developing resources for Partners to support them to embed evidence-informed approaches to practice with adults and carers. Jess is a registered social worker, with more than 20 years' experience working across social care practice, policy, research, workforce development and regulation.

Jessica Broome

Job Titles:
  • Practice Engagement Officer
Jessica works in the Practice Engagement team supporting partners to ensure they get maximum benefit from using our resources in practice. Jessica has worked with Research in Practice for over 9 years, both as an Account Manager and in the Tailored Support team. Her background is in designing and implementing workforce development programmes to support the use of evidence in practice.

Jo Bramham

Job Titles:
  • Learning Impact Officer
Jo supports Partners with online learning delivered to their organisation as part of their membership offer. Also with learning programmes commissioned to support professional development or to meet a particular organisational challenge. She also works with new and current Associates to grow our capacity to support Partners and other organisations.

Joey Hulin

Job Titles:
  • Learning and Development Officer ( Maternity Leave )
Joey works with children and families partner organisations to support them in using our evidence-informed resources. She supports development of an accessible and varied menu of learning and development workshops which meet the needs of the social care sector. She has a background in project management, community engagement and training in the third sector, and has a particular interest in mental health and wellbeing.

Julie Wilkinson

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research and Development Officer
Julie works in the children and families team and leads on the delivery of resources across a number of topic areas. She also works on commissioned research and evaluation projects.

Karen Allen

Job Titles:
  • Research Officer
Karen works in the Research and Evaluation team, assisting on evaluations across children's and adults' social care. She has particular interests in quantitative analysis and survey research.

Karen Young

Job Titles:
  • Senior Communications, Marketing and Engagement Coordinator
Karen is responsible for leading the marketing communications team and managing a range of publicity activities for Research in Practice. This includes digital communications, content creation, publicity materials and branding.

Kath Lythgoe

Job Titles:
  • Project Support Officer - National Workload Action Group
Kath works within the Projects and Contracts team supporting all activity on the National Workload Action Group (NWAG) project and offering specialist advice to support problem solving.

Lauren Beamish

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer
Lauren works to produce our evidence-informed resources and supports Research in Practice partners to use them effectively. Lauren's background is in education and social care. She has previously lectured in further and higher education, with specialism in psychology and child development. She also has a wealth of experience working in front line social care roles. Lauren is particularly passionate about the integration of theory, research, and lived experience in practice.

Lauren Chatfield

Job Titles:
  • Personal Assistant
Lauren works closely with the Directors, providing strategic external liaison, diary management and administrative support and coordinates governance activity, such as the Partnership Board and Management Team meetings. Her role is to ensure that the Directors are supported by effective administration and that clear lines of communication are enabled between the teams.

Lauren Page-Hammick

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Manager

Lisa Smith

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director
Lisa leads the Research in Practice adults team overseeing the delivery of our services to Partners, and leading on commissioned projects. She is particularly interested in safeguarding adults, co-production, systems re-design and supporting organisational change.

Lloyd Boone

Job Titles:
  • Senior Communications, Marketing and Engagement Officer
Lloyd leads on a variety of digital and communication projects to develop, implement and maintain effective engagement for Research in Practice. This includes campaign management, digital communications, content creation and user experience.

Lorna Trend

Job Titles:
  • Research Officer
Lorna works in the Research and Evaluation team, assisting on evaluations across children's and adults' social care. She has particular interest in qualitative research.

Louise Johnstone

Job Titles:
  • Senior Partner Engagement Officer
Before joining Research in Practice Louise spent over ten years supporting practitioners and managers in social care to engage with research. She was a Link Officer for most of that time. Since joining she has developed significant experience in Partner Engagement and is passionate about building strong relationships with our network of Partners. Working with them creatively to ensure they get maximum benefit from using our resources in practice.

Mairi-Anne Macdonald

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director - Business Development
Mairi-Anne leads on business development which includes approaches to learning, workforce development, marketing & communications, web, project support, finance, business support and new business development, as well as some commissioned activities.

Marion Chan

Job Titles:
  • Contracts and Compliance Officer
Marion oversees and manages the contracting process for the organisation including ensuring quality assurance processes are in place, risk is monitored, measured and mitigated and contractual compliance is maintained.

Megan Kenny

Job Titles:
  • Senior Learning and Development Officer
Megan is a Senior Learning and Development Officer who supports the development of evidence-informed resources across a range of topics for various partners. This includes helping to create workshops, webinars, publications and other digital resources. She spent several years working for various charities including Rape Crisis and also worked for Public Health England. Her most recent role was within Higher Education and she has led on research projects around various topics including sexual health and working with survivors of trauma.

Melika Malone-Lee

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer ( Maternity Leave )
Melika works with Partners across adult services to to embed knowledge, skills and resources into their organisations and wider networks. She also works closely in producing information for our publications and in designing workshops, webinars and other digital content. She is interested in human rights and social justice.

Melissa Vernal

Job Titles:
  • Social Worker
  • Partner Engagement Officer
Melissa is a qualified social worker and former children's rights advocate. Joining Research in Practice as a Practice Engagement Officer, her focus is supporting partners to ensure they get maximum benefit from using our resources in practice. Melissa's background has predominantly been with children in care and care leavers. Her past career experience means she has an excellent understanding of how to support practitioners to engage with research.

Michael Clark

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Research Programme Manager & Associate Professorial Research Fellow, NIHR School for Social Care Research, London School of Economics and Political Science

Mo Galica

Job Titles:
  • Projects and Contracts Manager
Mo is responsible for contracting for Research in Practice ensuring all incoming and outgoing contracting is robust and well-managed. Programme management and oversight of a portfolio of projects focusing on efficiency, consistency, quality of project management, ensuring value for money is maintained across the portfolio.

Natalya Yeo

Job Titles:
  • Events Administrator
  • Support to the Learning Programme Coordinator
Natalya provides administrative support to the Learning Programme Coordinator, with the delivery of all events across the children, families and adults national programmes.

Neeta Chauhan

Job Titles:
  • CPD Programme Manager
Neeta is responsible for overseeing the smooth operation of learning events. These include events on our national programme, Online Workshop Menu, bespoke and additional commissions as well as extension projects funded by Government departments such as the Department for Education (DfE).

Ofelia Torres

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer
Ofelia works with partners across children, families, and adult services to support them in using our evidence-informed resources. She has a background in Public Health-Global Health and Women and Children's Health with experience of delivering interdisciplinary research. She is passionate about ensuring children, young people and their families have equitable access to services and support.

Paulina Konopka

Job Titles:
  • Team Administrator
Paulina offers administrative assistance across all functions of Research in Practice, collaborating closely with diverse teams to ensure effective administration support is provided as required.

Phil John

Job Titles:
  • Technical Officer
Phil supports the delivery of Research in Practice events. With responsibilities for the logistics of running our in-person and live online learning events and activities. Phil is keen to develop and refine approaches both online, in-person and hybrid events to further support evidence-informed practice with children, adults and families.

Rachel Fitzsimons

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer
Rachel helps to produce content for our publications and resources across children & families, young people and adult services. Rachel works with our partners to support them in using our evidence-informed resources.

Rachel Lovett

Job Titles:
  • Learning and Development Officer
Rachel works with children and families partner organisations to support them in using our evidence-informed resources. She supports development of an accessible and varied menu of learning and development workshops which meet the needs of the social care sector. Rachel has a background in education and training and is a qualified teacher.

Raquel Vieth

Job Titles:
  • Social Worker
  • Senior Consultation Lead
Raquel is a qualified social worker working in the Children & Families practice area for Research in Practice and is currently the operational lead as the co-design partner for Youth Endowment Fund (YEF's): A Supportive Home project addressing issues of youth violence, child exploitation, and harms outside the home.

Rhian Creber

Job Titles:
  • Finance Officer
Rhian raises all of our sales invoices and chases up any overdue payments. She ensures that all income into the organisation is accurately recorded.

Richard Humphries

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Senior Fellow, Policy, the Kings Fund

Robin Wooller

Job Titles:
  • Digital Design Coordinator
Robin oversees the design and production of Research in Practice resources in different formats, including publications and digital materials, such as podcasts, videos, webinars and tools. He ensures everything that reaches our Partners is high-quality, clear and consistent.

Sarah Jones

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Advisory Board
  • Assistant Director of Children 's Services, Norfolk County Council

Sarah McClinton

Job Titles:
  • President of Association of Directors of Adult Social Services ( ADASS ) and Director of Health & Adult Services at Royal Borough of Greenwich

Sarah Simpson

Job Titles:
  • Team Administrator
Sarah offers administrative assistance along with her colleagues in Business Support to ensure the smooth day to day running of Research in Practice.

Sarah Wilson

Job Titles:
  • Project Administrator - National Workload Action Group
Sarah works within the Projects and Contracts team to provide administrative support on the National Workload Action Group (NWAG) project.

Shannon Dobinson

Job Titles:
  • Events Administrator
Shannon provides administrative support to the Learning Programme Coordinators and Events Officers, with the delivery of all events across the children, families and adults programmes.

Sherrelle Parke

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research and Development Officer at Research
Sherrelle is a Senior Research and Development Officer at Research in Practice and leads on the delivery of resources across adult social care. She has over a decade of professional research training and experience within the UK Civil Service as a social researcher, including leading on projects in Youth Justice, national housing policy and population ageing. Her later career includes managing research in local government transformation, maternal health, marginalised communities, international COVID-related research, and pro bono evaluation projects for smaller organisations.

Susan Ridpath

Job Titles:
  • Research and Development Officer
Susan works with Partners across Child and Families services to embed knowledge, skills and resources into their organisations and wider networks. She also helps to ensure the voice of children and families is amplified in our resources. She is a social worker and brings her experience of supporting children and young people with care experience to the role. She is particularly passionate about ensuring children, young people and their families are at the centre of decision-making about their own care and support.

Susannah Bowyer

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director
Susannah leads the Research in Practice children and families team on core delivery to the Partnership network, as well as a range of commissioned project activities.

Susannah Ferguson

Job Titles:
  • Project Support Officer
Susannah supports the project team in all aspects of project managment. Her primary focus is in project budget administration and bid process management, she also acts as a point of contact offering specialist advice to support problem solving.

Yousrah Beedassy

Job Titles:
  • Events and Projects Officer
Yousrah supports the planning of the Online Workshop Menu allocations for adults services alongside the operational planning and delivery of large-scale projects, programmes and commissioned workshops.