Jake Abbas Deputy Director - Data, Insight and Analytics, Humber and North Yorkshire ICB
Jake is a leader in data and analytics with over 30 years' experience working in roles at national, regional, and local levels within the NHS and Civil Service. With a background in public health, his roles have included setting up and leading Public Health England's Local Knowledge and Intelligence Service for over 8 years, which provided expert public health intelligence advice, analytics, and knowledge transfer to the NHS and Local authorities across England. He currently heads up the data, analysi,s and population insight functions for Humber and North Yorkshire ICB and is also co-lead for the Data, AI, and Visualisation Theme for Yorkshire and Humber ARC2 programme.
Abdulhakeem Abdulkareem Digital Health Project Manager, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust
Abdulhakeem is a Digital Project Manager at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, leading the design and implementation of Secure Data Environments (SDE) to accelerate experimental medicine and translational research across inflammation, cancer, and high-burden under-researched conditions.
With experience across international development, government advisory, and healthcare innovation, Abdulhakeem specializes in translating complex data governance challenges into actionable solutions that protect vulnerable populations while enabling research impact. At UNDP, he led AI governance frameworks across nine African countries and designed digital public infrastructure strategies that balanced innovation with data sovereignty and citizen protection. As Special Assistant (ICT) to the Governor of Kaduna State, Nigeria, he established state-wide digital infrastructure serving 10 million citizens, including social protection databases that improved access to services for vulnerable children and families.
His work focuses on the intersection of data governance, clinical safety, and health equity, ensuring digital health innovations serve underserved communities without compromising privacy or security. At GMMH, he coordinates preliminary assessments for information governance and clinical safety compliance, working across Research & Innovation and IT teams to ensure privacy, security, and trust in the delivery of digital therapeutics.
Kathryn Asbury Professor of Psychology in Education, University of York
Kathryn Asbury is Co-Head of the Department of Education at the University of York and Professor of Psychology in Education. Her research interests include special educational needs (learning disabilities and neurodivergence), inclusive education, inclusive research methods, and genetics in education. Together with her colleagues, Laura Fox and Kayleigh Doyle, along with partners at Mencap and a local special school, she has developed ADLib (Accessing Disability Library). ADLib is a prototype library of co-produced data collection tools designed to amplify learning disabled voices in research. These resources can also be adapted to amplify learning disabled voices in non-research settings, including health, education and social care. For example, our team is currently working on developing an app to support school staff in collecting pupil voices to include in the Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process. Other relevant research projects she has led relate to approaches to qualitative longitudinal research that are inclusive of learning disabled children and their families; SEND labelling and underlying behaviours; and co-producing genomic autism studies with the autistic community.
Research group/project website: https://sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/adlib/
Other work: https://sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/goalslab
Sarah Ashton Project Manager, CYP theme of the NIHR MH-TRC Mission, University of Manchester
Sarah is the Programme Manager for the Children and Young People's Mental Health Theme of the NIHR MH-TRC Mission. You can find out more about the groups' work here: https://oxfordhealthbrc.nihr.ac.uk/mh-trc/children-and-young-peoples-mental-health/. One of our projects is CADRE (https://cadre.org.uk/about), which is currently being set up in Greater Manchester.
Research group/project website: https://oxfordhealthbrc.nihr.ac.uk/mh-trc/children-and-young-peoples-mental-health/
Dan Birks Professor of Computational Social Science, University of Leeds
Dan is Professor of Computational Social Science at the University of Leeds. With an interdisciplinary background spanning computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and criminology, he has over 20 years’ experience working with public sector practitioners in the UK and Australia.
His research investigates how computational methods and routinely collected data can deepen understanding of complex social systems and inform policy and practice. He develops and evaluates data science approaches in real-world public service settings, with a strong focus on ethical, effective and practical implementation in high-stakes contexts.
He currently serves as Deputy Director of the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, where he leads a data science programme using linked administrative data to generate new insights into vulnerability and public service responses. He is also Co-Director of the Yorkshire Policing Academic Centre of Excellence, one of nine national centres funded by the National Police Chiefs’ Council to strengthen collaboration between policing and academia.
Research group/project website: https://vulnerabilitypolicing.org.uk/
Louise Black Research Fellow, University of Manchester
Louise's research focuses on improving adolescent mental health assessment to better understand needs and reflect the experiences of young people. She has a wide range of mental health in schools research experience, currently leading interdisciplinary secondary data analysis projects considering the accuracy and inclusiveness of widely-used measures. Previously, she worked on #BeeWell and trials such as the Good Behaviour Game and FRIENDS. Before undertaking her PhD, she worked as a music teacher across the age range from nursery to undergraduate.
Ruth Boldon Senior Data Analyst, Newcastle City Council (HDRC)
Ruth is the Senior Data Analyst for Newcastle City Council’s Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), working within our Data Team alongside data scientists and economists. Her role focuses on strengthening how the council uses research and data to understand and improve outcomes for our residents, with a particular emphasis on reducing health inequalities across the city.
Ruth's work centres on turning complex data into clear, meaningful insight that supports better policy and decision‑making. She's especially interested in health inequalities, early intervention, and practical, applied uses of evidence in a local government context. She is also keen to support researchers and academics to make better use of council data in ways that produce actionable insight for services.
Within the HDRC, Ruth collaborates with practitioners and colleagues across the council to co‑develop research projects, improve data quality, and promote ethical and responsible data use. The HDRC also brings together wider strands of work, including research capacity‑building, workforce, culture change, academic collaborations and PICE to strengthen our overall research culture and ensure that evidence and lived experience meaningfully shape local decisions.
Ruth is keen to connect with anyone interested in how we can better engage local authorities in research or best use council data for research. I'm also particularly interested in the use of innovative analytical approaches or data linkage projects, and I welcome opportunities for collaboration.
Caroline Bond Placement and Selection Director for the Doctorate in Educational Psychology, University of Manchester
Caroline Bond previously worked as a primary school teacher and as a specialist educational psychologist working on an autism diagnostic team. She is currently the placement and selection lead for the doctorate in educational psychology (DECP) programme at the University of Manchester. This is an initial training programme for educational psychologists. Caroline leads the DECP attendance research strand, and she recently led the practitioner and academic collaboration which produced the N8 attendance reports, which emphasised the importance of local collaborative attendance solutions. Caroline's research focuses on neurodivergence, inclusion, school attendance and professional practice.
Sally Bridges Programme Manager, NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber
Sally manages the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for Yorkshire and Humber, working with colleagues across the region and nationally to speed up the translation of research into practice.
Sally is also Director of the Born and Bred In (BaBi) Network, a network of electronic birth cohort studies embedded into clinical practice in 13 sites across England. BaBi aims to :
- Harness the power of routinely collected data from multiple sources and link them together to build a clearer picture of children’s and families' lives over time.
- Create a series of electronic routine data cohorts across England that can be used to provide health intelligence and improve the quality of care, informing service design and delivery.
- Bring together data from the local BaBi cohorts to create a meta-cohort that can be used to address questions of national relevance, common priority, or in rare disease areas.
The BaBi Network is part of the world-leading Born in Bradford programme.
Research group/project website: https://arc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/
Babi Network: https://www.babinetwork.co.uk/
Anna Calvert Community Paediatrician, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Anna is a community paediatrician and a researcher in community child health with a particular interest in neurodevelopment, co-production in community research, and vaccine acceptance.
Helen Cameron
Helen is a post-doctoral clinical academic working in Sheffield Children's Hospital. She is a clinical lead speech and language therapist for autism assessment, and is also research lead for the wider speech and language therapy service.
Helen is involved in our city-wide neurodiversity transformation programme, co-leading a workstream exploring innovative approaches to autism assessment. She is particularly interested in how changes to diagnostic pathways impact children's experiences and outcomes.
Sara Chattun Senior Designer & Doer, Capacity
Sara joined Capacity in September 2023, having worked in local authorities since 2015. In her current role, she works across a portfolio of projects focused on children, young people, and families. Before this, she held a range of roles within SEND services, including caseworker, post-16 commissioning officer, and interim service manager.
Paula Clarke Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Leeds
Paula Clarke is a cognitive developmental psychologist who works at the intersection between Psychology and Education. Her work is generally applied in focus and uses a mixture of methodological approaches. She enjoys working in a collaborative and interdisciplinary way and values the opportunities it presents.
Paula's research uses psychological theory to inform the development of intervention approaches and assessment. She aims to help children engage with text and experience reading with meaning. The work promotes the development of rich mental representations and emphasizes exploration of ideas in multiple contexts and sharing perspectives. She is interested in how we assess and capture children’s understanding of text and how we can develop methodologies that are inclusive and accessible for all.
Research group/project website: https://dart.leeds.ac.uk/
Megan Cutts #BeeWell Research Associate & PhD Researcher, The University of Manchester
Megan Cutts is a Research Associate for #BeeWell and is nearing the completion of her PhD at The University of Manchester. #BeeWell is a youth-centred programme that works in partnership with young people, secondary schools and local partners across Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton to understand and improve young people's wellbeing.
Megan's work focuses on the wellbeing and experiences of young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN), with a particular interest in inclusion within mainstream secondary schools. Her PhD research explores how everyday school experiences shape wellbeing for young people with SEN, foregrounding young people's perspectives.
As part of the #BeeWell team, Megan analyses large-scale wellbeing data to feed into school-level reports, local authority summaries and national publications. Together, these outputs build a picture of young people's wellbeing across the UK and support action to improve outcomes.
Megan is keen to connect with researchers, practitioners and policymakers working across education, SEN, mental health and wellbeing, particularly those interested in inclusive practice, co-production and the use of data to support positive change for young people.
Research group/project website: https://beewellprogramme.org/
Cécile De Cat Professor of Linguistics, University of Leeds
Cécile De Cat is a professor of linguistics at the University of Leeds, UK. She specialises in bilingualism (mainly in children and adolescents), and on the environmental, experiential, and cognitive factors affecting language outcomes. Her research is defined by its ability to bridge formal linguistic theory with applied practice. Questions she is interested in include: What aspects of language are more difficult to acquire (or easier to lose)? What predicts better/faster language outcomes in children? Does the Heritage Language (or Home Language) of bilingual children scaffold their acquisition of English?
Between 2019 and 2023, she led an international ESRC-funded project that developed the Q-BEx questionnaire (www.q-bex.org), a specialized tool for quantifying bilingual experience in children. Her current projects focus on the early identification of language support needs in multilingual children (including the risk of language impairment), and on the development of screening and assessment tools for reading comprehension and pragmatic abilities in adolescents. In connection with that project, she is involved in COST action “Justice To Youth Language Needs” (CA22139), working to tackle language difficulties as a source of inequality in the youth justice system.
Through her involvement in the “Reducing Inequalities through Education” network at the University of Leeds and the Centre for Applied Education Research in Bradford, she continues to advocate for evidence-based approaches to language assessment and language support in children.
Research group/project website: https://q-bex.org
Johny Daniel Associate Professor, Durham University
Dr Johny Daniel is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Durham University, specialising in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), with a particular focus on literacy difficulties such as dyslexia, and the identification and support of learners with additional needs. His work spans large-scale administrative data analysis, intervention design, and policy-relevant research, with the overarching aim of improving educational outcomes for pupils with SEND across the life course.
Dr Daniel’s research makes extensive use of linked administrative datasets, including the National Pupil Database, E-CHILD, and Longitudinal Education Outcomes data, to examine patterns of SEND identification, inequalities in educational and post-school outcomes, and the intersections between SEND, mental health, and socioeconomic disadvantage. A central strand of his work interrogates how SEND is identified, and how these processes shape later educational, employment, and wellbeing trajectories.
Alongside his large-scale data work, Dr Daniel leads the development and evaluation of evidence-informed reading interventions for primary and secondary pupils with reading difficulties, including those with identified specific learning difficulties. He has worked closely with schools, local authorities, and educational psychologists in England and internationally to support inclusive practice and professional development.
His research has been published in leading journals in special education and educational psychology, and he regularly engages with policymakers and practitioners to translate research evidence into practice.
Research group/project website: https://www.readingresourcecentre.org
Peter Day Professor of Children's Oral Health and Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry, University of Leeds
Peter is a Professor of Children’s Oral Health and Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Leeds and Bradford Community Dental Service. His clinical time is spent providing dental care for children with a wide range of complex dental, medical, physical, social, or learning needs. This includes an amazing cohort of children with SEND attending both mainstream and special schools.
He leads the Leeds Paediatric Dentistry Research Group, with a strong focus on the design, evaluation, and implementation of complex primary prevention interventions to improve children’s oral health. He also provides leadership in children’s oral health as part of several research collaborations. These include NIHR Yorkshire and Humber ARC (Applied Research Collaboration), CAER (Centre for Applied Education Research), Bradford Institute for Health Research, CHORAL (Child Health Outcomes Research at Leeds) and Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
An example of this national work is the NIHR funded BRUSH project, which has shaped the rollout of the government’s national supervised toothbrushing programme in primary schools and nurseries.
Research group/project website: https://linktr.ee/leedspaeddent
Kayleigh Doyle Research Associate, University of York
Kayleigh is a research associate at the University of York. Her current research addresses the ways in which researchers and educators can better include people who communicate in traditional and non-traditional ways in research and/or education.
This research is centred around her work on the “ADLib” project (2024-2025), in which Kayleigh worked collaboratively on the co-production of an open-access library of evidence-informed data collection tools for working with learning disabled participants. She is now working on a bolt-on project, designed to develop an openly accessible, evidence-informed, inclusive, app-based toolkit that school staff can use to elicit meaningful and reliable views from a diverse range of learning disabled pupils, including those who are non-speaking. The goal is to better include learning disabled students’ views, interests and aspirations in Section A of the education and health care plan process.
Kayleigh's other research interests include: inclusive education and pedagogy, creative arts-based approaches to education and research, and special educational needs and disabilities.
Research group/project website: https://sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/goalslab/
Other: https://sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/uoyinterdisciplinarydisability/home
Abi Durrant Professor of Interaction Design, Newcastle University
Abigail is the Principal Investigator and Director of EPSRC Northern Health Futures (NortHFutures) Hub, a cross-sector and pan-regional consortium facilitating the research and innovation of responsibly designed health-tech for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) region. Within NortHFutures she co-leads a partnership with the NENC Secure Data Environment (SDE) Development team, with NENC Integrated Care Board and Health Innovation NENC to evidence diverse stakeholder perspectives on sharing health data for research. A core NortHFutures theme addresses unmet needs of Children and Young People (CYP), especially relating to nutritional and mental health. Abigail is also Newcastle University (NU) Lead for N8 CIR Digital Health theme, and Faculty Lead for NU Centre of Research with CYP. Through these roles she is involved in the Child of the North initiatives and committed to research programmes addressing health inequities and digital exclusion in the North of England: evidencing impacts on CYP and families; considering supportive service and system design directions. Her research methods are participatory and community-centred, promoting cross-sector and public involvement in research about data futures.
Abigail also collaborates with Coram Life Education and NU colleagues on research with CYP and diverse stakeholders including parents, healthcare professionals, educators and policy informers, about CYP safety and wellbeing linked to their use of smart devices and online media consumption. These studies include the joint supervision of a PhD studentship programme involving neurodivergent children to understand an under-explored research area of tangible and multi-sensory media applications, experiences and uses, and their related data flows. Doctoral candidate Sonu Fakiha leads this work.
Research group/project website: https://www.northfutures.org/
Other: https://n8cir.org.uk/themes/digital-health/
Lucy Eddy Assistant Professor in Psychology, Northumbria University
Lucy is a developmental psychologist with a focus on childhood motor development. Her research aims to improve outcomes for children with motor skill difficulties by supporting schools to embed universal assessment and support before accessing healthcare services. She is particularly interested in bringing together health and education with lived experience to ensure changes to policy and practice are evidence-based.