Stephen Parkinson Research Partnership Manager, N8 Research Partnership
Stephen's role is to manage the portfolio of projects that the N8 are facilitating from inception through to their implementation. This includes the Child of the North initiative, for which he undertakes coordination activity alongside colleagues from the Northern Health Science Alliance. He also acts as a link between the N8's governance bodies and a number of N8 programmes, including N8 Computationally Intensive Research (N8 CIR) and the N8 Policing Research Partnership (N8 PRP).
Jeremy Parr Professor of Paediatric Neurodisability, Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust
Jeremy is a Professor of Child Health at Newcastle University and an NHS Consultant Neurodisability Paediatrician working in two NHS trusts. He leads a multidisciplinary eating, drinking, and swallowing service (Dysphagia), and second opinion autism spectrum assessments (in a mental health trust). Working with colleagues, he designs and leads research programmes focused on children with neurodisability and autism through the lifecourse. These programmes include design of health services and interventions, and subsequent evaluations. He has experience of successfully implementing evidence-based strategies into the NHS (e.g. Autism Clinical Interview for Adults, FEEDS Toolkit, XRTherapeutics).
Jeremy currently leads one of the RCPCH/NIHR Programme Development Grants focused on improving health, education, and social care services for children and families.
Megan Pritchard CADRE-GM Research Assistant, University of Manchester
Megan supports the Child and Adolescent Data Resource (CADRE) in Greater Manchester. Other CADRE sites include Merseyside, West Midlands, and Cambridge. CADRE is a linked, pseudonymised, and standardised data resource that provides longitudinal, multi-agency data to support children and young people’s health research and improve outcomes. CADRE safely combines information from multiple services to create a more complete picture of children's health and wellbeing. CADRE-GM is in delivery, with key relationships established with Manchester City Council, GM Combined Authority, BeeWell, GM Mental Health NHS, Manchester University NHS, Pennine Care NHS, and GM Integrated Care Board.
Research group/project website: https://cadre.org.uk/
Haleema Rabeea Academic Clinical Fellow, University of Leeds
Haleema is a dentist with academic research interests in paediatric dentistry, public health, and community engagement.
She is currently in an NIHR funded Academic Clinical Fellowship in Dental Core Training.
Her clinical time is focused on paediatric dentistry and oral surgery. Before this, she completed her academic joint dental foundation core training (JDFCT) in Leeds, spending clinical time in general dental practice, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and community dentistry.
During her dental degree, she completed an intercalated MSc in Global Public Health and Policy, achieving a distinction. Her MSc dissertation project evaluated a community-based health promotion intervention in primary schools based in a deprived area of East London. She presented her work at national and international conferences and achieved research prizes in recognition.
Research group/project website: https://linktr.ee/leedspaeddent
Roshelle Ramkisson Clinical Lead for CADRE in Greater Manchester | Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, UoM | MFT
Professor (Hon) Roshelle Ramkisson is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, specializing in complex neurodevelopmental presentations and rare conditions within a regional tertiary service. She leads the MFT CAMHS Research Hub, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and research capacity across Greater Manchester.
A significant portion of her leadership is dedicated to data-driven transformation as the Clinical Lead for the Greater Manchester Child and Adolescent Data Resource (CADRE GM). Funded by the Medical Research Council, CADRE is a national Secure Data Environment that links health, education, and social care data to address service fragmentation and improve equitable outcomes for young people.
Her broader research portfolio includes leadership on NIHR and UKRI-funded programmes. Nationally, she chairs the RCPsych Core Psychiatry Training Advisory Committee and holds honorary academic appointments at the University of Manchester and the University of Central Lancashire, receiving national recognition for her clinical and systemic contributions.
Research group/project website: https://cadre.org.uk/
Sam Relton Professor in Health Data Science, University of Leeds
Prof. Samuel Relton is Professor in Health Data Science at the University of Leeds and the N8 Digital Health Lead for Leeds. He also serves as the Lead for Data Science within the Leeds Institute for Health Sciences and Co-Lead of the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics Health Community. His work focuses on the analysis of routinely collected electronic healthcare records to improve services and patient outcomes, supported by over £10M in research funding.
Prof. Relton is actively involved in leveraging data assets to address regional priorities in Northern England. He co-organised the N8 Child of the North Strategy Workshop in October 2024, which brought together representatives from the NHS, education, and policing sectors to facilitate cross-sector collaboration. Furthermore, he acts as an Expertise Advisor to NHS England and Integrated Care Boards, providing guidance on quantitative methodology and policies regarding population management and the safe deployment of AI technology. He currently sits on the NIHR Health Service and Delivery Research funding panel, helping to shape the strategic direction of applied health research.
Debbie Riby Professor of Developmental Psychology / Co-Director of the Centre for Neurodiversity & Development, Durham University
Debbie is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Co-Director of the Centre for Neurodiversity and Development at Durham University, where she also serves as Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Postgraduate Research.
Our research programme focuses on neurodevelopment, neurodivergence, and neurodiversity, with particular emphasis on Autism. Across the Centre, our research focuses on education, mental health & well-being, social relations in a social world, and ethical research approaches. Partnerships beyond the academy and participatory research methods are embedded in all our research programmes. We employ diverse methodologies, including qualitative and quantitative approaches.
A central aim of Debbie's work is to bridge basic research and real-world impact. She is co-lead of the translational project on Triple-A (www.tripleadurham.co.uk), which is a free online evidence-based training programme for teachers and educators supporting autistic and neurodivergent pupils with attention, sensory arousal, and anxiety at school. Since launching in 2022, it has been used by over 9000 educators, and the training speaks directly to the Government’s recent push to increase SEND training for all teachers.
Debbie collaborates closely with charities, notably serving on the Professional Advisory Panel for the Williams Syndrome Foundation. She has been recognised as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and formerly served as Chair of the Developmental Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. She served on the REF2021 UoA4 panel and was Director of the ESRC-funded NINE Doctoral Training Partnership for 5 years. She now sits on the ESRC Research Talent Advisory Committee.
Research group/project website: https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/neurodiversity-development/
Nathan Scott Research Associate, University of Sunderland
Nathan is a Research Associate at the University of Sunderland. He and his colleagues specialise in research on childhood disabilities, children known to social care, and barriers to inclusive education.
Nathan studied Psychology (BSc) and Forensic Science (MSc) at UCL, where he developed a passion for research and the opportunities provided by high-quality data. He has combined his love for data science with co-production and participant involvement/engagement in order to fully understand the challenges and needs of vulnerable populations.
He has taken an interest in data linkage, having previously worked with administrative education data, and believes that linked data can be employed to build a much more coherent picture of a child's history and needs than any individual silo of data is capable of.
Robert Shaw HDRC Data Manager, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council HDRC
Rob Shore is the Data Manager for the Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) in Bradford. His work focuses on enabling the effective use of data across local government, health systems, and research partners to support evidence‑informed decision‑making.
Rob began his career in Bradford as the first NIHR‑funded Research Practitioner for the ActEarly programme, where he helped develop data assets and collaborative processes that strengthened links between research teams and local services. His role later expanded to support data integration and governance across Bradford Council and Connected Bradford within the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR).
He contributed as a co‑applicant to Bradford’s successful HDRC application and now leads data management within the collaboration. His work includes developing secure, ethically governed data pathways; supporting partnership‑based research; and improving access to linked local government and health datasets for population health insight.
Rob’s ongoing focus is on building practical, sustainable data infrastructure that helps local systems understand and address the wider determinants of health.
Research group/project website: https://www.bradford.gov.uk/health/bradford-health-determinants-research-collaboration/bradford-health-determinants-research-collaboration/
Cara Staniforth Peer Research Associate, University of Bradford
Cara is a Peer Research Associate with a focus on childhood motor skill development and mental health. Her research focuses on improving outcomes for children with motor skill difficulties and SEND by supporting the embedding of universal assessment and support before accessing healthcare services. She is particularly interested in how we can help families, teachers, and healthcare practitioners to identify children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) as early as possible.
Jill Thompson Sheffield CoN Co-lead, Director of Research AHPNM TUOS, University of Sheffield
Jill is a qualitative health researcher with an interest in children and young people's health and wellbeing and approaches to evaluation. She is the Sheffield Co-lead for CoN. I am also a mum to a young person who accesses a special educational setting.
Emma Thornton Quantitative Research Associate, University of Manchester
Emma is a quantitative research associate with a background in Psychology, currently working on #BeeWell. Her interests include leveraging large datasets to investigate predictors and outcomes associated with adolescent mental health and wellbeing, and whether these vary across different groups of young people.
Research group/project website: https://beewellprogramme.org