After five years, I've handed over leadership of the UK team at the Centre for Evidence and Implementation to Dr Anna Riggall, and I'm now focusing on leading projects at CEI.

The Centre for Evidence and Implementation is a global team of research, policy and practice experts based in Australia, Singapore and the UK. We work with policy makers, governments, service organisations, programme providers and funders to help them to understand the evidence base, develop methods and processes to put the evidence into practice and scale up, and test and evaluate policies and programmes for better outcomes and more effective decisions. We use rigorous methods, rooted in implementation and evaluation science and in practice, with a mission to improve the lives of children, families and communities facing adversity. As UK Director, my role is to develop and lead the work programme in the UK as well as to lead global projects. Our current and recent work includes designing and implementing six services for children and families in Queensland; a multi-year implementation, outcome and economic evaluation of an innovative early childhood programme in Singapore; using the 'common elements' approach to develop and implement new service models for child and family services in Victoria; providing strategic knowledge brokering advice to state and federal governments in Australia; and working with foundations globally on strategies for evidence-informed giving. See more at https://www.ceiglobal.org

Save the Children's UK work aims to narrow the gap in early years outcomes between children growing up in poverty and their better off peers, and to reduce the scale and impact of child poverty. I led the development of Save the Children's UK's programmes, including innovation and testing, implementation and scaling up strategies, quality improvement, and evaluation and learning. STC UK works through strong partnerships with national governments, local government, the third sector, academia, families, and other stakeholders. Their aim is to transform children's life chances, not only through the direct impacts of our programmes, but also by influencing policy and practice, and wider systems change, across the UK. See more at https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/what-we-do/uk-work

The Colebrooke Centre supports child and family services who want to use planned efforts to identify and adopt approaches that work, and to deliver them in ways that preserve their effectiveness. As Director of Implementation Support, I led The Colebrooke Centre's work providing active, tailored support to organisations who wanted to improve or transform their services, strengthen implementation, and develop strategies for scale-up. Projects were commissioned by local government, voluntary sector organisations, funders, central government and intermediary or improvement organisations, and involved research synthesis, implementation analysis, evaluation, and strategic support. See more at http://www.cevi.org.uk

I worked independently carrying out research, evaluation and consultancy services to support evidence-informed practice in children's services. My work involved exploring how research can be used to improve services and practice particularly in working with vulnerable children and families. I worked as an associate with organisations including Social Care Institute for Excellence, Action for Children, Research in Practice and the Colebrooke Centre for Evidence and Implementation, on projects funded by central and local government, voluntary sector organisations and intermediary organisations.

Research in Practice is a UK network of local authorities and third sector organisations, working together to use research to improve services and practice in their work with vulnerable children and families. As director I led an innovative and multi-stranded programme involving online and published research briefings and reviews, learning events, knowledge exchange and demonstration projects, to build cultures of research use and support research utilisation for service improvement.

I directed a research and evaluation programme which encompassed supporting the development of innovative practice projects, evaluation of NCB's programmes, and externally commissioned research and evaluation. Our methods spanned qualitative research, surveys, secondary analysis and research synthesis, and concerned the needs and experiences of children, and the effectiveness of interventions, in family, school, local authority, community and health service settings. Our work also supported an evidence-informed and research-using culture across the organisation.

I directed the Qualitative Research Unit at NatCen, the leading independent social policy research institute recognised internationally for excellence in research methods. I led a programme of mixed method and qualitative research and policy evaluation, particularly large scale studies of complex interventions, funded by central government, foundations and research councils. Our work spanned all the major policy areas including poverty and welfare; education; children's services; crime and justice; health, and ageing, and we had a strong external training programme in research methods.