I am a child protection social worker based in London, although I qualified and began my career in Manchester, where I am originally from. In 2019-2020 I managed children's social care policy and programmes at the National Children's Bureau, which incorporates the Council for Disabled Children. Between 2021 and 2023 I was a principal social worker in west London, and since 2022 I have worked in the emergency duty team for three boroughs.

My Fellowship draws on this experience and I am interested in how social workers and the courts decide that children should be removed from home and placed in the care of the state. There is evidence that decision-making in England is inconsistent, lacks transparency and is rarely informed by children themselves. I will be travelling to New York and Washington DC, jurisdictions which have relatively recently introduced changes to the way these decisions are made, including emphasising the child's own voice, to explore the approach taken by social workers and judges there.

When I return to the UK, I hope to apply lessons from both states to child protection practice here, by developing tools for practitioners and influencing policy.