Anna Leyland
Anna Leyland
Dr
Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Anna Leyland is a Research Fellow in Children's Wellbeing at Manchester Metropolitan University's School of Sociology and Criminology.
In September 2026, Anna began her funded ADR UK Research Fellowship to work with the Education and Child Health Outcomes from Linked Data (ECHILD) dataset. This fellowship traces how children identified with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs as their primary type of special educational need move through the education system, and how these education pathways connect to their use of health services. By mapping these journeys, the work aims to support policymakers, schools and health services to identify where changes could improve outcomes.
More broadly, Anna's research uses secondary data sources, including linked administrative datasets and cohort studies, to explore outcomes for children who experience disadvantage in early life. She takes a systemic view of child development, seeing individual children as shaped by the wider environment, and believes that a systems approach that recognises the complexity of childhood inequalities is the route to finding levers for meaningful change.
Anna co-leads the Administrative Data for Social Policy (ADSoP) hub at MMU, and previously held an Understanding Society Research Fellowship (2025-2026) and an earlier ADR UK Research Fellowship (2021-2024).
