Data-driven insights: Exploring the lives of care experienced children and young people

Sarah Cheesbrough re-joined the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in January 2025 as Director of its Policy Research Centre. In this role, she is responsible for leading a team of talented researchers, delivering a variety of mixed methods research in a fast-paced environment, in order to respond to and help inform policy.

She was previously Director of the Communities team at IFF Research, a social and market research agency. Prior to that, she has held leadership roles at Thinks Insight & Strategy and Verian UK, and at NatCen previously, as Director of its Communities, Work and Income team.  

Koulla is a qualified social worker and worked as a probation officer in England. She established the first 24-hour telephone helpline for women who were experiencing domestic abuse in Northern Ireland before she joined Include Youth in 1998 as Director (Chief Executive). In 2015 she was appointed by the First and Deputy First Ministers to be the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People and her eight-year term ended in March 2023. While Commissioner, Koulla and her team undertook significant work in the areas such as mental health, special educational needs and child protection. She also published the first formal investigation into the care of a child. Koulla has been appointed by the Minister for Children in the Republic of Ireland to be the Chair of Oberstown Children Detention Centre. She has also been awarded the role of Honorary Professor of Practice by Queens University Belfast and will be working closely with the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Barnardo’s UK and is currently working as an Interim Chief Executive and consultant. Koulla is a passionate advocate for human rights particularly the rights of children and young people and believes that the formal realisation of rights ensures better outcomes for all of society

Sally Holland is a registered social worker and Professor of Social Work in Cardiff University. Between 2015 and 2022 she was Children’s Commissioner for Wales. Sally is currently co-leading the evaluation of the Welsh Government’s Basic Income Pilot for Care Leavers. She is also involved in ESRC-funded research on outcomes associated with Sure Start and Flying Start and European research on services for children who have experienced abuse and neglect. She teaches on the MA in Social Work and is also Director of Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion for the School of Social Sciences. Her research base is CASCADE Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre, of which she was founding director in 2014.