Keynote speakers'
Ryan Henson, Chief Executive Officer, Coalition for Global Prosperity
Ryan Henson is Chief Executive Officer at the Coalition for Global Prosperity, and has a background in international development, and political campaigns. Prior to joining the Coalition, he worked for CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, and on human rights policy at the Ministry of Justice. Ryan serves as a Reservist in the Royal Air Force and is a founding trustee of Diversity in Development, a social mobility charity working to widen access to the international development sector. In 2022 Ryan was appointed by the Government to serve as a Social Mobility Commissioner. The Social Mobility Commission exists to create a United Kingdom where the circumstances of birth do not determine outcomes in life.
Ellie Rowley- UCAS Fair Access Programme Lead
Ellie joined UCAS in October 2021 to lead on the Fair Access Programme, supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds to access the post-secondary education, apprenticeship, or training option that is right for them. Her role includes working collaboratively with the widening participation and fair access sector to identify opportunities and develop services for UCAS to add value to the support already given to disadvantaged and underrepresented students.
Dr Maggie Inchley (Queen Mary University of London), Dr Sylvan Baker (Central School of Speech and Drama),
The Verbatim Formula
The Verbatim Formula (TVF) is a practice arts research collective that works with care-experienced young people as experts in their own experience. Since 2015, TVF has collaborated with over 200 care-experienced and displaced young people across the UK to create verbatim performance and digital art that centres young people’s voices to explore lived experience and challenge systemic and structural issues.
TVF has developed a range of methodological tools for working with care-experienced co-researchers that combine artistic practice with research. Verbatim techniques and strategies acknowledge the expertise of care-experienced young people and care leavers, while providing anonymity and solidarity to those sharing their lived experiences and speaking back to systems of care an education (Inchley et al 2019; Inchley and Baker 2020 and 2023). TVF’s co-researchers have shared testimonies with Local Authority Children’s Services, the Scottish Parliament, the UK Department for Education and Office for Students, universities in England, Scotland and Canada, and created multiple events at museums, galleries and arts centres including Contact Theatre in Manchester and Battersea Arts Centre. Their creative work and lived experience have been disseminated digitally through zines, social media and through official online sites of the Office for Students and Our Hearings Our Voices in Scotland. In 2023, TVF won the Transformative Research Award of the UK-wide Theatre and Performance Research Association.
TVF are currently working with the Articulate Cultural Trust to deliver a ‘Cradle of Learning’ event and staff training at the University of Greenwich. What practical and mental health challenges do care leavers face? How can education services do better to support them? You can see a film with the manifesto here: For interest in the availability of a bespoke service appropriate for your staff please email [email protected]. There is an upcoming event at The Foundling Museum in April 2024, where you can see the TVF work in fuller action. Care leavers will lead a creative event and discussion.
The session at the NNECL Conference will be run by Dr Maggie Inchley (Queen Mary University of London), Dr Sylvan Baker (Central School of Speech and Drama), and members of the TVF team of care-experienced co-researchers. Please do check out our work further on their website.
Dr Zoe Baker, University of York
Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of York. Since
2021, she has been leading the British Academy-funded ‘Care-Experienced Graduates’ DecisionMaking, Choices and Destinations’ project - the first qualitative research project exploring careexperienced peoples’ onward transitions from higher education and into graduate life. Through her work, Zoe has made many policy and practice recommendations for local authorities, higher education institutions, policymakers and employers which aim to achieve equity in opportunities for care-experienced people. Outside of her academic research, Zoe volunteers as an Independent Visitor for children in care with Sheffield City Council.
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash
