Meet the LIIA Team
Ben Byrne
Ben Byrne is the Strategic Lead at LIIA. He has worked as a social worker, youth offending team manager and probation officer in London and the South East of England and has led services for young people, families and early help. Ben is focused on developing integrated, restorative and relational ways of working with adolescents. Ben leads on the Adolescent Safeguarding Priority.
Outside of LIIA, Ben is a trustee of the National Association for Youth Justice and served as a member of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales from 2018-2021 where he led on the development of the 'child first' principle.
Ben is also a published author and has published works in relation to youth justice and safeguarding young people. In 2022 he released his debut novel 'Hidden harm', which draws on his significant experience in social work. A percentage of the proceeds from this book will be donated to charities working to end domestic abuse and violence against women.
Karla Goodman
Karla Goodman is Practice Lead for LIIA and leads the Your Choice Programme with Isabelle Gregory. She has responsibility for implementation, oversight, coordination and quality assurance of Programme across London.
Karla is a Forensic Psychologist with a Doctorate from University of Nottingham, with a background in practice working within Youth Justice in both London and the South East. Karla is passionate about providing accessible, evidence based interventions that meet those in need where they are at.
She has a desire to contribute to creating a more compassionate world, where individuals are able to contribute to and are embraced within their communities, helping them discover their own purpose.
In her personal life, Karla is very active and is always hiking, running, climbing or skiing, often fundraising for causes close to her heart.
Matthew Raleigh
Matt Raleigh is Programme Lead for LIIA, working closely with Directors of Children’s Services, Senior Officers and Services across the London region to support our priorities and ensure effective stakeholder involvement, consultation and communication.
Matt has a BA in Community Justice Studies and a Diploma in Probation Studies. He initially joined the probation service due to his belief that the UK imprisons more people than necessary and that there are better and more effective community alternatives.
Over time, he became passionate about redressing childhood harms and disadvantages that lead to poor adult outcomes, feeling this is a critical stage where alternatives lie. Matt moved over to Social Work, building extensive experience, managing teams in a climate of significant change and anxiety in local government, and re-designing and delivering services to better meet the needs of vulnerable adolescents. For example, he integrated services so that a multi-agency team with a varied and complementary skill-set could meet the needs of children under one roof. He takes great pride in the outcomes he has achieved for young people during his career, in particular being told, or shown, by vulnerable children and/or parents that he had helped their lives become safer and happier. He is driven by his sense that harms to children could be less, and opportunities greater, which continuously underlies his day-to-day work. Matt’s current projects include the Leadership in Colour Programme, the Care Leavers' Compact and the Adolescent Safeguarding Handbook. In his spare time Matthew is a committed olympic weightlifter, a sport in which he now competes and articulates as 'joyous expression of timing and skill'.
Rashid Jussa
Rashid Jussa is the Lead for Strategic Intelligence at LIIA. He works to provide data reporting analysis, insight and intelligence support to the LIIA programme, working closely with all London boroughs to support our Priorities.
Rashid's core focus is developing a LIIA intelligence and data function that provides high level expertise, methodologies and tools to support the effective use of data in sector-led improvement, policy, development, commissioning and service delivery. He believes in making better use of our existing data and draws on his wealth of experience. Rashid has built a highly regarded reputation in the sector through developing the Children's Analysis Tool (ChAT) which is now used by Ofsted and in all but one of all local authorities in England.
Outside of LIIA, he is the Chair of the National Performance & Information Managers group (NPIMG), Co-Chair of the London Information & Exchange Group (LIEG), and Chair of the external delegates of the DfE Star Chamber Scrutiny Group.
In his own time, Rashid is passionate about learning new things, drinking fine wine, equestrian sports, Newcastle United, playing guitar and learning Italian!
Frank Offer
Frank Offer is the Commissioning and SEND Lead for LIIA.
The Commissioning workstream involves developing and managing a programme of pan-London collaborative commissioning to achieve better value for money and improved outcomes for children. The SEND programme involves developing pan-London collaborative developments and along with improving commissioning, there is a focus on service delivery and practice pan-London to improve outcomes for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Frank has a background as a teacher and has gone on to deliver commissioning change programmes with multi-million pound savings and improved outcomes for children across the country from Nottinghamshire to London. He has led innovations in prevention that have achieved 90% improvements in outcomes for children and his work embeds a partnership and child-centred approach.
Frank is driven by the difference the LIIA team can make in children and young people’s lives and has a Doctorate from Brunel University which focused on young people’s perspectives on barriers to participation in education, training and employment and how to overcome them, along with an MBA from Kingston University and BSc from University College London.
Frank is a keen painter and writer in his personal life, with a particular interest in writing for young adults.
Isabelle Gregory
Isabelle Gregory is a Consultant for LIIA and is responsible for managing the rollout of the Your Choice Programme alongside Karla Goodman. She supports the delivery of other programmes such as Peer Review and the London Accommodation Pathfinder as well as helping to promote LIIA's work more broadly through her extensive network and expertise and collaborative working.
As a senior management professional with Director-level experience (Executive and non-executive), Isabelle is a highly regarded specialist in the development of social investment and social impact bonds and is a passionate advocate for transforming public expenditure away from cost of failure to investment in success.
Isabelle is committed to helping young people flourish, and her expertise and unwavering energy has established her as a critical member of the team both generally and in delivering the Your Choice programme, which she personally named.
Isabelle does much outside of LIIA to push the agenda for children and young people and personally takes great joy from young people's energy and creativity, holding a strong belief that young people will make the world a better place. She is also an active netball player and a proud and longstanding member of a South London team.
Rula Tripolitaki
Rula Tripolitaki is LIIA Programme Manager and Workforce Programme Lead.
Rula is the Programme Manager for LIIA and also leads the ALDCS workforce programme. With her LIIA programme hat on she maintains oversight of the whole programme, acting as Ben’s right-hand woman as the portfolio of work grows. As the workforce lead, Rula is responsible for developing and managing an ambitious programme of pan-London collaborative activity focused on improving the experience of the children’s workforce and enabling them to individually and collectively thrive, in order to provide the best services for children and young people in London.
Rula has a background in recruitment and consultancy, with an extensive background providing specialist services to the public sector and delivering a bespoke consultancy model to organisations in London and across the UK. One of her proudest achievements has been designing and growing a national employability social value programme leading local, regional and even international workshops and seminars for students, young people, NEET and adults seeking employment and careers advice. Rula is a Trustee of a child and family focused charity in her hometown of Southall in West London, that is dedicated to supporting the education and employability of young people from Global Majority backgrounds.
Rula has a BSc in Criminology and Sociology from the University of Portsmouth and has since studied Public Policy Development with LSE. She swam competitively for 12 years and in her spare time can be found practicing her pull-ups, painting something or hanging out with friends and family.
Vita Bax
Vita Bax is a Project and Policy Support Officer at LIIA, working on the SEND and Commissioning programmes, and also providing support to the wider LIIA programme.
Vita joined LIIA in January 2022, coming from a previous role at the Childhood Trust where she organised the London Child Poverty Summit. She has also worked in a publishing company and as an English teacher in Northern Spain. She has a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, and a BSc in Philosophy and Public Policy from LSE. Her masters dissertation explored philosophical conceptions of autonomy in relation to adolescent development.
In her spare time, Vita enjoys playing football and seeing live music.
Serina Mehmi
Serina Mehmi is a Policy and Project Support Officer for LIIA, focusing on the Workforce and Adolescent Safeguarding priorities. Prior to this, Serina supported the implementation of the Your Choice programme. She also supports the wider LIIA programme.
Prior to joining LIIA in 2022, Serina had a legal background. She completed a degree in Law with French and then gained varied experience as a paralegal for five years including in a Child Care legal department at a large midlands local authority where she gained an understanding of pressures facing Social Care teams. She is passionate about social justice and more equal outcomes and chose to move to policy, having realised this is where she would like to make an impact in her work.
In her spare time Serina enjoys exploring London and travelling.
Nafisa Abdiresak
Nafisa joined the LIIA team in December 2022. She works as a Project Administrator for LIIA, supporting individual projects and the wider programme.
Nafisa graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London with a degree in History, Politics and International Relations and she has an interest in Children’s Services.
In her free time, Nafisa enjoys swimming and going for walks.
Queensley Uzomba
Queensley Uzomba is Strategic Programme Manager - Secure Children's Home.
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Sherian Bateson
Sherian Bateson is an Intelligence Analyst for LIIA. She assists in the delivery of a portfolio of data products that inform strategy and practice across children’s services in London. Sherian works closely with London’s Local Authorities in developing datasets and products that support the work of LIIA on behalf of the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services.
Sherian has a background in finance and completed a PGCE at the Institute of Education to start a teaching career in Computer Science. She taught for 13 years in a London secondary school and has an MA in Teaching from the University of London.
Sherian enjoys spending time with her family and dog. She has been developing her kayaking skills while exploring the many beautiful waterways of England.
Yee Au
Yee Au is one of the Intelligence Analysts for LIIA. He is currently working with other members of the LIIA team on the Quarterly Benchmarking reports, Workforce Development analysis and Child Level Data project.
Before joining the LIIA team at London Councils, Yee had many years of experience working in both the voluntary and public sectors. He has a background in the development and implementation of children’s data systems including Sure Start trailblazer programmes, Children’s Centres, Early Years and Early Intervention projects.
Before joining the LIIA team at London in September 2022, Yee has spent his last 10 years working on the design, development and delivery of Social Care and Early Help case management systems.
Yee is a believer in life-long learning and in his spare time he is a keen photographer and badminton player.
Stephen Carter
Stephen Carter is an Intelligence Analyst for LIIA. He assists the team with development of data products that inform strategy and practice across children’s services in London. His current projects include the Child Level Data project and Workforce Development analysis.
Prior to joining LIIA in March 2023, Stephen’s has spent his career working in local government. He has many years of experience working on data analysis and report development within Children’s services and is passionate about drawing out insights from the data in an informative and engaging way.
When not doing that, in his free time he can be found browsing one of the many bookshops or museums that London has to offer. He also enjoys following the latest developments in science and technology and has an interest in astronomy.
Sunniva Minsaas
Sunniva Minsaas joined the LIIA team in November 2022 as the Project Administrator for the Your Choice programme.
Before joining LIIA, Sunniva was a student at the London School of Economics (LSE) where she studied for an MSc in International Social and Public Policy. For her masters dissertation, she researched how energy poverty affects people's living conditions. Sunniva also has a Bachelor of Arts and Science (BASc) from University College London (UCL). She is particularly interested in evidence-based policymaking and passionate about improving the opportunities of young people.
In her spare time, Sunniva enjoys reading, playing football and hiking in the countryside.