A large body of research has shown that adverse experiences during early childhood can affect children's development and have a lasting impact on their mental and cognitive health. This evidence suggests that the first few years of life form a window of vulnerability, or sensitive period, for adversity. This research has contributed to effective policy interventions designed to protect young children from adversity and improve their well-being. Inadvertently, the focus on early childhood has also led to a neglect of another formative period of our lives - adolescence. Adolescence is characterized by protracted changes in brain structure and cognition. At the same time, young people experience profound changes in social roles. They become increasingly independent from their parents, and more focussed on peers. Emerging theories of adolescent development suggest that these social, cognitive and neural changes in adolescence may give rise to a second sensitive period after early childhood - particularly for adverse social experiences such as being bullied or excluded. We are now at a unique point in time where recent advances in statistical methodology, combined with emerging data following large cohorts of young people over time, allow us to test these theories systematically. This provides unprecedented opportunities to foster well-being in young people by informing adversity prevention, detection and intervention efforts. The three main objectives of our research are: 1. Identifying different types of social adversity To capture the multifaceted nature of social adversity, we have established a partnership with the Children's Charity Barnardo's. We will be able to use their data on social, educational and mental health practitioners' views of what types of social adversity matter most to young people. Guided by these insights, we will analyse data from large UK cohorts to understand how different types of social adversity affect mental health and cognition in young people. We will feed our insights back to practitioners to help guide their practice and support young people who experience social adversity. 2. Characterizing windows of vulnerability in adolescence Leveraging data from large UK cohorts, we will analyse how social adversity affects children, young people and adults. This will help us understand at what point in life what type of adversity affects us most. It will also tell us whether there are sensitive or vulnerable periods in adolescence. This work will help inform policy, charity and government work, by highlighting at what point in life prevention and intervention efforts may be most important. 3. Investigating developmental sequences For this objective we will analyse data on young people's experience of adversity, as well as information on their cognitive and brain development. This will allow us to understand the sequence of developmental events leading from adversity to cognitive changes. This will generate new theories about sensitive periods in adolescence and inspire future research into adversity. Our work will lead to a new understanding of vulnerabilities in young people. It will pinpoint what types of social adversity need to be targeted, and at which point in life, in order to ameliorate cognitive and mental health problems later on. To ensure that our findings reach young people and those caring for them, we will write an accessible policy brief in partnership with Barnardo's, and host a collaborative workshop for practitioners, policy makers and charities. In this workshop, we will discuss our findings and seek input from stakeholders on how our findings synergize with policy and practice. We will then take our findings to the public through online, print and social media, as well as presenting our work in schools. All of this ensures that our work has a lasting and positive impact on young people's well-being.

Currently, the government does not know how many of its looked after children (for example, children who have lived in foster care or children's homes) become involved with the youth justice system, or how many of those children reside in youth custody (see Hunter, 2019; Laming, 2016). It does not know how many care experienced individuals fall into criminal justice involvement and imprisonment (see Fitzpatrick et al. 2019). There is no data which outlines the ethnicity of care experienced individuals who become justice involved. The new MoJ/DfE linked administrative datasets funded by ADR UK will make it possible to analyse the intersections between ethnicity, care experience, and criminal justice involvement for the first time. This Fellowship will directly build upon my PhD research on the over-representation of looked after children and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children in the youth justice system in England and Wales. The research utilised official statistics and 27 in-depth interviews with youth justice and children's services experts. Principally, the research indicated that existing inequalities in relation to ethnicity and looked after status have intensified and that BAME looked after children experience compounded disadvantage (Hunter, 2019). However, the thesis found that much is still unknown about the intersections between ethnicity and looked after status in youth justice involvement, largely as a result of insufficient official data. The research evidence suggests that failings in the care system can both increase the risk of justice system contact and influence routes through the justice system (see Hunter, 2019). Evidence also points to frequency of incidents, as opposed to seriousness, having the greatest impact on criminal justice interventions for looked after children (see Shaw, 2014). The new linked datasets mean that it is now possible to explore when offending began and frequency of offending for care experienced individuals, as well as the role of ethnicity. Furthermore, information about care histories means that we can explore the effect of various experiences on criminal justice outcomes. Research suggests that age entering care and multiple placements may influence offending (e.g. Baskin & Sommers, 2011; Darker, Ward & Caulfield, 2008; Jonson-Reid & Barth, 2000). However, no study has considered how certain features of care experience might impact upon criminal justice outcomes for different ethnic groups. The Laming Review estimated that 44 percent of all looked after children in custody come from an ethnic minority background (PRT, 2016: 65). The international research also suggests that there is a relationship between ethnicity and involvement in systems of care and justice, which warrants further investigation. Studies from the USA and Australia suggest that minority ethnic children in care have higher rates of youth justice involvement (see for example, Dollan et al. 2013; Goodkind et al., 2012; Ryan, Testa & Zhai, 2008; Stewart et al. 2008) and receive harsher outcomes than their white peers (Herz, Ryan & Bilchik, 2010). The research aims to address gaps in knowledge with regards to the intersections between ethnicity and looked after status in offending and youth/adult criminal justice involvement. It will utilise new linked MoJ/DfE data to investigate the onset and frequency of offending of care experienced individuals and their ethnic group. It will explore the impact of various care system experiences (such as number of placements) on criminal justice outcomes, and whether this varies by ethnic group. In doing so, it will produce findings which will benefit professionals and policymakers and most importantly, BAME care experienced individuals.

Currently, the government does not know how many of its looked after children (for example, children who have lived in foster care or children's homes) become involved with the youth justice system, or how many of those children reside in youth custody (see Hunter, 2019; Laming, 2016). It does not know how many care experienced individuals fall into criminal justice involvement and imprisonment (see Fitzpatrick et al. 2019). There is no data which outlines the ethnicity of care experienced individuals who become justice involved. The new MoJ/DfE linked administrative datasets funded by ADR UK will make it possible to analyse the intersections between ethnicity, care experience, and criminal justice involvement for the first time. This Fellowship will directly build upon my PhD research on the over-representation of looked after children and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children in the youth justice system in England and Wales. The research utilised official statistics and 27 in-depth interviews with youth justice and children's services experts. Principally, the research indicated that existing inequalities in relation to ethnicity and looked after status have intensified and that BAME looked after children experience compounded disadvantage (Hunter, 2019). However, the thesis found that much is still unknown about the intersections between ethnicity and looked after status in youth justice involvement, largely as a result of insufficient official data. The research evidence suggests that failings in the care system can both increase the risk of justice system contact and influence routes through the justice system (see Hunter, 2019). Evidence also points to frequency of incidents, as opposed to seriousness, having the greatest impact on criminal justice interventions for looked after children (see Shaw, 2014). The new linked datasets mean that it is now possible to explore when offending began and frequency of offending for care experienced individuals, as well as the role of ethnicity. Furthermore, information about care histories means that we can explore the effect of various experiences on criminal justice outcomes. Research suggests that age entering care and multiple placements may influence offending (e.g. Baskin & Sommers, 2011; Darker, Ward & Caulfield, 2008; Jonson-Reid & Barth, 2000). However, no study has considered how certain features of care experience might impact upon criminal justice outcomes for different ethnic groups. The Laming Review estimated that 44 percent of all looked after children in custody come from an ethnic minority background (PRT, 2016: 65). The international research also suggests that there is a relationship between ethnicity and involvement in systems of care and justice, which warrants further investigation. Studies from the USA and Australia suggest that minority ethnic children in care have higher rates of youth justice involvement (see for example, Dollan et al. 2013; Goodkind et al., 2012; Ryan, Testa & Zhai, 2008; Stewart et al. 2008) and receive harsher outcomes than their white peers (Herz, Ryan & Bilchik, 2010). The research aims to address gaps in knowledge with regards to the intersections between ethnicity and looked after status in offending and youth/adult criminal justice involvement. It will utilise new linked MoJ/DfE data to investigate the onset and frequency of offending of care experienced individuals and their ethnic group. It will explore the impact of various care system experiences (such as number of placements) on criminal justice outcomes, and whether this varies by ethnic group. In doing so, it will produce findings which will benefit professionals and policymakers and most importantly, BAME care experienced individuals.

Early life adversities, such as child maltreatment, are all too common in the UK. Research to date suggests that such adversities can have long-term effects on health. For instance, adversities experienced in childhood and even during pregnancy may alter the way the body deals with stress throughout life. This can result in an increased risk of diseases such as heart disease, depression and type 2 diabetes. It is therefore important to investigate how early life adversities might be linked to poorer health to better inform the development of interventions. Previous research into the health effects of early life adversities has been limited in a number of ways. Firstly, many studies have added up the number of adversities a child has experienced to create a score indicating 'total stress'. Unfortunately many children who experience one adversity are also more likely to experience another. The approach of tallying adversities does not help us to understand how adversities might affect health and what we can do about this. We also don't know whether experiencing adversities at certain ages (e.g. during pregnancy) has a greater effect on health than when experienced at other points in early life. There is also little evidence on whether associations between early life adversities and health are different for boys and girls. Also different types of early life adversity are likely to have different associations with health. The aim of this project is to develop a more valid measure of early life adversity and investigate how it is related to health at different points of life. This new measure will take account of the way in which children who experience one adversity are more likely to experience another. This measure will then be applied to look at associations with health. The research will focus on mental health from childhood onwards, as well as biological markers of stress from childhood and into adulthood. The research will use three of the UK's world-renowned longitudinal studies: the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), and National Child Development Study (NCDS). These are all large studies with >15,000 participants. Each study has followed the same group of people over time. ALSPAC will be used to assess associations between early life adversities in relation to biological markers of stress from childhood into adolescence. The MCS will be used to assess whether children who experience early life adversities are more likely to have mental health problems across childhood and into adolescence. Finally, the NCDS will be used to test associations between early life adversities and both biological markers of stress in middle-age and mental health across adulthood. The proposed project will be undertaken at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL under the mentorship of Prof. Yvonne Kelly, with support from a network of experts in social statistics, biology and sociology in the International Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health. Non-academic partners will be involved from the beginning of the research process. These partners include Barnardo's, the Association of Young People's Health and the Department of Health, who will be able to feed the findings of the research into their work with vulnerable families. Outputs from the project will include at least six academic papers, presentations at six conferences, a briefing note for non-academic audiences, an end of project policy seminar for academics and non-academics, and contributions to blogs and Twitter. The project also has a strong training element to enable the principal investigator to make the transition to independent researcher. In summary, this project has the potential to advance research in the field of early life adversities and health. It will be the first to provide evidence on how early life adversities increase the risk of poor health.

The number of potential victims of modern slavery referred to the National Crime Agency's National Referral Mechanism has risen consistently since the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. A significant contributor to this rise is the emergence and prominence of Child Criminal Exploitation, typified by 'county lines' trafficking, where narcotics gangs use groomed children and 'cuckooed' properties to export and sell drugs from larger metropolitan areas in rural towns and villages. COVID-19, specifically the social distancing measures designed to slow rates of infection, will affect both the illegal activity and the responses to it. The pandemic's impacts require an urgent response in the areas of detection, enforcement, prevention and safeguarding. By interviewing key frontline multisectoral stakeholders from police, NGOs and others in the statutory sector, and analysing appropriate data, we will identify any changes to criminal business models and modus operandi, and subsequent impacts on safeguarding, offering recommendations for mitigation and other remedial interventions. We will investigate whether changes to criminal practice will prove more profitable and/or lower risk, thus facilitating a long-term reconstitution of criminal behaviour that is more difficult to detect and more resilient to the effects of future exogenous shocks such as the one caused by COVID-19.