"What Works (and what doesn't)? Opportunities and challenges of working with parents and professionals to improve child outcomes." A Faculty Inaugural Lecture by Professor Louise Tracey

Join us for the eighth Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture!

We are delighted to announce that the eighth lecture in the Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series will be delivered by Professor Louise Tracey from the School of Education. 

Professor Tracey’s research interests are in Early Years education, professional development, parental engagement and emergent literacy. Primarily, she conducts large-scale evaluations of educational interventions with a particular focus on closing the attainment gap for children from disadvantaged and underserved populations.

The Lecture

What Works (and what doesn’t)? Opportunities and challenges of working with parents and professionals to improve child outcomes.

We know that a child’s Early Years are a crucial foundation for later life. Successive governments have signalled this with continued expansion of free childcare for the under fives. Yet the Early Years’ sector is struggling with issues of staff shortages and low qualified staff. And parents struggle to find childcare places. So where is the discussion about quality early childhood education? Led by the Department for Education’s post-Covid Early Years Recovery programme, alongside work by the Education Endowment Foundation, there is increased impetus for growing the evidence-base in Early Years. How can we close the attainment gap based on socio-economic status that exists before children start schools? And if we find a solution, can we manualise it? Drawing on her experiences of conducting large-scale randomised controlled trials of interventions and continuing professional development for professionals and parents, Prof Tracey will explore issues relating to feasibility, acceptability and evidence of promise within the wider What Works Agenda. She will also argue for the need for the why? and the how? as well as the what? Finally, she will discuss the importance of re-centring the child in these debates and the joys and pitfalls of research within the field.

We would like to welcome everyone – be they colleagues, postgraduate researchers, students, alumni or visitors – to this lecture celebrating the achievement and research contributions of Professor Tracey.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 30 April 2025 at 16:00 in William Bragg LT (2.37). The lecture will take place from 16:00-17:00 including introductions and a Q&A session, after which there will be a drinks reception. 

To register your attendance at this lecture, please complete this short registration form.

If you have any queries about this lecture, or about the series, please direct them via email to Izzy Jenkinson (Faculty Events Coordinator) at I.K.S.Jenkinson@leeds.ac.uk.