Louise has over 20 years’ experience working in policy and public affairs, specialising in children’s rights. Over her career, she has also empowered children and young people to advocate for their own rights with senior decision-makers across many policy areas, including protection from violence, school exclusion, housing and homelessness, and immigration.
She re-joined the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) as its Director in March 2015 (having previously been its Senior Policy Officer) and oversaw its merger into Just for Kids Law, a charity providing legal advice and representation to children and young people. In August 2023, she became Co-Lead of Just for Kids Law with Aika Stephenson, the charity’s Legal Director.
As well as co-leading Just for Kids Law, Louise is responsible for the organisation’s policy and public affairs strategy, which focusses on children’s rights in the justice system, as well as leading CRAE’s broader children’s rights monitoring and advocacy work. As part of this work, she co-chairs the UNCRC Action Group with a senior civil servant at the Department for Education.
Before joining CRAE, Louise worked at Save the Children, where she worked on a wide variety of children’s rights issues, including child poverty, the treatment of separated asylum-seeking children, child trafficking and exploitation, and reform of the Children’s Commissioner for England. She also led on child rights governance policy and advocacy in the UK, which focussed on campaigning for the UNCRC General Measures of Implementation (the laws structures and processes that need to be in place if the UNCRC is to be fully respected) to be taken forward in the UK. Louise also helped to establish and has chaired ROCK - the Rights of the Child UK coalition – which campaigns for the incorporation of the UNCRC into UK domestic law.
She has also been Vice President of Euronet – the European Children’s Network - and has chaired the Separated Children in Europe Programme.
Louise has a degree in philosophy and theology from the University of Nottingham. After graduating, she volunteered for the British Youth Council before taking up the position of Policy Officer, where she led on campaigns to lower the voting age to 16 and for the establishment of a Children’s Commissioner for England.