Helen Barnard is Acting Director at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Helen has worked across policy and analysis at JRF, most recently leading the policy and partnerships team to develop new solutions to solve poverty and prior to that, building the first iteration of JRF’s monitoring and analysis team, examining the key social, economic and public policy trends and changes affecting people and places in poverty. Helen joined the Foundation in 2005 as a Policy and Research Manager. She has developed and led programmes of research and policy focusing on child poverty, labour markets, poverty and ethnicity, destitution and education. Before joining the Foundation she worked at BMRB Social Research and Opinion Leader Research, carrying out research on topics including benefits, tax credits and tax, education, and housing. Helen studied Social and Political Sciences at Clare College, Cambridge University.