Head of the Vulnerability Innovation Unit, Home Office

Policy Fellow Alumna, Centre for Science and Policy

Laura Baynton recently joined the Home Office as Head of the Vulnerability Innovation Unit. She previosly worked as Head of the What Works team in the Cabinet Office where she led the ‘What Works’ initiative, which is all about getting local and national decision-makers to generate, transmit and adopt robust evidence to inform better public spending decisions. She also supported the network of seven independent ‘What Works’ Centres, including NICE, the Centre for Crime Reduction, the Early Intervention Foundation and the Education Endowment Fund.

Previously, Laura worked for seven years at the Youth Justice Board, for the last two years as Head of Strategy, where she led projects and commissioned research on resettlement, tackling young people’s barriers to employment, and payment by results models, and was part of an advising team to No.10 Downing Street on youth justice and looked-after children. Laura has also worked at the UN and the Treasury, and is currently a Trustee for Settle, a social enterprise supporting young homeless people. She holds a first class degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.