Efua Poku-Amanfo

Research fellow

Efua is a research fellow, working within the work and welfare state team, with an expertise in participatory and deliberative research methodologies.

She is currently leading on the Schools Unit programme, exploring changing trends in education and developing progressive policy solutions to improve the lives of young people. She is also lead author of the Healthy places, prosperous lives report, the third interim report in the Commission on Health and Prosperity, a place-based public health report which puts people and places at the heart of improving their health and their overall life outcomes.

She is also a trustee of the award-winning legal charity Rights of Women, and has previously worked in policy in the European Parliament and her work has been featured in the Guardian and the Independent and has frequently appeared on Times Radio.

Efua's areas of expertise are:

  • participatory and deliberative research
  • education policy; school workforce, curriculum, assessment, enrichment and young people's development
  • public health and devolution.

More from this author:

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  1. Towards universal opportunity for young people

    Outlining a vision for young people which could increase social mobility while also reducing inequality and disadvantage, so that every young person has the opportunity to build a decent life.

  2. Reclaiming social mobility for the opportunity mission

    Every prime minister since Thatcher has set their sights on social mobility. They have repeated some version of the refrain that your background should not hold you back and hard work should be rewarded by movement up the social and…
  3. Two teenage girls can be seen from behind wearing blue school blazers working out a maths equation on a whiteboard

    Who is losing learning? Finding solutions to the school engagement crisis

    An alarming number of children are missing out on the social and educational benefits of school.

  4. Our greatest asset: The final report of the IPPR Commission on Health and Prosperity

    The nation’s health challenges have reached historic proportions, and change is needed.
  5. A primary school pupil sits cross-legged in a class, looking at the camera

    The invisible crisis of lost learning

    We urgently need more resources to allow schools to take a different approach to exclusions to ensure the most vulnerable students aren’t left behind.

  6. Efua Poku-Amanfo on Sky News

    IPPR's Efua Poku-Amanfo on Sky News discussing school exclusions