Dr Jess Deighton is Lecturer in School-Based Mental Health Research, Evaluation, and Evidence-Based Research at UCL and Head of Resilience Research and Evaluation at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families.

Her research has three core components: 1) the measurement of mental health well-being – in particular developing and validating tools for measurement of mental health in children; 2) the evaluation of interventions and multifaceted programmes to support mental health and well-being in children, primarily in educational settings; 3) the interplay between mental health, physical health and educational outcomes.

She leads the national evaluation of BIG Lottery’s HeadStart programme and is also a senior researcher for the North Thames CLAHRC and the Department of Health Child Policy Research Unit. Her recent work also includes the development of guidance materials for schools and colleges around the measurement of mental health and well-being, and the development and evaluation of schools based resources to improve mental Health.