Cristina Odone (CEO)

  • Member, the Cross-Department Family Policy Advisory Group, meeting quarterly with DWP, DHSC, DfE and charities/NGOs to discuss issues including DA and VAWG
  • Founder, The Parenting Circle charity, promoting parental participation
  • Journalist and Broadcaster (Deputy Editor, New Statesman; Columnist, The Observer, the Guardian, Daily Telegraph; Editor, Catholic Herald; Question Time, Any Questions, Jeremy Vine Show)
  • Produced four reports on domestic abuse in 2019-2023 in her role as Head of Family Policy at the Centre for Social Justice including ‘Domestic Abuse during Lockdown’ with government committing to two of its recommendations in 2021 Budget and Spending Review -- £185m to support victims through the funding of 1000 Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence advisors; £98m to fund safe accommodation for women and children survivors
  • The DHSC agreed (August 2022) to include Odone's definition of DA as a public health issue in its Strategy for Women’s Health
  • Convened several round-tables at Westminster including most recently one on online VAWG with Laila Mickelwait, global campaigner against PornHub
  • Convened a round table on domestic abuse at the Old Bailey, attended by eight High Court Judges and with participants including Jess Phillips MP Minister for Safeguarding, Nicole Jacobs Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Olivia Robey, formerly Metropolitan Police Safeguarding team
  • Edited Equal Treatment Bench Book to improve advice on DA
  • Gave evidence before the Treasury Select Committee in Parliament on “An Equal Recovery: the impact of the pandemic on women and children” (12 January, 2022)

Julia Margo (Deputy)

  • Survivor of domestic abuse and the family courts; 10 years of litigation, 37 hearings
  • Mentored 75 DA survivors
  • Trained 200 senior Judges to date on DA and established a DA training manual for the Judicial College; DA now part of Annual Training conference for crown and criminal courts
  • Training to be rolled out in Family Courts and to magistrates in 2025
  • Edited Equal Treatment Bench Book to improve advice on DA
  • Media on DA: Dispatches, Sunday Times, Observer, New Statesman
  • 15 years in think tanks as Acting CEO of Demos and Director of Research at IPPR, published 12 policy books with various policy impacts eg - Freedom’s Orphans (Youth Matters Green paper) - Those Who Can and Thursday’s Child – PSHE and education reforms
  • 10 years as Charity CEO, Family Childcare Trust
  • Five years as commissioning editor at the Sunday Times
Fair Hearing