Dez Holmes is the Strategic Director for Practice & Programmes at National Children's Bureau, and is also Director of Research in Practice, a not-for-profit organisation that since 1996 has been supporting those who work with children, families and adults to use evidence in their practice and leadership. Her practice experience is largely within youth offending services and early help. 

She is particularly interested in adolescence, transitions, risk and participatory practice. Dez has led Research in Practice’s work on adolescent and Transitional Safeguarding, and has recently published two books in this area.  Until recently, Dez was Programme Director for the Tackling Child Exploitation programme; she also chairs the Contextual Safeguarding UK Advisory Group and is a Visiting Fellow at University of East Anglia.  

She chairs the Advisory Group for The Staff College, which develops leadership capacity across local authority children’s services, and sits on a number of Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) policy committees and research advisory boards.  

Dez was a member of the Evidence Group, supporting the Review of Children’s Social Care, and is also a trustee of Family Action, a large charity providing practical, emotional and financial support to families who are experiencing poverty, disadvantage and social isolation.  

In 2024, Dez was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of Sussex, and in 2025, she was awarded a MBE for services to social care.