Poet, author and children’s advocate Laura Mucha is joining Professor Robbie Duschinsky and the Applied Social Science Group as Children’s Author in Residence at the Primary Care Unit, starting this month.

Laura is a past winner of the Caterpillar Poetry Prize, the YorkMix Poems for Children, and the NSTBA Award for Poetry, and has been shortlisted for the CLiPPA Award run by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. Her books include Dear Ugly Sisters, Being Me, Welcome to Our Table, and We Need to Talk About Love / Love Factually (which Richard Curtis describes as ‘much better and more useful than my film’). Her forthcoming book Celebrate!, a collaboration with the British Museum, will be published in October 2023.

Over recent years, Laura has been working with Professor Robbie Duschinsky and colleagues within the Primary Care Unit.

Her audiobook Please Find Attached for Audible, published on 07 September 2023 (and in paperback by Bloomsbury in January 2025), seeks to help a wider audience engage with Duschinsky’s work on children’s mental health, especially his contributions in Cornerstones of Attachment Research. ​

Laura’s residency with the Primary Care Unit is related to the COACHES study led by Duschinsky and Professor Tamsin Ford.

This study seeks to understand obstacles to access to mental health support for young people who have experienced abuse, neglect or who have other safeguarding needs, and also understand what treatments are helpful for these young people. As well as analysing data from two NHS Trusts, the research team will be conducting interviews with young people about their experiences of primary and secondary health services and of social care provision.

As part of her residency, Laura will be using her skills and experience as a children’s author to help the research team make sense of and communicate results from their interviews with young people.

Laura has tremendous skill in helping others think and communicate about children’s experiences and needs. I’m really excited for what her residency will mean for the COACHES study.”

– Professor Robbie Duschinsky, Head, Applied Social Science Group

Find out more

See more about Laura’s work at Laura Mucha and on her Primary Care Unit profile page.

More about the Applied Social Science Group.

Image credit: Ellie Kurttz and Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.