Kate Ridley-Pepper is a former educational researcher at the National Foundation for Educational Research. She then spent over a decade in the Department for Education in roles including the Head of Careers and Post-16 Participation and as the Bill Manager for the Technical and Further Education Bill. More recently, she headed up a policy innovation team in the Cabinet Office, led two major improvement programmes within the Home Office (firstly the organisational wide change following the Windrush Scandal and then in crisis management following Afghanistan).