2025 highlights

Jon Yates is the founding CEO of the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The YEF is a £200 million endowment focused on reducing violence. In this role Jon advises government, schools, colleges, police forces, youth charities and the youth justice system on what works to keep young people safe.

Jon has worked across the youth, education and community cohesion sectors. He is an experienced founder and leader including of the UK’s National Citizen Service, which became the fastest growing youth movement since the Scouts. He is the author of ‘Fractured: How we live together’ and previously served in government as the lead adviser to the UK’s Education Secretary on technical education, schools, nurseries, colleges and university policy. Jon sits on the boards of Ofsted, the Children’s Commissioner and UK Youth.

Hilary is the CEO of Ambition Institute, and has previously held senior roles in education policy, professional development, and equalities. As a charity, Ambition Institute’s focus is on tackling educational inequality. Since March 2019, Ambition has worked with over 100,000 teachers, and with more than half of all schools in the country. The organisation supports teachers and leaders across their careers with high quality, evidence-based professional development, from initial teacher training to trust leadership. As well as a wide range of professional development programmes, Ambition delivers innovative pilot initiatives, a portfolio of robust research, and wider sector engagement to support equality. SEND and inclusion are long-standing priorities for Ambition, and the team is pleased to have worked with CST on publications like Five principles for inclusion, and convening the Inclusion in Practice hub.