Dan Allen is a senior social work lecturer and has been working with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people, families and communities for 11 years. Starting his career as a residential childcare support worker in 2002, Dan worked with a number of Irish Traveller children living in residential and foster care. After working for five years in that role, he developed a critical insight into some of the challenges that Irish Traveller families can face when accessing and making sense of social work and other public services. In 2007, Daniel took a position as a social worker in a Disabled Children’s Team. Here, he was able to work within Children and Family services to engage Irish Traveller and Romany Gypsy young people and their families, to assess, plan, implement and evaluate specific and tailored packages of support. In 2009, Daniel secured funding from the Economic Social Research Council to complete a Master’s in social work research and a PhD. These two programmes enabled him to consolidate his knowledge and understanding of social work with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller groups. Whilst completing these periods of study, Dan also spent some time working as a child protection social worker in the North of England. This unique experience provided him with the opportunity to develop a key understanding of some of the challenges being faced by Roma young people in particular. In 2013, Dan was able to share this developing knowledge of working with Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities with the wider social work community as a co-author of good practice guide entitled ‘Social work with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children’. The development of this Good Practice Guide represents a culmination of his research and practice based experience. Daniel’s other works include a chapter on the failings of social policy with Gypsy and Traveller communities. This can be found in Richardson J and Ryder A (eds) Gypsies and Travellers: Accommodation, empowerment and inclusion in British society, published by Policy Press. In addition to developing research in this area, Daniel continues to support social work practice with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in the North West of England.