Diego Melo is Co-Founder and CEO of Nudge Education, a national specialist organisation helping local authorities, schools and families re-engage young people who are severely absent, missing from education or chronically disengaged.

Since co-founding Nudge in 2016, Diego has led its work with more than 105 local authorities and over 400 schools, alongside a community of around 300 practitioners. Together, they have helped more than 2,000 young people re-engage with education in the past academic year.

Diego is undertaking doctoral research at Northumbria University exploring persistent school absenteeism through the lived experiences of young people, parents and educators. His work is grounded in the belief that we are, in essence, each other and that, therefore, no young person should be left behind.