Professor Margaret O'Brien joined the TCRU at the beginning of October from the University of East Anglia, where she co-directed the Centre for Research on Children and Families.
Less than a month into her new role, O'Brien outlined her vision for the future of the unit's work at a recent event at the Foundling Museum in London to mark the TCRU's 40th anniversary.
She said that returning to London to take on the role at the TCRU after spending time away from the capital sparked an interest in carrying out research into the quality of life of children living in the city.
O'Brien said this interest linked with the origins of the TCRU.
"An early priority for me just coming back to London is the quality of life of children in London," she said.
"Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital were focused on children who were abandoned - abandoned by their mothers and society. Now many children are being abandoned.
"Thomas Coram's work on abandoned children and disadvantaged children is very relevant to today. He wanted to do good for the poor kids of London."
The European Research Council recently awarded a "substantial grant" to Rebecca O'Connell, a researcher at the TCRU, for her study into families and food poverty in three European countries during austerity.
O'Brien credits the research, which is due to begin next May and run for five years, as being an "important topic" for the TCRU's future work.
She also wants the unit to "deepen its knowledge" on the role of fathers and the relationship they have with their children - an area of particular interest to O'Brien.
She said: "I hope we can be the go-to centre for research on fathers and families.
"I also want to encourage more men into nursery work, it shouldn't be a women-only sector. Male carers are very important."
According to O'Brien, one of the biggest challenges for social policy over the coming years is tracking all the social changes that affect children and young people from the children and young people themselves.
She claims that many studies are based on narrow samples, but feels that the TCRU is "very well placed" when it comes to data collection.
O'Brien said that collecting such data and carrying out evidence-based research is instrumental to creating new policy and "ideally" needs to be in place before policy is introduced.
She added: "You need to know what happened before. If children are depressed, for example, we need a base line, then intervene and follow up on the consequences."
Professor Jack Tizard, who believed that research with strong policy and practical relevance was crucial to improving society and individual lives, founded the TCRU in 1973.
Based at the Institute of Education in London, the TCRU currently has 23 researchers whose work focuses on children and young people.
FOUR DECADES OF TCRU RESEARCH OF CHILDREN'S ISSUES
1973-82 - Reading: the Haringey project found that reading achievement has strong links to whether or not parents hear their children read.
1983-92 - Day care: researchers compared the experiences of mothers and children in families where the mother returned to full-time work after maternity leave with those where mothers did not.
1993-2002 - Men in the nursery - gender and caring work: this project explored the experiences of men and women working in childcare. It also examined the views of parents about male nursery workers.
2003-13 - Young people from a public care background and their pathways to education in Europe: this research studied young people in care and their post-compulsory educational pathways, identifying factors that facilitated entry to further and higher education.
