News and Blog posts

Over 7,500 children and young people in care share their views and experiences on contact arrangements with their families

The views and experiences of over 7,500 children and young people in care on their contact with family members and impact on their wellbeing are uncovered in a new report...

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Launch of Future of Care Study

We are delighted to announce that the University of Oxford's Rees Centre, at the Department of Education is partnering with Become, the national charity for children in care and young...

Friday, June 17, 2022

Family Routes Study: Growing up in adoptive and Special Guardianship families

Ecorys, the Rees Centre at University of Oxford, and Ipsos MORI have been appointed by the Department for Education to explore the potential of a seminal study to independently research...

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Rees Centre chosen to lead virtual school evaluation

We are delighted to announce that the Rees Centre has been appointed as the Department for Education's research partner to deliver the evaluation of two new initiatives in Virtual Schools....

Saturday, October 16, 2021

How well is self-identification working for care-experienced students entering higher education?

Dr Neil Harrison, Deputy Director For some years now, prospective students applying through the UCAS system have been given the option of declaring whether or not they are care-experienced.  Aside...

Monday, July 26, 2021

Major £2.8 million UKRI research programme to explore mental health outcomes for care-experienced young people

A significant, new research programme will investigate factors linked to the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced young people during two transition periods: moving from primary to secondary school and moving from adolescence into...

Monday, June 28, 2021

A personal statement from Leon Feinstein on his role as chair of the evidence group for the MacAlister review of children’s social care, which published its case for change on 17th June

I am delighted to chair the evidence group for Josh MacAlister’s review of the care system, described by the Secretary of State who launched it as a “wide-ranging, independent review...

Friday, June 18, 2021

New study focusing on access to higher education for vulnerable young people

The Rees Centre has been awarded £122,780 to explore the pathways into and through higher education for young people who were allocated a social worker when they were children –...

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Being an attachment and trauma aware school during the Covid global pandemic

Knowledge as the Anchor In a recent conversation with one of our Derbyshire Attachment Aware Schools (AAS) they said - ‘AAS has been our anchor during this COVID pandemic storm’...

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Meeting with the independent care review team

Leon Feinstein, Director of the Rees Centre, was delighted to invite the independent care review (ICR) team to a virtual meeting at the Rees Centre on Tuesday 23 March, to...

Friday, March 26, 2021

Professor Leon Feinstein appointed Director of the Rees Centre

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Leon Feinstein to the role of Director of the Rees Centre.  He will take up this post from 18 January 2021....

Monday, January 18, 2021

Care leavers in Higher Education: new statistics but a mixed picture

Dr Neil Harrison, Deputy Director of the Rees Centre The team in the Department for Education (DfE) that produces statistics on progression to higher education have really upped their game...

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

From messy Annex A to impactful child journeys

By Celine Gross, associate at Social Finance. Part of a series published by the Rees Centre on data (see below for related posts). As a data scientist focusing on Children’s...

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Academic Research For A Better Society: Through Social Entrepreneurship

By Ellie Suh (Research Officer, Rees Centre, Department of Education) The Cost Calculator for Children’s Services (CCfCS, or Cost Calculator) is a research-based purpose-built tool that helps local authorities to...

Thursday, June 11, 2020

NeuroLove: Staying Virtually Connected

The team at NeuroLove introduce their new online platform, created to help young people stay emotionally and physically well. This guest post is published by the Rees Centre during the...

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Oxfordshire Kindness Wave – Hope, Love, Comfort and Kindness for young people

The team behind the Oxfordshire Kindness Wave explain how the idea of a kindness parcel was born, each containing a message of hope, creativity for comfort, kindness with chocolate and...

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Children in Need should get more attention in policy and research

Nikki Luke of the Rees Centre explains why the group of children known as 'Children in Need' should receive more attention in policy and research.  This is one of the...

Monday, April 27, 2020

India’s first ever International Care Leavers Convention

By Aneesha Wadhwa, Executive Director, Udayan Care India and Chevening Fellow, Dept of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. The International Care Leavers Convention in India 2020 is a path breaking, first of its kind in...

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Higher education can be a transformative experience for care leavers

What pathways do care experienced students take after graduation? asks Neil Harrison...getting care experienced students into higher education is only part of the story. Read more

Friday, December 13, 2019

Rees Centre Annual Lecture on School Exclusions – Video

The inaugural Rees Centre Annual Lecture 2019 was delivered by a panel of speakers on the topic of school exclusions and issues for looked after and adopted children. Harry Daniels,...

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Experts call for better understanding of risks and benefits / using algorithms in Children’s Social Care

Lisa Holmes, Associate Professor and Director of the Rees Centre comments on the use of algorithms in children's social care

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Facing reduced harm but are children in need still not achieving?

Professor Judy Sebba Children in need are half as likely to achieve strong passes in English and Maths GCSE, when controlling for SEN, low income, ethnicity, EAL and school moves,...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Special Issue of Oxford Review of Education focuses on educational outcomes of children in care

The educational outcomes of children in care continue to be a concern in all countries in which relevant data are collected. In this special edition of the Oxford Review of...

Monday, October 14, 2019

Teenagers in foster care – Special Issue published

This special edition (open access until Feb 2020) presents a range of research reported at the ESRC Seminar Series on Fostering Teenagers, co-hosted by the Rees Centre. Each paper is followed by...

Monday, October 14, 2019

Neil Harrison wins the 2019 BERJ Editors’ Choice Award

Neil Harrison has received the annual ‘Editors’ Choice’ award from the British Educational Research Journal for his article titled ‘Challenging discourses of aspiration: the role of expectations and attainment in...

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

july 2019 newsletter

A snapshot of our activities over the last 2 months. Rees Centre newsletter for July: Including launch of outcomes framework funded by the Nuffied Foundation.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

New Outcomes Framework launched for Children’s Social Care Services

How do we know if children's social care services make a difference? The development of an Outcomes Framework based on the views of those who plan, deliver and use these services,...

Friday, July 12, 2019

School exclusions are on the up – but training teachers in trauma could help

This article was first published on The Conversation on 24 May 2019. Author: Dr Neil Harrison, Rees Centre. After years of decline, school exclusions are on the rise again, according...

Thursday, June 20, 2019

School exclusions are on the up – but training teachers in trauma could help

Theconversation.com Article by Neil Harrison (Deputy Director of the Rees Centre and Associate Professor, University of Oxford) Read Now

Friday, June 14, 2019

New project announced – Ethics review of machine learning in children’s social care

The Rees Centre and The Alan Turing Institute will be partnering with the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care for the ethics review of machine learning in children’s social care. The What Works...

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Rees Centre annnounces new projects

Care leavers’ transition into the labour market in England This new study, led by the Rees Centre with the University of York and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, will be...

Saturday, May 11, 2019

New directions for the Rees Centre in 2019

Neil Harrison and Julie Selwyn We have primarily focused in the past on the education of children within the social care system – and mainly those who are being fostered.  We will...

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Whole school approaches to attachment and trauma (secondary schools)

Richard Glenny is the Deputy Head of Priestlands School in the New Forest, a large secondary school with 1250 students and more than 150 staff. Richard gave a Rees Centre webinar...

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Care leavers in higher education: how many are there and why does it matter?

Do care leavers enter higher education with the same propensity as other young people? Neil Harrison (Deputy Director of Rees Centre for Fostering and Education) explains why the data we currently use...

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

A lack of aspiration is not the problem

wonkhe.com Opinion piece co-authored by Neil Harrison (Deputy Director of the Rees Centre for Fostering and Education). Read now.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Neil Harrison joins the department’s centre for Fostering and Education as Deputy Director

The department is delighted to welcome Neil Harrison as Senior Researcher in Education and Children’s Social Care and Deputy Director  of the Rees Centre for Fostering and Education. Neil joins...

Monday, November 12, 2018

Make Oxbridge admissions a lottery, Sutton Trust head says

Times Higher Education Neil Harrison (Deputy Director of the Rees Centre and Senior Researcher) quoted in a THE article on social mobility in HE. Read now.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Sir John Timpson: why understanding trauma and attachment is so important

Sir John Timpson led an online webinar on 27 June 2018. He explained his personal experiences with his late wife Alex of fostering 90 children and adopting two and their lightbulb moment...

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Reflections on attachment training in my school

Duncan Roberts, head teacher of Maple Cross Primary School, Hertfordshire, presented a webinar on 26 March 2018 outlining his school’s involvement in attachment training. Context Duncan outlined his schools’ context and leadership...

Thursday, April 19, 2018