Care leavers’ transition into the labour market in England

This mixed methods study is funded by the Nuffield Foundation and is a collaboration between the Rees Centre and the University of York.  It aims to explore the factors that influence whether care leavers find themselves ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET) at the age of 21.  The University of York strand of the project, led by Jo Dixon, is focused on talking to young people and professionals to find out more about the lived experiences of moving into the labour market.  Our strand is quantitative and uses a very complex linked dataset that combines data from care, schools, colleges, universities and tax/benefit records to look in detail at the 1995/96 birth cohort.  The study has been extensively delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but we are intending to publish the final report in January 2022.

Alex Timpson attachment and trauma programme in schools

The Rees Centre is managing a five-year project on behalf of the Alex Timpson Trust focused on supporting schools to develop attachment and trauma awareness among their staff.  Since arriving at the University of Oxford, I have taken on the strategic leadership of the programme, which started in summer 2017 and will report in June 2022.

The programme aims to work with 300 schools across England, working through the ‘virtual schools’ – the organisations within local authorities that have responsibility for the education of children in care.  Each virtual school is identifying a cohort of schools to receive training on attachment and trauma, with an evaluation of the impact in terms of wellbeing, attainment and attendance.  Data is being collected from school staff and pupils through online surveys, and we will also be analysing administrative data from the participating schools.

The purpose of the training is to make teachers and other school staff – from headteachers to lunchtime supervisors – aware of the impact that adverse childhood experiences such as neglect can have on the formation of the brain and how this affects how children form relationships with adults and how they behave.  There is growing evidence that ‘attachment aware’ schools have better outcomes by helping children to self-regulate their emotions and build trusting relationships – the aim of the programme is to add to this evidence.

For more about attachment in schools, see this video from the Attachment Research Community (ARC):