Intended for healthcare professionals

Áine Kelly

Áine Kelly grew up in local authority care, having been abused as a child. She is now DPhil student at the Rees Centre for Research in Fostering and Education, based in the University of Oxford’s Department of Education. Her doctoral research is looking at the health experiences of children and young people in care, with a view to making recommendations to policy makers.

She has been awarded a doctoral scholarship from the Wellcome Trust. She is supervised by Judy Sebba, director of the Rees Centre, and Nikki Luke, research fellow at the Rees Centre. Áine hopes to develop a career in academia. She will focus on research that will investigate complex and important issues for looked after children and young people, with the aim of improving the lived experience of the care system. Áine is a member of the NICE guidelines development group for the attachment of children in care, children adopted from care, and children at high risk of entering care.

Áine holds a MSc in health psychology and a BSc in applied psychology and sociology from the University of Surrey. In 2013 she was awarded the Ann McPherson fellowship and worked as a research assistant for the Health Experiences Research Group in the Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences, University of Oxford.

Competing interests

See Áine Kelly's competing interests here.