Rate My Professor Lisa Holmes

Lisa Holmes is Professor in Applied Social Science in the School of Education and Social Work within the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Sussex, a position she has held since January 2022. She earned her PhD in Social Policy from Loughborough University and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Criminology. Previously, she was Associate Professor and Deputy Director of Research in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford from 2017 to 2022, serving as Director of the Rees Centre between 2018 and 2021. Earlier roles include Director of the Centre for Child and Family Research at Loughborough University from 2014 to 2017 and Research Assistant at the same centre from 2011 to 2014. Over more than two decades, she has conducted research informing child welfare policy and practice through academic journal articles, books, government reports, and practice guides.

Professor Holmes' research centers on child welfare, with a specific emphasis on children in care, care leavers, cost-effectiveness in children's social care, and unit costs analysis using mixed-methods approaches. Key publications include 'Costs and Consequences of Placing Children in Care' co-authored with Harriet Ward and Jean Soper, 'Cost Calculator for Children's Services: Report on the Pilot Phase' (2009), 'Children's Social Care Cost Pressures and Variations in Unit Costs' (2021), and 'A Critical Review of Cost-Effectiveness Research in Children's Social Care: What Have We Learnt So Far?' (2022). Recent works feature 'Value for Whom? Rethinking Cost-Effectiveness from Young People’s Perspective' (2024), ''Relocating Adolescents': The Costs of Out-of-Area Placements as a Response to Extra-Familial Risk/Harm' (2024), and contributions to 'Revitalizing Residential Care for Children and Youth: Cross-National Trends and Challenges' (2023). Her evaluations for the NSPCC, Department for Education, and others, such as on lifelong links and family reunifications, demonstrate impacts on public policy and service delivery. She contributes to the Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth and the Centre for Social Work Innovation and Research, serves on the Faculty Research Ethics Committee, supervises PhD students in childhood studies, and has delivered public lectures including on relational stability for care-experienced youth. In May 2025, she attended the Education Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.