Dr Florie Schmits

Dr Florie Schmits is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Exeter, working on building evidence and collaboration to support siblings in care in England.

Dr Schmits has a PhD in Social Work from the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. Her PhD examined sibling placement trajectories and decision-making in state care in England. The research involved analysis of children’s social work case files, administrative placement data and semi-structured interviews with social work professionals. Following her PhD, she led the policy engagement project “Knowledge into action for siblings in care: policy and stakeholder engagement for change”.

Prior to her PhD, Dr Schmits worked as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol on an ESRC-funded project examining the long-term trajectories of mental health among children in state care in England. The project included analyses of longitudinal national administrative data on children in care, as well as data from a survey of more than 1,000 children and young people in care across 14+ local authorities. Before joining the University of Bristol, Dr Schmits worked at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. There, she used administrative and survey data to generate evidence on a range of child welfare topics, including young people missing from care, children at risk of re-entering care, and foster parent recruitment and retention.

Dr Schmits is passionate about using research to inform and improve policy and strategy across different fields. Her work draws on administrative data, case file data, survey data and qualitative research to generate evidence about child welfare outcomes and system performance, with the aim of improving the lives of children, young people and families.