Simon Bird has over 20 years’ experience of working in education and local government, including as director of corporate affairs at Hackney Learning Trust and performance lead for the wider local authority area children and young people’s partnership principally involving education, social care and health, policy analyst for the Local Government Information Unit, and a freelance consultant for national government and local authorities. He has subsequently worked in international education and development, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, as a researcher, consultant and advisor for the German development agency, GIZ, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), and UN agencies, including twice as a de facto civil servant in the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Education, based in Addis Ababa.

His ESRC-funded PhD mixed methods longitudinal research at KCL focuses on tracking the impact of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) on the outcomes of children in care and in need, drawing on linked administrative data to gain insights into highly vulnerable children and young people’s trajectories through education, health, social care, training and employment, as well as direct engagement with care-experienced children and young people and practitioners in the field.

He is also a backup foster carer which has inspired his PhD research.

Research Interests

• Children in care and children in need
• Special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)
• Poverty and social mobility
• UK education policy and school improvement
• Gender equality and girls’ education
• International education and development