
Mrs Dinithi Wijedasa
B.A [Hons], M.Sc.
Expertise
Current positions
Associate Professor in Child and Family Welfare
School for Policy Studies
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
In just over 16 years, she has been involved in 16 research studies on children living in out-of-home care placements. Eight of these studies have used administrative data analyses as a methodology.
Dinithi has extensive experience of conducting research on children living in out-of-home care placements and of management and analyses of large datasets including Census microdata, longitudinal survey data and longitudinal national administrative data on children in care. She is one of the first academic researchers in the UK to be given access to all national-level, longitudinal administrative datasets on children in care, held by the Department for Education and the Welsh Government. Dinithi is an ONS approved researcher and a previous recipient of an ESRC Future Research Leaders Award.
Dinithi is currently leading three research studies on mental health of children in State care in England.
Research interests
Dinithi is an Associate Professor in Child and Family Welfare at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. Dinithi has a background in developmental psychology, secondary data analyses and statistics. Prior to joining the University of Bristol in 2007, Dinithi was invited by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health of the Government of Sri Lanka to lead a study to adapt and standardise a developmental screening test, which established the first ever standardised developmental milestones for Sri Lankan children aged 0-6 years in Sri Lanka.
Dinithi has extensive experience of conducting research on children living in out-of-home care placements and of management and analyses of large datasets including Census microdata, longitudinal survey data and longitudinal national administrative data on children in care. She is one of the first academic researchers in the UK to be given access to all national-level, longitudinal administrative datasets on children in care, held by the Department for Education and the Welsh Government. Dinithi is an ONS approved researcher and a previous recipient of an ESRC Future Research Leaders Award.
Dinithi is currently leading three studies on mental health of children in State care in England.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
MH-CAT: A longitudinal survey of the mental health of children in State Care inEngland through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
05/11/2020 to 31/05/2023
8121 Nuffield Foundation: Using linked administrative data to explore mental health service provision for children in State care in England. D Wijedasa
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/01/2020 to 31/12/2023
Long-term trajectories of mental health of children in State care in England
Principal Investigator
Description
Although children in care constitute only 0.6% of the child population in England, they account for a disproportionate 10% of referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Despite…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
03/01/2019 to 28/07/2023
Evaluation of Regional Adoption Agencies
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
25/01/2018 to 01/04/2019
Kinship Care Re-visited: Using Census 2011 Microdata to Examine the Extent and Nature of Kinship Care in the UK
Principal Investigator
Description
The most recent estimates of kinship care in the UK are based on the 2001 Census (Nandy, Selwyn, Farmer & Vaisey, 2011). Consequently, policy makers and practitioners lack a current…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
24/10/2014 to 19/02/2018
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
01/03/2025Mental health in context
Children and Youth Services Review
A survey of the mental health of children and young people in care in England in 2020 and 2021
A survey of the mental health of children and young people in care in England in 2020 and 2021
Assessment of Parental Capacity to Change where Children may be At Risk of Harm
Children and Youth Services Review
Early life adversity, contact with children's social care services and educational outcomes at age 16 years
BMJ Open
Overview of Administrative data on children's social care in England
Overview of Administrative data on children's social care in England