Meet the Team
Janet Rees OBE
DIRECTOR
Read Bio
Jan has passionately dedicated over 40 years of her life to helping children in care and those who have experienced it. As a foster carer herself, Jan has gained a deep understanding of the complexities and challenges faced by vulnerable children and their families. This insight inspired her to develop therapeutic foster care services and specialised support programs aimed at uplifting both children and families.
Jan and her fellow foster carers from around the world became concerned about the uncertain futures of young people leaving care. In response, she took action by founding the Rees Foundation in 2013. This innovative charity offers ongoing, comprehensive support to care leavers across the country, driven by Jan’s strong belief that no one should have to face life’s challenges alone.
In 2024, Jan’s ongoing dedication to empowering care leavers as they become parents themselves led her to establish a state-of-the-art family assessment centre in Worcestershire, further showcasing her commitment to nurturing the next generation of families.
Additionally, Jan played a key role in launching The Rees Centre in April 2012, within the University of Oxford’s Department of Education. The Centre is dedicated to improving life opportunities for all young people in care through innovative research, reflecting Jan’s relentless passion for positive change in this important area. Through her tireless efforts, Jan Rees continues to be a shining example of hope and transformation for countless children and families in need.
Melody Douglas
DIRECTOR
Read Bio
Melody brings over 25 years of valuable experience in fostering, social care, and charity leadership, with a genuine passion for developing exceptional support services for foster carers. Her career started at Foster Care Associates in 1995, where she played a key role in family finding and built strong partnerships with local authorities to find the best placements for children. Under her guidance, she led a family finding team that supported more than 200 foster families, making service improvements and promoting best practices throughout.
Recognising the important need for independent support for foster carers, Melody courageously founded FosterTalk Ltd, a UK-wide membership service providing expert advice and advocacy. As Managing Director, she inspired the organisation, helping it grow to support 21,000 foster carers, improving carer retention, and ensuring full compliance with National Minimum Standards. She also established a dedicated service for carers facing allegations, which became a vital resource widely adopted by fostering services across the UK.
Hannah Taylor
HEAD OF SERVICE
Read Bio
Hannah is a dedicated and accomplished social work manager with over a decade of experience in children’s social care. Qualifying in 2014, she took on her first management role in 2016, and since then, Hannah has gained valuable experience working across both statutory and private sectors. She has developed expertise in many areas, including child protection, children looked after, children with disabilities, residential family assessment, and fostering.
Previously, Hannah managed a regulated fostering service where she focused on providing high-quality support and maintaining effective safeguarding practices.
Known for her approachable and effective leadership style, Hannah fosters strong relationships with her team and multi-agency partners through a balance of support and challenge. She places great importance on quality assurance and staff development, which helps drive best practices within her organisation. Always eager to learn, Hannah actively seeks opportunities for professional growth to continually improve her skills and the services she offers.
Having grown up as a birth child in a fostering household and spent eight years as a foster carer with her husband, who is also care-experienced, Hannah brings a warm, compassionate perspective to her work. Her personal background fuels her dedication to ensuring positive outcomes and meaningful experiences for children, young people, and their families.
Brian Hughes
RESPONSIBLE ADULT
Read Bio
Brian has spent over 40 years working in children’s services, and it shows in the breadth of his experience. This includes managing locality fieldwork services, duty and intake, and the Single Point of Access (SPOA). His career in local authority settings culminated in a decade as Head of Service, during which he led the development of early help and family keywork services, youth work, and youth justice provision – giving him a rounded, first-hand understanding of the challenges families face at every stage.
He has also been at the forefront of several landmark national initiatives, including the Troubled Families programme, the Play Pathfinder project, and primary mental health services, helping turn ambitious policy goals into
real, local impact.
More recently, Brian has worked as a Registered Manager for an independent fostering agency, bringing his expertise into the world of regulated care and quality assurance.
What ties it all together is Brian’s unwavering commitment to getting it right for children, young people, and families – not just meeting standards but making sure every service he is part of genuinely makes a difference in people’s lives.
Miriam Owen
BUSINESS SUPPORT OFFICER
Read Bio
Miriam is the Business Support Officer for Rees Parent and Child Fostering.
She has several years of experience in fostering administration and takes great pride in ensuring accurate and detailed compliance, recognising how this underpins positive outcomes for both children and carers.
Outside of work, Miriam enjoys walking the Malvern Hills with her dog, developing her yoga practice, and spending time with family and friends.
Our Story
Rees Parent and Child Fostering was founded by Jan Rees OBE and Melody Douglas, two leaders with decades of experience in fostering and social care. From the beginning, Rees' values have been clear: Respect, Empathy, Empowerment, and Support. These aren’t just words; they shape how we work with every family, carer and professional.
Though newly established, Rees Parent and Child Fostering stands on Jan’s legacy of trusted organisations, including Foster Care Associates, the Rees Foundation, The Rees Centre at Oxford University, The Welland Trust, and Tyre Hill House Family Assessment Centre in Malvern. Each is a separate organisation, yet together they represent a tradition of innovation and a lasting commitment to providing quality care for children, young people, and families – a commitment that continues to shape our approach today.
We specialise in parent and child fostering. Our focus is on creating safe, supportive homes where parents can build the skills and confidence they need to care for their children. Using a strength-based and trauma-informed approach, we aim to help reduce the impact of trauma and keep families together whenever possible.
We focus on understanding and strengthening the resilience of those we help, while being sensitive to past experiences. Our goal is to support wellbeing and resilience, while creating environments where families feel safe and cared for.
We are committed to helping parents learn new skills, build their confidence and become more capable in their parenting. Our main aim is to create a safe, caring environment for the child, while supporting positive relationships with their parents.
We truly believe that every child and parent in a foster home deserves a safe, happy and healthy experience.
Our Values
Our values underpin everything that we do here at Rees – so much so that they even spell out our name. Everything that we do revolves around: Respect, Empathy, Empowerment and Support.
Respect
Empathy
Empowerment
Support
Our Approach
We’re here to give parents the tools and knowledge they need to care for their child and move towards independent living. We support evidence-based parenting assessments and take a holistic approach to wellbeing – covering physical, emotional and mental health.
Education matters to us too, so we encourage learning and achievement for both parents and children. We also help families maintain important relationships whenever possible and keep communication open so everyone feels heard.
When it comes to matching families with foster carers, we take the time to consider what’s right for everyone – looking at things like age, culture, religion, gender and more. Our foster carers receive high-quality training and ongoing development, and our team is always learning too. We regularly review our policies to make sure we’re delivering the very best care and support.