Latest updates from the Centre for Care: seminars, research and resources
We are pleased to share a series of recent and upcoming activities, publications and resources from our colleagues at the Centre for Care in Sheffield, a UK-based research centre bringing together leading expertise on care, caring and social care systems.
Upcoming and recent seminars
In January, the Centre for Care hosted a seminar on “Care and Place: older people’s housing and communities and their social care needs, care use, and care costs”, presented by Dr Nicola Brimblecombe. The seminar explored how housing and community contexts shape care needs, service use and costs for older people.
The seminar recording is now available online.
Looking ahead, the Centre for Care will welcome Professor Jennifer M. Piscopo (Royal Holloway, University of London) for a virtual seminar entitled “Care as a Public Good and a Human Right: Latin America’s Transformative Care Agenda” on 17 February 2026. The seminar will examine how care is being reframed in Latin America through rights-based and gender-transformative policy approaches.
Registration is open.
New research and commentaries
The Centre for Care has recently published a new research commentary, “The life course costs of caring: Understanding unpaid carers’ financial wellbeing over time”, by Dr Maxine Watkins and Dr Louise Overton. This study is the first to apply subjective measures of financial wellbeing to unpaid caring, offering important insights into how carers’ financial situations evolve across the life course.
More info here.
Another recent commentary reflects on “Mind the Gap: Tackling Digital Exclusion”, one year after the launch of the Centre’s board game designed to stimulate discussion and awareness around digital exclusion. The article traces how the tool has been used in policy and practice settings, including at the UK House of Commons.
More info here.
Podcast: understanding care as an ecosystem
The latest episode of the Centre for Care podcast features Professor Catherine Needham and Dr Emily Burn, who discuss their cross-cutting research on care as a complex, adaptive ecosystem. They reflect on lessons from previous work on Scotland’s proposed National Care Service and outline next steps for the research theme, focusing on how systemic change in care unfolds over time.
The episode is available to listen to online.
Updated website and publications
The Centre for Care has recently refreshed its website, with updated pages for its research themes, groups and new projects. An overview of their research topics is now available online.
In addition, the Policy and Research Resource Library has been updated following several recent policy events, bringing together impactful briefings and materials. The Centre’s publications page also provides access to research reports, journal articles and working papers.
