
Care matters. It is a complex and important issue that affects everyone at some point in their life.
The Centre for Care provides accessible evidence on care to inform changes that could improve the lives of millions of people.
The Centre for Care links experts on care in 5 universities, 3 major charities and the UK’s Office for National Statistics.
Funded as an ESRC Research Centre to address the need for evidence on care that can make a difference, we have built a large research team to co-produce excellent research on care topics that really matter. We work closely with partner organisations in the care sector and people with direct experience of care.
Commentary
Our latest commentary pieces
For the second commentary in our Transitions that Matter series, Robert Punton writes about his experience of transitioning into ‘invisibility’.
Read More about Transition into invisibilityResearcher Nadia Brookes explores what innovation in social care looks like, and how it can be one way of fixing a ‘broken system’.
Read More about Do we really need innovation in social care?Drawing on research by Carers UK and the Centre for Care, Serena Vicario explores the process and importance of self and social identification for unpaid carers, and what systems in place, or in development, can help do this.
Read More about “Am I a carer?” Why self- and social identification of carers are becoming unavoidable topicsKate Hamblin writes about her experience giving evidence to the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee’s inquiry on adult social care and comments on the subsequent report published in December ’22.
Read More about Reflections on ‘A “gloriously ordinary life’’: spotlight on adult social care’
Explore key topics

We explore how arrangements for care – formal systems, support by families and friends, local and national arrangements affecting daily life – fit together and affect each other, focusing on how care system outcomes could be improved.
Read moreabout Care as a Complex Adaptive Ecosystem
We work to improve the quality, availability and provision of data on care, collaborating with ONS and other partners to produce up-to-date, world-class data infrastructure on care for all to use.
Read moreabout Care Data Infrastructure
We investigate how digital technologies, care and caring relationships are evolving and interact, and what this means for people with support needs, those who assist them and the wider care system.
Read moreabout Digital Care: roles, risks, realities and rewardsOur Research Groups

Here we explore experiences of care at different life stages, when families are geographically dispersed and as people experience different parts of the care system.
Read moreabout Care Trajectories and Constraints
We study change, innovation and challenges in paid care work: recruitment, organisation, conditions, digitalisation and their effects on job and service quality.
Read moreabout Care Workforce Change
We use statistics and link data to study how socio-economic, health and other inequalities shape experiences of care for groups and individuals in different places and over time.
Read moreabout Inequalities in Care
Latest Updates
News and latest content from the Centre for Care
In this episode of the podcast we’re discussing the new EU Care Strategy, which was formally adopted by the European Commission in December 2022. Becky Driscoll, one of our Research Associates, is joined by guests Stecy Yghemonos (Eurocarers) and Zoe Hughes (Care Alliance Ireland).
Read More about Podcast- The EU Care Strategy: a watershed moment for unpaid carers and care workers across Europe?Three PhD Studentships are currently available in the Centre for Care.
Read More about PhD Studentships availableCentre for Care Deputy Director Matt Bennett explains why recently released Census data on unpaid carers is so important to our research and the policy landscape.
Read More about Census 2021 statementEvent date: 9th May 2023. We virtually welcome Professor Catherine Needham and Patrick Hall from the University of Birmingham, to present their research.
Read More about Social Care in the UK’s Four Nations: Between Two Paradigms