
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
A new commentary in our ‘The Transitions that Matter’ series: Anne Pridmore shares her experience of transitioning through a changing care system in England, starting in the 1980s.
Read More about Transitioning through the care systemChristie Butcher outlines the statistics relating to carers in employment and explores the policy in place to support working carers – including the new Right to Carers Leave Bill.
Read More about The Right to Carer’s Leave Bill is a good start but we need to go furtherDr Erika Kispeter revisits a report by the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee, entitled ‘A “gloriously ordinary life’’: spotlight on adult social care’, published in December 2022, to explore what could be missing.
Read More about Reflections on the visibility of the social care workforceContinuing our ‘Transitions that Matter’ commentary series, Adrian Murray writes his experiences during the COVID-19 lockdowns and how everyday life has been impacted.
Read More about Transitioning into lockdown and getting stuck there
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
We have partnered with the Nuffield Trust to host a webinar on 7th June, with colleagues from across the four nations, which will explore shared challenges in implementing social care reform.
Read More about How do we ‘unstick’ social care reform across the four UK countries?New research by Centre for Care colleagues Maria Petrillo & Matt Bennett, in collaboration with Carers UK, estimates the value of unpaid care in England and Wales
Read More about Value of unpaid care in England and Wales now exceeds that of NHS budget3 PhD Studentships are currently available with the Centre for Care.
Read More about PhD StudentshipsOn Tuesday 23rd May we virtually welcomed Dr Fiona Macdonald, Policy Director in the Centre for Future Work, The Australia Institute. A recording of this presentation will be made available soon.
Read More about Individualising Risk: Paid Care Work in the New Gig Economy