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Publications

Publications by our colleagues

On this page you’ll find publications by the Centre for Care team and our collaborating partners. Keep checking here for new publications or sign up to our regular newsletter to keep up to date with our latest journal articles, papers, policy briefs, research reports and more.

Book chapters

AI in care: a solution to the ‘care crisis’ in England?

Written by Professor Kate Hamblin, Dr James Wright and Dr Grace Whitfield, 2024

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Books

Combining Work and Care: Care Leave and Related Employment Policies in International Context (Sustainable Care series)

Hamblin, K., Heyes, J. and Fast, J (Eds.) (2024) Combining Work and Care: Carer Leave and Related Employment Policies in International Context. Policy Press, Bristol, UK. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447365723

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Social Care in the UK’s Four Nations: Between Two Paradigms (Sustainable Care series)

Needham C. and Hall P (2024).Social Care in the UK's Four Nations: Between Two Paradigms. United Kingdom: Bristol University Press

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Care Technologies for Ageing Societies: An International Comparison (Sustainable Care series)

Hamblin, K. & Lariviere, M. (Eds.) (2024) Care Technologies for Ageing Societies: An International Comparison. Policy Press, Bristol, UK https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.3102549

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Dissertations

Men working in the adult social care sector in England: a narrative study.

Ella Monkcom August 2023, Dissertation, MA in Social Research

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Journal Articles

Scholarly articles by the Centre for Care team.

‘Thanks to technology’: discourse, care and technology in England

Whitfield, G., Hamblin, K. ‘Thanks to technology’: discourse, care and technology in England. Ageing and Society. Published online 2025:1-27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X2400059X

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‘Law but not law’: explaining unenacted policy as a type of policy failure

Needham, C., & Burn, E. (2025). ‘Law but not law’: explaining unenacted policy as a type of policy failure. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2025). https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000057

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Spousal characteristics and unmet care needs: A longitudinal national study of adults aged 50 and over in England

Zhang, J., Zhang, Y. & Bennett, M.R. (2025) Spousal characteristics and unmet care needs: A longitudinal national study of adults aged 50 and over in England. Social Science & Medicine 365: 117530, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117530

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Young adults as paid care workers: gendered and classed transitions, trajectories, and experiences.

Fisher, D. U., 2025. Young adults as paid care workers: gendered and classed transitions, trajectories, and experiences. Journal of Youth Studies, online first

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Adult social care reform cannot afford to wait

Glasby J, Farquharson C, Needham C, Hamblin K. Adult social care reform cannot afford to wait BMJ 2025; 388 :r63 doi:10.1136/bmj.r63

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The cost of caring: a scoping review of qualitative evidence on the financial wellbeing implications of unpaid care to older adults

Watkins M, Overton L. The cost of caring: a scoping review of qualitative evidence on the financial wellbeing implications of unpaid care to older adults. Ageing and Society. Published online 2024:1-28. doi:10.1017/S0144686X24000382

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Supporting UK care workers through COVID-19: evidence from The Care Workers’ Charity

Morgan, N., Gerlich, K. and Stribling, L., 2024. Supporting UK care workers through COVID-19: evidence from The Care Workers’ Charity. International Journal of Care and Caring, 8(2), pp.384-389

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The Digitalization of Social Care in England and Implications for Older, Unpaid Carers: Constructionist Thematic Analysis

Rousaki, A., Zamani, ED., Sbaffi, L., Hamblin, K., Black, R. The Digitalization of Social Care in England and Implications for Older, Unpaid Carers: Constructionist Thematic Analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2024;26:e60056 doi: 10.2196/60056

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Insights into Informal Caregivers’ Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Analysis of Care Intensity, Care Location, and Care Relationship.

Zhang, Y. and Bennett, M. R. (2024). Insights into Informal Caregivers' Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Analysis of Care Intensity, Care Location, and Care Relationship. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological and Social Sciences. 79(2): 1-12.

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Temporal dynamics of unmet long-term care needs in China: an age period cohort analysis

Zhang J. (2024) Temporal dynamics of unmet long-term care needs in China: an age period cohort analysis. Ageing and Society. Published online:1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X24000370

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Technology and homecare in the UK: Policy, storylines and practice

Hamblin, K., Burns, D., & Goodlad, C. (2023). Technology and homecare in the UK: Policy, storylines and practice. Journal of Social Policy, 1-17. doi:10.1017/S0047279423000156

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The Global Demand for Migrant Care Workers: Drivers and Implications on Migrants’ Wellbeing

Hussein, S. The Global Demand for Migrant Care Workers: Drivers and Implications on Migrants’ Wellbeing. Sustainability 2022,14,10612. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su141710612

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Dealing with drift: Comparing social care reform in the four nations of the UK

Needham, C., & Hall, P. (2022). Dealing with drift: Comparing social care reform in the four nations of the UK. Social Policy & Administration, 1– 17. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12858

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How do you shape a market? Explaining local state practices in adult social care

Needham, C, Allen, K, Burn, E, Hall, K, Mangan, C, Al-Janabi, H, Tahir, W, Carr, S, Glasby, J, Henwood, M & McKay, S (2022), ‘How do you shape a market? Explaining local state practices in adult social care‘, Journal of Social Policy.

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Sustainable Social Care: The Potential of Mainstream “Smart” Technologies

Hamblin, K. Sustainable Social Care: The Potential of Mainstream “Smart” Technologies. Sustainability 2022, 14, 2754. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052754

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Reports

Valuing Carers 2022: Scotland

Launched on Carers Rights Day 2024 by Carers Scotland and the Centre for Care, this report analyses new statistics from Scotland’s Census 2022.

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Valuing Kinship Care in England

Research from the Centre for Care, together with the charity Kinship, estimates kinship carers contribute £4.3 billion a year to society

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What role for local government in Scotland’s National Care Service?

A report in partnership with the Local Government Information Unit looking at the issues facing adult social care and the relationship between local and central government, council capacity and organisational change.

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Valuing Carers 2021: Northern Ireland

This research research, undertaken by Centre for Care colleagues Jingwen Zhang, Maria Petrillo and Matt Bennett in collaboration with Carers NI, shows unpaid carers are saving Northern Ireland’s health service £5.8 billion per year

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Digital exclusion and unpaid carers in South Yorkshire

This report looks at unpaid carers in South Yorkshire and their use of, and access to, digital technologies and online services.

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Valuing Carers 2021: England and Wales

This research research, undertaken by Centre for Care colleagues Maria Petrillo and Matt Bennett, finds that the value of unpaid care in England and Wales is now estimated to be £162 billion, exceeding that of the entire NHS budget in England for health service spending.

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Cycles of caring: transitions in and out of unpaid care

Our new research, undertaken by Centre for Care colleagues, Maria Petrillo, Matt Bennett and Gwilym Pryce, is released for Carers Rights Day (24th November 2022) and shows the astonishing numbers of people in the UK starting or ending an unpaid caring role each year.

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Responses to calls for evidence

The Centre for Care team regularly submit evidence to a number of wide-ranging government inquiries.

Submission to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee inquiry, ‘Digital exclusion and the cost of living’

This explored digital exclusion for marginalised communities and for those in need or receipt of adult social care.

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Submission to the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee inquiry on Family Migration

Submission to the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee inquiry on Family Migration

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Submission to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee into UK Labour Supply

This response draws on our recent work in the Sustainable Care programme. In preparing it we drew on previous focus groups with care workers and managers about their experiences of the social care sector. We would like to acknowledge and thank them for their time and insights.

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Submission to the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee inquiry into ‘Lifting the veil: removing the invisibility of adult social care’

We submitted written evidence from our research as well as the lived expertise of our non-academic partners including Sheffield Carers Centre, Sheffield Young Carers, SADACCA (Sheffield And District African Caribbean Community Association), SACMHA Health & Social Care, and Sheffield Voices.

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Submission to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee inquiry into ‘Post-pandemic economic growth: UK labour markets’

Written submission from the Centre for Care, University of Sheffield (ULM0033)

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Submission to Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) inquiry into ‘Connected tech: smart or sinister?’

Written evidence submitted by The Centre for Care, University of Sheffield

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Expert Panel: Evaluation of Government’s commitments in the area of the health and social care workforce in England

Professor Shereen Hussein was one of the workforce specialists who contributed to a separate special report, ‘Expert Panel: Evaluation of Government’s commitments in the area of the health and social care workforce in England’, published in July 2022.

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House of Commons Health & Social Care Committee inquiry into ‘Workforce: recruitment, training and retention in health and social care’

Published in July 2022. This report includes evidence submitted by Tom Hunt on behalf of the Centre, drawing on lessons that can be learned from the introduction of mandatory vaccination for care home workers.

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Working Papers

Working Paper 4: The Transitions that Matter

As part of exploring transitions for a broader research theme around Care Trajectories and Constraints, we undertook a scoping review of the literature, focusing on how researchers in social care conceptualise and research transitions.

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Working Paper 3: Technology and social care: key areas of policy focus in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2019-2022

This paper is a companion piece to Centre for Care Working Paper 1 ‘Technology in social care: spotlight on the English policy landscape, 2019-2022’ (Whitfield and Hamblin, 2022). As with that publication, we update a working paper from the Sustainable Care Programme [SCP] (Wright, 2020) which explored UK adult social care sector policy and practice related to the use of digital technologies in the period from 2000 to 2019.

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Working Paper 2: What does the concept of an ecosystem offer to social care? A narrative review of the ecosystem literature

This paper provides a narrative literature review of the concept of ecosystem. It considers how the concept has been applied to public services and the contribution this conceptual framework could make to our understanding of social care.

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Working Paper 1: Technology in social care: spotlight on the English policy landscape, 2019-2022

This paper explores developments related to digital technologies and social care in England from 2019 to October 2022.

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