The Care Workforce Change Research Group investigates how care work is organised, delivered and transformed across adult and children’s social care. Led by Professor Shereen Hussein, the group examines workforce change across macro (policy and systems), meso (commissioning and care service provider organisations) and micro (care workers and care relationships) levels. Our work is grounded in social justice, co-production and the lived experience of care workers and people drawing on care.

Across two phases, our research explores how major system drivers, including digitalisation, migration, commissioning practices, workforce mobilisation, and regulation, are reshaping care work, job quality and the sustainability of the care sector. Issues of inequality, decent work, worker wellbeing and the quality of care are central to our approach.

Phase One (2022-2024)

The overarching aim of Phase one was to build a comprehensive understanding of care workforce change across the whole care ecosystem, identifying key drivers, forms of change and their implications for workers, service providers and people drawing on care

Phase Two (2024-26)

Phase Two builds directly on insights from Phase One. It deepens analysis of the interplay of different drivers,migration, commissioning and workforce inequality, while extending the group’s remit to include children’s residential care.

The key objectives of Phase Two are to:

• Advance understanding of macro-level drivers such as migration, digitalisation and pensions
• Strengthen the meso-level focus on local authority commissioning and fair work
• Extend workforce analysis to under-researched groups
• Deepen analysis of inequalities across gender, age, ethnicity and migration

Project 1: Conceptualising drivers of care workforce change: The interplay between macro, meso and micro drivers

Project 2: Pension and retirement planning and decision-making in the adult social care workforce

Project 3: How can we improve the quality of work for care workers in children’s homes in South Yorkshire?

Project 4: The care workforce in (re-)bordered Britain: migration and inequalities

Key outputs

• Inquiry 1 report, ‘Policy Drivers of Social Care Workforce Change: United Kingdom Insights, Impacts, and Future Directions‘
• Research briefing, ‘Successfully engaging paid care workers in organising: Challenges, opportunities, and what works‘ (Fisher and Foster), and article (Fisher and Foster)
• ‘How the care workforce navigates the digital ‘skills gap’: problems and opportunities from policy to practice‘ Whitfield et al. 2025
• Roundtable discussion with the Care Workers’ Charity, (2025)
• ‘Strengthening collective voice: engaging paid care workers in organising’ commentary by Duncan U. Fisher and Liam Foster