Our projects (2025-)

Since May 2025, we’ve broadened our focus to explore innovation more broadly – from new models of care and ways of working to the use of digital technologies in care, focusing on three priority areas: 

• Understanding and foregrounding lived experience
• The drivers and barriers to innovation and the use of digital technologies in care
• The implications and inequalities associated with innovation and digital technologies

Understanding and foregrounding lived experience

• Technologies That Matter is a project co-produced with a lived experience Design and Methods group at TLAP, which explores how older and disabled people use technologies in their everyday lives to support wellbeing. The Centre for Care team members delivering this work are Prof Kate Hamblin, Dr Grace Whitfield, Dr PJ Annand and Dr Cameron Pattinson.
• Digital Care Top 10 will identify the ten most important unanswered questions about digital technology in social care, resulting in a research agenda shaped by people with lived experience of care and caring, and informed by care professionals. This work is being led by Dr PJ Annand and Dr Cameron Pattinson.
• Understanding issues of accountability when surveillance technology harms mental health inpatients is a PhD project led by Blue Maignien, looking at issues of accountability in the fast-changing field of digital technology used for inpatient monitoring in mental health care. The project is led with co-researchers who have lived experience of surveillance technology in inpatient care and an interest in research.

The drivers and barriers to innovation and the use of digital technologies in care

• Social Care Reform Project examines the implementation of innovative workforce reforms in Northern Ireland’s social care sector, and what lessons they offer for supporting innovation across the UK. This study is being delivered by Dr Nadia Brookes and Dr Serena Vicario.
• The Context, Solutions, Adoption and Adaptation of Digital Care and Innovation project, led by our University of Kent team, explores how an innovation programme becomes part of everyday care practice – what helps or hinders its adoption, how people engage with it, and how its benefits are understood. This work is led by the Centre for Care team at University of Kent – Dr Nadia Brookes, Dr Serena Vicario and Dr Arti Makwana.

The implications and inequalities associated with innovation and digital technologies

Al-driven platform care: Promoting equal and inclusive job quality in long-term care (CareQuAI) examines how AI-driven platform care is reshaping long-term care work in the UK, Sweden and Finland, exploring its impact on job quality, equality and inclusion. It is being delivered by Dr Diane Burns, Prof Kate Hamblin and Dr Grace Whitfield, with funding from the Joint Program Initiative.

Enhancing Transparency, Explainability, and Consent in Technology for adults with learning disabilities (TEC-LD) explores how adults with learning disabilities, their families, and care providers use everyday technologies such as smart speakers, social media, and AI tools for social care tasks. It is being led by Dr. Liz Croot and Dr. Alice Dunning with Prof Kate Hamblin and Dr Grace Whitfield from Centre for Care. Funder: NIHR School for Social Care Research.

Innovations in Queer Care maps innovative models of care for LGBTQ+ older adults, characterising the evidence base, identifying gaps, and highlighting implications for future policy, practice, and research. This work is being delivered by Dr PJ Annand and Dr Cameron Pattinson.

Impact of Social Care Cooperatives examines cooperatives’ contribution to the social care sector, assessing outcomes in care quality, working conditions, innovation, and social value. It is being delivered by Dr Serena Vicaro, Dr Nadia Brookes and Prof Kate Hamblin. Funder: Co-operatives UK, Cwmpas.

Commentary and updates on Digital Care

Pieces relating to Digital Care and Innovation