We are delighted to virtually welcome Dr. Maria Petrillo and Dr. Jingwen Zhang to present as part of our Seminar Series. Maria and Jingwen will be giving two presentations, ‘Who Cares? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Unpaid Caregiving in England‘, and ‘Explaining the trend of moves into care homes in England 2001-2021: A decomposition analysis‘.
Date: 11th November 2025
Time: 12:30-13:30 UK time
Online event, please click here to register using a Google form.
Who Cares? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Unpaid Caregiving in England
(Maria Petrillo, Jingwen Zhang, Gwilym Pryce and Matt Bennett)
Informal caregiving is a vital yet often undervalued part of England’s long-term care system, with unpaid carers providing support worth £151 billion annually. This paper examines how the socio-demographic and structural determinants of informal care have changed over the past two decades, using data from the ONS Longitudinal Study (2001, 2011, 2021). Guided by the Informal Care Model, the analysis integrates individual and local authority–level data, including Adult Social Care expenditure and Care Quality Commission records, to capture personal and contextual influences on care provision. Results from logistic and multinomial regression models show persistent gender disparities, with women consistently more likely to provide and sustain unpaid care. Socioeconomic inequalities have widened, particularly among women in lower occupations or outside the labour market, while men’s caregiving remains less stratified by social class. Repeated caregiving is concentrated among midlife adults, those in poorer health, and non-homeowners. The findings highlight a shift toward more intensive, sustained, and socioeconomically unequal patterns of unpaid care provision, shaped by demographic ageing, labour market change, and constrained formal care resources. These results underscore growing dependence on a shrinking pool of informal carers and the need for policy responses that address widening caregiving inequalities and ensure sustainable care systems.
Explaining the trend of moves into care homes in England 2001-2021: A decomposition analysis
(Jingwen Zhang, Maria Petrillo, Matt Bennett and Gwilym Pryce)
Despite the rapid population ageing, the proportion of older people living in care homes has decreased in recent decades in England. This study aims to examine the factors that drive the moves into care homes and unpack what contributes to the declining institutional care use from 2001 to 2021 in England. Using data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study 2001-2021 and the Care Quality Commission care directory, we first analysed how needs, enabling and contextual factors associated with moves into care homes. Nonlinear decomposition techniques were then employed to identify the key factors that explain the trend. The findings show the rates of moving from private households to care homes reduced from the period 2001-2011 to 2011-2021. The decomposition analysis suggests that the decline in people moving into care homes in England was mainly attributed to decreasing needs, changing demographics and household composition in the older population, and declining supply of care home beds. The findings indicate that promoting healthy ageing remains central to delaying institutionalisation. The study also offers insights for the projection of care home use and more effective social care resource allocation.
About the presenters
In her role at the Centre for Care, Maria works with Professor Gwilym Pryce and Professor Matthew Bennett using the latest statistical and data linkage techniques to learn how socio-economic, health and other inequalities shape the experience of care and the consequences of these for groups and individuals in different places and over time.
Together with Jingwen Zhang, they co-lead the Quantitative Analysis and Research Network for Care (QAR-Net Care).
Jingwen is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester and a co-lead of the Quantitative Analysis and Research Network for Care (QAR-Net Care). Previously, she worked as a research associate at the ESRC Centre for Care, the University of Sheffield, focusing on care data infrastructure and care inequality. Her research interests include ageing, inequalities in health and care, gender, and life course, with a focus on quantitative methods. Her current research focuses on “Unmet needs for long-term care in both UK and Chinese contexts” and “Explaining inequalities in providing and receiving unpaid and paid care”.
Please click here to register using a Google form.
Centre for Care Seminar Series
In this seminar series we invite colleagues, partners and experts, whose work aligns with the mission of our Centre, to share their work with us and our audiences, to deepen our understanding of the critical issues in social care in the UK and around the world.
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