Professor Catherine Needham and Dr. Emily Burn (Centre for Care, University of Birmingham) update us on the progress so far in their cross-cutting research theme at the Centre for Care, which looks at what makes social care a complex, adaptive ecosystem and how understanding this could help improve care outcomes for all.
They reflect on their previous research with the Local Government Information Unit on Scotland’s proposed National Care Service, we get an overview on what a Care Ecosystem is, and we hear about future plans for the research theme as they continue to “watch the ripples” working with our other teams.
Press play below to listen to this episode:
Related links
The images discussed in this episode of a ‘Flourishing Care Ecosystem’ can be found on the ‘Care as a Complex, Adaptive Ecosystem’ research theme page here: https://centreforcare.ac.uk/topics/care-as-a-complex-adaptive-ecosystem/
Read about Catherine and Emily’s work with the Local Government Information Unit here: https://centreforcare.ac.uk/commentary/2025/01/developing-a-national-care-service/
About our guests
Catherine Needham is Professor of Public Policy and Public Management at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on adult social care, including personalisation, co-production, personal budgets and care markets. She has published a wide range of articles, chapters and books for academic and practitioner audiences. Catherine led the Care in the Four Nations work package within the ESRC Sustainable Care team. She is now leading research on care systems as part of the ESRC Centre for Care and is also a member of IMPACT, the UK centre for evidence implementation in adult social care. She tweets as @DrCNeedham.
Emily is based at the University of Birmingham where she is focusing on exploring the application of systems thinking to the analysis of social care. Prior to this role, Emily was part of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded project at the University of Birmingham exploring local authority market-shaping activities in social care and how these facilitate the development and access of personalised care and support.
