£10 million Social Care Funding Award for University of Sheffield

£10 million in funding has been awarded to the University of Sheffield’s Centre for International Research on Care, Labour & Equalities for a new ‘Centre for Care’ to address the urgent need for accessible research and evidence on social care.

The University of Sheffield will lead a collaboration of five universities, high profile care sector partners and international research teams in this new Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) research centre. The centre will provide an extensive array of evidence to  address pressures and inequities in how people experience social care across the life-course.

The prestigious award is part of the ESRC’s programme of six new research centres that can deliver real societal and economic impact, and provide robust research evidence to support government and decision-making. ESRC’s award for the Centre for Care includes £1.5 million provided through its partnership with the National Institute for Health Research. In its first five years, the collaborating universities will also jointly contribute an additional £1.2 million to the new centre.

The collaboration includes the Universities of Birmingham, Kent and Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Office for National Statistics, and charities Carers UK, the National Children’s Bureau and the Social Care Institute for Excellence. They will work together with academics, sector partners, agencies, public policy experts and people who need or provide care across the UK and internationally.

Principal Investigator and Centre for Care Director Professor Sue Yeandle, in the University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Social Sciences, says: “The Centre for Care will be a pivotal hub for researchers and practitioners across the social care sector. Based in Sheffield, it will develop new evidence on providing and delivering the care needed by people of all ages who need support in daily life.

“Care is integral to living well throughout life. The unpaid care provided daily by millions of  families and friends; the services provided in people’s homes, neighbourhoods and communities; and the support offered in residential settings for people with complex needs  are all within the new Centre’s remit. It is vital that we understand how our society’s arrangements for care can provide the best support possible to all who need it as they negotiate changes and challenges in their lives.”

The centre’s work will be developed in partnership with care sector organisations and people who need support in daily life. It will work with them to understand what can be done to improve experience of care for families, individuals and communities of all types and in a variety of settings. It will publish research on the following themes:

• Experiences of care at different life stages and as people move between different parts of the care system.
• How socio-economic, health and other inequalities shape care outcomes and experiences of care.
• Workforce challenges; the organisation of care work; recruitment, pay and conditions; regulation; training; and raising the profile and status of jobs and careers in care.

Professor Yeandle added: “In the UK social care is a key responsibility of local authorities, provided by a complex mix of mainly commercial or not-for-profit organisations. It’s a fragmented system and many people struggle to get the help they need. We will examine whose needs are met and who misses out, as getting the right care when needed is crucial for quality of life.

“The need for improvements in social care is widely recognised; in England, the Government is poised to introduce major reforms. Our centre will deliver much-needed research to guide policymakers across the UK, and explore how better care outcomes can be achieved.

“Everyone needs support at some point in their lives, so care matters to us all. Good care gives everyone the chance to flourish and thrive to the greatest extent possible. It offers help needed by someone in every family and by members of all communities. A key aim of the Centre for Care is to help make a positive difference in millions of people’s daily lives.”

Professor Martin Knapp, NIHR’s social care spokesperson and director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research, said: “Social care, and arrangements for people who need or provide care, are under unprecedented pressure. The new Centre for Care, which NIHR is co-funding, will bring together researchers from a range of disciplines with people who need care, carers, care workers and others to undertake vital research, providing much needed evidence to enhance wellbeing and improve understanding of care.”