Conversations on Care 2024-25
The following events for the Care Initiative have taken place during the 2024-25 academic year. Details of future events will be shared on the main Care Initiative page.
Digital technologies: Enhancers or disrupters of good social care?
Thursday 5 June 2025, 16:00 to 18:00, EP Abraham Lecture Theatre and Online
In collaboration with DECIDE (Digitally Enabled Care in Diverse Environments), an NIHR-funded centre at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, for rapid evaluation of technology-enabled remote monitoring in health and care settings.
Speakers: Dr Caroline Potter (Senior Researcher in Community Health and Social Care, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences); DeeDee Wallace (Health and Care Innovation Team Leader, Innovate Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire County Council); Tommy Wise (Policy Lead for Care Technology, Department of Health and Social Care)
The panel outlines the current policy landscape underpinning the digital shift in care services, describing a remote monitoring initiative in care homes by the local authority and Integrated Care Board for falls prevention, and the development of remote monitoring services to support independent living that DECIDE is evaluating nationally.
Report: Digital technologies: Enhancers or disrupters of good social care?
The Politics of Social Care Reform in the UK: Delivery, Drift or Decay?
Thursday 6 February 2025, 16:00 to 17:30, EP Abraham Lecture Theatre and Online
In conjunction with the Oxford Institute of Social Policy Seminar Series, ‘Perspectives in Care’. Information about other ‘Perspectives in Care’ talks.
Speaker: Professor Catherine Needham (University of Birmingham)
This talk focuses on why it has been so difficult to reform social care in the four nations of the UK. It explores not just the policy complexity of the issues but also the contested politics of making progress on reform. It compares progress in the four nations of the UK, highlighting distinctive issues in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Looking forward, as England embarks on developing a National Care Service, the talk explores what can be learned from the difficulties Scotland has faced in advancing its own National Care Service plans.
Report by Professor Mary Daly: The Politics of Social Care Reform in the UK
Unpaid care in the social care system: Recalibration or reconceptualisation?
Wednesday 30 October 2024 18:00 to 19:30, EP Abraham Lecture Theatre and Online
Speaker: Professor Liz Lloyd (University of Bristol)
Calls to recalibrate the balance between paid and unpaid care have been evident since the 1990s. In the intervening years, the balance has shifted consistently in the opposite direction to that demanded by early commentators, leading to grossly exploitative and unsatisfactory conditions of care. In this unpromising context what potential exists for the development of equitable and effective relations between paid and unpaid care?
This question was explored by Professor Liz Lloyd, who will discuss contemporary ideas that challenge the damaging legacy of policies and practices and suggest ways in which unpaid care might be reconceptualised as part of the social care system.
Report by Professor Mary Daly: Unpaid care in the social care system
