On Tuesday 17th June 2025, CIRCLE held a showcase for colleagues at the University of Sheffield. During the event we heard updates from the emerging research theme leaders, and attendees took part in a workshop on building collaborations hosted by Louise Dore.
Co-Director of CIRCLE, Nathan Hughes, welcomed attendees and outlined the agenda, then announced to the room the recent news that our former Director, Professor Sue Yeandle, has been appointed OBE for services to research on care and caring in the King’s Birthday Honours on 14th June 2025.
All attendees then shared a recent achievement with the room by way of introductions; “I didn’t get an OBE this year, but…”. A great way to start on a positive!
Among many achievements, Diane Burns mentioned a new international project AI-driven platform care: Social consequences for job quality in LTC, (CareQuAI), which will examine particular technological advancement and emerging models of LTC delivery and their implications for job quality as a means to potentially address workforce shortages. The project will be launched in Helsinki at the 7th Transforming Care Conference this June.
Updates from our themes
We then heard an update from each of the themes - established or emerging - and some of the ‘research stimulation’ projects CIRCLE has been able to fund this year,
Ella Monkcom and Will Mason presented a proposal for a special issue around developments in care theory, explaining their progress so far which has included workshop sessions that helped shape their approach to topics, themes and subthemes, adding that we should all keep our eyes peeled for a call for papers!
Diane Burns introduced the progress from the emerging theme studying ‘Organising Care, Labour and Employment’. Diane’s team also held a workshop event where attendees explored the meaning of the theme. Their next stage is learning more about links between aligned projects, and looking to solidify aims for the theme.
Julie Walsh updated us on the ‘Children, Young People and Families’ working group, co-led with Harrie Churchill and Becky Driscoll. Its former lead, Anna Leyland, was acknowledged for having provided a great foundation, establishing research interests and members as well as a list of stakeholders and partners. The theme has also drafted a ‘Vision’ statement, theme aims, and will hold a stakeholder engagement workshop on 16th July.
We then heard from PJ Annand on the ‘Care and Technology team. PJ welcomed any new membership to the theme, and gave an overview of the background of the current members, most of whom come from a wide range of academic backgrounds. They provided an update on the themes of research, a ‘Purpose’ statement, and their vision for the future of the team.
PJ also presented their work on ‘Comics in Care’, a project they lead with Ankita Mishra and Laruen White. This team asked CIRCLE researchers to propose ideas to be turned into graphic novels! This project involves working with artists and producing accessible outputs. A Graphic Novel Reading Room (an initiative led by Gabby Putnoki at the University of Sheffield) will be held in Sheffield for these outputs when completed, and they will also appear at this year’s ESRC Festival of Social Sciences - look out for further news on these events.
Bryony Waters-Harvey introduced her CIRCLE-funded project ‘Collective person-centred care within home care settings’. Bryony outlined the different stages of the project, from interviews with care staff, focus groups with care staff and then a final Round-table discussion stage. Bryony also presented a CIRCLE-funded study from colleague Louis Stokes on ‘Supporting unwise decisions in care home settings’. This project plan is to create a World Café Event! These projects led to the development of a new potential theme for CIRCLE - ‘Care Practices’. Bryony and Louis welcome membership from interested colleagues!
Presenting progress on the ‘Mental Health’ theme, Maria Teresa Ferazzoli explained the rationale behind creating a new project exploring mental health. Maria Teresa has structured the project using the Network model from IMPACT, the ESRC and Health Foundation funded Centre for Adult Social Care Evidence Implementation. The team will be developing an action plan, creating a mental health forum, producing a database for collaboration, and accessible outputs such as podcasts or blogs to discuss the main learnings from the project meetings.
Maria Teresa then explained the IMPACT Networks model in greater detail, based on the Swedish Care Competency Centre’s Blended Learning model, and how the model has been applied to the Mental Health project. A workshop on this model will be held soon to encourage this kind of collaboration in CIRCLE, date TBC.
A playful workshop!
After a quick refreshment break, Cross-cutting Research Manager for Social Sciences, Louise Dore, guided us through a playful workshop on building collaborations - something crucial to how CIRCLE operates and structures its research themes and teams. This exercise has really helped us to consider where CIRCLE can add value to its members research activity, including by supporting meaningful collaboration with partner organisations and those with lived experience, and how we can maximise policy and practice impact from our work. Some key tasks for next year’s action plan.