Social Care
Social care research at the University of Birmingham explores how policy, practice and communities can work together to improve lives. Working closely with people with lived experience, practitioners and policymakers, we generate evidence that improves care, informs policy and strengthens support for people, families and communities.
Background to our work
The current care system faces multiple challenges as the demand on services grows and the available funding shrinks and we need to understand better what works and doesn’t work in the current system, so that money can be spent effectively and outcomes improved.
Current research projects
What happens next?
Understanding what happens when people with learning disabilities and autistic people leave long-stay hospitals and what support helps them live well and stay out of hospital.
How do social workers lead?
Evaluating how Adult Principal Social Workers improve social work practice, workforce recruitment and retention, and identifying what enables effective professional leadership.
IMPACT
IMPACT is improving adult lives together, the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care, drawing on insights from research and lived experience to make a difference to people’s lives.
Care as a complex, adaptive ecosystem
Researching how care ecosystems, locality-based commissioning and policy implementation can strengthen homecare sustainability, equity, wellbeing and system resilience.
Co-producing research with young carers
Exploring how life changes and migration affect people’s experiences of care, helping tackle inequalities and improve care and wellbeing.
The Costs of Caring
As the UK population ages, and fiscal pressures on care systems continue to impact on eligibility levels, a large portion of social care is provided informally, by family and friends.
ASSURE
ASSURE explores the impact of CQC assurance on local authorities, practitioners and care systems, generating evidence to help improve the assurance process.
Research better together
Research Better Together is designed to enable equitable research collaborations between health and social care researchers and voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in Birmingham
Hidden Costs of Hospital Discharge
Understanding the costs and outcomes associated with Hospital Discharge from the perspective of people, carers and local authorities.
Carer harm in the context of families affected by serious mental illness
This study, involving carer co-researchers, explores the experiences of families affected by harm and violence in the context of mental illness.
Intellectual Disabilities Research Institute (IDRIS)
IDRIS aims to be a global leader in applied research in the field of intellectual disabilities, partnering with individuals, families, and professionals to produce top-quality evidence
Our expertise
Meet the social care teamOur researchers bring expertise from across social care policy, practice and service improvement. Their work spans a wide range of topics, helping to generate evidence that informs policy, strengthens practice and improves outcomes for people and communities.
Social Care in the media
Why are we stuck in hospital?
Why are we stuck in hospital?
Led by Professors Jon Glasby & Robin Miller
Understanding the perspectives of people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people, family and staff when transforming care for people in ‘long-stay’ hospitals.
An impossible maze, with no end, forms the basis of an artwork by Birmingham artist and activist Foka Wolf. Produced by Ikon and exhibited at Fabrica, Brighton, Why Are We Stuck in Hospital? illustrates the invisibility of people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people in long-stay hospitals.
Related articles;
- The Guardian: Thousands with learning disabilities trapped in hospital, some for years (2023)
- BBC News: Exhibition highlights hospital plight of autistic people (2023)
- Speak Out, Brighton & Hove: Why Are We Stuck In Hospital? Response to an exhibition by Foka Wolf
Homicide and unpaid carers
Homicide and unpaid carers
Led by Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer
- BBC News: From carer to killer: Urgent calls for change (2026)
-
The Guardian: Matilda in pieces: what one mother’s suicide reveals about the carers broken by the system (2026)