A National Care Service? But what do we mean by care?

The covid-19 pandemic has brought underlying structural difficulties in how care is understood and provided into sharp relief. There is political talk in Scotland of a National Care Service (NCS), to operate alongside the National Health Service and a review of adult social care has been initiated. But just what care is and how best to deliver it is not straightforward. Recourse to dominant ideas of a service based around human rights or around the integration of health and social care raise questions about different knowledge practices across sectors. Based around ongoing work on a response to the current review, this seminar will seek to generate a discourse on a NCS which takes us further in exploring what we might mean by it and, if we were to go down that road, how we might create one.

This aligns with our Social Justice and Social Change and Governance, Policy and Regulation themes. It will be of interest across the four ISSR Schools but also more widely across the University and include medical, health and social care practitioners and policy-makers. The seminar is chaired by ISSR Co-Director Professor Mark Smith.

Background

Dr Huw Lloyd-Richards has had a long and successful social work career, including as Advisor in Social Work Services and Scottish Hospital Advisory Service. Scottish Office, HM Social Work Commissioner Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland and Advisor to the World Health Organisation on Mental Health Programmes. He was Hon. Lecturer in Sociology, University of Glasgow and Fellow in Heath Services Management and Leadership Development at ‘The Kings Fund’, where he was Director of the Senior Manager Programme. He completed a PhD at the University of St Andrews in 2010. He has written extensively on the nature of care and is working with Professor Mark Smith on the nature of social care and its knowledge base.

The seminar will argue that health and social care reflect very different ontologies and call upon and require very different forms of knowledge. This work is particularly pertinent in the context policy directions around the integration of health and social care and current plans to introduce a National Care Service in Scotland.

The seminar is hosted via Microsoft Teams. Upon registering, you will receive an email with a link to access the event. Upon accessing the link, you will be prompted to open Microsoft Teams via desktop or online browser. Either are suitable, so simply choose your preferred platform.