CIRCLE - Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities

Conference report

Building on the success of the 4th International Conference in Toronto, Carers UK and the University of Leeds hosted the 5th International Carers Conference at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, from 8 to 11 July 2010 where delegates from more than 20 countries across the world were welcomed by Baroness Pitkeathley.

High profile contributors included the Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP, the Secretary of State for Health, who addressed the audience of around 400, and used the conference to make his first major speech setting out key principles for the forthcoming Commission on the Findings of Social Care. He said that a White Paper would follow the Commission in the autumn of 2011.

Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, who founded The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in 1991, delivered the opening keynote address, in which she stressed that caring was something common in all societies around the world. She commented on how societal changes meant families were becoming smaller with many no longer having the networks of support that existed in the past.

In an inspiring keynote address on the Technology Theme, Eric Dishman and Simon Roberts from Intel Health talked about the demographic challenges of caring for an ageing population and explained how Intel are developing technology to help carers by working with people in their own homes to find out how they live their lives and what kinds of support they need.

How we manage care and caring in a changing and ageing world is one of the world's greatest challenges touching everyone's lives. This conference brought together the international community of researchers, practitioners and those with an interest in caring to debate the critical issues and exchange expertise and experience. Mapping the policy framework from around the world, the conference explored innovation and sought real solutions to the care crunch.

The conference focused on four key themes, identified through latest international debate.

• Health, Social Care and Well-being Services
• Caring and Employment
• Technology, Design and the Built Environment
• Financial and Legal Planning, Products and Services

The conference delegates:

• Heard from a range of internationally renowned speakers
• Participated and presented in workshops and poster sessions the cutting edge perspectives on the four key conference themes
• Learned about latest innovations at the conference exhibition
• Networked with colleagues at a range of exciting social events

Six members of the CIRCLE team presented their research at the conference.

• Dr Lisa Buckner
  • Carers and labour market disadvantage – geographical variations in access to employment [PDF: 350KB]
• Dr Christina Buse
  • Evaluating the implications of the Internet for carers: the importance of situating technology use within everyday spaces, temporalities and biographies [PDF: 464KB]
• Dr Gary Fry
  • Things you can’t control: Understanding the issues that affect working age male carers [PDF: 177KB]
• Kara Jarrold
  • Technology in the home: the personal impacts of telecare on carers and their relationship with those they care for [PDF: 224KB]
• Prof Fiona Williams
  • Claims and Frames in the Making of Care Policies: the Recognition and Redistribution of Care [PDF: 464KB]
• Prof Sue Yeandle
  • New technologies: sustaining caring and employment [PDF: 358KB]

CIRCLE displayed its research at a stand in the conference exhibition hall and the team assisted with enquiries from delegates and offered copies of pamphlets, reports and papers to all delegates. To celebrate the conference being held in Leeds in July 2010, CIRCLE published its recent report "Carers in the Yorkshire and Humber Region", making it available to all conference participants and using the  opportunity to promote the centre’s work on the carer evidence base at regional level with UK agencies.  

• Regional factsheets on carers

On Friday evening, 9 July, University of Leeds hosted an evening reception at The Royal Armouries, where Professor Michael Arthur, Vice Chancellor opened the  evening  with a welcoming speech.

This was followed by CIRCLE’s private dinner at University House, hosted by key members of the CIRCLE team. Thirty international delegates were welcomed to the University of Leeds at the dinner where the Guests of Honour, Baroness Pitkeathley of Caversham and Robert Anderson, President of Eurocarers, each contributed a speech, stimulating lively discussion.

During the three days of the conference, delegates heard from speakers from across the world, including the world’s largest countries facing major demographic  changes: China, India, the USA and the European Union.

Speakers included:  Anup Khosla from HelpAge India; Dr Susan Reinhard, Senior Vice President for Public Policy at AARP, USA; Paul Timmers, Head of the Unit for ICT for Inclusion, Directorate-General Information Society and Media at the European Commission; and Professor Zhongwei Zhao from the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, who explained the demographic crisis facing China.

The closing plenary speakers were Ben Page, Chief Executive of IPSOS MORI - who spoke about the global challenges of care and the issue of ageing populations, now facing many countries; Heinz Wolff, Professor Emeritus at Brunel University who proposed intriguing solutions to the global care crunch; and Imelda Redmond, Chief Executive of Carers UK who, in closing the conference, thanked everyone for their imagination, passion, humour and stamina.

The conference proved to be a wonderful opportunity for sharing knowledge and understanding about carers and their part in all the different systems of care and support for older, sick and disabled people worldwide, with contributions from over 20 countries.

Reflections on the conference from the CIRCLE team include the following.

I really enjoyed the 5th International Carers Conference in Leeds 2010, both as a delegate and in my supporting role as co-host. I attended many interesting papers, presented my own paper, and chaired a fascinating session on the use of ICT in social care.

I learnt a lot about the passion held by advocates of change in the social care field, and also many of the frustrations. The keynote speaker sessions were particularly interesting; for me these broke down barriers between policymakers and practitioners, with some important questions asked and issues debated.

The individual sessions were very useful, too: I attended a great presentation by HFT, which included service users (with learning disabilities) reflecting on the use of ICT in everyday life. This was both heartening and uplifting. I also had the opportunity to make a number of new contacts, particularly relating to my ongoing work-in-progress on male carers.

All in all, I thought the conference was a tremendous success: the venue was suitably grand (I found time to look around the museum), there was plenty of time built-in for networking, and even the Yorkshire weather held! Minor negative points included the fact that (as I overheard many other delegates claim) there were often several interesting presentations running parallel with one another and that attendance at every one was impossible. But that's surely testament to the quality of the whole event and is perhaps unavoidable in these circumstances. In short, a memorable conference.

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Overall I found it an excellent conference with some very good speakers. I mainly went to the sessions with speakers from The Department of Health; Elaine Edgar from the Carers Strategy Team talked about the Carers Strategy; David Behan, Director General of Social Care  who spoke about a ‘whole systems’ approach to health and welfare, and Shane Hayward-Giles who covered Carers Direct from his perspective as Programme Director.

I think the 'best ' presentation I saw was given by Eric Dishman and Simon Roberts from Intel in the opening session who I found very inspiring, particularly in  their use of ethnography.

The most surprising aspect of the conference was the huge difference in the level of support for carers in different countries. This came out particularly strongly in the session on Saturday morning with the presentations by Anup Khosla and Prof. Zhongwei Zhao and also in the papers by Janet Fast, Jacquie Earles and Nora Spinks about the situation in Canada. Sometimes it is easy to forget that carers in other countries are in an even worse situation that carers in the UK. The papers on carers in Canada also showed how introducing the simplest of things can be very beneficial to carers e.g. subsidised take away meals from work canteens to drop in for elderly relatives on the way home.

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I found that it was the most useful conference I have ever attended, because it linked my different work experience and studies (i.e., degree and Masters in Sociology, PhD in Medical Sciences and Postdoc in Demography) with my present work. I wish I could have been able to clone myself to be able to attend simultaneous sessions. Overall, almost all of the presentations that I attended were of high standard, which is not common at  similar size conferences.