Some of the highlights from a busy year at CARE
CARE Core Team formed
In 2024, we welcomed eight new team members, making us a full team for the first time since the centre was formed:
- Alexandra Williams, Centre Manager
- Amy Chapple Centre Administrator
- Clara Lewis, Communications Officer
- Alice Butler, Public and Professional Involvement Worker
- Jeremy Dixon, Researcher and Deputy Director
- Sophie Wood, Researcher
- Mel Meindl, Researcher
- Simon Read, Researcher
CARE Lived Experience Collective
We formed our amazing CARE Lived Experience Collective (CLEC), welcoming the expertise of Damian Bridgeman, Chloe Cannon, Kirti Kotecha, Anne Rees, Dr Andy Woodhead, Richeldis Yhap and Mal O’Donnell.
First Stakeholder Report published
We published Our first annual stakeholder report. Highlights from the report include:
- Contributed to 60 publications
- Secured over £500 million funding
- Built a core research team with diverse expertise
- Established a Strategic Advisory Board and the Lived Experience Collective
Summer Intern’s Poster Exhibition
It was wonderful to see the posters created by our CARE Summer interns, Joe McCartney and Ruan Olsen.
“My summer internship with CARE was an invaluable experience. It was incredible to learn from and collaborate with professionals dedicated to conducting research that directly affects the field of adult social care and the lives of adults within the social care system.
What impressed me the most was CARE’s ability to network with and include the people whom the production of the research is aimed at helping.” said Joe.
Teambuilding
We’ve had two productive (and sunny!) team Away Days, including a scavenger hunt in Bute Park and a visit to the National Museum Cardiff.
Events and engagement
In May, we hosted a seminar with ExChange Wales in Spark on ‘Promoting carers wellbeing: current research and future directions’, including an international speaker from the University of Tasmania.
Our Director Paul Willis gave a talk at the HCRW conference on the Grand Challenges in Social Care, and a quickfire introduction to our centre at a Meet the Spark Research Centres and Institutes event.
Deputy Director Jeremy Dixon met with Welsh Government Minister for Mental Health and Early Years, Sarah Murphy MS in October and outlined the contribution CARE will make to the adult social care landscape.
Our official Centre Launch was a great success and set the tone and pace for the next few years which will undoubtedly be even busier and we hope will bring us new successes to share.
We ended the year with some festive events and gatherings, including Sbarc/Spark Christmas games, a jolly CLEC online meet up and ping pong at our team Christmas party.
