Children’s social care has been described as being in a state of crisis since at least 2010, with reports of poor quality care and abuse, declining numbers of carers, and a chronic under-funding of services. Yet, it remains a fundamental part of our social fabric: 1 in 4 children in England will engage with social services before they are 18 (Jay et al. 2024).

The way we provide and experience care is shaped by a complex mix of cultural, emotional, and economic forces, and in which class, race and gender remain defining factors. Moreover, years of austerity and underfunding have dismantled vital support systems, further marginalising Care-Experienced people and those who support them. Today, families and welfare systems still struggle with the practical and emotional realities of caring for children when biological parents cannot. This involves navigating the delicate, often difficult relationships between foster parents, birth families, and the children and young people themselves, whose own voices, wishes, and identities are are not always heard, understood or valued. Despite its essential role, care roles continue to be undervalued, insecure and subject to intense scrutiny. Meaningful transformations to the current system of care cannot happen without a deep understanding of how these contexts have shifted over time.

We are particularly interested in cultural and emotional histories of care and this conference prioritises the voices, views and experiences of those often excluded from these histories – especially those with lived experience. We will foster connections between those interested in, and affected by care, and use lessons from the past to open up new conversations about what care today means and how it might look in the future. These collaborations will continue beyond the conference, resulting in a published edited collection spanning new themes and ideas emerging from these discussions.

We encourage diversity in methodological approaches, geographical scope, and religious/spiritual background. We welcome proposals for 15-minute contributions from Care-Experienced individuals, community researchers or practitioners outside of academia, in addition to abstracts from academic researchers at all career stages and across disciplines.We also invite proposals that feature creative or participatory methods, including engagement and co-production workshops, and roundtables of up to 1 hour. Please submit individual proposals, or proposals for panels of 3-4 contributions.

We are keen to address the following five themes:

1. Relational care: families, kinship and identity

Exploring the ‘human’ side of care and diverse experiences, including adoption, kinship care, fostering and institutionalisation, and how the impacts of this care is felt, remembered and negotiated within and beyond the biological family.  

2. Structures of care: class, economy and power

Exploring how macro forces like deindustrialiation, neoliberalism, and class struggle shape care provision and experience.

3. Care and labour: professionalism and practice

Exploring the history and lived reality of paid and unpaid care work, care-giving and caring, professional identity, and the ‘dark side’ of care.

4. Care environments: space, place, and the senses

Exploring the physical and sensory contexts of care, from the ‘home’ vs ‘institution’ to the material history of archives.

5. Methods and ethics

Exploring the prioritisation of sidelined voices, perspective and experiences through innovative, participatory and creative methods, reflections on care concepts, lived experience and expertise, alongside ethical reflections on sensitive research and archives.

This list is not exhaustive and we encourage proposals that speak to themes outside of these suggestions. Please send abstracts of c. 300 words and a short biography to caring.communities@newcastle.ac.uk by 10 April. Please indicate in your email if you will not be available on one of the two dates the conference is set to run: 3 and 4 September 2026.

The event will run largely as an in-person event due to limited capacity for hybrid attendance. If you would be like to contribute but can only be present online, or have other accessibility requirements or questions, please do get in touch with the team at caring.communities@newcastle.ac.uk

The conference is supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship: Caring Communities: Rethinking Children’s Social Care, 1800-present (ref: MR/X034968/1) and is organised by Claudia Soares, Jade Shepherd, Jim Hinks, and Kate Wilson (Newcastle University).