Care Practices
The CIRCLE Care Practices theme explores a range of approaches and practices to providing care within social care settings. Researchers in this theme are interested in understanding various approaches to delivering social care, including person-centred care and other models such as relationship- and co-production-based approaches. The team are also interested in understanding how social care staff are trained, supported, and understand theoretical approaches to care, best practice guidelines, and legislation, and how these are practically applied in care practices. The theme aims to embed translational learning across sectors to explore how good practices in one social care setting can be applied in another.
In line with the above aims, Dr. Louis Stokes’ current research examines how the Mental Capacity Act is currently implemented in residential and nursing care homes for older adults living with dementia, and how we can enhance staff training and understanding of this legislation to facilitate more meaningful implementation in practice. Bryony’s work seeks to reframe wandering in care homes for older adults living with dementia to be perceived as a meaningful activity that is supported rather than prevented. These projects explore current practices in care homes with the aim of developing best practice guidelines to enhance support for both care staff and residents.
What the theme does:
- Facilitate discussions and explore synergies between researchers, practitioners, care professionals, families and other stakeholders to understand research priorities and unmet needs in relation to care practices
- Collaborate through sharing ideas and identifying research opportunities, from preliminary discussions through to collaborative grant applications
- Support stakeholders interested in understanding more about care practices to engage with others and share learnings and best practices
- Provide a platform for researchers, particularly those who identify as Early Career Researchers (ECRs), to understand current approaches to care, care practices research and how to deliver high-quality research in this area
What the theme values:
- Pursuing research opportunities that address unmet needs in practice, based on learnings from stakeholders directly involved in delivering or receiving care
- Ensuring that our research findings are meaningful, accessible and implementable in practice
- Highlighting and sharing best practices between social care settings to understand how knowledge mobilisation can enhance outcomes and improve care practices
- Supporting those involved in the delivery, or research, of care practices within social care settings to gain insight into best practices and translate this into practice
Theme co-leads:
The Care Practices theme is led by Dr Louis Stokes and Dr Bryony Waters-Harvey (School of Medicine and Population Health), who share a common interest in person-centred care in social care environments, with a focus on care homes.
In 2025, Louis and Bryony were both successful in two applications to CIRCLE’s Strategic Funding Awards. Bryony’s study explores collective person-centred care in care homes for people with dementia, examining how staff make decisions when residents' needs conflict. The project explores the process of balancing person-centred care with collective living, and the factors influencing decision-making.
Louis’s study examines a specific aspect of the Mental Capacity Act concerning unwise decisions, as we know from previous research that care home staff report navigating uncertainties when supporting residents at the 'margins' of capacity challenging, where determining if it is an unwise but capacitous decision or an unwise and incapacity decision is difficult in the moment. The project seeks to understand how people are supported in practice to understand and implement training about unwise decisions, and unmet informational and support needs.
Dr Louis Stokes: l.s.stokes@sheffield.ac.uk
Dr Bryony Waters-Harvey: b.waters-harvey@sheffield.ac.uk
How to get involved?
We would like to partner with researchers, care staff, families, practitioners, and community-based organisations who are interested in understanding more about care practices and how to improve training and support for social care professionals, ultimately enhancing outcomes and quality of care within social care settings.
Please contact one of our co-leads to learn more about the theme or come along to one of our events!