Professor Sue Yeandle
BA, PhD
Department of Sociological Studies
Professor of Sociology
Director of CIRCLE (Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities)
+44 114 222 6485
Full contact details
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Sue is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociological Studies and Director of CIRCLE, the Centre for International Research on Care Labour and Equalities, a Faculty of Social Sciences research centre based in ICOSS, the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Social Sciences.
She is principal investigator for the ESRC-funded large grant programme Sustainable Care: connecting people and systems (2017-2021) and founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Care and Caring, a journal of the Policy Press first established in 2017.
Sue joined the University of Sheffield in October 2015 after almost ten years at the University of Leeds, where CIRCLE was established in 2007. Her career has also included periods studying, teaching and researching at the Universities of Bradford, Kent, Durham, Swansea, Nottingham Trent and Sheffield Hallam.
Sue’s research and scholarship focus on the relationship between work and care, on how social and employment policies affect how women and men manage caring roles and responsibilities throughout the life course, and on the role of technology in supporting older and disabled people, carers and their networks.
She also specialises in comparative international analysis of care arrangements and in evaluating the impact of carer support initiatives. Sue has led over 40 externally funded research projects and has published widely on care, caring, gender and work.
She participates in many international collaborations and is honoured in her many connections to the carers’ movement around the world and to work closely with the national charity Carers UK.
- Research interests
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Sue's research has included major projects on gender and employment in local labour markets (2003-06, HEESF award); on carers, employment and services (2005-07, EU EQUAL award to Carers UK); and on the everyday lives of older people with care needs who use technology to support independence in the home (AKTIVE, 2011-14, Technology Strategy Board award).
Her main current research role is leading Sustainable Care: connecting people and systems funded by an ESRC Large Grant for the period 2017-2021.
Between 2008 and 2011, Sue directed two national evaluation studies funded by the Department of Health (studying the ‘Caring with Confidence’ programme and the ‘Carers Strategy Demonstrator Sites’).
In 2011-15 she led the UK contribution to the EU Framework 7 project ‘FLOWS’ on welfare, women and local labour markets, and over the years, she has contributed to many international research projects commissioned by EU research agencies (the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living & Working Conditions and the EU Institute for Prospective Technological Studies).
Sue specialises in research with the potential for policy and practical impact. She has extensive knowledge of policy on care, carers and employment, expertise in making complex research findings accessible to a wide range of audiences, and wide experience of research design and methods.
Sue is a regular speaker in the UK and internationally and works closely with leading non-academic organisations in her field. She was Special Adviser to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee for its 2008 Inquiry on Carers and a member of government Task Forces on caring and employment in 2007-8 and 2012-13.
In 2017-18 she provided expert advice to the Government Office for Science and Department for Health and Social Care in their preparations for the 2018 Green Paper on Social Care in England.
Sue works in partnership with leading UK charity Carers UK and is a member of the international NGO Eurocarers. She belongs to academic research networks in Australia, Canada and Finland and the IAGG Global Social Initiative on Ageing, and is an advisor to UK forum Employers for Carers.
- Research group
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Sue currently supervises PhD students studying voluntary sector support for carers and employment (Jenny Read), the provision of home care in Shanghai (Wenjing Jin) and UK employers’ voluntary care leave schemes (Camille Allard).
She welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students wishing to study topics in her specialist field.