On this page is some information about current projects that I have underway (in various stages of progress). This is the location for some descriptions of the projects; updates will follow as posts at the front of the site. You will also, over time, find links to resources that I have produced on these pages and on the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of the site.
The Ethics of Care
Much of my most recent work has applied ideas from the ‘Ethics of Care’ to challenges within the Health and Social Care sector. In doing so, my ambition is to bring together applied moral theory with analysis of ‘wicked’ problems of management. Examples of this work can be found in The Management of Wicked Problems in Health and Social Care which was recently published by Routledge. In addition to editing this volume, I wrote chapters on the The Politics of Care (with Dr Sue Hollinrake) that discusses the impact of recent reforms in the English social care system and on Unpicking Dependency; Managing Becoming in which I look at the idea of dependency within the management of chronic disease.
Broadly speaking, much of my work is on developing these ideas and looking for ways in which the principles of the ‘Ethics of Care’ can be useful in domains other than those most closely related to the act (physical or otherwise) of caring. This includes, for example, some work in which these ideas are applied to issues of migration and the impact of Brexit.
CQC Care Home Leadership
I presented a short paper from an initial study at the Critical Management Studies conference in 2017. This work sought to present an analysis of the Care Quality Commission’s commentary of local care homes in which the quality of leadership and management was found to be either ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’. It’s standpoint is one of critical (organizational) discourse analysis - through the analysis of these documents we are able to throw light on not just what the CQC understands about leadership and management but, because of the power that they have in the sector, how they attempt to shape the behaviour of care homes.
It comes at a time of significant concerns about both the quality of care provided in residential and nursing homes and about the longevity or sustainability of homes from a financial perspective. It is produced in recognition of the importance of understanding the operating environment of homes from a regulatory or statutory perspective as we seek to critique care home management (or leadership) from a philosophical or critical management perspective. If we wish to make compelling arguments about how managers ought to behave then we must take into account what those that monitor quality in care homes also say - and have the power to enforce.
I am currently working with an undergraduate student on this project and hope to be able to publish work in this area in the next few months.