This thesis draws attention to the under-recognised nature of domiciliary carers.' work in Britain, and the challenges that these workers face. The difficulty. complexity and skill level of the work of the domiciliary carer has increased significantly over the last 20 years, but there has been little public or academic recognition of what it involves. The research seeks to rectify this through an analysis of empirical data collected via interviews, observations and shadowing, with domiciliaries, their managers and stakeholders. While there has been only limited research on domiciliaries' work, there are extensive literatures on care and on labour process theory. The thesis shows that there is tension between these fields in their portrayal of how an 'employee', as opposed to a 'carer', will behave. To analyse conflicting accounts both within the literature and practice, the thesis utilises Bolton's conceptual framework of 'around, in and out of the labour process' (Bolton and Wibberley 2010). 'Around' encompasses the contextual factors that constrain or enable domiciliary care, 'in' describes domiciliaries' official prescribed labour process, whereas 'out' reveals their unofficial practices. I argue that this modified labour process approach presents a more complete picture of their work. The key 'around' factors are financial constraints and the ideals of a 'good' domiciliary. These have expanded and intensified domiciliaries' official role, demonstrated by demanding care plans, and pressurised rotas. However, these supposedly comprehensive documents only present a partial account of dorniciliaries' labour process, for a substantial amount of their work takes place 'outside' of their formal role and is therefore not recognised or rewarded, including activities such as travelling between clients, performing emotional labour and managing the workplace. Equally unrecognised is the indeterminacy of their labour power. Also, I argue that the difficulty of their work is not acknowledged either politically or economically. In sum, I demonstrate emphatically that domiciliary care is not just making tea.

The experience of guilt, shame and entrapment in carers of people with dementia and the relationship of these variables to psychological outcome. This thesis began by conducting a systematic review investigating the relationship between shame and depression. The review focused on evaluating the results of studies published that have used a quantitative approach to measure the relationship between these two concepts. Methodological limitations of these studies were presented as well as clinical implications and suggestions for future research. The research paper aimed to replicate the previous findings of Martin, Gilbert, McEwan and Irons (2006) by exploring the demographic, clinical, psychological variables together with new exploratory variables of guilt, shame and entrapment on depression, anxiety and stress. Fifty one people completed eight questionnaires each about themselves and the person with dementia. The findings did not replicate the original study although provided interesting findings, particularly in relation to entrapment and depression, anxiety and stress. The critical review discusses personal reflections on the research process and discusses directions for future research.

This research explores dyadic retrospective perspectives of young people previously in care and their carers to gain an understanding of how relationships formed during foster placements were maintained following the transition to independence. Whilst existing literature explores vanous outcomes of being in foster care, the evidence base is limited regarding foster carers providing ongoing support for young people leaving their care. With social support imperative for this 'vulnerable population' factors affecting positive relationships should be considered. Together with this, there is limited research investigating the impact that relationships in care .have on present and future relationships and how components of care have affected current life for those previously in care. The present study conducted in-depth individual interviews with five young people who had previously been in foster care and their carer/s who they had maintained contact with and described positive relationships with. The cross-sectional research employed a qualitative approach using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (lP A) to make sense of the lived experiences of young people and carers. Analysis of the data yielded three main themes for young people; Building foundations, Belonging and Life as we know it. Three main themes emerged from the carers data; Being a parent, Adjusting to life together and Watching them grow. Results of this research highlighted similarities and differences both within and between the dyads. The findings increased the understanding of factors that young people and carers believe are imperative to forming successful relationships in care and maintaining these when they leave. Results obtained provide an insight regarding aspects of care and exiting care that require further facilitation from services and professionals involved in order to assist these transitions.

Aims This thesis aimed to establish links between symptoms of common mental disorder in care-givers of patients with advanced disease and their subsequent experience of bereavement. r aimed to explore whether factors such as social support, family cohesion and religious beliefs which are probably protective against poor outcomes in care-giving, retain their protective effect during bereavement. Methods r conducted a cohort study. Informal carers of patients receiving palliative care at two hospices in South London were invited to participate. Carers were interviewed shortly after the patient was referred to the hospice (T1), using standardized assessment tools including the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) and the Zarit Burden Interview. I also assessed carers' levels of social support, religious/spiritual beliefs, family relations, coping strategies and work and social adjustment as well as the patients' mood and quality of life. Interviews were repeated at 3 months and 6 months following the death of the care recipient using the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R), the Bereavement Phenomenology Questionnaire (BPQ) and the Quality of Death (QPD) scale. Results Of the] 00 carers who were interviewed at baseline, 46 carers agreed to be interviewed at T2 (three months post death) and 50 carersagreed to be interviewed at T3 (six months post death). Carers who suffered from more symptoms of common mental disorder while caring for their loved were at a higher risk of poor mental health outcomes at three and six months following the death of their loved one. Carers whose practical support needs were not met while caring for their loved one were more likely to experience symptoms of common mental disorder at six months post death. Conclusions This study demonstrates that it is possible to follow carers through to bereavement in a palliative care setting, however research in this context is highly challenging. The research suggests that much psychological distress detected during care-giving continues into bereavement. This has implications for the way in which caregivers are supported in this setting.

The feminist ethics of care literature has focused on care as a concrete issue that limits women's participation in pohtics, as well as on more abstract issues of the conceptual exclusion of women and 'the feminine' from justice-based theories. Whilst these are valuable contributions, the dominant focus on women in the care literature suggests a direct association of care with women. This has essentialist implications and leads to an oversimplified account that under-theorises the different ways in which care may be gendered.

This thesis concerns the family caring that women do or do not do, coupled with the implications this has for the time they spend in paid work. Comprising three separate papers, each takes a new approach to the old problem of 'who cares?' and how this is related to UK women's lives in the 21st century. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study and the British Household Panel Survey, I analyse three separate aspects ofinfonnal family caring. Chapter 2 takes an innovative look at the evolution of women's work/family balance in light of demographic changes in the age of motherhood and life expectancy. The fmdings suggest that caring for parents and children simultaneously is linked to reduced labour market participation for older women and women with older parents. Chapters 3 and 4 both take a different approach from most studies in recognising the heterogeneity across various forms of eldercare and childcare. Chapter 3 examines the extent of class variation in the provision of different types of eldercare to parents and the results suggest that a certain types of support are socially patterned. Chapter 4 considers different childcare options and employer support in relation to the length oftime a mother takes to return to work post childbirth. The findings suggest that childcare usage by type is linked to timings of post-childbirth returns into full- and part-time work. The results also suggest that the extent to which a work-place is family-friendly can also influence the speed of return.

Informed by the sociology of childhood, children's rights and the work of John Dewey, this mixed methods study used an exploratory sequential design to analyse the relationship between caring and education. Semi-structured interviews and an online survey involved young carers and a control group from across England and Wales. Qualitative data were analysed thematically and quantitative data were subject to statistical testing. Demographic, familial, and school factors were included in tests for association. Variations in levels of care provided, care recipient and types of care were also incorporated. An email survey of schools and local authorities provided an assessment of existing policies or strategies with specific regard to meeting the educational needs of young carers. Findings revealed several new contributions to knowledge. There was a reduced likelihood for young carers to report that their parents attended parents' evenings or be involved in schools in other manners, such as in the Parent Teacher Association. This was reported to arise from the inaccessibility of schools for a parent with a disability or health condition. Young carers were as likely to believe education is important for their future, although they were more likely to aspire to pursue a 'caring profession' beyond education. Those caring for a parent/guardian with a mental health issue, substance misuse problem, learning difficulty or comorbidity, experience a higher rate of detrimental emotional outcomes. Furthermore, those with the most negative adaptation to caring were also those least able to do most school work without assistance. Potential young carers with high caring levels were discovered within the control group sample. Data show for the first time that these young people had predominantly sibling, domestic or household tasks rather than personal, emotional and financial/practical responsibilities, which young carers do. However, both of these groups report more specific and negative experiences and outcomes in school than children with no caring role. General and specific policy suggestions are made particularly for addressing the lack of young carers' policies and practice at the school level. Improved teacher training, focus on identification and targeted interventions are discussed, to address the needs of young carers educationally.

The domestication of IT has been a major socio-technical trend during the last decade and yet there is more to be known about the ways it has been adopted and used by working age women (16-59) carers and the impacts it has in practical terms on their lives. The main aim of this research was to investigate women carers' perceptions of use and impact of IT in their daily lives, and so to understand the extent of their empowerment and advancement and their contribution to an inclusive Information Society. Existing literature, including quantitative studies, has thrown light on the impact of domestic technologies and telephony on women's lives. The research, however, evolved from single view of merely concentrating on women as sole carers to appreciating men carers and hence the 'role of caring' came to fore as the main theme in relation to the use of IT alongside other domestic technologies. This study builds on previous work, using qualitative methods to inquire deeply into life experiences of a small number of carers in their access to and use of IT, within the broader context of their home life and duties. Fieldwork research was conducted through interviews with nine participants - six women and three men in caring positions - in their homes or university. The interviewing process was semi-structured, but was also cumulative. Each interview was followed by transcription and initial data processing (before the next interview was conducted). The collected data were encoded using the grounded theory approach, with the aid of Nvivo - a data management software tool for qualitative data analysis. The analysis produced conceptualisations of participants' use of both domestic and information technology in their daily lives. Cognitive mapping was used to bring out some of the important threads in the thinking of participants as shown in the transcriptions. An emergent theory grounded in the data was the main outcome of this research. The study contributes to the understanding of the reasons behind different ways that carers use IT and the impact it has on their lives. It also extends sociotechnical analysis into the domestic context, viewing that context itself against the background of the information society. Key findings include:- 1) Participants' use of IT differs according to occupation, income and family structure. 2) Personal qualities and self-perception have an influence in shaping carers' use of IT, while self-perceptions are likely to change as they become more proficient in the use of IT. 3) Use of IT can open up new economic and social opportunities for the participants, but may not necessarily do so, depending on their personal qualities and their perceptions of themselves and hence the ways they use the technology. 4) There was no consistent view among the participants about what could count as technology or about different types of technologies, nor any clear distinction made between domestic technology and information technology when applied in domestic situation. 5) The adoption of IT in the domestic context is a sociotechnical process, but one which does not exactly conform to the sociotechnical model of organisations.

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