Affiliation

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Sheffield

Kate Hamblin joined the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing in January 2009 to work with Dr. Andreas Hoff on the ‘Carers@Work- Combining Job and Care - Conflict or Opportunity’ project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. She has worked on three main areas at the Institute, including the examination of issues related to employment, following on from my postgraduate studies. For the ‘Carers@Work’ project, she conducted a review of the literature related to care and/ or work; designed the interview guide; recruited and conducted over 50 qualitative interviews with working carers and employers demonstrating ‘best practice’ in terms of family-friendly policies; analysed the data and presented it in several reports. This project sought to address the experience of combining paid work with looking after an older person in terms of the difficulties faced and the strategies used to create a balance. The project had partners in Germany, Italy and Poland. Kate is currently working on a follow-on project examining self-employment for older workers

Second, Kate has worked on projects exploring telecare and technology use by older adults. She managed the Oxfordshire-based research site of project on older people, their carers and technological care solutions or ‘telecare’. This project, the AKTIVE project, funded by the Technology Strategy Board and ESRC through the Assisted Living Innovation Platform, was conducted in collaboration with the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities (CIRCLE, University of Leeds [now Sheffield]), Tunstall Healthcare (UK) Ltd and Inventya Solutions Ltd from June 2011 – May 2014. The AKTIVE project explored the potential of telecare to: improve the quality of life of older individuals with dementia / susceptibility to falls and sustain their independence; enable family caregivers to continue their care / support of older family members alongside work and other roles; and enhance and modernise social care / support in a cost-effective way. Kate also worked on a further collaboration with CIRCLE on a piece of research commissioned by SENSE (the deaf-blind charity) to explore telecare use by individuals with dual-sensory impairment.

Third, Kate worked on projects related to museums, galleries and wellbeing. Kate also worked on the Dulwich Picture Gallery project with Professor Sarah Harper, which evaluated their community outreach programmes for older individuals, and with the British Museum on a report examining the impact of ageing on the museum and gallery sector. The publication based on the findings (‘“This is Living”- Good Times: Art for Older People at Dulwich Picture Gallery’) won the Royal Society for Public Health Arts and Health Research Award in 2011. Kate also worked on projects for the British Museum, exploring the impact of population ageing on their audience, and the Museum of Oxford addressing the outcomes of its ‘Memory Lane’ reminiscence programme.

Kate received PhD from the University of Bath in 2010. Her thesis addressed the changes to policies for work and retirement transitions for those over 50 in EU15 nations over the period of 1995-2005, with a particular focus on the uneven impact of these reforms upon different sub-groups within this age category. She published a book based on her thesis with Palgrave in 2013.