Convenors: Catherine Needham (University of Birmingham) and Matthew Lariviere (University of Sheffield)

Discussant: Dr Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University)

One of the characteristics of time is its rhythm: the tempo of events, interventions and innovations. The papers look at different elements of care policy and practice to bring out more explicitly the rhythms which shape the experiences of people in the care system.
In her paper, ‘Quick, quick, slow – The time tactics of adult social care reform’, Catherine Needham draws on empirical research with policy makers in the UK to surface the time tactics that are at work within policy reform. She suggests that the lack of progress on care reform to date can be understood in terms of the clash of reform tempos between different stakeholders.
In ‘Comparing the UK’s four care systems: context, change and time’, Patrick Hall (University of Birmingham) draws on interviews with senior and local policy makers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to compare the tempo of care practices in the four nations – and the clash between notions of modernity, progress and tradition.
In ‘Artificing care: Resolving contemporary care problems in imagined techno-futures’, Matthew Lariviere explores discourses focused on the tempo of innovation in care technology. He highlights tensions between a burgeoning evidence base of negative trial results and the promised potential of technologies to transform care in consistently unrealised and re-imagined futures.
In ’Progress towards co-production practices in care services’ Nanna Møller Mortensen (Aalborg University) draws on a Danish qualitative case study to explore implementation difficulties and timescales for co-production in care services. She highlights the use of implementation phases in order to discuss the possibility of triggering progression between phases, towards more co-produced public services.