**Register via Eventbrite here**

The UWS-Oxfam Partnership is inviting a wide range of stakeholders for a discussion about what needs to change in Scotland to ensure we have fair recognition of care work, achieve an equal redistribution of caring responsibility, and ensure the representation of parents and carers in decision-making when it comes to making care policy.

From those working in the paid childcare and health and social care sectors, to parents and unpaid carers of people with additional needs – everyone has a different experience of how important paid and unpaid care work is to our households and communities, but also how it can be undervalued by society and how it can trap people in poverty. The Forum seeks to capture these experiences, in particular from those whose voices are often not heard – members of local grassroots organisations, community groups, health and social care providers, child care providers, and anti-poverty campaigners.

The Policy Forum will focus on the following questions with the intention of informing the UWS-Oxfam Partnership’s research and advocacy agenda. Also, the Partnership hopes that the discussions bring up ideas for collaborative research and advocacy projects between the Partnership and the invited participants and their organisations and communities:

1. What are the key issues relating to care and work (or care-work) that can mean those with a caring role are at higher risk of poverty?
2. In relation to these issues, what kinds of evidence drives change?
3. What research could the UWS-Oxfam Partnership contribute to this topic, in collaboration with participants?
4. Beyond the evidence: in what other ways can we shift the terms of the debate around care, work and poverty?

The Policy Forum will be highly interactive and participant-led and will be introduced by the following speakers:

Dr Vanesa Fuertes (Researcher at UWS): Vanesa has, in her research on barriers to and disadvantages in the labour market, focused on the impact of care responsibilities on individuals and households, and on the suitability, affordability and availability of care services. She found that both impact on individuals’ current and future finances, careers, and opportunities.

Dr Greig Inglis (Researcher at UWS): Greig has conducted research into the health, wellbeing and post-secondary school expectations of young carers. He used data from the NHSGGC Schools Survey and will discuss the value of secondary analysis of large-scale datasets to generate evidence and argue for policy change.

Rhiannon Sims (Research and Policy Officer, Oxfam Scotland): Rhiannon is leading on Oxfam’s domestic poverty programme in Scotland with its strategic focus on the value of care work. She will share insights from the ‘Four Rs’ approach taken by Oxfam in its international ‘We-Care’ programme and the relevance of this to policy in Scotland.

Dr Hartwig Pautz (Researcher at UWS): Hartwig has conducted research on ‘decent work’ and will address how research evidence was used to lobby the Scottish Government to make changes in policy – also so that people working in the care sector experience higher job quality and so that unpaid carers have the chance to balance their responsibilities with their need for ‘decent work’.

The event is organised by the UWS-Oxfam Partnership. The Partnership brings together academics, the third sector, policy practitioners and other stakeholders to discuss and promote our shared vision of a more equitable, sustainable and socially just Scotland.

**Register via Eventbrite here**

Practical information about the event

This event is free. The Partnership will be able to reimburse travel costs. There will be light lunch provided.

The event takes place in Room P116 in the P Block on the University’s Paisley Campus. The crèche facilities will be in Room G114. Room P116 is best found from the University’s entrance on Storie Street. Room G114 is in the Gardner Building off George Street. Please note – there was no demand for creche places so that they will now not be offered.

Please find a campus map here: Campus map Paisley. P Block can be found on the second page, at the centre of the Campus and near its Storie Street entrance.

The campus is a 10 minute walk from Paisley Gilmour Street station, and a 10 minute walk from Paisley St James station. Paisley Gilmour Street is 10 minute train journey from Glasgow Central; Paisley St James is a 20 minute train journey. There is limited parking around the campus and there is a multi-storey car park on Storie Street. We have reserved some parking spaces on campus for those with mobility needs.

Should you need a parking for duration of the event and/or parking, please indicate this in the registration. Should the event show as fully booked, please contact the local organiser to be added to a waiting list. Due to the format of the event, we can only accommodate a certain number of participants. Local organiser: Dr Hartwig Pautz ([email protected] – 0141 848 3770 – 07913929748)