‘What’s love got to do with it?’

Love matters – but adult social care often struggles to talk about it. This exploratory research project asks: what happens when we centre love in adult social care policy and practice?

Love is central to people’s lives, yet often invisible or sidelined in care systems. It can be messy, complicated, and even seen as unprofessional. But love also drives social justice, mutual aid, and fierce advocacy. Through creative collaboration with learning disabled people, family carers, and social care practitioners, we’re mapping existing research and exploring what a larger project about love in adult social care could look like.

Together, we’ll examine love in transitions, relationships, conflict, and professional practice, asking how care systems can better recognise and respond to the love that shapes people’s lives.