Care in Conversation
This course can be run for a leadership cohort on request.
Contact us to find out more: hello@thinklearning.org
‘I thought the first week on Plato’s cave was particularly profound for someone who hasn’t studied philosophy before, and a great way to open the course.’
Format
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Four 90-minute sessions, online
Delivered in partnership with
Cost
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£220 + VAT (Members) / £295 + VAT (Non-Members)
A philosophical course exploring the meaning of care in practice
Overview
Care in Conversation is a four-session course that invites practitioners and leaders to reclaim time and space for thinking and reflection.
Drawing on some of the most powerful ideas in the philosophical tradition — from Plato’s cave to his account of justice, and to ideas about power, recognition, and what it means to be human — the course offers deeper understanding and reflection on why, how and where care matters.
Each 90-minute session takes a short reading as stimulus for conversation. There are no lectures, no powerpoints, just careful thinking in the company of people who understand the work you do.
This is a course about the ideas and questions that lie behind social care and about what becomes possible when people in busy organisations are trusted with the time and space to explore them.
Care in Conversation was piloted with Barnardo’s in 2024.
The results of the evaluation of the pilot are available to read here in full. What they show, in the words of participants, is that this kind of learning stays with people, renewing their motivation and curiosity, and giving them a clearer sense of why their work matters.
Following the success of this course, we developed a complementary programme, Connecting with Care, exploring the ideas and practice of human relationships and connection.
Impact
Powerful educational experience
Success
First piloted with Barnardo’s, the UK’s leading children’s charity. The evaluation showed a clear positive impact on reflection and confidence in everyday practice. Colleagues rated the course 4.4/5 and described it as a safe, thoughtful space to learn.
Peer reviewed
An independent review found that 93% of participants would recommend the course, praising its depth and its effect on professional thinking. Participants reported renewed motivation and clearer purpose in their roles.
Recognition
Featured in a national CareKnowledge webinar chaired by Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly and published in their 2025 report on Philosophical Learning in Practice. The programme is now running with new cohorts across organisations.
Themes and Ideas
Exploring the meaning of care
1
What’s thinking ever done for us?
Is Plato’s answer to this question still relevant?
Why do we care?
Are human beings naturally caring or naturally indifferent or worse? Much depends on our answers to this question.
2
3
The power we possess
How can we responsibly negotiate the power and authority that we possess?
Where principles meet practice
How might we understand the difficulties of putting into practice the principles that we are committed to.
4
5
How philosophical thinking can support reflection, well-being, and better decision making
Philosophical ideas, carefully thought about, take us to the roots of why we do what we do, and how we do it.
Learning to care
How we work
Each course includes:
– Introduction to themes
– Short extracts as stimulus material
– Engaging ideas and perspectives
– Structured conversation
– Guided questions
– Resources
– Safe, supportive and inclusive environments
Through the reading of texts, and through thoughtful and respectful questioning and discussion, we aim to make our online seminars friendly, supportive and inclusive environments.
No background in philosophy is needed, just a willingness to think deeply, listen carefully, and join a different kind of professional conversation.
Such practice can be demanding: listening with care, questioning assumptions, holding the bigger picture with the small, and testing ideas. But it’s deeply worthwhile. What emerges is not a manual, but an educational experience which develops a cultivated mindset for thinking.
Think Learning’s tutors offer guided and structured encounters between what you understand and what you don’t understand. Through this kind of learning you can develop the skills needed to read, question, analyse and reflect, and to develop your own critical voice. This can be in relation to personal, institutional, social or global concerns and issues. We know from experience that, done well, these learning experiences can be transformative and even life changing.
This programme can be run for a cohort of 7 – 12 participants drawn from across a single organisation or across multiple organisations as part of a professional development programme.
Contact us to find out more: hello@thinklearning.org
Learning to care
Why this and why now
Social care is under pressure from every direction; from rising demand, squeezed resources, and systems that can make it harder to think and harder to care. Practitioners and leaders in this field are often the first to say that they have no time to think.
But research shows that time and space for thinking and reflection in professional life are not a luxury, but the resource that sustains everything else: ethical judgement, professional confidence, the capacity to stay anchored in ourselves for the people we work with. When that resource is neglected, we risk losing the motivation, purpose and well-being that is essential to the health and future of social care.
On this course you will:
* Experience a distinctive approach to thinking and learning through philosophical conversation
* Explore how thinking can renew the social and political practice of care
* Discover how abiding and inspiring ideas can support your practice
* Develop a different kind of thinking about the challenges of working within complex systems
* Experience what it feels like to think carefully and without pressure in the company of others
* Leave each session with questions and reflections worth carrying back into your work
Contact us to find out more: hello@thinklearning.org