Care England joins new centre to research adult social care

Care England along with the University of Birmingham is helping to develop a pioneering new centre to innovate, improve, promote and maintain people’s independence and wellbeing in adult social care.

The new centre called IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together), the first of its kind in the UK, will look at studies and practice-based evidence, agree with priorities and design as well as establish, deliver and evaluate the centre’s work programme to a sustainable change in the future of adult social care.

IMPACT will create a team of people who have experience in the social care sector, including unpaid carers, care workers, experts in the mobilisation and implementation of evidence, social care providers, commissioners and policy experts, and academic teams from across the UK.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England said: “The adult social care workforce is our best resource, and the IMPACT study is a very welcome means to help ensure social care becomes a career of choice, not just a job.

"Our sector needs more evidence and data, and Care England is delighted to be part of the study.”

The centre will:

• Lead the way in helping people working in adult social care, carers, and the people they support make better use of high-quality, practice-based evidence to support innovation in adult social care

• Build capacity and skills in the adult social care workforce

• Help develop sustainable and productive relationships between all of those working across adult social care

• Improve our understanding of what helps or hinders when putting evidence into practice

Jon Glasby, Professor of health and social care at the University of Birmingham has been appointed as IMPACT’s director and will be working with a range of partners from across the UK to lead the co-development, establishment and delivery of the centre.

Professor Glasby said: “Adult social care touches people’s lives in such important and intimate ways, and it’s crucial that it’s based on the best possible evidence of what works.

“Good care isn’t just about services, it’s about having a life and the ESRC and the Health Foundation are providing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a real difference.”

The centre has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, and the Health Foundation.

The centre will receive funding of £15 million over the next six years, with equal contributions from ESRC and the Health Foundation.

ESRC executive chair, Professor Alison Park, said: “The complex nature of the social care system means that frontline practice does not always benefit sufficiently from the evidence we already have about what works.

“The increased implementation of evidence-based innovations and improvements in adult social care are crucial to ensuring better outcomes for the many people who use these services, and their carers and families.

"Finding a way to make this happen is challenging but the prize, in terms of improvements to adult social care, makes it essential.”

Will Warburton, director of improvement, the Health Foundation, added: “The fragmented nature of the adult social care sector poses real challenges for ensuring the consistent provision of evidence-based, high-quality care and support that will increase the use of high-quality research evidence in the adult social care sector across the UK.”