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Supporting people with learning disabilities to rent their own place: regional and national discussions
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2022
- Pagination:
- 7
- Place of publication:
- London
This document presents a summary of the main findings from one national and eight regional roundtable events to discuss renting in the social housing and private rented sectors and the support available for this for people with mild or moderate learning disabilities on the edges of social care eligibility in England. The events were attended by over 100 professionals and experts by experience including: people with learning disabilities, family carers, advocates, social care staff, social and private housing providers, representatives from local authorities, the NHS and voluntary and community organisations and key national policy experts. Key messages include: there is a shortage of housing in general which impacts on people with learning disabilities who wish to rent and who often do not have sufficient resources or priority to help them secure this limited housing; social housing was often viewed as the first or preferred option for people with mild or moderate learning disabilities, but this sector was difficult to access; there were some positive examples of renting from private landlords, however there were also significant concerns over the quality and insecure nature of renting in the private sector; it was reported that formal social care support was often hard to obtain for people with mild or moderate learning disabilities renting their own homes; practical and emotional support for renting a home was often provided by families who filled gaps in support – families often described a lack of adequate information and/or support for themselves; there needs to be greater choice and better information available to people with learning disabilities who wish to rent their home – social housing needs to be easier to access and private rented housing needs to be more secure with better quality controls; there needs to be more low-level support services available to people renting their own homes; overall, there is a need for a greater policy priority on housing for people with learning disabilities, including better joint working between housing and social care. (Edited publisher abstract)
Exploring the role of volunteers in care settings for older people (ERVIC)
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
The aim of this study was to explore the role of volunteers in the provision of adult social care settings by exploring: the roles do volunteers play in social care settings; the motivations of managers and/or coordinators in seeking the contributions of volunteers and what are the challenges and opportunities related to their involvement; how volunteering perceived and experienced by volunteers and paid members of staff; how older people perceive and experience volunteer involvement in social care; what can social care services learn from current practice with volunteers in older people's services. The contribution volunteers make to adult social care services can be classified in three ways: augmenting existing care services; providing a discrete free-standing service; or substituting for care workers by filling gaps in provision. In settings where volunteers provided a discrete service or augmented provision the volunteer role had clear boundaries. In contrast, where volunteers were filling gaps there was less clarity between the role of volunteers and that of paid care workers. Organisations that employed a volunteer co-ordinator/manager were more likely to have an established ‘volunteer package’. In others there appeared to be more confusion over what the volunteer role was and how it should be carried out. These findings contest the idea that there is an ‘army’ of volunteers that can be drawn upon to aid the delivery of social care. This is due to factors such as increased intergenerational care, rising female employment, later retirement and rurality. (Edited publisher abstract)
The role of adult social care in improving outcomes for young people who provide unpaid care
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- National Institute for Health Research
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
This study aimed to find out the impacts of caring on young people, including economic impacts, and whether and in what ways services provided for an individual with care needs can also support young people providing care, in particular their education, employment and health. It focussed on young people in England aged 16–25, caring for an adult. The study used three main methods: analysis of data from three waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2013 to 2017) and Health Survey for England; an online and paper survey completed by 188 young adult carers; in-depth interviews with 14 young people who had also taken part in the survey to explore in further depth the relationship between social care service receipt for adults with care needs and outcomes for young adult carers seen in the national data and survey. Young people (16 to 25) who provided care were found to be: less likely to be in employment, have lower earnings from paid employment, and have poorer mental and physical health than equivalent young people who did not provide care. Costs to the state were an estimated £1 billion a year. Individual young carers also experienced financial costs. The association between receipt of care for the person with care needs and the impacts of providing care on young people’s lives was mixed. Services could have negative as well as positive effects and, in many cases, were not in sufficient amount or the right type to prevent young people from carrying out levels of care that impacted on their employment, education and health. Aspects of services identified as helpful/less helpful included timeliness; access; involving the young person and taking into account their needs; relationship with practitioners; and continuity of care. (Edited publisher abstract)
The influence of social care on delayed transfers of care (DTOCs) among older people
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
This study aimed to bridge the gap in evidence by answering two questions: why delays in discharge are (still) happening; and how they might be reduced or prevented. The project used quantitative and case study analysis to explore why DTOCs occur and how rates could be prevented or reduced. The quantitative analysis identified unexplained days of DTOCs between 2010 and 2016 for each LA after controlling for their characteristics, i.e. we identified DTOCs that could not be explained by LA-level demographic, demand and supply factors. The study also shows that: the supply of care home beds and home care can help reduce DTOCs; the interventions included in the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) vanguards have a statistically significant association with lower local DTOC rates; planning for discharge gives more time to set-up care packages that may help to prevent or reduce DTOCs, alongside helping to avoid unsustainable packages of care that can contribute to re-admissions; physically co-locating social care and NHS discharge teams can assist with the visibility of teams as well as communication across disciplines; clear discharge pathways are especially important where there is high ward staff turnover or use of agency nurses. The study also indicates that DTOCs could be due to communication problems between organisational representatives. (Edited publisher abstract)
Connecting People implementation study
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
This study aimed to investigate if Connecting People could be implemented with high fidelity in community mental health teams (CMHTs) and improve outcomes for mental health service users. Connecting People is strengths-based social care practice which assists people to engage more with their communities and enhance their social connections with others. The programme can improve individuals’ access to social capital (the resourcefulness of someone’s social network). The study used implementation and comparison CMHTs teams in five mental health NHS Trusts to evaluate the implementation of Connecting People by practitioners using a pack of high-quality implementation materials – including practice guidance, training manual, service user’s guide and implementation manual – co-produced by mental health service users and researchers. Key findings include: the implementation of Connecting People did not fully occur and no differences in service user outcomes or costs were found; practitioners noted their high caseloads, understaffing and having to prioritise work with people in crisis often meant that there was not capacity to support service users with their social connections; community mental health teams (CMHTs) did not sufficiently engage with the local communities of service users to implement Connecting People; only a minority of service users said that they had had the implementation materials explained to them, indicating that practitioners did not fully engage with them; many participants in both the control and implementation groups reported improvements in their wellbeing over the course of the study from their increased social connections and/or awareness of local opportunities. (Edited publisher abstract)
Online advice to carers: an updated review of local authority websites in England
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- National Institute for Health Research
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
Summarises findings of a study which examined publicly available information on the websites of 150 local authorities in England to identify support available to carers. The research team aimed to identify: how local authorities use their websites to inform and advise carers about support and services available to them; and how support and services for carers are affected by the COVID19 pandemic. The findings reveal that outsourcing support for (unpaid) carers from some local authorities (LAs) to third sector organisations (TSO) has created a complex and fragmented system in England, demonstrated on some LA local websites. During the COVID-19 pandemic life ‘online’ has enabled social connections to be maintained and information to be shared by those who can use this technology. There is huge variation between LA websites, calling for technical improvements in a minority as well as changes in content and tone in others to improve communication with carers. Around half of LAs or their contracted TSOs were making effective use of their websites to provide clear, user-friendly information for carers, to enable carers to avoid isolation and provide a valuable lifeline at a time of intense pressure. Good practice could be shared relatively easily through national organisations. (Edited publisher abstract)
Older men at the margins: experiences of seeking social engagement and combating loneliness in later life: research findings
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- National Institute for Health Research
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
Summarises findings of a study aimed to develop an in-depth understanding of how older men from marginalised and seldom heard groups sought to maintain social engagement and social participation in later life. This included their experiences of participation in group interventions targeted at reducing loneliness among older adults. A total of 111 men self-selected to take part in the study from five groups: (1) men who are single or living alone in urban areas; (2) men who are single or living alone in rural areas (i.e. towns, villages, hamlets with less than 10,000 residents); (3) gay-identifying men who are single or living alone; (4) men with hearing loss; and (5) men who are carers for significant others. Participants ranged in ages from 65–95 years and the mean age was 76. Key findings include: the effects of loneliness were often pronounced and had a range of negative impacts on day-to-day life; experiences differed by sexuality, hearing loss and caring responsibility; feeling 'left out of things', socially excluded, overlooked, cut-off were commonly expressed emotions; men did not always have people to confide their feelings to – or felt reticent about doing so; men valued groups that tried to increase social opportunities and interaction; mixed aged groups were strongly preferred, as they did not want to be siloed in groups for ‘old people’; there were notable barriers and challenges in accessing and participating in groups; social care practitioners need to be aware of the life events associated with loneliness and how these trigger points impact on wellbeing and social engagement with others. (Edited publisher abstract)
Learning from international models of advance care planning to inform evolving practice in England: research findings
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- National Institute for Health Research
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
Findings from study examining real-world delivery of Advance care planning (ACP) support on a large scale internationally. The study identified several areas in which efficiencies can be sought to enable delivery at scale. In-depth interviews were carried out with a range of leaders and frontline staff from 12 international healthcare organisations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US. The study found that physician leadership and involvement in ACP are key; recommendation by a physician was the most important factor influencing take-up. But physicians do not have the time to deliver ACP support single-handedly. Nurses, particularly those involved in chronic disease management, and social workers can play key roles. Social workers have facilitation and counselling skills, work with families and are able to conduct challenging conversations efficiently. The growth of palliative care social work and increasing involvement of social workers in the care of people with chronic disease and at the end of life present new possibilities for their involvement in ACP. Team-based approaches align well with new multi-disciplinary models of care and allow for coordinated approaches. While supporting individuals is important, some of the aims of ACP can be promoted through public education, public health, group facilitation approaches and community-based interventions. (Edited publisher abstract)
Optimising the quality of social work decisions in supervision: research findings
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
Social workers often make decisions in consultation with a supervisor. This study sought to provide empirical evidence of the effect of the experience of supervision on social workers’ decision-making on fictional cases, to explore their reasoning for their decisions, and how compliant with legal frameworks their decisions were. Two phases tested whether the psychological experience of the structure of a supervision session would have an effect on the quality of social workers’ decision-making using case vignettes. A third phase explored why social workers were making the decisions they made and the rules they relied on. The findings show that the supervision experience had no effect on social workers’ decision-making about case vignettes presented in the study; social workers participating in the study appeared not to recognise that the Care Act 2014 includes a counselling type of social work role and rarely decided to provide the individuals with this; social workers’ answers often assumed that the Care Act prohibited them from intervening when there were grounds to suspect that a person might not be the best judge of their wellbeing or when following their wishes might not promote their wellbeing, even where these appeared to adversely impact on their wellbeing; social workers did not recognise that the Care Act requires wellbeing related to protection to be promoted through the assessment and related care plan, nor that the assessment must be completed and eligible needs met if an adult is at risk of abuse or neglect, even if the adult does not wish this. (Edited publisher abstract)
Exploring support for adults with learning disabilities to find loving relationships: research findings
- Author:
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH. School for Social Care Research
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- London
Findings from a study aimed to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of formal and informal support for adults with learning disabilities to form loving relationships. The study involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with 40 people with learning disabilities to understand what is important to them in terms of relationships; interviews and focus groups with 90 people to generate knowledge about how key stakeholders understand the key barriers to support; analysis of data from 10 dating agencies. People with learning disabilities in this study reported that love, and having a loving relationship, was very important to them, but that they still faced many barriers. Specialist dating and friendship agencies play a key role. However, LGBT+ people with learning disabilities face more obstacles than most and some agencies struggle to meet their needs. Social care staff were aware of their important role in supporting people with learning disabilities to have relationships, but felt they needed more training and support from managers (and other professionals); they were concerned about people with learning disabilities being vulnerable to abuse and exploitation in relationships (especially women); many staff felt parents of adults with learning disabilities were often barriers to them having relationships. Contrary to the views of the social care staff, parents in the study were on the whole very supportive of their sons and daughters having relationships; like staff, parents were highly attuned to the possibility of abuse and exploitation; parents thought staff were often not prepared to take any risks regarding socialising and relationships. The agencies all gave far more support to people than a mainstream dating agency would; they were part of a wider service or bigger organisation; they all had a gender imbalance in their members and prospective members, with far more men joining than women. (Edited publisher abstract)