Peninsula Adult Social Care Research Collaborative (PARC)

Embedding research into practice to improve social care outcomes

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Users of adult social care have a right to expect services to be based on the best evidence. Research should advise services about what helps people best, and what people say they want and need.

Social care providers should also get value for money. Research on how to make this happen is limited and of mixed quality. Our key idea is that when researchers move out of universities and into practice settings, they and the service providers and service users and carers can learn from each other. Placing researchers in social care organisations and bringing staff, service users and researchers together will help identify important areas for research and make change happen more quickly, to make a difference to the lives of service users and carers. It is important for everyone using services that there is good research about how well they work, but at present this is limited and more is needed. We want to test a new way of making this happen.

What we’re doing

We are trying a new idea: setting up research teams inside social care organisations. We are developing a network of ‘embedded’ research teams. Each team will have a social worker trained to carry out research and an experienced researcher, based in the social care organisation. Senior managers, university staff and other research specialists have formed part of a wider team to support them, with service users and carers who wish to become involved.

Researchers are learning about service delivery, and practitioners are learning how to do research to help improve services. Embedded teams are building relationships between practitioners and people receiving services. The networks are producing research that will enable services to improve what they do.

How we’re doing this

Embedded teams are using a mix of approaches, including training practitioners so they understand better how to improve what they do through research. They are carrying out two research projects to help improve services, and find out how well this approach works. Service users and carers are an important part of this process. Meaningful involvement with a wide diverse group of experts is an integral feature of the project. We are offering training in research and involvement methods to experts by experience to learn from each other. Our co-applicants worked with experts by experience for many years and our team includes an experienced service user researcher who is an ‘independent critical friend’. We actively involve people who use support and services or are carers both when conducting the research and sharing our learning. Evaluating our project – finding out how it is working and finding things that are not working as well as we hoped – is an important part of this study to test out our ideas.

Reaching different people with our work

The research networks work together to:

Co-produce accessible research reports, service evaluations, publications and other outputs, which will be shared regionally and nationally;
Rapidly implement improvements based on research to improve services;
Provide insight into service problems, leading to research tailored to local need.

Developing future services

This is a ‘proof of concept’ study, meaning we are testing these ideas and will report back to help other organisations decide whether this approach could help them understand issues in their area and support service users and carers in their area better.

This study is supported by the NIHR ARC South West Peninsula (PenARC) and NIHR ARC South London

We are collaborating with three Local Authorities in Torbay, Cornwall and Somerset, and we have Practitioner-Researchers recruited at each site working on embedding a research culture in their organisations and on specific, nested research projects, with the support of experienced researchers at the University of Plymouth. The research projects have been chosen based on consultation with adult social care staff, management teams and commissioners to choose a topic or topics that are pertinent to their organisational priorities and will have the most impact on providing evidence to support good practice.

Torbay

We have had three Practitioner-Researchers recruited in Torbay, working on the following projects:

Investigating complex care in Torbay: what defines complex care, what are the costs associated with it, and a narrative review around defining complexity in adult social care.
What is the nature and scope of housing-related service delivery and coordination issues experienced by social care service users, and how are these issues navigated, from the perspective of practitioners?

Cornwall

There is one Researcher-Practitioner working for PARC in Cornwall, focusing on Safeguarding Adult Reviews, which are investigation that occur when a person receiving adult social care services has died or has suffered serious harm to prevent the same situation happening again.

The research project includes a literature review, case studies from Cornwall and staff focus groups.

Somerset

We have recruited two Researcher-Practitioners in Somerset and they are carrying out a mapping exercise of Talking Cafes and other community offers in the area, as well as a more in-depth look at a selection of Talking Cafes in different areas of Somerset. This will inform what the offer is, what works well and not so well and what the potential impact might be as a preventative measure before adult social care services are needed.

PARC Co-Production

The PARC research team are currently connected with over 30 experts by experience across the Peninsula. These groups include:

Champs Cornwall
Complex care team Cornwall
Co-ordin8 Torbay
Learning Disability Ambassadors Torbay

Working together with University Researchers, Practitioner Researchers working on the PARC project have co-delivered twelve Sessions with Coordin8 LD day centre (15 people) and eight Sessions with CHAMPS (service users, employed by Cornwall County Council). The focus of these sessions has been co-creation and co-production. The research team have focused on what research is important to service users and why and supported them to co-produce research material.

Examples of PARC co-production work

Co-ordin8 co-produced a leaflet offering guidance around discharge planning for people living with a learning disability in Torbay, this leaflet now sits with Torbay hospital.

Co-ordin8 co-produced research material for the housing project in Torbay including the interview schedule for staff, consent form, information sheet and focus group discussion points. The research team have worked with co-ordin8 to offer training in carrying out interviews with staff. Two members of the group will be supporting the research practitioner in Torbay to interview staff around how housing status impacts social care delivery.

CHAMPS in Cornwall have produced easy read versions of PARC project information. These resources have been invaluable in providing easy read material for the research team to disseminate at various events and conferences locally and nationally.

CHAMPS co-produced research material for the Cornwall nested research project including the interview schedule for staff, consent form and information pack.

Both CHAMPS and Co-Ordin8 have worked with the research team to produce pieces of work which showcase where research is important to them. Including Dioramas showing safe spaces, posters showing how communication should be considered on public transport and leaflets for hospital staff giving guidance on how to communicate effectively with a person with a learning disability supporting a loved one in hospital.

As we near the end of the project our experts by experience groups will be continuing to support the PARC project with dissemination by producing easy-read versions of research outcomes and supporting us with showcasing research outputs at local events.