Health Management and Policy Alert

Fixing social care: better quality services and jobs

Trades Union Congress - 
This report argues that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how essential social care is to society. It looks to the future and building a better system, including a demand for long-term, sustainable funding of services that provide value for money to the public purse while meeting the needs of individuals and communities. It also calls for appreciation of care workers through improved pay and working conditions.

• Report
• Trades Union Congress - publications

Digital innovation in adult social care: how we’ve been supporting communities during Covid-19

Local Government Association -
The Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services commissioned the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University to work with councils in capturing examples of social care digital innovation across local government. It captures key areas of continued work needed to enable successful and sustainable digital innovation in adult social care.

• Report
• Local Government Association - publications

Fixing social care: the fundamental choice

Centre for Policy Studies - 

This report weighs up the three leading options for social care reform, ranking them by cost, political feasibility and impact on supply. It concludes that, of the options being considered, a pension-style model would be most cost-effective, while also increasing supply and meeting the increasing demand for social care. It would also better protect people’s assets and benefit a greater number of families.

• Report
• More detail

Hospital discharge and preventing unnecessary hospital admissions (Covid-19)

Social Care Institute For Excellence -

This guide discusses the lessons learned from hospital discharge and avoidance during the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights challenges faced and good practice to prevent unnecessary admissions going forward.

• Guide
• More detail

Covid-19: guidance for supported living

Department of Health and Social Care -
This guidance sets out key messages to assist with planning and preparation in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic so that local procedures can be put in place to minimise risk and provide the best possible support to people in supported living settings. It also covers safe systems of working and how infection prevention and control and personal protective equipment applies to supported living settings.

• Guidance
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Adult social care and Covid-19: assessing the impact on social care users and staff in England so far

Health Foundation - 

This briefing provides an overview of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on social care in England. Part 1 describes how the pandemic unfolded in the social care sector from March until June 2020, and part 2 examines the factors that contributed to the scale and severity of outbreaks in care homes. Part 3 attempts to quantify the disruption to health and social care access from February until the end of April 2020.

• Briefing
• Press release

Adult social care and Covid-19: assessing the policy response in England so far

Health Foundation - 

This briefing provides a detailed description and timeline of the government’s social care response. It considers the role that social care has played in the overall policy narrative and identifies the underlying factors within the social care system, such as its structure and funding, that have shaped its ability to respond. It argues that central government support for social care came too late and that policy action on social care has been focused primarily on care homes and risks leaving out other vulnerable groups and services. Longstanding issues within the system – including underfunding, workforce shortages, system fragmentation, and lack of quality data – have shaped the ability of the sector to respond.

• Briefing
• Press release

 

Does public long-term care expenditure improve care-related quality of life in England?

Centre for Health Economics - 

This study employed an instrumental variable approach using conditionally exogenous elements of the public funding system to estimate the effect of public adults social care (ASC) expenditure on users’ care-related quality of life (CRQoL). The findings show that increasing public ASC expenditure by £1,000 per user generates 0.0031 additional CRQoL. These results suggest that public ASC is effective in increasing users’ quality of life but only to a relatively small extent.

• Report
• More detail

The impact of technology in adult social care provider services

Institute of Public Care (IPC) - 

Digital Social Care (a group of organisations working to support adult social care providers) set up a helpline to provide technical help and support to providers adapting to digital platforms as Covid-19 took hold. They worked with IPC to carry out research with social care providers to help them tackle digital challenges during the pandemic and beyond. This report of the action research identifies both the challenges but also the benefits for care providers of using technology. 

• Report
• More detail

Informal carers

House of Commons Library - 

This briefing paper provides information about the number of informal carers in the UK and the issues they face. It also explains the rights, benefits and support available to informal carers as well as current and previous government policy on caring.

• Briefing
• More detail