Home Care
HOME CARE
Recruitment and Retention of the Social Care Workforce for Older People
(Principal Investigator: Professor Jill Rubery)
In recent years there has been increasing concern about the availability of a workforce in social care particularly to meet the increasing needs of an ageing population. This is often expressed as a concern about recruitment and retention of those working in care services. This study, undertaken between 2007 and 2010, was funded by the Department of Health PRP. It was part of a larger piece of work designed to look at factors which influence the recruitment and retention of the social care workforce to identify potential areas of action by local authorities and service providers.
Publications
Chester, H., Hughes, J., and Challis, D. (2010). Patterns of commissioning, contracting and care management in social care services for older people in England. British Journal of Social Work, 40, 8, 2523 - 2537.
Hughes, J., Chester, H., and Challis, D. (2013). Home care services for older people: findings from a national survey of social care commissioners. Research Policy and Planning, 30, 1, 51-64.
Chester, H., Hughes, J., and Challis, D. (2014). Commissioning social care for older people: influencing the quality of direct care. Ageing and Society, 34, 6, 930-950.
Commissioning Home Care for Older People
(Principal Investigator: Professor David Challis)
This study, funded by NIHR SSCR, was designed to explore local authority arrangements for commissioning home care for older people. By developing an understanding of current practice, it aimed to provide evidence to inform decisions about the most effective approaches. This study took place between May 2016 to March 2019. More information is available on the NIHR SSCR website project page.
Publications
Davies, K., Dalgarno, E., Davies, S., Roberts, A., Hughes, J., Chester, H., Jasper, R., Wilson, D. and Challis, D., 2021. The challenges of commissioning home care for older people in England: commissioners’ perspectives. Ageing & Society. 41(8), 1858-1877.
Davies, K., Dalgarno, E., Angel, C., Davies, S., Hughes, J., Chester, H., Jasper, R., Roberts, A. and Challis, D., 2020. Home-care providers as collaborators in commissioning arrangements for older people. Health and Social Care in the Community. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.13169
Davies, S., Hughes, J., Davies, K., Dalgarno, E., Jasper, R., Chester, H., Roberts, A. and Challis, D., 2020. Changes in commissioning home care: an English survey Quality in Ageing and Older Adults. 21(1), 3-14. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/QAOA-10-2019-0055/full/html
Jasper, R., Hughes, J., Roberts, A., Chester, H., Davies, S. and Challis, D., 2019. Commissioning Home Care for Older People: Scoping the Evidence. Journal of Long-Term Care. 2, 176-193. https://journal.ilpnetwork.org/articles/9/
Home Care in Dementia: Critical Components of Effectiveness
[Principal Investigator: Professor David Challis (From start date in 2017 to Nov 2018)]
This study was funded by NIHR SSCR and took place between June 2017 and April 2019. It investigated the effectiveness of home care for people with dementia. Some three fifths of people with dementia live in private households. Helping them to ‘live well’, a policy objective, will necessitate establishing the most appropriate and effective forms of home or personal support, taking into account the wishes, views and contributions of people with dementia and their informal carers.
Sutcliffe, C., Davies, K., Ahmed, S., Hughes, J. and Challis, D. 2021. Delivering Personalised Home Care for People with Dementia: An Investigation of Care Providers’ Roles and Responsibilities Journal of Long-term Care. 58-69. https://journal.ilpnetwork.org/articles/10.31389/jltc.35/
Community Support Services for People with Dementia: The Relative Costs and Benefits of Specialist and Generic Domiciliary Care Services
(Principal Investigator: Professor David Challis)
In the context of an ageing population there has been a growing concern to develop the right kind of support, care and treatment for people with dementia. Like many other countries the Department of Health in England has produced a National Dementia Strategy which specifies a range of services to support people with dementia and their carers at home. A key element of this is domiciliary care services and it is not clear to what extent there are greater benefits from the provision of specialist or generic home care services in dementia care. This project was designed to inform the National Dementia Strategy by providing greater clarity as to the costs and benefits of different types of home support. The study was funded by the Department of Health PRP from 2010 to 2011.
Research Summary
Publications
Chester H, Clarkson P, Davies L, Sutcliffe C, Roe B, Hughes J. and Challis D. (2017) A discrete choice experiment to explore carer preferences. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults. 18(5): 33-43.