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WORK PACKAGE 6
Investigating the extent, knowledge of and determinants of innovation in adult social care

AIMS

We are:

  • describing quantitatively the characteristics and extent of adult social care (ASC) innovation, capacity for innovation, reasons for generating/adopting innovations, and knowledge and use of support for innovation

  • testing hypotheses about determinants of innovation adoption derived from the empirical and theoretical work in earlier work packages. 

METHODS

We conducted a survey of councils with social services responsibilities (CSSRs) and social care providers across England. Initially, a pilot survey tested:

  • the sampling frame for provider organisations

  • the feasibility of an online survey

  • the questionnaire content and length

  • the target individual(s) for the survey for each type of organisation surveyed

  • strategies for encouraging completion 

  • strategies for linking survey responses to other data.

Following the pilot, the main survey was conducted. 


Survey data was linked to existing data on: local area characteristics: socio economic and demographic factors, supply characteristics, geographical characteristics; and local social care system: local authority (LA) returns on expenditure, unit costs, social care coverage, and quality of life of social care recipients and carers .


We used statistical and econometric methods to analyse:

  • distribution across areas and provider types of take-up of innovation, research capacity and organisational capacity, reasons for innovation generation/adoption and knowledge and use of available support infrastructure for innovation

  • relationships between patterns of innovation, organisational characteristics and local environment such as local demand levels and supply factors

  • relationships between take-up of innovation and value for LAs and providers, using proxies of care system performance and of provider performance. 

 

OUTPUTS 

We are preparing individual papers on each of the three analyses. 

RESEARCH LEADS

Juliette Malley, Jose-Luis Fernandez and Raphael Wittenberg

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