What social care approaches and initiatives are effective in improving people’s care and outcomes and experiences?

Background

Statutory adult social care is overseen and administered by local authorities, who provide data on this provision. However, this data is complex, and at times non-comparable or incomplete. There is also a substantial portion of the population who may access social care support outwith statutory provision, through privately funding part or all of their own care, as well as receiving support from unpaid carers. These individuals are often invisible in datasets that seek to track social care clients.
We want to increase our understanding of who accesses what kinds of social care, where, when, and how. Understanding how people are accessing social care includes understanding how social care operates as part of the wider system of health and social care and where there are opportunities to strengthen access through further integration of services. This could include for example, evidence on the application of the GIRFE (Getting It Right For Everyone) principles.

Next steps

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Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

Social Care Analytical Unit Areas of Research Interest 2026 2029 published 25 March 2026

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Related UKRI funded projects

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    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on monitoring and evaluation of social impact, not specific social care approaches.

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    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it addresses the challenges faced by unpaid carers and the reforms in adult social care.

  • IMPACT: Improving Adult Care Together

    IMPACT stands for 'Improving Adult Care Together'. It is a new £15 million UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care, co-funded by the ESRC and the Health Foundation. It is led by Professor Jon Glasb...

    Funded by: SPF

    Lead research organisation: University of Birmingham

    Why might this be relevant?

    Fully relevant as it focuses on implementing evidence in adult social care and involves key stakeholders.

  • Centre for Care

    The Centre for Care is a collaboration between the universities of Sheffield, Birmingham, Kent and Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Office for National Statistics, Carers UK, the National...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Sheffield

  • Person-centred Integrated Care (PIC) Networks supporting Healthy Ageing in Place

    The UK has an ageing population with increasingly complex health and care needs, linked to growing rates of long-term illness and multi-morbidity that are disproportionately high in the most deprived communities. The res...

    Funded by: MRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Oxford

  • University of Central Lancashire And NHS Blackburn with Darwen Teaching Care Trust Plus

    To develop a mechanism to improve efficiency, effectiveness and co-ordination of service users' and carers' contribution and involvement in future health and social care service developments....

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE

  • Meaningful and measurable: developing approaches to the analysis and use of information on personal outcomes within health and social care

    Policy and practice across the UK and beyond is committed to improving the lives of people who use services and unpaid carers. Over the past five to ten years there has been a particular concern to shift health and socia...

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  • CARERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY: DEVELOPING THE EVIDENCE BASE

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  • University of Essex and Colne Housing Society Limited

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  • The Tribe Project

    The mission of the Tribe project is to directly address inequalities in local and national care and community support. Tribe represents a unique opportunity for collaboration between the most radical developers, provider...

    Funded by: ISCF

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Similar ARIs from other organisations

Reforming local government, local government finance and local public services What is the evidence that prevention and early intervention in adult social care, children’s social care and other local services improve outcomes – compared with treating problems – and lead to better value for money for taxpayers?  Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2025
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