• How can market shaping support the effectiveness and sustainability of social care? What is the evidence of where and how this has been used in practice?
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
Get in touch with [email protected]
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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ProjectCare: Disrupting the Social Care Industry with a Platform to Consumer Model
The social care sector in the UK is best by crisis. Several, overlapping crisises are rolled into one. Local authorities are struggling to find adequate funding for social care, with their spending power reduced by over ...
Funded by: ISCF
Lead research organisation: SITEKIT CARE LTD
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on disrupting the social care industry with a platform-to-consumer model, addressing the issues of funding, quality of care, and personalization.
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University of Brighton and Guild Care KTP 23_24 R1
To develop a monitoring and evaluation framework assessing the social impact of adult social care interventions to inform service design and engage donors to invest in new care approaches....
Funded by: Innovate UK
Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON
Why might this be relevant?
The project aims to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for assessing the social impact of adult social care interventions, which partially addresses the question on evidence of market shaping in practice.
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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
Why might this be relevant?
The Centre for Care project collaborates with various institutions to provide new evidence and thinking for policymakers, care sector organizations, and individuals involved in care, fully addressing the question on evidence of market shaping in social care.