What role does social care play in preventing the need for hospital admission?
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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Carers Assessment Support
**A difficult time to care** Across the UK our social care system is more stretched than ever with increased demand and decreasing budgets. The lack of capacity in the system is placing additional pressures on the unpa...
Funded by: Innovate UK
Lead research organisation: UPSTREAM OUTCOMES LIMITED
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on supporting unpaid carers and the impact of social care reforms, directly addressing the question.
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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 adult social care interventions, which could provide partial insights into the question.
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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 project focuses on generating new evidence on care systems and inequalities, which could partially address the question.