This ESRC-funded project tested the relationship between size and performance in organisations providing adult social care to see if micro-enterprises outperform larger care providers in delivering services to users that are valued; innovative; personalised and cost-effective. Project findings are of relevance to local authorities, service users and other organisations as they commission care services, and to social entrepreneurs as they develop provision. They also deepen social scientific knowledge of the relationship between organisational size and performance in welfare services, of relevance to academics working in fields such as social policy and public management.
Reports
Outputs
- Does smaller mean better? Evaluating Micro-enterprises in adult social care: Evaluation of co-researcher involvement summary report (PDF)
- What is the right size for a care organisation? We want to tell you what we found out. Microenterprises, July 2015 (PDF)
- Hall, K, Needham, C and Allen, K (2014), 'Grass Roots Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Micro-Enterprises in Social Care'. Paper for International Research Society for Public Management Annal Conference, Ottowa, Canada, April 2014.
- Social care for marginalised communities: understanding self-organisation for micro-provision’, by Sarah Carr, a Policy Paper for the Health Services Management Centre, February 2014. Read the Policy Paper 18 and Blog.
- Innovation in social care: it’s the “how” as much as the “what”’ by Catherine Needham, a blog for the Institute of Local Government Studies, October 2013
Research team
Catherine Needham, Kelly Hall, Kerry Allen, Jon Glasby, Steve McKay, Rosemary Littlechild and Denise Tanner.
Research partners
Social Care Institute for Excellence
Community Catalysts
Further information
For more details on this research project, please contact Catherine Needham, c.needham.1@bham.ac.uk.