Select campus:UKDubai
University of Birmingham
Menu

Innovations in Adult Social Care and Social Work

In the realm of adult social care and social work across the UK, numerous innovations are emerging. Our goal was to rapidly identify and prioritize a shortlist of innovations for evaluation. To achieve this, we conducted horizon scanning and engaged with 182 stakeholders, including individuals, organizations, practitioners, and service users.

This project ran from July 2019 to November 2019

Our Approach

Our team, comprising members from BRACE and RSET, followed an adapted version of the James Lind Alliance method for priority setting. Here are the steps we took:

  1. Identification of Innovations: We gathered suggestions for 158 innovations.
  2. Criteria Development: We established criteria for shortlisting.
  3. Grouping and Sifting: We carefully evaluated and grouped the innovations.
  4. Prioritization Workshop: A workshop involving 23 stakeholders (including service users, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers) led to the identification of the top five priorities.

Our Outputs

Findings

One hundred and fifty-eight innovations were suggested. Twenty of these were included in the final shortlist. Twenty-three participants attended the prioritisation workshop. They included people who use adult social care services, practitioners, academics/researchers, commissioners/policy makers and carers. The top five priorities, which were agreed during the workshop, are described in the Rpaid Prioritisation of Topics for Rapid Evaluation Report in resources, along with the key themes and principles that informed the prioritisation decisions.

Limitations

Given the short period of time available for the horizon scanning, certain innovations may have been missed from the final shortlist. Similarly, some innovations that were included may have already been, or currently are being evaluated.

Conclusion

This approach was successful in identifying a large number of innovations in a short period of time, developing a shortlist and identifying the top five priorities. The next stage will be to conduct further scoping of the top five innovations (and existing/planned evaluations), in order to identify two innovations that can be evaluated by the two rapid evaluation teams.

Resources

Our Team