Five projects selected to be part of new programme to help the social care sector respond to COVID-19 and its aftermath

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed major weaknesses in the social care data system. These problems made it harder for the country to respond to outbreaks and to support carers to provide care during the pandemic, and ultimately led to avoidable suffering for our most vulnerable people.

The Health Foundation’s new £300,000 programme is supporting five projects that will help improve understanding of the problems the sector is facing and the actions that need to be taken. The projects are focused on specific problems that have been identified: improving the quality of social care for cohorts of people that experience the worst outcomes; building a resilient, safe workforce; and understanding the lived experience of people needing social care.   

The project teams will help to catalyse further change in the social care analytics system by sharing their learning, findings and methods with our new community of practice, as well as with national policy makers and membership organisations who represent social care commissioners, providers and people who need social care.

Each project is led by a local/regional NHS or social care provider or commissioning organisation and will run for up to 12 months, with each team receiving up to £60,000 of funding to support the implementation, evaluation and dissemination of findings from their work.

The projects are:

• Sharing adult social care workforce data across London to support operational and strategic commissioning decision-making
  Brent Council
• Open tendering and open performance: making care and support accountable to those who give and those who receive care and support
  Equal Care Co-op
• Developing data analytics to improve how social care is monitored and understood for those with the worst outcomes
  Manor Community
• Analysing quality of life for people with a learning disability using the Personal Outcome Scale
  Royal Mencap Society
• ‘Careforce’ neighbourhood mapping – releasing time to care
  Torbay Council