This study is funded by NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research and led by PI Sara Ryan, Manchester Metropolitan University. Louise Locock is co-investigator at Aberdeen.
Local authorities need to find new ways of collecting and using data on people’s experiences of social care to improve service design and quality. This study has adapted and tested a service improvement approach used successfully in health care settings (experienced-based co-design), to help improve care and support for people affected by loneliness in one local authority.
We collected and analysed interviews with a diverse national sample of people able to talk about their experiences of loneliness and social care, and with social care staff, to explore opportunities for service improvement around loneliness. These interviews fed into co-design workshops with staff and users of services in Doncaster, to identify priority areas for improvement and set up working groups to implement planned changes, which were observed by a team from University of York.
Findings are now being analysed, but we have learnt that this quality improvement approach seems acceptable and potentially useful for wider use in social care.
Outputs will include a section on loneliness published on a new website Socialcaretalk.org based on analysis of the interviews and featuring film, audio and text extracts, and a ‘catalyst film’ which can be used freely by other organisations wanting to improve support for people living with loneliness.
Contacts
- Louise Locock; louise.locock@abdn.ac.uk