Evaluating the costs and benefits of implementing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) adult social care guidelines: A scoping study

PROJECT STATUS: Closed
/
START DATE AND DURATION: May 2021 - September 2021
Summary

This is a scoping study for a large evaluation of the economic impact of adult social care guidelines developed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

The study provided a detailed understanding of the nature of implementation processes in real world of social care practice. Implications relate to both national agencies such as NICE and the Care Quality Commission as well as local authorities. National organisations might consider the identified implementation realities when developing guidelines and inspection procedures and provide implementation support accordingly. NICE might expand their existing implementation resources and support in line with our recommendations. This includes supporting knowledge exchange between local authorities, providers, service users and carer representatives around the implementation of guidelines. This study contributed to a much-needed evidence base how to achieve quality improvement in social care, with the ultimate aim to mitigate the morbidity and mortality impacts of chronically under resourced care systems.

Key Findings
Findings from the Valuing Care Guidance study highlight the substantial resources required and costs incurred by local authorities for implementing guidelines. This includes resources for creating organisational readiness. Good practice referred to the engaging and creative approaches employed by some managers in local authorities. Return-on-investment might be achieved through a shift towards greater prevention and support in the community. More immediate predictors of impact include those of staff wellbeing and a shared understanding of important social care issues and how to address those. How to best design, support and measure the resources involved in and success of processes will be an important question for future research.
Participatory theory-informed approaches to evaluation, such as the ones we used in the Valuing Care Guidance study, which are focused on building practitioners’ capacity and seek to have some direct benefits to local authorities, need to be applied more and developed further. This includes method to involve stakeholders, such as public representatives, with the aim to address the policy-practice-research gaps.
Partners & Collaborators

London School of Economics (LSE)

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

Lead Investigator
Annette Bauer (LSE)
Investigating Team
Sarah Jasim (LSE)
Jose-Luis Fernandez (LSE)
Martin Knapp (LSE)
Annette Boaz (LSHTM)
Juliette Malley (LSE)
Ties Hoomans (LSE)
Related Projects Other projects that you may be interested in
Back to top