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Social Care

Helping people remain independent, retain their dignity and achieve a better quality of life

Social Care Research Capacity Building Priorities

Meet the Team

Demographic and other pressures such as cuts to local authority budgets, have placed strains on the social (long-term) care systems. There is a need to help local councils and health services to take early action to tackle unmet social care needs.

 We aim to increase timely planning and better provision of social care. Using the (Whole Systems Intrgrated Care) WSIC dataset, this will be explored using advanced statistical models to predict an individual person's: future need for social care, care home admission, and escalation of social care utilisation.

NIHR ARC Northwest London will lead a Social Care Research Capacity Building project, over a two-year period, which aims to strengthen capacity-building initiatives in social care research. The Social Care Research Capacity Building project began on the 1st of April 2024.

Professor Fiona Verity

Dr Rowan Myron

Dr Austen El-Osta

Why is it important?

Social care research is a priority for the NIHR, reflecting the urgent issues about the availability, access and use of social care across the UK. The project is about closing the gaps between the research that is needed for enriching social care, the research that happens, and how research is used in practice. 


What do we hope to achieve?

The overall aim is to enrich and strengthen the knowledge base for social care. Under the umbrella of social care is the care provided by individuals, carers and communities, the role played by local governments who have key public duties for social care, private care providers and the voluntary sector. 


The project will work across the areas of adult social care, children’s social care, community-based and family care supports, covering all age groups across the life course.

Reflecting the characteristics of North West London, the project has a particular focus on working with diverse communities.  The work we do will be informed by public participation and engagement. 


How will it benefit people in Northwest London?

The project will work to increase how people engaged with social care can better use the findings from research, as well as support research developments that are relevant to the provision of social care. 

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