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Social care research gets up to £20 million boost from NIHR

Published: 06 November 2018

Social care research in England will get up to £20 million in new funding through the NIHR, boosting research to improve adult social care across the country.

The investment by the Department of Health and Social Care will fund the next 5 years of the NIHR School for Social Care Research (NIHR SSCR). The School funds adult social care research and training for research staff. The School brings together leading academic centres for social care research in England, and supports world-class research by social care professionals and academics to improve the way social care is delivered.

The new funding will allow the School’s partner organisations to build on their work in areas such as mental health, dementia, and care homes. Two new partners have joined the School - Kings College London and the University of Birmingham - bringing the total number of partners to seven. The School will launch a call for research proposals in summer 2019.

The Government is committed to improving the evidence around social care so that people are provided with better and more effective services in the future. The NIHR has already invested £30 million into the School for Social Care Research, which celebrates its 10 year anniversary in 2019. Thanks to the new investment, the School will continue to build the evidence base and develop capacity in social care research in England over the next 5 years.

Ongoing research projects include investigating how staff in supported accommodation can support people with challenging behaviours, looking at whether providing adaptations to bathing facilities in people’s homes can improve quality of life and relieve pressure on other services, and studying how hearing dogs can affect people’s wellbeing and mental health.

The £20 million investment into social care also includes £1.8 million investment for training researchers through the new NIHR Academy, which will be coordinated through the School.

Care Minister Caroline Dinenage said:
“Thanks to advances in healthcare, people in England are living longer than ever before. That’s a testament to world-leading research and is clearly something to celebrate, but it’s important to think about how we can adapt our health and care system to meet the changing population’s needs.

“This £20 million boost to social care research is an investment in the future and will help us understand how best to provide care and support that keeps people living healthy, happy and independent lives for as long as possible.”

Professor Martin Knapp at the London School of Economics and Political Science, director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research, said: “The social care system relies on robust evidence to show what people need and want, what works and with what resource implications. I’m delighted that the School is receiving further investment from NIHR through DHSC to answer these questions. Our research will continue to involve people who use services, those who provide unpaid care and the care workforce to ensure that social care works for the people who need it.”

The seven SSCR partner institutions are:

  • London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
  • King’s College London (KCL)
  • University of Birmingham
  • University of Bristol
  • University of Kent
  • University of Manchester
  • University of York

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