Our research, funded by Wellcome Trust, was a collaboration between academic researchers, older people and community partners. We wanted to understand more about what it’s like to find, manage and pay for social care. We knew that more older people are having to pay for social care, or help with daily living – dressing, washing, bathing, eating, toileting, taking medication. Cuts in government funding for social care mean fewer people receive help from their local authority. But very little was known about older people’s experiences of this and their voices and perspectives are largely absent in research and within policy and practice debates.
We put older people at the centre of our work because their lived experiences are invaluable in helping us understand the challenges they face. We used qualitative research methods such as in-depth individual interviews and focus groups which has helped us generate knowledge about the issues and dilemmas in self-funding care.
In the research we looked at:
- How older people who are self-funding find and manage their care.
- How self-funded care affects family and friends who are supporting people who are self-finding.
- What the issues are for front-line care staff and provider organisations in self-funded care.
- What are the responsibilities and risks for everyone involved in self-funded care (older people, carers, service commissioners and providers) and how are these managed?
We understood our project as a process in which we were all learning and the ways we went about the doing research were as important as the research findings. We worked with older people from a variety of backgrounds, community organisations and professionals working in social care. Our type of collaborative research is described as ‘co-production’ and involved co-researchers working in each site alongside the academic researchers. Our co-researchers were older members of the public with an interest in ageing and the issues affecting older people. They were trained in all aspects of research and worked with us on the research design, data collection, analysis and interpretation and dissemination.
Throughout the project we organised ‘knowledge exchange’ meetings with key stakeholders: social care commissioners, service providers and practitioners from the statutory, voluntary and private sectors. This created a space for dialogue and a deeper exploration of self-funded care from a range of perspectives. This way of producing understanding by bringing together different perspectives and learning together generated new knowledge that would not be possible without collaboration. We aimed to break down barriers between ‘expert’ and ‘lay’ knowledge and work in ways that recognise and value different areas of expertise – older people’s, social care providers and practitioners, local authority managers and academics.
The research team were:
University of Brighton – Dr Lizzie Ward, Dr Phil Locke and Dr Beatrice Gahagan; co-researchers: Bunty Bateman, Peta Brown, Marion Couldery, Jack Hazelgrove, Cynthia Odogwu, Liz Ray, Ursula Robson, Martin Tomlinson, Francis Tonks.
University of Birmingham – Dr Denise Tanner and Nick Le Mesurier; co-researchers: Susan Bennett, Judy Boyle, Robert Fernie, Trish Kelly, Alison Meakin, Colin Rickwood, Ian Thomson; Anne Hastings, Age UK Solihull.
University of Lincoln – Prof Mo Ray, Dr Claire Markham and Dr Phoebe Beadell; co-researchers: Mike Astill, David Bray, Tony Gaskell, Cheryl Holdship, Kate Holley, Ruth Kent, Lucie Kew, Steve McCarthy, Sarah Tripp, Lissie Wilkins, Evergreen Care, Stamford.
You can read more about our research and findings here
Care ... What do you need to know? 