SOCRATES (SOcial Care Rapid EvAluation TEam) is a group of researchers and experts by experience from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Central Lancashire and King’s College London.
Our team includes experts by experience and researchers with knowledge of social care, social work, rapid evaluations methods, economics, and in involving the public in research. We will work closely with the public, people who work in social care, other rapid evaluation teams, the funder and our steering committee.
Aims
Over the next five years, we will rapidly evaluate some new services and changes in social care for adults and children. For example, finding out whether a new technology helps care home residents to feel safe, or whether new links to community activities can help children in care build social networks.
- We will plan evaluations by listening to ideas from the public and from people working in social care across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- When we evaluate new services or changes in social care that do make a difference, we will let people know what makes them work. This will help spread good practices from one place to another.
- We will find answers quickly, so changes can be made to improve services without having to wait for long projects to finish.
- We will always try to understand whether changes in services affect groups of people differently.
- We will also help people learn about how to do social care evaluations in partnership with the public.
Methods
Each rapid evaluation will look different. We expect each one to last no more than a year. We will use different methods to suit each evaluation. This is likely to include questionnaires, listening to people, and looking at records. We will carefully plan our evaluations, so we can collect the information we need quickly. We will analyse the information we collect as we go, to help us share what we learn as soon as possible.
Throughout each evaluation, we will work with people who have experience of social care. This includes residents in care homes and children’s homes, family and foster carers, staff who provide care in people’s own homes and early years services. It also includes people who might benefit from social care but currently do not access it.
They will help us plan the evaluations, so we ask the right questions to the right people. They will also help us to understand the information that we gather and to plan how to act on what we learn. For some evaluations they might help us to do the research, by, for example, interviewing other people.
Timeline
SOCRATES began in May 2023 and will run until April 2028.
Funder
The study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Services and Care Delivery Research Programme.