For those engaged in social care research – or those seeking to use research within social care itself – it can be difficult to explain how healthcare models of impact don’t automatically fit care contexts. Whilst both sectors share a range of financial and capacity pressures (firmly highlighted during COVID), social care still sits somewhat in the shadows of its health counterpart, presenting additional challenges for driving research into practice.
In this new Emerald blog, Professor Mo Ray (Professor of Health and Social Care) and Dr Julie Bayley (LILI) outline the challenges for social care research and impact. Speaking from a professional and carer perspective, they call for better understanding of the unique nature of the care sector, highlighting how delivery varies from intensive residential care to often invisible family-delivered daily care. They discuss how the healthcare system is more directly ‘wired-up’ for research to influence practice, and how the diffuse nature of social care makes research implementation a particularly complex endeavour.
Read the full blog here: