Title: Developing Research Practice Partnerships to deliver novel, sustainable collaborations between adult social care research and practice in the UK
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: Why is this study important?_x000D_ _x000D_ There are many challenges in delivering social care that meets the needs of people who use care and support and their families and friends. Research has the potential to play a bigger role in improving these services. The purpose of this study is to develop, implement and evaluate an approach called Research Practice Partnerships (RPPs) in adult social care. RPPs are long-term collaborations between researchers and people working in social care that focus on doing and using research in practice. This approach has been tried and tested in the US, Australia and New Zealand with promising results. _x000D_ _x000D_ Where will we carry out this study?_x000D_ _x000D_ We have decided to base this study in care homes, as care homes face particular challenges to doing and using research – this has been brought into the spotlight by the current COVID crisis. Important work is already underway in care homes to build support for producing and using research. However, this work has not always made a big difference to how research is done or whether it is used to improve the experiences of people who use care and support._x000D_ _x000D_ We will create three RPPs in three providers in different parts of England. _x000D_ _x000D_ How will we carry out this study?_x000D_ _x000D_ We will work with a wide range of people with experience in social care to design and test RPPs. We will use different types of research to understand how the partnerships work and what difference they make, for example, interviews, observing at meetings, collecting information through apps and surveys. We will include information on the costs involved in delivering RPPs. We will use a Theory of Change approach to understand whether the RPPs are successful. A Theory of Change approach will help us map out why we think RPPs will make a difference and what needs to happen at different stages to achieve the intended impact. We will work with our stakeholders on the Theory of Change and it will be a useful resource for the evaluation team. _x000D_ _x000D_ If we find that RPPs make a difference, we will hold workshops at the end of the study to find ways to set up RPPs in other parts of England and in the other countries of the UK, as well as seeing whether RPPs could work in other types of social care, for example, home care. If the results of the study are less promising, the workshops will look instead at learning from the evaluation and making changes to the RPP approach to test in future studies._x000D_ _x000D_ Who will carry out this study?_x000D_ _x000D_ Our partnership draws together people with lived experience, a social care provider, adult social care researchers, people who work to support the better use of research in adult social care, designers, and experts in implementation, improvement and evaluation. Shaping Our Lives, an organisation led by people who use care and support, is part of the team and will help the project to involve people with lived experience throughout the study and will co-lead the design phase.

Lay abstract: Research question: How can investment in adult social care research be optimised using a partnership approach to support improvements for people with lived experience of social care services? _x000D_ _x000D_ Background: There are many pressing questions about how to best provide adult social care (ASC) that is compassionate, responsive, acceptable, equitable, efficient and cost effective. There are research gaps and, where there is research, it often isn’t used. A promising approach to address this problem is research practice partnerships (RPPs). RPPs offer a different way of producing and mobilizing research. RPPs involve the establishment of long term partnerships between people who traditionally produce research and those who provide and access services. The partnerships engage in a range of activities including capacity building, making use of existing research and data and producing new research. They also build trust and mutual understanding to support the use of research over time. Where this approach has been tried and tested, the results look promising._x000D_ _x000D_ Objectives:_x000D_ 1. Design a Research Practice Partnership approach for ASC in England _x000D_ 2. Establish new RPPs in ASC in England in three testbed sites _x000D_ 3. Evaluate what works, why and how, and in what circumstances in three RPPs in ASC in England_x000D_ 4. Evaluate the costs of delivering RPPs and the economic value of RPPs_x000D_ 5. If the results of the evaluation are positive, develop an implementation strategy to support the scale up and sustainability of an effective RPP approach for ASC in the UK. If not engage in a further cycle of redesign to feed into future studies_x000D_ _x000D_ Methods: This is a proposal for a multi-method study comprising project management and four inter-dependent work packages. In response to the call, this proposal draws together a team with the wide range of interdisciplinary expertise required to design, implement, evaluate, sustain and spread a new approach to RPPs in the care home sector in England. It focuses on establishing and evaluating novel, sustainable local partnerships between social care researchers, providers, practitioners and people with lived experience. While there has been a long tradition of partnership working between social care researchers and practitioners in the UK, there has been little rigorous evaluation of the approach to support the sustainability of partnerships and wider spread. If the approach proves to be successful, the team will consider how RPPs can become a more established part of the social care research landscape in the future._x000D_ _x000D_ The team will be supported by an advisory group drawing on expertise in ASC service provision, people with lived experience, policy delivery and research funding and also existing RPPs. The PPI Co-applicant will coordinate involvement of people with lived experience throughout via an oversight group and participation in study events and will co-lead the design phase of the work. _x000D_ _x000D_ Timescale for delivery: This is a 48 month study_x000D_ _x000D_ Impact and dissemination: With the advisory group and people with lived experience, the team will develop an impact and dissemination plan that includes conventional dissemination (briefings, papers, blogs and a microsite), relationship building to support use of the findings (learning networks, key stakeholder mapping and engagement) and identifies and addresses systems challenges to the use of the study findings (such integration with existing structures and resourcing).

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE