AIMS

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We are:

• describing quantitatively the characteristics and extent of adult social care (ASC) innovation, capacity for innovation, reasons for generating/adopting innovations, and knowledge and use of support for innovation

• testing hypotheses about determinants of innovation adoption derived from the empirical and theoretical work in earlier work packages. 

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METHODS

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We conducted a survey of councils with social services responsibilities (CSSRs) and social care providers across England. Initially, a pilot survey tested:

• the sampling frame for provider organisations

• the feasibility of an online survey

• the questionnaire content and length

• the target individual(s) for the survey for each type of organisation surveyed

• strategies for encouraging completion 

• strategies for linking survey responses to other data.

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Following the pilot, the main survey was conducted. 

Survey data was linked to existing data on: local area characteristics: socio economic and demographic factors, supply characteristics, geographical characteristics; and local social care system: local authority (LA) returns on expenditure, unit costs, social care coverage, and quality of life of social care recipients and carers .

We used statistical and econometric methods to analyse:

• distribution across areas and provider types of take-up of innovation, research capacity and organisational capacity, reasons for innovation generation/adoption and knowledge and use of available support infrastructure for innovation

• relationships between patterns of innovation, organisational characteristics and local environment such as local demand levels and supply factors

• relationships between take-up of innovation and value for LAs and providers, using proxies of care system performance and of provider performance. 

 

OUTPUTS 

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We are preparing individual papers on each of the three analyses.