A major policy emphasis in recent years has been to shift more power and responsibility over to service users. Our evaluation of direct payments for older people will soon end, including coordination of UK-wide surveys of local authorities and support organisations.
PSSRU inputs to the evaluation of the Individual Budget pilots take forward this interest in consumer directed care. Further research in this area is planned. Another project is looking at the Invest to Save programme in Kent, promoting 'brighter futures' for older people, especially through the involvement of volunteers.
Cluster lead: Martin Knapp
Research team: Vanessa Davey, Jose-Luis Fernandez, Margaret Perkins, Tom Snell, Gerald Wistow
Contact: Pssru@lse.ac.uk|
Current projects
Recently completed projects
Choice and Direct Payments for adult mental health service users
This exploratory seeks to investigate how, at the local level, choice and Direct Payments are being promoted and the views of care coordinators in integrated community mental health teams on meeting these objectives in their daily practice in their particular local context.
Further information| (PDF)
IBSEN: Individual Budgets
This project aimed to evaluate the processes, impact and consequences of implementing individual budgets, in order to assess whether these offer a better way of supporting older people and adults with social care needs than conventional methods.
Further information|
Strategic Commissioning
This project aimed to determine the necessary changes required to place service user choice at the heart of all decisions of service delivery amidst current policy changes designed to strengthen the role of users in commissioning care.
Further information| (PDF)
Direct payments
This project carried out an evaluation of the impact of the direct payments implementation strategy in social care.
Further information|.