Kent’s social care workforce is ageing faster than the national average, and the county struggles to recruit and retain staff—this partnership aims to turn that weakness into a strength by embedding research skills directly into care teams. The project addresses a chronic gap: social care, unlike the NHS, has little infrastructure for generating and using evidence. Care workers often lack time, training, or support to test new approaches or share what works. Without this, care quality depends on individual intuition rather than proven practice. Over four years, the partnership will create four linked workstreams. Communities of Practice will bring together academics, council managers, and care providers to share knowledge. Two full-time Researchers in Residence will sit inside Kent County Council and the University of Kent, identifying priorities and supporting pilot projects. Three paid Research Fellowships will train care staff to run their own studies. A dedicated knowledge-sharing stream will produce online training, resource kits, and learning events. If successful, the partnership could shift social care from a sector that reacts to problems to one that systematically tests solutions. That would mean better support for older and disabled adults, a more valued workforce, and practices that spread beyond Kent through national networks.
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Background: This proposal responds to an NIHR call to create social care partnerships, with the aim of building research capacity and improving care quality. We are proposing a Kent-based partnership. Demand for social care in Kent is high, as we have a population ageing faster than the national average and difficulties recruiting and retaining social care staff. This partnership will improve care quality by investing in and valuing the social care workforce, developing a culture of research and evidence-based practice, innovation and skills recognition. Methods: We propose four inter-linked streams of work: 1) Communities of Practice (COPs): COPs bring together people who have different expertise but a shared goal (e.g. sharing best practice, research and learning) and have been used in health as a means of generating and sharing knowledge and implementing evidence-based practice. COPs can break down organisational barriers (e.g. between academics, KCC and providers) to knowledge sharing and practice improvement. The COPs will be supported by the partnership team and facilitated by the Researchers in Residence. 2) Researchers in Residence (RiRs): situated at both KCC and the University of Kent, we will recruit two full-time RiRs to establish and facilitate COPs, identify research priorities and support pilot projects led by Research Fellowships. 3) Research Fellowships: we will fund three fellowship to enable individuals working within social care to undertake research training and carry out pilot projects on adult social care priority areas. Members of the team and the RiRs will assist with design and delivery of these projects and support further applications for funding. 4) Knowledge Sharing and Impact: as well as through the mechanisms above, we will support dissemination and impact by providing access to research literature, bespoke resource kits, online training, and learning events. KASCP partners include national networks to ensure learning extends beyond our region. The partnership team includes senior managers and social care practitioners from Kent County Council, social care academics and researchers from the University of Kent and Brighton, social care provider representatives and a member of the public who will co-lead a ‘social care public involvement and engagement working group’ to support all of the partnership’s activities. The team are supported by no-cost applicants from the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) in Kent, Surry and Sussex and collaborators from the NIHR Clinical Research network (CRN). Timeline: April 2021-March 2025 Impact and Dissemination: We expect this partnership to establish a culture of evidence-based practice and improve care quality by investing in the workforce and providing evidence to address locally important research priorities. To ensure maximum impact, we have proposed a whole work stream for impact and dissemination. As well as academic outputs, such as peer review publications and conference presentations, we have given considerable thought to pathways to wider impact, including: online training and resource kits, fully funded research and training workshops for practitioners, research fellowships, newsletters, lunchtime seminars/webinars and a showcase conference. We have also costed in time and meetings with other successful social care partnerships funded by this call and will use our national networks to maximise knowledge sharing.
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