Older people: care and self-funding experiences
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Older people: care and self-funding experiences
IRAS ID
219882
Contact name
Lizzie Ward
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Brighton
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The number of older people paying for social care from their own resources has increased considerably. This is because of changes in the way local authorities organise statutory social care and the impact of public funding cuts to social care and the related tightening of criteria for who is eligible to receive statutory funded care. Despite this increase, very little is known about the experiences of older people who are self-funding and their voices are largely absent in policy and practice debates. This study focuses on the experiences of older people who are self-funding their care in three research sites: Brighton and Hove, Solihull and Lincolnshire.
It aims to understand the ethical issues surrounding risks and responsibilities in relation to self-funded care. The key goals are to:
• Understand older people’s experiences of self-funding.
• Develop theoretical understanding of the ethical issues involved in self-funded care.
• Engage with older people, practitioners, health and care services’ commissioners and providers to transform understanding of self-funded care and produce accessible outputs to impact policy and practice.It is a three year qualitative study and takes a participatory approach based in ‘co-production’ with older people and knowledge exchange with key stakeholders (local health and social care commissioners and providers and practitioners). It is a collaboration between Dr Lizzie Ward, University of Brighton, Prof Mo Ray, University of Lincoln, and Dr Denise Tanner, University of Birmingham and is funded by the Wellcome Trust. In each research area we will work with a local community partner and team of older co-researchers and local stakeholders.
Participants in the study will be older people who are funding their own care, family members or informal carers who are supporting older self-funders, social care providers, commissioners and practitioners.REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
17/IEC08/0044
Date of REC Opinion
20 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion