The Values of Assessment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Values of Assessment: disabled adults and social care.
IRAS ID
164554
Contact name
Val Williams
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
This study aims to understand how social care assessments are carried out, and how they could be improved.
Outside social services, disabled adults experience many different forms of assessment, for Employment Support Allowance (ESA), benefits entitlements, therapy assessments or eligibility for specific forms of support. In this study, we want to learn from their experiences, so that we can feed the findings into social care practices.
This research was developed by talking with members of a peer support group at WECIL (West of England Centre for Inclusive Living). Members of at least two WECIL groups will take part in the research, and we will also employ two research assistants who have direct experience of disability.
In the first phase WECIL members will meet in two groups for three linked focus groups, to tell their stories about various assessments they have experienced. This will help us to understand more deeply how assessments affect people, and also to scope the different types of common practices.
In the second phase, we will interview 15 social care practitioners and managers in 4 areas in the South West of England, and ask 6-10 of them to record an assessment session. During this time, we will also try to follow up different forms of assessments which our WECIL participants are experiencing, and to record sessions with practitioners.
In Phase 3, we will bring disabled people from the WECIL groups together with social care professionals, in four workshop/training events. We will ask them to practise doing assessments, following scenarios from disabled people’s experience, and try out some ideas that have emerged from Phase 1 and 2.
Our research will deliver training materials and summaries for professionals c as well as academic papers. We will also write a summary for disabled people and their organisations.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
14/IEC08/1022
Date of REC Opinion
17 Nov 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion