The Supporting Adult Social Care Innovation Survey, 2019-2025

Zigante, Valentina and Malley, Juliette (2025). The Supporting Adult Social Care Innovation Survey, 2019-2025. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857684

This five-year study was funded by the ESRC to build evidence about how to support the adult social care sector to start-up, implement and spread affordable innovations that work well for everyone. The SASCI Project sought to generate new insights through a combination of case studies, witness seminars, survey and evidence review, underpinned by stakeholder engagement. The research was led by Dr Juliette Malley at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE), as a collaboration between LSE, King’s College London and the University of York and the organisations Care England, Local Government Association, Turning Point, Shared Lives Plus, Camden, Islington and Thurrock councils.

Data description (abstract)

This data comes from an organisational survey conducted among organisations operating in the English adult social care sector between 2023 and 2024. The aim of the data collection was to gain a better understanding of how innovation and innovative capacity are distributed across the adult social care sector in England, as well as to identify perceived challenges and the availability of support.
Respondents worked in organisations ranging from local authorities, NHS bodies, provider organisations (such as residential care homes and home care providers), supplier organisations (e.g. technology providers), and community organisations. Respondents tended to be in leadership roles, such as directors and operational staff at management level, but a range of roles was also represented. We invited any member of staff within any organisation in the sector who felt that they had a view on, and insight into, innovation to respond.
We designed two separate but interlinked surveys: one for local authority respondents and one for all other respondents (i.e. from care provider and supplier organisations). The local authority survey included a suite of questions focused on how local authorities work to promote innovation in their local markets.
The online surveys were operational between 1 June 2023 and 6 March 2024. The study information sheet (including a data privacy notice) was made available at the start of the survey, and respondents’ consent to take part was recorded electronically. The surveys comprised 32 questions in the provider survey and 34 in the local authority survey. These were mainly fixed-response questions, with four free-text option questions, as well as the option to attach further documentation describing an innovation that the organisation had carried out in the past five years. The surveys achieved 98 (provider survey) and 51 (local authority survey) responses.
Respondents worked in organisations that had innovated in recent years and in which innovation was important, with expectations that it would become even more important in the future. Very few respondents had no experience of innovation. The data includes examples of innovation; what appears to drive and inspire innovation; the extent to which organisations possess the necessary capabilities for successful innovation (such as leadership, knowledge and learning, culture, and collaboration); and the barriers and facilitators to innovation.

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