Building the care skill set of unpaid carers

Lead Research Organisation: King's College London
Department Name: The Policy Institute

Abstract

In the United Kingdom, there are currently around 13.6 million unpaid family carers looking after
older, ill and/or disabled adults. This number increases by 6000 people daily and over 2 million
people yearly. People aged 55 years and over make up 46% of all unpaid carers and 23% of
them are older than 65. Being an unpaid carer means that people must acquire a whole new
skill set, which can include challenging tasks like avoiding pressure sores, administering
medication and dealing with distressed behavior. Several studies in the past two years have
shown that many unpaid carers suffer from poorer mental and physical health resulting from the
pressure and stress associated with being a carer. Often they feel unsupported, lonely and not
experienced enough to tackle care tasks. A lack of easily accessible information and support on
practical care tasks makes the situation even worse.
Through this project we want to support unpaid carers by making available high quality, reliable,
and understandable guidance on how to tackle everyday care tasks. There are already many
organisations and initiatives that provide some information and support to unpaid carers. But
there is not yet one solution that pools practical, evidence based advise in one place to help
carers build their skill set. Ideas to tackle the problem include the development of an
app/website with easy explainers focusing on common care challenges and a community of
'care partners' to provide answers to questions in a forum.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description The first three months of this catalyst award were used to test the problem and hypothesis underlying this award. This included a large amount of interviews with sector experts, experts by experiences and many unpaid carers. The results of this research informed the development of a solution, at first creating a figma model. This model was then used to get further feedback from people with lived experience, professional carers etc. This reiterative process of creating and further developing the product, called 'Dedicate', is still continuing now and is the basis for creating a good market fit and something that people actually want to use.
Exploitation Route The whole purpose of this funding is to create an innovative solution to supporting unpaid carers in building their care skillset. Dedicate consists of three products, Premium - targeting employed carers, Family - targeting carers at home and Pro - targeting professional carers. The MVP will be launched and available to Beta users from April 2024 and a spin out company will result from this grant. The spin out will be a social venture, which means that proceeds will be fed back into the community to support family carers. Apart from Dedicate the product, the funding has also led to a major research stream in which I am working with sector leaders and stakeholders to define what responsible use of AI in social care means and how to put it into practice. The funding has been the bedrock for total innovation in this field. The guidelines that we will co-produce for social care will be used across the country and may even have international reach.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Healthcare

 
Description Findings have been used to hold an AI and social care roundtable with care sector leaders to discuss the impact, benefits and risks of generative AI in adult social care. Thus resulted in a shared statement and a 6 months co-producing schedule to create guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in social care.
First Year Of Impact 2024
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description Human rights in medical care for older people training future generations
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact The medical students are currently already practicising in clinical settings, working in geriatrics. Students told me that after the course they had increased awareness around their own perceptions of age and ageing and will take this into account when treating patients.
 
Description Re-writing the CQC's human rights approach
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact The CQC regulates and inspects health and social care services in England and thereby directly influences these organisations operate. Their human rights approach means that human rights will be at the heart of their work, with a direct influence on service users, their families/support circles and practitioners. The sessions have directly influenced the CQC's human rights approach, learning from past shortcomings and practical issues to improve the use of human rights in these settings, thereby potentially improving the lives and empowering millions of people using health and social care services in England.
 
Description My Home Life Charity 
Organisation My Home Life
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution I built this partnership with My Home Life through offering my expertise on human rights in social care. I supported the charity and My Home Life partners to create their own human rights statement and in their project on human rights in care homes.
Collaborator Contribution The Charity has been supporting Dedicate with content as well as developing the philosophical framework on which Dedicate - the AI care assistant for carers - is built.This has involved several meetings and workshops with various members of the Charity over a 6 months timeframe.
Impact - Framework for Dedicate's language, look and feel capturing overall philosophical framework. - Content for the platform - Shared work on human rights in care homes published on the Charity's website
Start Year 2022
 
Title Dedicate 
Description Dedicate is a web and app platform to meet carers in their times of uncertainty and the unknown. It consists of an AI chat component and a content library together with a site on which all content colllaborators are listed. This is the MVP to a more extensive product , 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2023 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The development of this software is resulting in the collaboration of various carers support organisations and individuals under a shared mission and vision. 
 
Description Human Rights and Social Care Forum 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact This was an online Forum held in December 2022 with more than 100 delegates. The Forum is part of the Human Rights and Social Care Forum Series, with the title 'How can human rights support people who are receiving care at home?'. The forum was opened by an expert with experience, followed by research experts in the field to influence public thinking, policy and research on this topic.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://human-rights-care.com/about-the-human-rights-and-social-care-forum/2nd-human-rights-and-soci...
 
Description Participation in a panel discussion at the UKRI Health Ageing Conference 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact The project team sent in an abstract suggesting a panel discussion on supporting unpaid carers with high quality information and relevant solutions. A panel was put together, which was moderated by Carers UK, and two of the project team members took part in this panel discussion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Series of stakeholder workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact Four online workshops were held during which unpaid carers were invited to listen to the projet team's innovation idea to support unpaid carers and the people they care for to live healthier and better lives by providing 24/7 access to high-quality, reliably information regarding practical care tasks that is tailored to their needs. The workshops sparked questions and discussions, participants said that they felt heard and that they would like to stay connected to the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Teadance for unpaid carers 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact 55 family carers attended this teadance held at the Stanstead Lodge Seniors Club in November 2022. The event brought together unpaid carers with the project PI and an immersive theatre artist for an afternoon of exchange and artistic engagement with tea, cake and music to talk about the difficult tasks of being a carer. For the purposes of the project, the afternoon was used to gather information about carer's needs and perceived gaps in their skill set. The afternoon sparked questions around how best to support carers in the local community and through the Seniors Club with a new group activity to take place regularly within the club to spark peer to peer support and exchange.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022