HEALTHIER WORKING LIVES AND AGEING FOR WORKERS IN THE CARE SECTOR: DEVELOPING CAREERS, ENHANCING CONTINUITY, PROMOTING WELLBEING (HWL)
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Social Science, Health and Medicine
Abstract
It is generally accepted that being in good quality, safe work is beneficial for one's physical and mental wellbeing. If this is the case, being able to work healthily and happily for longer would be significant step toward meeting the UK's Healthy Ageing Challenge that people should be benefitting from five more healthy and independent years of life by 2035. Some workers are already seeking to move into more socially meaningful or personally fulfilling work as they get older, and care work has been identified as offering such opportunities. Others would choose to continue in their existing caring role if the work could be more flexible and accommodating to their work/life needs. However, the work can be physically and emotionally demanding, and it remains poorly rewarded.
The care sector is worth circa £15.9billion to the UK economy, with over 5,500 providers. Over 80% of workers are women, with 21% of BAME origin, and some 30% are aged 50 plus with many of this age group working in supervisory and managerial roles. The composition of the care workforce also reflects inequalities, reinforced by Covid-19 with the lower paid, older and BAME workers have disproportionately experienced illness and deaths across 2020. Further, the impact of changes in immigration, linked in part to Brexit, are of particular concern to both workers and providers.
Recruitment and retention are major challenges. During wave one of the Covid-19 pandemic, at times there were 120,000 vacancies many filled by agency workers (with increased risked of virus transmission). Now in wave two, providers report that fear of working in the sector is deterring prospective applicants and workers speak of their own stresses in what is also a rewarding job.
The annual turnover of staff is a third and this presents and notable challenge to the wellbeing of staff, residents, families, and communities. Continuity in staffing, recognition of the value of their work, and supporting workers to co-determine their development needs, are central to this project.
The team combines Scottish Care, which represents 400 organisations in the private, not for profit and charities sector of residential provision, Legal & General, one of the UK's leading providers of retirement villages, Codebase the largest technology incubator in the UK, which offers mentorship for the deployment of ideas, and design consultants Creative Venue (John Mathers, ex-CEO of the British Design Council, and his colleague Julian Grice, who has extensive experience in applying design disciplines to public services and policy innovation), who will work closely with care staff and the research team to explore and co-design possible solutions to the health and professional development challenges that care workers face daily. Creative Venue will also use their extensive design knowledge and networks to give care workers' ideas the best possible chance of commercial success. Researchers with decades of experience in care, health, design, business and working life from the University of Edinburgh have worked closely with partners to co-develop this project.
Across four stages over 36 months, we will revisit existing knowledge, engage with care sector staff to consider their priorities for working and role development, combine work across the team as a whole to run co-design workshops, develop ideas for outputs and products, along with a final review of the process and application of outcomes. At every stage, the role of the team is one of listening, exploring, ensuring critical conversations can take place in safe and exploratory ways, with ideas considered and potentially taken forward. Our Knowledge Network, co-chaired by Sophie Bowlby (Academic, Third Sector Board Member) and Stephen Coleman (CodeBase), has engagement from workers, care providers, design, incubator, and technology groups.
The care sector is worth circa £15.9billion to the UK economy, with over 5,500 providers. Over 80% of workers are women, with 21% of BAME origin, and some 30% are aged 50 plus with many of this age group working in supervisory and managerial roles. The composition of the care workforce also reflects inequalities, reinforced by Covid-19 with the lower paid, older and BAME workers have disproportionately experienced illness and deaths across 2020. Further, the impact of changes in immigration, linked in part to Brexit, are of particular concern to both workers and providers.
Recruitment and retention are major challenges. During wave one of the Covid-19 pandemic, at times there were 120,000 vacancies many filled by agency workers (with increased risked of virus transmission). Now in wave two, providers report that fear of working in the sector is deterring prospective applicants and workers speak of their own stresses in what is also a rewarding job.
The annual turnover of staff is a third and this presents and notable challenge to the wellbeing of staff, residents, families, and communities. Continuity in staffing, recognition of the value of their work, and supporting workers to co-determine their development needs, are central to this project.
The team combines Scottish Care, which represents 400 organisations in the private, not for profit and charities sector of residential provision, Legal & General, one of the UK's leading providers of retirement villages, Codebase the largest technology incubator in the UK, which offers mentorship for the deployment of ideas, and design consultants Creative Venue (John Mathers, ex-CEO of the British Design Council, and his colleague Julian Grice, who has extensive experience in applying design disciplines to public services and policy innovation), who will work closely with care staff and the research team to explore and co-design possible solutions to the health and professional development challenges that care workers face daily. Creative Venue will also use their extensive design knowledge and networks to give care workers' ideas the best possible chance of commercial success. Researchers with decades of experience in care, health, design, business and working life from the University of Edinburgh have worked closely with partners to co-develop this project.
Across four stages over 36 months, we will revisit existing knowledge, engage with care sector staff to consider their priorities for working and role development, combine work across the team as a whole to run co-design workshops, develop ideas for outputs and products, along with a final review of the process and application of outcomes. At every stage, the role of the team is one of listening, exploring, ensuring critical conversations can take place in safe and exploratory ways, with ideas considered and potentially taken forward. Our Knowledge Network, co-chaired by Sophie Bowlby (Academic, Third Sector Board Member) and Stephen Coleman (CodeBase), has engagement from workers, care providers, design, incubator, and technology groups.
Organisations
- King's College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- Get Fit 4it (Collaboration)
- Passivhaus Trust (Collaboration)
- NRS Healthcare (Collaboration)
- AIRehab (Collaboration)
- Bellevie Care (Collaboration)
- SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- Glasgow School of Art (Collaboration)
- Aging2.0 (Collaboration)
- KING'S COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- University of Limerick (Collaboration)
- Centre for Ageing Better (Collaboration)
- Knowledge Transfer Network (Collaboration)
- Good Boost (Collaboration)
- BUSINESS FOR HEALTH (Collaboration)
- Barclays (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- Alliance for Aging Research (Collaboration)
Publications
Soares L
(2024)
The Ripple Framework: Co-Producing Social, Cultural, and Economic Value in Care Through a Generative and Relational Approach.
in International journal of environmental research and public health
Related Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Award Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/V016156/1 | 01/03/2021 | 31/12/2021 | £1,376,933 | ||
| ES/V016156/2 | Transfer | ES/V016156/1 | 01/01/2022 | 29/02/2024 | £1,185,251 |
| Title | "A quest to improve care through a collective voice" - the entrepreneurs' perspective and lessons learned |
| Description | This narrative summary captured and reflected on the 'Healthier Working Lives' project exclusively from the perspective of the entrepreneurs (including the methods, process and key learnings) - highlighting their core experiences and findings from the research in lay language. Working with a graphic designer, key findings were turned into digital illustrations representing a range of stakeholders from within the care sector, with their key messages captured in 'speech bubbles' and used to highlight the sharing of experiences that was central to the HWL methodology. The 'entrepreneurs' involved in the research team reflected on the lessons learned, what worked well and what challenges they faced - aiming to evidence how this kind of collaborative cross-sectoral project could be replicated or improved in the future. The illustrations were then used to highlight and enhance these in one summary document. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This document was shared with all attendees at the 'What next for care work? A symposium on futures' event at the end of the project, and was well received, particularly by other entrepreneurs who had engaged in research projects. The document continues to be circulated amongst interested individuals and organisations. These lessons learned have also been used to form our approach and methodology in the two ongoing impact projects - Care Stories and More Time for Quality Care - where we have also worked with entrepreneurs' and graphic designers to illustrate the process and reflections on the project in a similar way. This document was also shared with the Knowledge Network, a varied group of stakeholders within the social care sector; the senior team at Innovate UK who funded the research; and PIs of other projects funded by the same scheme - all aiming to contribute to broader conversations about how this type of cross-sectoral, collaborative research can create the most impact for the sector and those working in it. |
| Title | "Developing new perspectives on researching care work" - The research team's reflections and lessons learned |
| Description | This narrative summary captured and reflected on the 'Healthier Working Lives' project from the perspective of the researchers in the team - including their methods, process and key learnings, and highlighting the core experiences and findings from the research in lay language. Working with a graphic designer, key findings were turned into digital illustrations representing a range of stakeholders from within the care sector, with their key messages captured in 'speech bubbles' and used to highlight the sharing of experiences that was central to the HWL methodology. These images were then used to enhance the summary text produced by the researchers on the HWL team, capturing their key lessons learned around researching the care sector after being part of this cross-sectoral collaborative project in a two page summary document. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This document was shared with all attendees at the 'What next for care work? A symposium on futures' event at the end of the project, and was well received - particularly by other academics who were aiming to better integrate enterprise organisations or entrepreneurs in their research teams. This document was also shared with the Knowledge Network, a varied group of stakeholders within the social care sector; the senior team at Innovate UK who funded the research; and PIs of other projects funded by the same scheme - all aiming to contribute to broader conversations about how this type of cross-sectoral, collaborative research can create the most impact for the sector and those working in it. |
| Title | Building the Care of the Future |
| Description | This is part of the Futuring stage of our co-design process. Futuring is a broad research approach that includes a suite of activities (e.g. Post Cards From the Future) to consider possible, preferable or avoidable futures. The approach allows for exploring future contexts in more nuanced ways and allowing co-designers to better handle uncertainty, indeed, "to some extent embrace uncertainty" (Inayatullah, S. 2008, Six pillars: futures thinking for transforming. Foresight, 10(1) p.6). For this activity, we developed a puzzle using the image of a house and prompted the co-designers to embrace the challenge supported by the Six Hats Thinking approach. The idea was to enable our co-designers to approach some of the problems they face from six different perspectives when having a given hat on, i.e. Blue Hat: "the Conductor's Hat", Green Hat: "The Creative Hat", Red Hat: "the Hat for the Heart", Yellow Hat: "the Optimist's Hat", Black Hat: "the Judge's Hat" and White Hat: "the Factual Hat". The activity was delivered in two Care Homes: CH#5ACC (13.12.22) and CH#6GCH (08.02.23). |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | For this activity, we developed a puzzle using the image of a house and prompted the co-designers to embrace the challenge supported by the Six Hats Thinking approach. The idea was to enable our co-designers to approach some of the problems they face from six different perspectives when having a given hat on, i.e. Blue Hat: "the Conductor's Hat", Green Hat: "The Creative Hat", Red Hat: "the Hat for the Heart", Yellow Hat: "the Optimist's Hat", Black Hat: "the Judge's Hat" and White Hat: "the Factual Hat". The activity was delivered in two Care Homes: CH#5ACC (13.12.22) and CH#6GCH (08.02.23). |
| Title | Capturing moments from What's Next Symposium |
| Description | Capturing moments with the panel, speakers, and audience using photography to bring live to the event. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Building continued interest in the Symposium and key people within audience asking "What's next" in terms of further engagement either through digital or in person. |
| Title | Card Sorting |
| Description | This is group of cards which are given out to persons in a workshop with statements or words that create debate and discussion. Cards would then go on the pile and displayed what was discussed in each session. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The impact was to understand people's prospective and understand where people are coming from in their "Job Roles" or "situations" and showing respect to each other by working together. This activity bought workers together and raised morale within the group. |
| Title | Care Stories |
| Description | Working with a graphic designer, we produced an illustrated policy briefing paper around the low or no cost ways to improve retention from the perspective of the workforce. These images highlight core findings and experiences captured through our data collection, and then both individual and group images were created and put throughout the briefing paper. We also produced a research poster template, flyer and postcard using the images to summarise our key messages. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The briefing paper was published by KCL, summarised in various blogs and will be shared widely by other national organisations including Scottish Care. Postcards and flyers are being distributed amongst care homes and care organisations, including those who participated in data collection and contributed to the ethnographic fieldwork. We will also continue to work with the graphic designer, KS, on other projects due to the highly positive experience and feedback we got on the illustrations and style. |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ghsm/assets/care-stories-policy-briefing-paper.pdf |
| Title | Cartoon characters to display care emotions |
| Description | Creation of Care cartoons to display on materials to show to engage people in the care sector and engage audience members in events and conferences. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Well received cartoon characters bringing materials more life. |
| Title | Circle of Care |
| Description | The Circle of Care is an adaption of the Experience-Based Co-Design engagement method promoted by the Point of Care Foundation. Experience-based co-design (EBCD) is an approach that enables staff and patients (or other service users) to co-design services and/or care pathways, together in partnership. The approach is different to other service improvement techniques. It involves gathering experiences from patients and staff through in-depth interviewing, observations and group discussions, identifying key 'touch points' (emotionally significant points) and assigning positive or negative feelings. A short edited film is created from the patient interviews. This is shown to staff and patients, conveying in an impactful way how patients experience the service. Staff and patients are then brought together to explore the findings and to work in small groups to identify and implement activities that will improve the service or the care pathway.12 We have used the suggested Accelerated version, which encompasses selecting a short film from the archive at Healthtalk with the purpose of triggering discussion. We adapted the activity to suppress the need of carrying out the initial set of interviews to be used, therefore making it quickly and cheaply, and most importantly more interactive. For that, we developed the CoC Base-Plate and a set of questions cards to prompt the interaction with care workers. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The CoC activity was delivered to all Care Homes between 10.11.22 (CH#5ACC) and 23.02.23 (CH#2ACG) with very positive results. This has also been good for conversation starters as its something they still remember doing. |
| Title | Conference poster |
| Description | Poster to show the key project take away's will be displayed at stands at conferences and will show the key outcomes of the project. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | We have had an great response following circulation of this to key focus group and we expect further engagement at conferences from April on wards. |
| Title | Crafting Postcards (from the future and to the powerful): |
| Description | This is also another approach to Futuring. Postcards as an informal way to gain feedback from participants about their perceived behaviour, and as a way to observe actual behaviour. Postcards can be crafted in the course of a variety of practical activities, functioning primarily as communication medium to extend personal and social memory. Postcards can also function as proof of a distant or unreachably reality. "Postcard is an incredible chameleon: it can function as a documentary image, correspondence, a lithographic or photographic print, advertisement or ephemera. [Furthermore, researchers] who have turned their minds to the postcard's capacity for "recordness" have understood that these objects can provide serious insights into aspects of society that have been forgotten or obscured by "important" or "official" versions of events." (Ferguson, S. (2005). " A Murmur of Small Voices:" On the Picture Postcard in Academic Research. Archivaria, 167-184). The activity was delivered in two Care Homes: CH#3ARM and CH#2ACG |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The postcards engaged the audience and it became like a game to test memory and understand what some patients are feeling when they can't remember something. This was an great exercise to understand how important their role as carers is. |
| Title | Deliberation Process |
| Description | The purpose of this activity is to involve the team in a decision-making processing in a meaningful way and help the team to develop their care skills. This is an opportunity to review material produced in previous sessions and build on the team's shared experiences and reflections. The activity allowed the team to discuss and consider relevant evidence and present individual views, moving from a more emotional reaction to a collective problem defining and problem solving approach. This involved negotiating and reaching a consensus before deliberating about protentional before deliberating about potential directions to navigate the future. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Relevant evidence and present individual views, moving from a more emotional reaction to a collective problem defining and problem solving approach. This involved negotiating and reaching a consensus before deliberating about protentional before deliberating about potential directions to navigate the future. This also helped future ideas for the team when things are very busy or highly stressed. |
| Title | Developing new perspectives on researching care work |
| Description | Poster and interactive cartoons |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Care homes (n=6) participated in co-design workshops (n=6). Running the workshops showed that: (1) interdisciplinary collaborations are fruitful but time is needed for a consolidation of shared understanding (2) building trust is essential to research (3) qualitative research can produce useful and actionable messages for all stakeholders, (4) time is needed for cross sectoral and cross discipline conversations on our problem statements and (5) Participatory approaches are high-yielding. We have developed two impact projects from this work on Care Stories https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ghsm/assets/care-stories-policy-briefing-paper.pdf and Time for Quality Care https://www.kcl.ac.uk/creating-more-time-for-quality-care |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/healthier-working-lives-for-the-care-workforce |
| Title | Entrepreneurs prospective handout sheet with images |
| Description | Building in the problem statements and developed new cartoons to sit with the work. This was developing the cartoons to the final stage of the project. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Engagement to our audience and we printed out in high quality paper in 350GSM which had a huge impact to showcase the images and bought them to live. |
| Title | Healthier Working Lives: A quest to improve care through a collective voice (Narrative Summary) |
| Description | This narrative summary captured and reflected on the 'Healthier Working Lives' project (including the methods, process and key learnings) highlighting the core experiences and findings from the research in lay language. Working with a graphic designer, key findings were turned into digital illustrations representing a range of stakeholders from within the care sector, with their key messages captured in 'speech bubbles' and used to highlight the sharing of experiences that was central to the HWL methodology. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This document was shared with all attendees at the 'What next for care work? A symposium on futures' event at the end of the project, and was well received. This style of narrative summary was then used to capture core experiences from two specific groups who had worked on the project - 'the entrepreneur's perspective ' and 'the research team's reflections'. This document was also shared with the Knowledge Network, a varied group of stakeholders within the social care sector; the senior team at Innovate UK who funded the research; and PIs of other projects funded by the same scheme - all aiming to contribute to broader conversations about how this type of cross-sectoral, collaborative research can create the most impact for the sector and those working in it. |
| Title | Illustrating the journey to Concepts |
| Description | Hazel White Design started to illustrate the journey from start to "now" and what future might look in next few months capturing words and tones and experiences in this workshop. The mood board was the big takeaway as it captured words and drawings which reflected the challenges and difficult conversations groups people were having. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The Mood board bought forward emotional impact and also resilience how workers can overcome barriers. |
| Title | Next phase of Cartoon characters to show develop of project conclusion. |
| Description | Highlighting findings from project including emotions, common words, and showing feelings care workers been experiencing. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Cartoons were given in handouts and presentations given at final event engaged audience and captured discussion and further engagement. This was vital due to not being able to use any photos from the project. |
| Title | Poster Probes Completed Datasets |
| Description | Poster Probes with completed items has a rich amount of data that can be analysed and with 4 posters each that have been used to fill in data from workers helps shape the next phase of workshops. The feedback on the data boards have thought provoking statements. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Following analysis this helped shaped future activities and also strike debates surrounding the data for future sessions. |
| Title | Reel for Facebook Groups to attract diverse audience to the event. |
| Description | An 30 second reel was created to attract diverse care workers from industry to Symposium which was important to build an audience that was not just academic. This was made to share in various facebook groups where workers would openly talk about roles or experiences. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | We attracted a number of diverse crowds and got workers working in care. The reel was viewed by over 2,000 unique views and shared 500+ times to various groups within messenger and whatsapp groups and email addresses. |
| Title | Researchers - What Next document |
| Description | Poster highlights the key outcomes from the project and engagement journey the project has been on. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Engagement from all groups including care workers to academic researchers. |
| Title | Ripple Framework |
| Description | The Ripple Framework is a curated set of 30 playful and accessible co-design methods and management tools, with the overall purpose of facilitating engagement with a range of stakeholders working in adult social care. In HWL, we are using the framework with various stakeholders (care home workers and managers, entrepreneurs and investors) with the aim of placing workers in an entrepreneurial ecology, playing the role of co-designers. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | This has broken down the barriers for "Non Co-Designers" to be involved in the project as it's a good way to engage and ensure people feel engaged and not overwhelmed. This has helped build rapport and confidence and the tool has been widely well received. |
| Title | Valuing Caring: Domiciliary Care Work in England's 'Care Crisis' during and post Covid-19 |
| Description | Poster to generate conversations |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Generated conversations which subsequently underpinned the development of our impact project policy and practice changes to support the over 50s working in residential and domiciliary care; Creating more time for quality care https://www.kcl.ac.uk/creating-more-time-for-quality-care |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/healthier-working-lives-for-the-care-workforce |
| Description | This project generated ideas and outputs to promote recruitment, retention, and job development for care workers aged 50 and over working in residential care settings. To achieve this, we worked in care homes and retirement villages in Scotland and England. Through workshops and related codesign methods, researchers, care workers and businesses worked to co-produce innovative changes which could lead to healthier working lives for these workers. In keeping with the overall objective of the Healthy Ageing Challenge (https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/browse-our-areas-of-investment-and-support/healthy-ageing/) our goal was to assist in promoting healthier ageing among workers who will be 65 plus in 2035. The team comprised the Universities of Edinburgh, Reading and King's College London along with Scottish Care, Legal and general, Creative Venue, and Codebase. We worked across business start up, design, codesign and ethnographic work across the disciplines of sociology, health in social sciences, social policy, codesign and geography. The Knowledge Network comprised care workers, business owners, government and third sector organisations. In the research process we developed initiatives for the sector which emerged from care workers in the context of care homes. The goal was to maximise adoption and adaptation by business and workers through developments from "within". Thus, we brought together a range of homes (small, medium, and large) to work with codesign academics and start up innovators and organisations committed to change. Forty one care workers were interviewed across a range of care homes and workers were also engaged in three to six workshops across six care homes. This resulted in 246 engagements with the HWL team. We also interviewed 24 care trailblazer business owners and developers, interviewed three retirement village managers and held various conversations with policy makers. In summary: - Phase 1 - Connections and Data Collection • We have been meeting with Trailblazers - over thirty innovative enterprises in the Care ( or related sector ) who are breaking new ground • Six Care Homes - using an ethnographic approach, speaking with mgmt. as well as staff • Retirement Village - again, an ethnographic approach Phase 2 - Co-design as a catalyst • Bring together groups of like-minded participants, selected trailblazers, staff, start-ups, management, policy-makers etc • A major Pivot Workshop with around thirty participants to identify a number of value propositions to take into the second half of the Programme • Bringing in Codebase - Europe's largest Accelerator - to introduce key commercial themes into the mix Phase 3 - Bringing businesses to life • Taking forward a number of propositions identified in the Pivot Workshop, exploring ideas from evolution to revolution, from local solutions to policy change • Codebase leading two/three start-up propositions to reach a 'pitch' stage • Scottish Care supporting accessing ideas at scale Phase 4 - Engaging with the broader community • Knowledge Network events, sharing progress and gaining feedback • Bulletin communication to over 400 respondents • Sharing knowledge within the Healthy Ageing Communities of Practice, with over 1400 members |
| Exploitation Route | The rationale for the HWL Programme had business at its very heart. From the outset this Programme has been unlike a typical University research programme - both in its eventual ambitions and in its choice of partners. With the ultimate ambition of creating businesses and services which could effect real change in the Care sector - and with care workers aged 50 or over - it was essential that we chose the partners with the experience and capabilities necessary to achieve that ambition. Creative Venue - their experience has focused, in recent years, on innovation in the Healthy Ageing sector, in particular using design as the tool to drive real change. In addition, they have day to day, hands -on experience with supporting and mentoring start-up businesses, working as a consultant to the Growth Accelerator and the Manufacturing Advisory Services and also Chair of the PE British Design Fund. Codebase - is the largest scale-up accelerator of its kind in Europe. Based initially in Edinburgh it now has regional offices across Scotland, has a particular expertise in healthcare scale-ups and is majorly contracted with the Scottish Government to drive innovation across the country. Scottish Care - a membership organisation, representing the independent care sector in Scotland and with access to over 400 care providers. In addition, and from the outset, we have created a Knowledge Network of professionals, both within the Care sector and those who would want to do business with the sector, to ensure that our ideas will be heard, shared and embraced. Currently with over two hundred members and with the ambition of reaching over five hundred by the end of the current Programme. Across years one and two we collected observation, interview and co-design data and brought together older care workers, with businesses and mentors including Creative venue, Codebase and Scottish Care. We also produced monthly newsletter bulletins communicating to over 400 readers and beyond, an active Knowledge Network and shared updates and analysis with The Voice network and the Healthy Ageing Communities of Practice, with over 1400 members. We also lead two impact projects as a direct result of the HWL research: •. Collaborative "Creating More Time for Quality Care" workshop with up to 35 stakeholders, representing enterprise, technology, business and care organisations • Care Stories - capturing the low and no cost ways organisations can improve retention through an illustrated policy briefing paper |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Education Healthcare |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/healthier-working-lives-for-the-care-workforce |
| Description | Our research aimed to improve the working lives of those in the adult social care sector by co-designing solutions with and for the workforce - to help both practitioners and policy makers, enhance the effectiveness of public services and policy, and improve the quality of life and health of both care workers and their clients. This was achieved through deep ethnographic observation in 6 care homes, followed by multiple participatory, creative co-design workshops in each home - engaging 310 people in varied roles across a 6-month period. From this work, an innovative approach to collating and selecting the relevant co-design methodologies was created in a new co-design framework called The Ripple Framework. This has been developed as a digital methodology with the aim of making it an open-source facility. The ethnographic work generated findings on low-cost ways to enhance retention along with ideas on how to retain to recruit. Through multiple collaborative events - including two 'Pivot' workshops with care sector leaders, and a final symposium "What next for care work? A symposium on futures" at King's College London - our entire methodology was centred on the importance of creating cross-sectoral impact and bringing together experts from academia, enterprise, the social care sector and technology innovation throughout the process. Our wide-reaching communications strategy meant that our findings were shared across these varied audiences, in different accessible formats and in lay-language wherever possible - including monthly bulletins; video interviews with care sector 'trailblazers'; blog posts and narrative summary flyers; and regularly updated social media pages and project website. As well as sharing our findings through various academic journal articles, research posters and conferences, members of the HWL team have contributed two chapters to an upcoming Bristol University Press book titled 'Healthy Ageing - Opportunities and Innovations'. One of these chapters focuses exclusively on the co-design research process and methodology, authored alongside researchers from other projects funded by the same Innovate UK Healthy Ageing challenge, while the other chapter summarises key impacts and lessons learned from our project specifically - 'Healthier Working Lives: Co-designing initiatives to support ageing residential care workers'. We have also brought together our findings with those from 'En Route to Recovery: Diversity and vulnerability in care work during and after the Covid-19 pandemic', also led by McKie, through two ongoing Impact Grants: 1. Care Stories: We received a KCL Faculty Impact grant to complete a close secondary analysis of the ethnographic data from HWL, and work with a graphic designer to develop an illustrated briefing paper and summary postcard/flyer from our findings - all to be disseminated online and among relevant organisations. This work summarises how managers can improve retention and encourage care workers to participate in designing improved working practices. This paper is being disseminated through the extensive networks we have established with care practitioners and policy makers, supported by Scottish Care. 2. More Time for Quality Care: We are leading a workshop on 28th March 2025 funded by Kings College London via an ESRC Impact Grant. With a select group of up to 35 care managers, policy makers and practitioners/stakeholders, we will present our findings and debate ways of making innovations in care work to give care workers 'more time for quality care giving'. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Codebase Mentoring and Enterprise Growth Playbook |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Healthier Working Lives Advisory Committee |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Healthier Working Lives Briefing Papers |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/global-affairs/assets/healthier-working-lives-workforce-care-sector-workforce-... |
| Description | Healthier Working Lives: Digital in Care Homes (best practice workshops) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/digital-innovation-best-practice-in-care-homes |
| Description | Faculty Research and Impact Fund 2022 |
| Amount | £9,998 (GBP) |
| Organisation | King's College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2022 |
| End | 08/2023 |
| Description | Faculty Social Science Impact Fund |
| Amount | £12,323 (GBP) |
| Organisation | King's College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2024 |
| End | 09/2025 |
| Description | King's College London: - Faculty Research and Impact Fund 2023 (£ 4998.61; 2023 - 2024) |
| Amount | £4,998 (GBP) |
| Organisation | King's College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2023 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | Marginalised Women at Risk: Experiences and Impacts of Hyper-precarity and the Growth of Digitisation and AI in rural communities |
| Amount | £299,994 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | KF8/230185 |
| Organisation | The British Academy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 04/2026 |
| Title | Arenas of Development and Influence |
| Description | The Arena of Development and Influence (ADI) is a heuristic map which Dr Luis Soares and Prof Sarah Kettley developed to assist the team Design Innovation Catalyst Teams (DICT). ADI works as a conceptual framework and the central goal is to "translate and facilitate design observation, insight, meaning and assist developing a strategy. ADI extends DICT when enabling the "re-align business activities and subsequently map these activities back to the strategy of the firm" (Wrigley, C. (2016). Design innovation catalysts: Education and impact. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 2(2), 148-165.) |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This helped bridge the gap from thinking from Ethnographic point of view to Co-Design point of view. This helped reimagine the 2nd phase of the project with an more focused Co-Design leading methodology. |
| Title | Building the Care of the Future: |
| Description | This is part of the Futuring stage of our co-design process. Futuring is a broad research approach that includes a suite of activities (e.g. Post Cards From the Future) to consider possible, preferable or avoidable futures. The approach allows for exploring future contexts in more nuanced ways and allowing co-designers to better handle uncertainty, indeed, "to some extent embrace uncertainty" (Inayatullah, S. 2008, Six pillars: futures thinking for transforming. Foresight, 10(1) p.6). For this activity, we developed a puzzle using the image of a house and prompted the co-designers to embrace the challenge supported by the Six Hats Thinking approach. The idea was to enable our co-designers to approach some of the problems they face from six different perspectives when having a given hat on, i.e. Blue Hat: "the Conductor's Hat", Green Hat: "The Creative Hat", Red Hat: "the Hat for the Heart", Yellow Hat: "the Optimist's Hat", Black Hat: "the Judge's Hat" and White Hat: "the Factual Hat". The activity was delivered in two Care Homes: CH#5ACC (13.12.22) and CH#6GCH (08.02.23). |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The idea was to enable our co-designers to approach some of the problems they face from six different perspectives when having a given hat on, i.e. Blue Hat: "the Conductor's Hat", Green Hat: "The Creative Hat", Red Hat: "the Hat for the Heart", Yellow Hat: "the Optimist's Hat", Black Hat: "the Judge's Hat" and White Hat: "the Factual Hat" this helped workers understand the challenges each role and the impact in work when things don't go to plan and how to overcome these challenges. The skills are transferable and can be used in the workplace. |
| Title | Care Stories: Illustrated Analysis |
| Description | We worked collaboratively with graphic designer KS, post-doctoral researchers and communications specialists to conduct secondary analysis of ethnographic data in a collaborative, visual way that could be turned into digital illustrations and illustrate key findings and impacts. Using a shared google drive and 'real-time' miro board, the team contributed various documents, images, mood-boards and examples of work which was filtered down, discussed and analysed over a series of months and eventually combined into one collaborative document (an illusrated policy briefing paper summary) and multiple individual images. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | As well as the shared digital miro board and various design mood boards documenting our shared process, we produced an illustrated policy briefing paper, summary flyers and postcards of key findings, and individual visuals which have been used in various social media posts and blogs. |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ghsm/assets/care-stories-policy-briefing-paper.pdf |
| Title | Circle of Care |
| Description | The CoC is an adaption of the Experience-Based Co-Design engagement method promoted by the Point of Care Foundation. Experience-based co-design (EBCD) is an approach that enables staff and patients (or other service users) to co-design services and/or care pathways, together in partnership. The approach is different to other service improvement techniques. It involves gathering experiences from patients and staff through in-depth interviewing, observations and group discussions, identifying key 'touch points' (emotionally significant points) and assigning positive or negative feelings. A short edited film is created from the patient interviews. This is shown to staff and patients, conveying in an impactful way how patients experience the service. Staff and patients are then brought together to explore the findings and to work in small groups to identify and implement activities that will improve the service or the care pathway.12 We have used the suggested Accelerated version, which encompasses selecting a short film from the archive at Healthtalk with the purpose of triggering discussion. We adapted the activity to suppress the need of carrying out the initial set of interviews to be used, therefore making it quickly and cheaply, and most importantly more interactive. For that, we developed the CoC Base-Plate and a set of questions cards to prompt the interaction with care workers. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The CoC activity was delivered to all Care Homes between 10.11.22 (CH#5ACC) and 23.02.23 (CH#2ACG) with very positive results and emotionally engaging. This also helped build morale and empathy in the care homes. |
| Title | Crafting Postcards (from the future and to the powerful) |
| Description | This is also another approach to Futuring. Postcards as an informal way to gain feedback from participants about their perceived behaviour, and as a way to observe actual behaviour. Postcards can be crafted in the course of a variety of practical activities, functioning primarily as communication medium to extend personal and social memory. Postcards can also function as proof of a distant or unreachably reality. "Postcard is an incredible chameleon: it can function as a documentary image, correspondence, a lithographic or photographic print, advertisement or ephemera. [Furthermore, researchers] who have turned their minds to the postcard's capacity for "recordness" have understood that these objects can provide serious insights into aspects of society that have been forgotten or obscured by "important" or "official" versions of events." (Ferguson, S. (2005). " A Murmur of Small Voices:" On the Picture Postcard in Academic Research. Archivaria, 167-184). The activity was delivered in two Care Homes: CH#3ARM and CH#2ACG |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This helped workers understand patients with memory issues and helped show empathy and patience as they experienced using Postcards can be crafted in the course of a variety of practical activities, functioning primarily as communication medium to extend personal and social memory. This has helped them understand Dementia patients and how we could help them remember key events. |
| Title | Relational Research Analytical Framework |
| Description | This is an analytical framework I created to structure the research team analytical thinking. The framework aims to help the team to think in logical and systematic manner, namely guiding and facilitating sense making process which, at the downstream, will help the research team to better understanding the ontogical world. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This has been the kickstarter to get participants involved in the Co-Design process and understanding the way the Research team need to adapt to deliver the sessions as intended. The outcome of this to become confident in the facilitating process and deliver the sessions as intended. |
| Title | Ripple Framework |
| Description | A curated collection of co-design methods developed with Dr Luis Soares. Methods are gouped to enable movement through recognised phases of codesign from the ethnographic (discover) through deliberative (define) to development and implementation. The framework inlcudes smiple case study examples and instructions for each method. As a whole, the framework increases capacity for resource-poor communities to engage in speculative, strategic and ultimately change-making activities as part of action research efforts. The framework comprises graphically designed (by Kyle Morrison) physical boxed materials and an interactive digital version. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The framework was developed as part of the Healthier Working Lives project; as of February 2023 we were half way through its first (iterative) application. Early impacts noted include increased confidence, competence and capacity of care home workers to engage in change-making co-design research. The beta version was launched at the closing event of HWL at Kings College London on 28th February 2024. |
| URL | https://ripple.designinformatics.org/ |
| Title | The Ripple Framework: the social value of a co-design approach for care home innovation |
| Description | The Ripple Framework (RF) was devised as a strategy to facilitate engagement by adult care workforce stakeholders in a three-year multi-disciplinary research project, Healthier Working Lives (HWL). HWL was one of seven in the UK's Social and Behavioural Design Research Programme (SBDRP), the academic research programme of a national government funded Health Ageing Challenge. All projects in the SBDRP were required to include co-design as a significant component of their research and impact methodologies. Healthier Working Lives focuses on the recruitment, retention, and welfare of the aging workforce in the Scottish residential care sector. By seeking to familiarise participants with co-design methods and frameworks, we intended to generate not only solutions to problems, but a conceptual space for ongoing creative autonomy and power. The framework includes thirty co-design methods and management tools tailored to support the coproduction of the co-design process (to borrow from the health and care domain terminology), to give collaborations the best chance of sustainability and to develop relevant concepts (anon). We found it effective in dealing with practical issues of access during the UK's mandatory pandemic lockdown period, and later unpredictable management of access to care homes by managers due to local outbreaks, as well as the normal pressures faced by the sector. We also find that, in line with other accounts of the relational value of co-design, the RF offers a principled way of working with social care communities of practice. This paper presents the social value of the first phase of the Ripple Framework, used with six care homes in Scotland between 2022 and 2023. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Our position is that the co-design process itself has change effects, and these may have value in and of themselves. In this we have drawn directly on the value and efficacy of the relationship in Person-Centred theory (Kettley, Kettley, and Bates 2015) and see alignment with cycles of reflective learning in Complexity Outcomes approaches (French et al. 2023, 85). Such qualitative change effects for and with people constitute social value and have the potential for adaptive change (Knutz and Markussen 2019, 225). Articulating these values is important for how co-design is enrolled in impact-driven research agendas (all SBDRP projects involved co-design as a requirement). This paper therefore articulates instances of three key social values we find in our data: new knowledge of own working environments, perceptions of power to make change, and individual confidence and growth. • new knowledge of own working environments We adapted the Point of Care Foundation's Circle of Care method (anon), and this resulted in further learning about each other's roles, revealing hidden operational issues, recognising existing positive initiatives, and reiterating a shared ethos. In checking out of one workshop, a domestic worker said "We'll know us better now." • perceptions of power to make change In a final deliberation workshop, one team identified barriers to the intentions of a manager to be handson: " you've got to understand that we daena like bothering you, cause you're busy." This led to a discussion on current processes ('flash meetings') and the small improvements that could be made to these based on situated practical knowledge. • individual confidence and growth We have seen an increase in individuals feeling able to speak up, writing on and suggesting changes to workshop materials, and telling us that they are able to describe themselves now as 'creative'. The convivial activities have become familiar and actively welcomed by people across the homes. One of the managers involved has told us that they feel a new sense of "purpose and permission". Another announced "I am a co-designer now!". |
| URL | https://ripple.designinformatics.org/ |
| Title | Thematic analysis of co-design methods |
| Description | This is when the collected data is analysed inductively using the pre-existing questioning framework used and coding the data using Excel. In tandem with this the same information is also coded deductively to also harness the information provided that are provided by the participants. These are all then coded in a coding tree with 'themes' and smaller 'codes/nodes' which are all specifically defined and contextualised. Researchers also cross-coded their transcripts to audit repetitive themes. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This method of using co-design with specific definitions and data points elucidates the data and makes it more useable for outputs, such as events, publishing journals and book chapters. |
| Title | Co-Design Dataset with Scottish Care Homes (Healthier Working Lives) |
| Description | This dataset was generated over two 6 month phases with 6 Scottish care home teams between October 2022 to March 2023, and 4 cross-sector innovation teams May to October 2023 building on trust towards making changes prioritised by workforce and key stakeholders, structured using the novel Ripple Framework to enable engagement. The framework offered teams bespoke structured pathways through possible activities, building from ethnographic through deliberative to strategic and implementation planning methods. There were a total of 310 person engagement (contact) points across these phases: (6 homes x 7 participants x 5 activities = 210 in phase 1, and 4 teams x 5 people x 5 meetings = 100 in phase 2); approximately 40 individual care workforce participants engaged, representing diverse roles and experiences (domestic, key worker, carer, senior carer, manager, owner) as well as care sector leads and three start-up businesses (entrepreneurs). Data takes the form of audio recordings of co-design activity sessions as well as images taken of creative collaborative activities, eg using the Circle of Care or Postcards methods drawn from the Ripple Framework. The beta interactive digital framework for structuring activity can be found at https://ripple.designinformatics.org/. An associated publication can be found at https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/the-ripple-framework-a-co-design-platform-a-thousand-tiny-methodo. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Participants built confidence in voicing their experience, developed their creativity, and defined their own priorities for change at different levels - local workforce culture, organisational use of technology, and sector-wide training development, all with a view to maximising quality time staff are able to spend with residents, and raising the external validation of their profession (thereby satisfying value-driven motivation for the work); evidence of increased levels of confidence can be seen in the recorded data from phase one ("I'm a co-designer now!") while phase two focused on building new cross-sectoral teams to drive change; evidence of success in creating the conditions for future change include plans for future work by all four innovation teams through recruitment to a new role descriptor, the ongoing use of methods such as the Circle of Care by managers to maintain positive work cultures, joint funding bids for technology innovation, and co-development of a creative theatre project to communicate staff training experiences with diverse audiences. |
| Title | Pre Co-Design Ethnographic Research |
| Description | Researchers conducted ethnographic work within all care homes prior to co-design, which offered specific insight and feedback for the preparation of context-sensitive co-design tools and activities. Between May and October 2022, data was collected from 6 independent care providers from Central Scotland - including detailed ethnographic observations and 44 in-depth interviews from day and night shift workers aged over 50. Detailed analysis of this work has been conducted and will be considered alongside outcomes from the co-design work - to add depth and nuanced understanding to key research findings, and also highlight how ethnographic work can mould more practical co-design activities in future projects. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This ethnographic data and insight led directly into the design of co-design activities, and researchers involved with the ethnography were consulted throughout the co-design process as part of broader working groups for the wider Healthier Working Lives project. |
| Title | Pre-co design definitions for analysis |
| Description | Researchers providing a comprehensive definition of each theme, and term in order to analyse and contextualise findings for specific insights and feedback for the purpose of situationally sensitive co-design analysis and progress to be made. This has included creating drafts of the 'coding tree' that would be used in NVIVO and sharing that amongst researchers between the months of December 2023 and January 2024 to ensure mutual understanding and elucidation before coding and categorisation was conducted. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This information targeted towards the clarity of all terms/themes used in the co-design process allowed for all researchers on the project to be able to have a specific insight into analysis and how the data was informing output, and how the information would be conveyed beyond the project. |
| Description | AIRehab |
| Organisation | AIRehab |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Increased market awareness via KTN interview |
| Collaborator Contribution | Increased market awareness via KTN interview |
| Impact | Increased market awareness via KTN interview |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Active Orbit |
| Organisation | Sheffield Hallam University |
| Department | Active Orbit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Increased market awareness via KTN interview |
| Collaborator Contribution | Increased market awareness via KTN interview |
| Impact | Increased market awareness |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Department | Advanced Care Research Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh, Newcastle University and University College, London. It is a multi-disciplinary research programme combining research across fields including medicine and other care professions, life sciences, engineering, informatics, data and social sciences. Healthier Working Lives is an affiliate project within this collaboration. We contribute data, feedback, and collaborate with other relevant academics and organisations under the ACRC 'umbrella'. Sue Lewis (SL) is Project Manager and Senior Research Fellow for an ACRC qualitative research work package. Inspired by HWL, the work package also established a Knowledge Network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The ACRC fosters strong collaboration and networks, bringing together top academics and organisations across all aspects of caring for those in later life. They work on a range of interlinking work-packages that tackle themes such as understanding the person in context, creating new technologies of care and building new models of care. Their contribution is in enabling partnerships, inter-disciplinary working and utilising our data in a wider national context. |
| Impact | See https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/advanced-care-research-centre/publications |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Ageing2.0 |
| Organisation | Aging2.0 |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Through UK Leadership team widen awareness of HWL & care sector market. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Through UK Leadership team widen awareness of HWL & care sector market / Engaging and equipping innovative enterprises in the care sector. |
| Impact | Involvement with the UK leadership team to build networking in order to add value to the final stage of the project. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Agile Ageing Alliance |
| Organisation | Alliance for Aging Research |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We have engaged with this key innovation organisation in ageing market through an role on our Knowledge Network part of our project and this has widen awareness of HWL & care sector market by contributing to our sessions with them such as Co-Design workshop and understanding how we are presenting our project to industry. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Exploring market opportunities for innovative enterprises / Potential future funding by considering concepts by this organisation. |
| Impact | Useful inputs from the knowledge network that has helped refine our strategy when talking to industry and how we are going to present sessions if done remotely by using Knowledge Network as our test process. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Barclays Eagle Labs |
| Organisation | Barclays |
| Department | Barclay Eagle Labs Belfast |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have contributed to meetings and have attended sessions with Codebase to add value to the conversations. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Widen awareness of HWL & care sector market amongst Eagle Lab enterprises / Showcase enterprises to the care market & stakeholders / Involve enterprises in change workshops / Equipping enterprises with co-design skills through workshops. |
| Impact | We have access to Barclays Mentorship pool and have further developed our partnership with Codebase. This has led to an expansion of our Trailblazer programme. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Bellevie Care |
| Organisation | Bellevie Care |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Care home culture and looking at good practice and living wage impact on recruitment and retention of staff. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Showcase to the care market / Awareness and market insight for the business / Business endorsement by association |
| Impact | Conversations about staff retention and training and use of living wage for staff recruitment. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Business for Health |
| Organisation | BUSINESS FOR HEALTH |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Engagement with CEO / Widen awareness of HWL & care sector market through network engagement / Gaining policy insight. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Engagement with CEO / Widen awareness of HWL & care sector market through network engagement / Gaining policy insight. |
| Impact | Networking opportunities and widen awareness of HWL & care sector market through network engagement / Gaining policy insight. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Centre for Ageing Better |
| Organisation | Centre for Ageing Better |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Exchanging concepts such as Co-Design such as Circle of Care to understand how it would be received. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Sharing best practice in design thinking applied to HWL. |
| Impact | Insider knowledge for Circle of Care. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Drum Fit |
| Organisation | Get Fit 4it |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Increased market awareness via KTN interview for our project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Showcase of the concept of Drumming classes in Care homes. |
| Impact | The showcase gave us some ideas for our co-design sessions to see what engages an care worker audience. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Glasgow School of Art (Care Technologists) |
| Organisation | Glasgow School of Art |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In collaboration with Scottish Care, a team at the Glasgow School of Art have come up with a new role (Care Technologist) which focus on matching care workers with technical solutions if they are finding the job too physical or reaching retirement age, in order to enable them to stay in role for longer if desired. Scottish Care have sourced funding to enable this role to be piloted, and have formed a collaboration with key figures at the Glasgow School of Art. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Idea creation and drive from Tech and Digital Leads to build this role and develop what the key focus should be (namely digital inclusion) has cumulated in a practical collaboration, taken forward by Scottish Care. |
| Impact | This collaboration was given funding and the role of Care Technologist is now being piloted within Scottish Care, aiming to improve digital inclusion and ease workload. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Good Boost |
| Organisation | Good Boost |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Co-design collaboration with care managers at pivot workshop. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Increased market awareness via KTN and co-design collaboration with care managers at pivot workshop. |
| Impact | Co-design collaboration with care managers at pivot workshop which has helped engaged the care sector. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network |
| Organisation | Knowledge Transfer Network |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Widen awareness of care sector through KTN network engagement/ Increase market insight / Sharing co-design toolk to help businesses |
| Collaborator Contribution | Awareness of HWL and introductions. |
| Impact | Access to business which has helped bring awareness and industry awareness of the project. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Kings College London Innovation team |
| Organisation | King's College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Kings College London Innovation team have given us opportunity to talk through global innovation reach and growth opportunities for HWL. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Widen awareness of HWL & care sector market / Exploring market opportunities for innovative Incubator enterprises / Exploring potential future funding opportunities |
| Impact | We have had conversations and have helped us reach out to current trailblazers to look at current concepts we could showcase to the team. Given us more industry focus. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | NRS Healthcare |
| Organisation | NRS Healthcare |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Working with our Research team to develop co-design collaboration with care managers at pivot workshop |
| Collaborator Contribution | Increased market awareness via KTN and co-design collaboration with care managers at pivot workshop. |
| Impact | Co-design collaboration with care managers at pivot workshop |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Pass representation at event and interest in care sector |
| Organisation | Passivhaus Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Built relationship at the Care Show London and interest in working with Care homes for Eco friendly solutions. Attended final event for Healthier Working Lives |
| Collaborator Contribution | Discussions about working with future grants using green technology or solutions about impact using green energy solutions such as Heat Pump. |
| Impact | Final Event networking |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Pat O'Connor |
| Organisation | University of Limerick |
| Country | Ireland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Data analysis and review of ideas. The HWL team reviewed the methods and data from HWL ethnographic work and explored the data sets from partner's EU projects. We established a partnership initiative to bring a questioning (third party) perspective to our analysis; a knowledgeable and exploring lens |
| Collaborator Contribution | Professor Pat O'Connor is Emeritus at the University of Limerick and also Visiting Professor Geary Institute UCD, Ireland. She has spent several months reviewing ethnographic and codesign data and working on outputs including publications. Our respective data sets mould and we are considering future initiatives including grant applications and writing. We are working on the broad themes of emotional labour and older workers exploring theoretical contributions. |
| Impact | Article for the journal Social Politics Open Research Area proposed application Horizon 2025 calls Disciplines include sociology, geography, social policy, e-health, politics and economies of care |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Title | Ripple Framework display tool for ipad and tablets |
| Description | Display tool to show how ripple framework works hosted on an tablet to show how it could be used in an care home or management in the sector. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | well received response displayed at a number of stalls in conferences and shown to management in care homes engaged with research. This has encouraged engagement and to play with the software. |
| Description | 'Pivot' workshop for mentors, industry Trailblazers and care home staff |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Pivot workshop combines and builds on the work completed in the ethnographic and co-design workstreams. The event (happening in Edinburgh Zoo on March 15th) brings together Trailblazers from across the care sector, relevant industry and business professionals, high-level academics, senior managers or staff from the care homes involved in data collection and, most importantly, care workers themselves - whose feedback and experiences will form the core of future ideas and innovation. The overall aim of the workshop is for care homes and care workers to share their priorities and experiences with these high-profile individuals, and begin to address the key themes for change and opportunity emerging from the research: Retention - Care workers capacity building. Enabling care home providers to develop, upskill, and increase employee motivation. Recruitment - Care workforce recruitment and attraction. Enabling care home providers to better recruit staff. Effectiveness - Care worker's operational effectiveness. Enabling care home providers to improve service delivery, scheduling and commercial impact. Well-being - Care patient improved experience. Enabling care home providers to improve customer experience and improve customer satisfaction. As well as these key themes, three potential tiers of influence for future innovation were identified: Culture (local change); Technology Solution (products and services); and Policy. Attendees at the workshop have been placed into five ChangeMaking teams, where individuals were grouped based on the most applicable tier of influence; key challenge they have been or hope to address; and personal background and skills. The groups are made up of at least two care workers from each of the six care homes, as well as Trailblazers and dedicated mentors with the most relevant experience. At this workshop, each of these 5 teams will make a plan for the next 6-months of collaboration, begin sharing ideas, and explore how they can best work together to develop innovative ideas and solutions for the key challenges described above. Pictures and video clips will be taken at the event to be shared with partners and highlight the main outcomes from the day. Hazel White Design will also be documenting the event. Hazel is a Visualiser and artist, who produces illustrations to simplify complex or theoretical concepts, and synthesise key messages from events. Key aims: • Mark and celebrate this exciting turning point within the project • Set the context of the HWL research community of practice. • Set the context for work done so far and future of the project. • Share and build on meaningful insights from Co-design and ethnographic work. • Introduce our 5 Changemakers teams + project types • Introduce each ChangeMaking team to their dedicated support structures and mentors. • Define your Path to Change - Each team will define what will the next 6 months look like working together? • All Changemaking teams get to see each others' creative work so far and share their own |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Advanced Care Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 150 postgraduate students, policy makers and health practitioners came together to consider engagement across disciplines and sectors to promote policy and practice developments in care work and research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://usher.ed.ac.uk/advanced-care-research-centre/2024-spring-symposium |
| Description | Card Sorting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This activity was across care homes in Scotland and it involved care workers being in an workshop with each person picking out an card and talking about what the card says and this meant the audience put out their own discussions naturally as it was thought provoking. This bought rich data and also ideas the researchers didn't think would come up. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Care Trailblazers Hub |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A dedicated website showcasing the innovative enterprises and entrepreneurs from the UK care sector who are involved in the Healthier Working Lives project. Sections on each 'Care Trailblazer' includes a detailed summary of the organisation's background and unique approach; their key insights and impact; and their relevance/contribution to the Healthier Working Lives project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/showcasing-care-trailblazers |
| Description | Codebase Mentorship Methods |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Reaching out to changemakers at Pivot Event, exploring concepts and devising specific plan for collaboration over the following months. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Forum Meeting and introducing HWL Project to care homes |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Meeting to introducing HWL project to care homes and what the benefits of a collaboration could bring in order to retain staff and help recruit new staff in the care sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Healthier Working Lives Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Continuously updated rich content on the Healthier Working Lives blog - to motivate market development and provide insight for all stakeholders, as well as inspire potential collaborations with innovators, business leaders or entrepreneurs working (or seeking to become involved) with the care sector. Content includes varied perspectives around care work, relevant news or policy updates from the sector, or highlight key innovations and positive impact. Key aim of building a community of practice, and increasing awareness and adoption - monitored by page hits / page dwells / number of registrations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/healthier-working-lives-for-the-care-workforce-insights |
| Description | Healthier Working Lives Bulletin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The Healthier Working Lives bulletin is a bi- monthly update, designed to motivate market development and provide specific feedback and insight for all relevant stakeholders. There have been 3 published since Oct 2022, with the next edition scheduled to be distributed later in March 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://mailchi.mp/f730ee5d2721/healthier-working-lives-newsletter-8855048?e=e2799b5a24 |
| Description | Healthier Working Lives Website / Research Hub |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Study website detailing key aims, objectives, and impact of the project, and information about the various team members. Page provides a destination for academics and enterprises to gain current insight and grow their knowledge base by highlighting key industry research and increasing awareness and insight. Webpages were designed to attract both enterprises and potential customers to register, and participate in growing the market by building a community of practice, and increasing both awareness and adoption amongst registered users. Analytics captured included page hits, page dwells and number of registrations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/healthier-working-lives-for-the-care-workforce |
| Description | Illustrating the journey to Concept |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Hazel White Design started to illustrate the journey from start to "now" and what future might look in next few months capturing words and tones and experiences in this workshop. There was a number of engaged industry leads with third sector and this proved to be a great mix to understand the challenges in each sector. There was 3 ideas coming out of discussions which Hazel captured on a mood board and these currently are seen as a catalyst for further engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | International Women's Day - 5 women 5 questions. Edinburgh College of Art research highlights podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | interview of five female professors at ECA; celebrating womens history month |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/news/5-women-5-questions-celebrating-womens-history-month |
| Description | Knowledge Network: Expert Consultants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Sophie Bowlby and Stephen Coleman are co-chairs of the Knowledge Network - a group of industry experts, supporting with networking and outreach; offering feedback on initial data findings; and generating ideas for future analysis. The Knowledge Network (KN) is an integral element of our research methodology. Members act as critical friends, challengers and facilitators to the project team bringing their experience and contacts to the project through: - recruitment strategy, overseeing initial introductions to relevant stakeholders and helping categorise care homes to ensure a varied and representative sample; - commenting on methods of engagement; findings; ideas for products or services; - advising on the promotion of the ideas and prototypes it develops; - challenging project prototypes for innovation and organisational change. Since the inception of the project there have been 5 meetings of the KN: i) initial meeting (30 March 2021); ii) update on progress (September 14th 2021); iii) Recruitment of care homes (March 28th 2022); iv) Co-design methods (December 6th 2022); v) Interpretation of research data on care home organisation (February 14th 2023); as well as individual feedback or assistance from members on specific research issues and written updates to members. Meetings are recorded and recordings/transcripts are circulated amongst all KN members to ensure everyone is kept updated and has the opportunity to comment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
| Description | Leaders in Care Conference: Project outreach and networking workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This invited conference is an opportunity to network with leaders in the adult social care sector, share research projects/outputs, explore new innovations and technology, take part in small focused workshops with relevant leaders, followed by a networking dinner. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Mentorship with Codebase Strategy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Devising an Strategy with Codebase on the structure of recruitment of changemakers and the approach to recruit candidates for mentoring. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | More Time for Quality Care: Workshop preparation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We will be leading a workshop on March 28th (More Time for Quality Care) for up to 40 leaders from across the adult social care sector - including enterprise, policy makers, technology experts, care business owners and management. This smaller half-day workshop brought together KCL researchers with communications specialists and technology start-up mentors to brainstorm workshop content and logistics. At the event we produced a shared Miro board to help discuss and decide our core team aims, objectives and outputs for the event and beyond, as well as participant lists/wording for all event invites and outreach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-creating-more-time-for-quality-care-tickets-1247304484289?af... |
| Description | Overcoming Challenges from Care Sector to Industry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Group of industry experts led by Codebase broke down the barriers how Industry and the care workers who are in entry level work can break down the barriers to make their workplace embrace technology. One of the key discussions was using speakers like an modified version of Amazon Alexa that can make things easier for older workers to speak out items to remember. One of the key talking points was how technology can help keep up the pace of the job for older workers who feel tired with an physical job and making sure some of the pressing tasks like writing notes could be done by dictation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Performative Narrative Interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An interview with group of workers in each care home across Scotland. This was using questions which sparked debate and emotional engagement. This provided rich data for the researchers and helped to shape the next phase. Activities part of this process also bought engagement in terms of understanding each other's pressure even if they are not visible in their particular roles. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | Planning Data Analysis post care home |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Coordinating data analysis post care home visits with care homes and RAs with Sue Lewis overseeing initial findings strategy for networking and data collection. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Poster Probes displayed in care homes |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The Poster probes were displayed in prominent areas of the care home in staff areas on a particular day when most of the were working and this was used as a "teaser" and "attention grabber" as they would interact with the activity board with their view or what they would do in that situation. This bought in rich data that could be extracted once filled up from each home. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Road to Deliberation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of this activity is to involve the team in a decision-making processing in a meaningful way and help the team to develop their care skills. This is an opportunity to review material produced in previous sessions and build on the team's shared experiences and reflections. The activity will allow the team to discuss and consider relevant evidence and present individual views, moving from a more emotional reaction to a collective problem defining and problem solving approach. This involved negotiating and reaching a consensus before deliberating about protentional before deliberating about potential directions to navigate the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Scottish Care Forum Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As part of the collaboration with Scottish Care, researchers were invited to attend a Scottish Care forum meeting - made up of senior professionals and branch leaders from multiple local authority areas, with at least one individual from all areas representing care at home, and another representing care homes. At these events, there is a level of commitment for attendees to disseminate information and to have offer a structure for provider meetings (which usually happen on a quarterly basis). At one of these well-attended events, we were able to introduce our project to these branch leaders using a PowerPoint presentation, and answer relevant questions. Our 'pitch' focused on what we were hoping to achieve with this research and explain the potential benefits - particularly the 'big picture' impact of hearing the experiences of working in care from older staff, in their own words. We also described the commitment and expectations of participation from a broader management perspective. From this meeting, we recruited two care homes into the project where we conducted the ethnographic work and consequently the co-design work. These are both now also involved in the Pivot workshop as a direct outcome of presentating at this Forum. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
| Description | Tearing some bread together to engage conversations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | During an lunch session persons within each working groups were encouraged to talk through issues affecting them in their sector and what they feel they could do to be an change maker. Breaking Bread is an concept that if you sit down and talk while you are eating you will release more information as trust is built through food. This bought together some interesting conversations and also some situations where workers want to help but have been restricted by staffing and budget impacts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Walkaround Care home |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | In order to understand the culture workers were encouraged to approach Researchers as they walk to each area of the care homes and observations would be made during that process. This was carried out in all care homes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |