IMPACT Delivery Phase Launch Event

A live blog for IMPACT’s delivery phase launch event. You can get involved by commenting here or on Twitter (@ImpAdultCare, #ImprovingAdultCare)

Hello and welcome to the live feed for our delivery phase launch event. We’ll be keeping this updated throughout the event, live from Birmingham, so follow along and get involved.

IMPACT is celebrating it’s move into the five-year delivery phase of the project, as announced by its funders, The Health Foundation and ESRC, this spring. We have spent two years co-designing and establishing the centre, through engagement and a series of pilot projects. We ran an expression of interest last year and have identified 13 new topics/sites to work on in 2023/24.

Today’s we’re celebrating our progress to date and sharing more on what’s to come in 2023-24 and beyond.

12:30 – We’re off!

We’ve been joined by colleagues from across IMPACT and beyond to catch up. IMPACT works across the UK so it’s great to see colleagues we work with remotely.

13:00 – Introduction from Jon

Jon Glasby, IMPACT’s Director, is sharing a bit of background on IMPACT. We’re an implementation centre, with co-production at our heart – working right across the four nations. Our objectives are to support more widespread use of evidence, build skills and capacity, facilitate relationships and better understand what helps and hinders the implementation of evidence.

We’re working in three phases, and today celebrates our move into delivery following a period of co-design and establishment. During the establishment phase, we have piloted four Delivery Models through a number of projects. We’ve also done lots of engagement, from our Conservative Party Conference fringe event to involvement in the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee.

2023/24 is set to be really exciting, as we grow and expand. We will be running three Demonstrators, four Facilitators and six Networks! We also have Ask IMPACT guides on hospital discharge and the learnings from COVID on their way.

13:20 – Introduction from Jo Goddard, ESRC’s Senior Research Portfolio Manager, Health and Human Behaviour Team

In 2019, the Health Foundation and ESRC, as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), announced £15m, partly supported by the Strategic Priorities Fund, to develop a unique evidence implementation centre focused on adult social care. They helped IMPACT in it’s set up, to transform how social care evidence is turned into practice, including supporting adults and young people moving into adult social care and how social care interacts with partner agencies and other sectors. 

13:30 – IMPACT Networks

Kate Hamblin, Amber Cagney and Maria Teresa Ferazzoli are presenting on IMPACT Networks. Networks bring local people together to work on practical changes and aim to improve practice and outcomes in adult social care at the local level and solve common, yet complex, challenges, and to collate practical solutions at the community level to create scalable solutions that inspire and inform change across the UK.

Pilot 1 was on choice and control – finding a ‘middle way’ between personalised services and commissioned services. Pilot 2 was on values-based recruitment, as an approach to address workforce issues in adult social care.

Feedback from Network members has been really positive – they have provided a great opportunity to get people from different sectors together. Others have really felt inspired by the work happening in different regions, in similar contexts. Networks members have stayed in touch, sharing resources and support. The model gives a lot of space for context – allowing space to acknowledge differences and their impact on working practices – and two-way dialogue.

As of July, the next set of Networks will begin, on topics from ‘wellbeing of care workers’ to ‘remodelling the front door’.

13:45 – Co-production Advisory Group, looking forward

“We are a group of co-producers, managers of self-directed care, policy informers, advocates, social enterprises, health professionals, thought leaders and strategic thinkers. As a group we have an impeccable CV.  We also all have lived experience of drawing on care and support or as unpaid carers.”

Luke Nash, Co-production Advisory Group member, and Karen McCormick, Lived Experience Engagement Lead, are presenting on the successes, challenges and opportunities for their group. In the first year, the Co-production Advisory Group (CpAG) met its target of recruiting members, having three meetings, two inductions and producing an annual report. They spent a lot of time getting to know each other – trust was essential – through ice-breaker style activities, as well as putting an emphasis on the skills and assets of members. They’ve engaged with others, including the Health Foundation Inclusion Panel, and co-produced their own workplan and charter.

But there have also been challenges: time, terms of reference, systems, agendas, and accessibility.

Karen and Luke end their presentation by asking: Where you have seen co-production working well, what does it look like and what can we learn from this?

14:00 – IMPACT Demonstrators

14:15 – Embedding

Ewan King is IMPACT’s Deputy Director and Head of National Embedding. It’s essential that we get our learnings and findings not only seen but also embedded in national policy and practice.

We’ll be working closely with stakeholders and feedback our lessons-learned to influence change and work hard to ensure the voices of the people involved in our projects are heard and represented. We’ll be doing all of this in a timely manner to keep up with the policy and sectoral landscape.

There are lots of products emerging from our delivery models, from lessons for national government to animated explainers to jargon bust.

In response, we are discussing the challenges of replicating practice in new contexts, and the merits of creating an environment in which strong relationships can be built.

14:30 – And that’s a wrap!

Thank you so much for joining us today, virtually or in the room! It has been a great opportunity to reflect on all we have achieved so far and to look forward.

1 thought on “IMPACT Delivery Phase Launch Event”

  1. Great to hear about all of the exciting projects coming up for IMPACT across the UK, and the level of interest and engagement for this exciting new phase, seeking to create positive change across the #adultsocialcare landscape. Thankyou to everyone who engaged and has shaped this work to date. Exciting times to come!

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