IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together), the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care, has today announced that it will be running eight Demonstrators, a record eight Facilitator projects and six Networks across the UK in 2025-26. Projects were chosen from a national longlist, following an open call for applications at the end of 2024, and will launch this September.
Our Demonstrators and Facilitators involve staff employed or seconded to work in the host organisation, using evidence to support practical changes in the realities of local services and of people’s lives. Our Networks involve a number of groups across the UK, using evidence to support practical changes locally, and sharing learning with each other.
Projects for 2025-2026
Our Facilitators will be:
- Improving staff retention – Ategi, Pontypridd, Wales
- Supporting staff to deliver compassionate care/improving support for people with dementia and families – Meeting Centres Scotland, Dundee, Scotland
- Improving support for people with dementia and families – Carers of West Lothian, Livingston, Scotland
- Improving staff training/co-production – Brain Injury Matters, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Encouraging young people to develop careers in social care – Border Links, Berwick, England
- Support for carers of older people – Carents, Newcastle, England
- Care and support for people who experiencing homelessness – Street Paws, StreetVet, Dogs Trust (Together Through Homelessness) and Newcastle University, North West England
- Improving support for people who are LGBTQ+ – Newham Council, London, England
Our Demonstrators will be:
- Boosting employment for people with learning disabilities – Conwy County Borough Council, Wales
- Rethinking Home Care: Exploring flexible community care models in Wrexham – Wrexham County Borough Council, Wales
- Boosting reablement within intermediate care as part of a ‘home first’ place-based approach for people living with frailty – NHS Western Isles, Scotland
- Implementing a Self Directed Support Evidenced Based Outcomes Tool in Northern Ireland – Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland
- Better support for aging carers of adults with a learning disability – DOH/HSCNI, Northern Ireland
- Supporting more of a research culture in adult social care – Derbyshire County Council, England
- Supporting people affected by dementia to Live Well, through great everyday support – NHS Greater Manchester, England
- Developing models of community support (direct payments focus) – Calderdale Council, England
We have a number of Network members already confirmed, but will be seeking further members over the course of the year, on a rolling basis. Possible Networks include:
- Citizen leadership (people who draw on care and support being supported to take up leadership responsibilities, as we seek to design social care systems around the priorities and interests of people with lived experience and communities) (we will run two Networks on this topic)
- Exploring the use of artificial intelligence in adult social care
- Meeting the social care needs of refugees and asylum seekers
- Using data to improve services
- New models of home care and reablement
Professor Jon Glasby, Director of IMPACT:
“Adult social care is under a lot of pressure at the moment – but we’ve been really inspired by all the different applications we received from so many different people, all doing amazing things, all over the country. There’s so much innovation, hard work and creativity – and the list of new projects is just the tip of the iceberg. These new projects will make a huge difference to local services and to people’s lives, and we’re proud that IMPACT can help partners take forward their ideas and get evidence-informed changes implemented in the realities of local practice.“
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham:
“It is time to rethink how we help people to live the best life they can and how public services work with them to achieve that. Live Well is Greater Manchester’s commitment to ensuring great everyday support is available in every neighbourhood.
“I am really pleased that our work to progress this for people affected by Dementia, led by our Dementia United programme, is being supported by the IMPACT programme. We look forward to working as part of the Demonstrator programme to make progress and learn together, so that we get closer to ensuring that everyone affected by dementia in Greater Manchester can live as well as possible.”
IMPACT will be recruiting people to work as IMPACT Facilitators and as Senior Strategic Improvement Coaches across the UK. These are 50% roles for 12 months, and designed to work really well for people from policy, practice, applied research and/or with lived experience who want to broaden their skills and CVs by gaining experience of leading evidence-informed change in the realities of front-line services.
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Background
IMPACT is a £15 million UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Health Foundation. IMPACT’s Leadership Team is made up of 14 individuals, led by Professor Jon Glasby at the University of Birmingham. This team includes academics, people who draw on care and support, carers organisations, workforce bodies and a series of other policy and practice partners, from across the UK.
IMPACT believes that ‘good support isn’t just about ‘services’ – it’s about having a life.’ In pursuit of this vision, IMPACT’s four aims are to:
- Increase the use of high-quality evidence, leading to better care practices, systems and outcomes
- Build capacity and skills in the adult social care workforce to work with evidence of different kinds to innovate and deliver better outcomes
- Develop relationships between a wide range of stakeholders across the sector, to improve outcomes for people who draw on services and their families
- Improve understanding of what elements of evidence implementation do and do not work in practice, and using this to overcome barriers
In 2023, IMPACT moved into a five-year ‘delivery’ phase (2023-27) and launched 15 projects – an increase on the six initial projects from our pilot year.