About IMPACT
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. Our Leadership Team is made up of 13 individuals, led by Professor Jon Glasby at the University of Birmingham.
This team includes academics, people who draw on care and support, and policy and practice partners. We have also involved a broader consortium of key stakeholders from across both, the sector, and the four nations of the UK. On this page, you will learn about the mission, beliefs, and values that guide our work.
Our Mission
IMPACT believes that ‘good support isn’t just about ‘services’ – it’s about having a life.‘
In pursuit of this vision of adult social care, key objectives for the centre are to enable practical improvements on the ground and make a crucial contribution to longer-term cultural change by:
Our Core Beliefs
- How we design and deliver adult social care can be improved by drawing on evidence of what works
- ‘Evidence’ should include different types of research evidence, as well as the lived experience of people using services and their carers, and the practice knowledge of social care staff
- Adult social care is very fragmented. We stand the best chance of making a difference if we find ways to come together to work on common problems and solutions
- Different groups of people have different levels of power, and some voices are heard less often than others. We believe trying to hear as many different voices as possible and to reduce traditional power imbalances is not only morally right, but will also maximise the evidence and expertise available to us to make a difference
Our Work
- Provide practical support to implement evidence in the realities of everyday life and front-line services
- Overcome the limitations of previous approaches in a diverse, fragmented and under-funded sector
- Bring key stakeholders together to co-design our work in inclusive and diverse ‘IMPACT Assemblies’ (based in all four nations of the UK to reflect different policy and practice contexts)
- Work over three phases of development (‘co-design’, ‘establishment’ and ‘delivery’) to build a centre that becomes a permanent feature of the adult social care landscape
IMPACT is currently in its delivery phase, which will run from 2023 to 2027.
IMPACT’s key projects, delivery models and work programme have been refined during the co-design and establishment phases. In establishment, we ran six pilot projects within four delivery models. These pilots ended in 2023, with learnings and outcomes shared, and a range of new projects followed.
Evidence & Evaluation
IMPACT uses three kinds of evidence. The combination of these help our delivery project staff identify areas for change and guide their projects:
Evaluation is the process by which we understand the centre’s achievements and impact, and identify areas for development to help guide our future work. Each year, we bring together findings from across all of our projects to understand progress towards IMPACT’s mission and four objectives. This is called the Annual Evaluation Synthesis.
National Embedding
For IMPACT, national embedding is about trying to find ways to build what we learn into national policy and practice.
This involves creating close relationships with policymakers, regulators, workforce bodies, educational establishments, membership organisations, and other national organisations that support practice development – so that the lessons from IMPACT become part of how social care gets done in the future.
In planning this, we need to be really careful and focused, but also be flexible and responsive when opportunities to be meaningful and supportive of policy and practice partners arise.
Our ultimate aim is to be as influential as possible in order to make changes that will improve adult social care for the better.
Our Values
Across the four nations our IMPACT team aim to lead their projects and initiatives by these values:
Theory of Change
IMPACT’s work is underpinned by its theory of change.
That’s an approach that sets out what we’re trying to achieve and how we’re going about trying to achieve those things. With a centre like IMPACT, though, the outcomes are often very long-term. So, theories of change often set out short, medium, and longer-term outputs. These are things that you would see if the centre as a whole was starting to head in the right direction.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
IMPACT is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive learning and working environment.
Our aim is for all members of IMPACT to flourish and reach their full potential. Our environment should engage with and learn from adult social care in all its diversity. It should also be where we affect positive change within IMPACT, adult social care, and wider society. We see this as key to the achievement of our strategic objectives and integral to our mission and values. We will do this by: