Department of Health and Social Care
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Government announces a National School for Social Care Research
The Government's commitment to improve social care services will be given a boost with a new National Institute for Health Research School for Social Care Research, Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis announced today.
This follows the launch by the Prime Minister of an intense six month debate about the future shape of care and support services earlier in the month, in advance of a Green Paper.
The new School will be part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and will receive £3 million funding a year, for five years in the first instance. It comes after the successful establishment of the NIHR School for Primary Care Research in 2006.
Launching a call for applications from the research community to join the new School for Social Care Research Ivan Lewis said:
"Society is going through huge change, and so in turn social care must change to meet the challenges of the 21st century".
"A rapidly ageing population means that in 20 years' time a quarter of the entire adult population will be over 65 and the number of people over 85 will have doubled. We expect almost 2 million more people to have care and support needs in 20 years time.
"We want to improve the evidence for social care practice so we can be sure that people in this country are provided with better and more effective services in the future. This new School will make a major contribution to improving the volume and quality of the research in the English social care sector."
Social care affects the lives of about 1.25 million people and their families in England. The School will reflect the profile of modern social care, which is provided by a range of different agencies in a variety of contexts. Its work will help to improve the quality of care services for all those who use them.
The School will focus on social care practice. It will include research by social care professionals as well as academics, and encourage active collaboration with service users and their carers. It will draw on a wide range of academic disciplines and methods.
Professor Sally Davies, Director of Research and Development at the Department of Health said:
"The new NIHR School for Social Care Research will give researchers the time and funding to ask the important questions and improve our understanding of what works, what doesn't work and why. This new NIHR School will provide considerable benefit to the health and well-being of the population through the new knowledge gained."
Notes to editors
1. The National Institute for Health Research provides the framework through which the research staff and research infrastructure of the NHS in England is positioned, maintained and managed as a national research facility. The NIHR provides the NHS with the support and infrastructure it needs to conduct first-class research funded by the Government and its partners alongside high-quality patient care, education and training. Its aim is to support outstanding individuals (both leaders and collaborators), working in world class facilities (both NHS and university), conducting leading edge research focused on the needs of patients. More information about the National Institute for Health Research is available on its website at: http://www.nihr.ac.uk.
2. The National Institute for Health Research's progress report "Transforming Health Research the first two years" can be downloaded from the NIHR website at: http://www.nihr.ac.uk/about_progress_report.aspx.
3. Details of the call for applications for the new School for Social Care Research can be obtained from the NIHR website: http://www.nihr.ac.uk/
4. The intention to publish a Green Paper on the future of care and support was announced in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review. The Green Paper is expected in 2009. To inform it, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Department of Health launched a debate about the future shape of care and support services on Monday 12th May this year.
5. The public will be able to contribute to this debate through a series of events and through a new national website http://www.careandsupport.direct.gov.uk
