What were we trying to do?

This research project aimed to explore the impact of COVID-19 on adult social care and social work services in England, initially focusing on Greater Manchester and then extending some elements of the work to other regions.

 

As part of this work, we explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on practitioners and organisations providing social work and social care to adults. We also described and measured the medium- and long-term effects of acute and unexpected changes in legislation, policy and work environment on social care, including:

 

• strategy
• organisations
• practice and service delivery
• staff
• people with lived experience

 

 

Why was it important?

The COVID-19 pandemic made increasing demands on the adult social care sector whose remit, scope and forms of service delivery are complex.

 

Understanding the acute, medium and long-term effects of and responses to COVID-19 was important to help inform decision making and to improve organisational responses to further waves of the disease. This knowledge could also be used to mitigate any negative long-term effects on organisations, adult social work and social care staff and services.

 

This reseach identified improvements in working practices and innovation in service delivery and what actions were needed to sustain them.

 

 

How did we do it?

In this study we adopted a mixed-methods approach, including:

 

• A scoping review
• An initial online survey - asking questions around strategy, organisation, practice, social demography, ethnicity, work demography, work related factors (burnout, sickness absence), and COVID-19 related factors.
• Analysing routinely collected Greater Manchester adult social care data - looking at workforce vacancies, referral numbers, response times, statutory assessment/review processes, expenditure data and social care-related quality of life. We were looking for patterns of service demand and response, service delivery changes, economic, resource and workforce impacts as well as additional COVID-19 specific data.
• A qualitative investigation - involving semi-structured interviews with people who completed the initial survey and a number of leaders and managers of social work and social care organisations.
• A second online survey - informed and refined by the initial survey responses, secondary data analysis and qualitative analysis to capture data from individuals who did not complete the initial survey.

 

As part of our analysis we used standardised measures such as:

 

• Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMBS) to assess global wellbeing.
• EuroQol (EQ-5D-5L) scale to assess health across 5 domains.
• General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) as a screening assessment for minor mental health problems.

 

 

FIndings

In the paper 'Living with Covid’: Well-being, Burnout, and Moral Injury in England’s Adult Social Care Workforce – A Survey Study', findings showed that:

• There were significantly low levels of mental wellbeing in 34% of participants. 
• Burnout was experienced by 31% of participants, with 36% at risk.
• 40% of participants reported experiencing events that were potentially morally injurious (i.e. violated their moral or ethical code).
• Factors relating to COVID-19 had a significant impact on mental wellbeing, burnout and experiencing morally injurious events. 
• People experienced better mental wellbeing and less risk of burnout when they were satisfied with infection control measures and had access to sufficient resources.

 

 

Who did we work with?

• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Social Care Research (SSCR) in Manchester
• The GM Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP)
• The Greater Manchester Social Work Academy (GMSWA)
• NIHR ARC Greater Manchester -  Mental Health Theme
• Regional Public Health colleagues - Public Health England and Department of Health and Social Care
• The Thomas Ashton Institute
• Social Work, University of Manchester
• Regional service user and carer partners: Adult Principal Social Workers Network and Skills for Care

 

 

How was the work funded?

The work was funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR).

 

 

Downloadable resources

 

More information

 

 

 

 

Programme Manager
 

Gill Rizzello
gill.rizzello@manchester.ac.uk