Understanding and supporting older people’s ‘transition’ between different care settings: co-production of practice guidance for social care practitioners

Moving (transitioning) between care settings in later life was challenging for older people but also sometimes unavoidable. Transition was not only a physical move between care settings, but also a life event with social, psychological, and emotional implications. Social care practitioners played a significant role in supporting older people and their families during these transitions.

However, there was a lack of practice guidance in England on how to improve services and support before, during, and after transitions. The project aimed to provide practitioners, older people, unpaid carers (such as family and friends), and local decision-makers with clear evidence and practice guidance for supporting older people’s transitions into and between different social care settings.

To achieve this, the project team:

• Reviewed and summarised older people’s key unmet transition-related needs and the approaches used by social care professionals to support transitions

• Interviewed social care practitioners, older people, and unpaid carers with lived experience of transitions (or supporting transitions) between social care settings and services (for example: home care, care homes, or extra-care housing) or from hospital into social care settings

• Co-produced guidance in partnership with older people, their carers, and social care practitioners, grounded in real-life experience

Our findings provide practitioners, older people, unpaid carers (family and friends) and local decisionmakers with clear evidence and practice guidance (online resources) for supporting older people’s transitions into and between different social care settings.

East Sussex County Council

University of Kent

University College London (UCL)

NIHR ARC Kent, Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS)

NIHR ARC North Thames (ARC NT)