START DATE AND DURATION: May 2021Moving (transition) between care settings in later life is challenging for older people but also sometimes unavoidable. Transition is not only a physical move between care settings, but also a life event with social, psychological and emotional implications. Social care practitioners have a significant role in supporting older people and their families in transitions.
However, there is a lack of practice guidance in England on how to improve services and support before, during, and after transitions. The project aims 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 do this, we will:
- Review and summarise what older people’s key, unmet transition-related needs are and the approaches used by social care professionals in supporting the transition.
- Interview 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-produce guidance in partnership with older people, their carers and social care practitioners, grounded in real-life experience.
