Welfare Reform on the Web (May 2001): Social Care - UK - Community Care

ETHICS AND ECONOMICS IN COMMUNITY CARE

M. Jenkins

Critical Social Policy, vol.21, Feb 2001, p.81-102.

Costs of community care have outstripped the funds available, so that ways of ensuring cost effectiveness have become an essential part of the process. It is acknowledged that resources are finite and that all wants cannot be met. This leads to the need to assess, prioritise and make choices in an effort to maximise the benefit to society from the monies available. Author argues that the tool of choice for priority setting, the QUALY system, is ill suited to the task.

TICKET TO RIDE

D. Burnham

Community Care, no.1359, 2001, p.24-25.

Explains how Lancashire Social Services voucher scheme is giving carers more choice and flexibility in arranging respite.

WHAT WORKS IN COMMUNITY CARE?

J. Lewis

Managing Community Care, vol.9, Feb 2001, p.3-6.

Bringing about change in community care based on evidence is problematic because:

• the nature of social care interventions makes it difficult to obtain clear evidence;
• much research focuses on analysing problems not evaluating solutions;
• research findings have to be interpreted to produce evidence;
• research evidence needs to be combined with practice wisdom and user experience.