Chief Investigator: Dr Teresa Corbett, Visiting Research Fellow, School of Health Sciences , University of Southampton and Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Solent University.

Co-Investigators:

Professor Jackie Bridges, Professor of Older People's Care, School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton 

Dr Nicola Andrews, Research Fellow - NIHR ARC Wessex , School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton 

Cindy Brooks, Research Fellow - NIHR ARC Wessex , School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton

Dr Pippa Collins, Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Post Doc Research Fellow – NIHR ARC Wessex, School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton

Collaborating organisations:

Hampshire County Council – Maria Hayward, Learning & Development Service Manager and Implementation Champion

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council – Alison Pearman, Service Improvement Manager

Wessex AHSN – Cheryl Davies, Senior Programme Manager (Healthy Ageing)

Skills for Care – Debbie Boys, Locality Manager – Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight

Purple Lilac Healthcare - Violet Chatindo, Registered Manager

Right at home – Andrew Davis, Registered Manager

Partners in Care– Kate Blake, Manager

Start date: 1/6/23

End date: 1/9/24

Aim of the research 

The aim of this research is to adapt a communication tool for use by social care workers and to find out what type of information we should include in a training package for social care workers providing domiciliary care (e.g., practical help and support in the community) to support its use. This study will help us to make a training course that we can try out with social care workers in future research.

Background to the research 

We made a tool to help healthcare staff to talk to older adults about their needs. This tool has 8 steps that should be followed in a discussion with people about their needs and personal goals. However, the tool might need to be changed if we want to use it in domiciliary or other social care settings instead of healthcare (e.g., the NHS) settings. In this research, we want to see if we need to change the tool so that it can be used by social care workers. We also want to find out about how we might be able to train social care workers to improve how they talk to older adults about their needs. 

Design and methods used 

We will study existing courses, workshops and training so that we can find out more about how we should plan our training.  We will also interview social care workers to find out more about what they do in their role. We will ask them to tell us what they think of the tool, and what changes we might need to make to it. Up to 15 social care workers will take part.  

We will make a draft of what will be included in the training. Experts will discuss the training and we will make changes based on what they say. We will interview some more social care workers to find out what they like or do not like about the training plan we have made. 

Patient, public and community involvement 

Members of the public have been part of the study so far in many ways. They have helped us to make the tool that we will ask social care workers about.  

We will also work with experts in social care who have agreed to help us to in a number of ways. These include: 

·       Looking over content and letting us know what they think. 

·       Coming to project meetings.

·       Helping to plan the study.

·       Looking over study information that we will send to participants. 

·       Helping us to make sense of the research findings.

Dissemination 

We will share our findings at conferences and at events with audiences who are interested in our study. We will also write about our findings for academic and public audiences via Communications channels (e.g. relevant websites, social media, newsletters).  We will also share findings with those working in social care, e.g., via domiciliary care forums (each local authority has one) and with Learning and development teams in local authorities.

What did we find out?

An adapted version of the CHAT&PLAN is viewed as feasible to use in homecare settings. We needed to change some of the language to make it more relevant to homecare settings and improve clarity.

There is an appetite and need for co-designed, evidence-based, person-centred care training in homecare settings. Much of the existing training on this topic is not specific to homecare workers and may not always apply to their role.

CHAT&PLAN provides an overview of skills that should be used flexibly, depending on the needs and preferences of the service user. The training will emphasise that it may not work well for all service users, and further communication skills training is required alongside this course.

We identified key factors we would need to consider in the development of a training package:

1.Teaching style and methods should be practical to support skills development. Training should involve learning from each other and reflection.

2.The training must be viewed as relevant to the homecare workers and be pitched at a level that is clear and easy to understand.

3.Buy-in from managers, organisations and service users is required for homecare workers to attend sessions, and then apply skills in practice.

What did we do with this new knowledge?

•Study summary was shared with supporting organisations and participants

•Systematic review paper has been submitted to PLOS One

Where next?

We did not have time in this study to test out the training with homecare workers. This is important as we want to know how the training works in practice. We will need to test the package to see what homecare workers and managers think of the entire set of materials and methods used in the training.

We will then apply for funding to see whether the training is acceptable and feasible in practice and improves the quality of person-centred care provided by homecare workers.