An Ipsos evaluation of a DHSC grant to support local authorities in digitising and streamlining their adult social care assessment processes.

The Grant to Streamline Local Authority Adult Social Care Assessments (‘the grant’) was a one-off non-ringfenced grant of £27 million shared across all local authorities with responsibility for adult social care (ASC) in the 2022-23 financial year. It was intended to support local authorities to build capacity and generate efficiencies in their assessment processes. The grant supported activities to digitise and streamline assessments as well as the introduction of innovative approaches to optimising the use of workforce such as those in assistant and trainee roles carrying out assessment functions where appropriate, and implementation of trusted assessor models. 

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) commissioned Ipsos, in partnership with the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University (IPC), to conduct an evaluation of the grant. This research was commissioned under the previous government (11th May 2010 to 5th July 2024). The findings on how managing the demand for adult social care assessments could be improved, and the opportunities associated with digitising and streamlining assessment processes, remain relevant.

The evaluation explored the extent to which the grant supported local authorities to continue the progress they had already made in innovating their assessment approach and processes across 3 key impact areas:

1. reducing waiting lists;
2. maintaining and improving the quality of ASC assessments; and
3. moving assessments to digital platforms, where appropriate, to improve access, choice and flexibility for people.

The evaluation found that local authorities have spent the grant on activities which were prioritised in the grant guidance. This includes: 

• purchasing digital tools such as self-assessment and screening portals; 
• funding transformation of ASC processes such as moving paper-based forms online; 
• funding staff roles in transformation or to provide screening and triage functions; and
• training and wider support to enable the use of digital tools and manage ASC demand.

Other key findings from the evaluation included:

• Amongst the local authorities who took part, the grant had been used or was planned to be used by many for its intended purpose within a relatively short timeframe, with a minority having used it for other purposes.
• Local authorities reported that the grant has contributed to some outputs and outcomes across a range of areas linked to digitising and streamlining and is likely to continue to do so. A small number of local authorities recorded measurable outcomes such as reductions in backlogs and waiting lists, improvements in the speed of processes especially for those with high needs.
• Whilst longer-term outcomes and impacts had generally not been reported at during the evaluation period because of the short period since the grant was dispensed, some local authorities were confident that the activities that the grant had supported would lead to sustainable reductions in waiting times, and an increased focus on personal needs and choice for those seeking ASC assessments in the future. 
• Barriers to achieving outcomes included the grant not being of sufficient size, wider funding pressures across local authorities, difficulties implementing digital tools, and a lack of certainty around the correct approach to take.
• Local authorities would like further support for digitising and streamlining assessments, and reported that they would benefit from additional funding, sharing of learning and guidance for these areas.

The final report also included seven ‘pen portrait’ case studies demonstrating a range of different ways individual local authorities had used the grant, and the emerging outcomes associated with these. The full evaluation report  is published on gov.uk.

Oliver Tee and Margaret Blake have written a blog reflecting on the insights generated by the evaluation.

Technical note: 

The evaluation employed the following evaluation methodologies to address the agreed evaluation questions:

• a full scoping and evaluation design phase including the co-development of theories of changes for both the grant and wider adult social care (ASC) assessment digitising and streamlining work at a national level;
• a survey of all 153 local authorities with responsibility for ASC (of which 40 responded fully and 10 provided a partial response), covering wider progress in streamlining ASC assessments, their awareness and use of the grant and its impact; and
• 23 case study interviews across 7 local authorities (3 to 4 per local authority) exploring in more detail implementation of ASC digitising and streamlining activities, their use of the grant and the outputs, outcomes and impacts linked to the grant.

The sample of local authorities included in the survey and interviews should not be considered representative of all local authorities, and therefore findings can only be considered robust when ascribed to those local authorities which have engaged with the evaluation. Those local authorities which chose to engage in the evaluation may have had a different experience of spending the grant from those which did not. However, it should be noted that the participating local authorities included a good mix of local authorities from across the country and of different types, including counties, metropolitan and unitary local authorities.