What organisational level factors support or inhibit the scale and spread of innovations in children’s social care: a rapid review
A rapid review of what organisational level factors support or inhibit the scale and spread of innovations in children’s social care.
Welsh Government has recently committed to a significant 3-year investment to support innovation in adults and children’s social care. The delivery of social care in Wales has a complex and multi-faceted approach, involving collaborative working between a range of organisations, which will likely affect decisions around implementation and scale-up of new and/or existing interventions. The aim of the review was to identify any factors (barriers and enablers) that affect the implementation and scale up of an innovation in children’s social care organisations.
This rapid review, undertaken for the benefit of Social Care Wales, has provided some insight into how innovative changes may provide a means for tackling challenges facing Childrens social services, some of which are deep-rooted and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
What does ‘Innovation’ mean?
For the purpose of this review, innovation is defined as the “implementation of an idea, practice or invention within an organisation or system that is new to the organisation or system". The review was limited to UK studies and UK-relevant reviews of design studies published since 2014.
Aim
To identify factors (barriers and enablers) that affect implementation and innovations in children’s social care organisations (including statutory organisations and third sector). Effectiveness of innovations was not evaluated.
Summary of Evidence Identified
This review included evidence available up until November 2022. 10 studies were identified across 13 publications including:
- 3 x secondary studies
Secondary studies included: a mixed methods systematic review of Signs of Safety (SoS) across 13 UK studies (one from Wales) plus others from countries similar to the UK.
- 7 x primary studies
Primary studies included three which used qualitative study design.
Five primary studies were conducted in England or Scotland.
Two primary studies used formal local evaluation of innovations in Wales.
Key Findings and Policy Implications
This rapid review highlights the complexity of the social care models and provides some clear pointers for policy and practice to consider.
Key ‘enablers’ emerging from the research include the following:
- senior management buy-in and support
- short and longer term funding
- inter-disciplinary communication
- joint working
- good professional (and professional-carer) relationships with support and mutual respect
- specific training and support for professional staff
- compatible data systems to support joint working/collaboration
Key ‘barriers’ emerging from the research include the following:
- short term or lack of funding
- Implementation difficulties (e.g. multiple priorities and changing structures
Overview of the Evidence Base
- All primary studies were service evaluations (including 3 x qualitative studies)
- 2 x primary studies included a formal local evaluation of innovations in Wales
- 2 x qualitative studies of medium quality conducted in England
- Formal quality assessment was only carried out on 5 studies with an explicit methodology; 3 of which were poor quality
- The confidence in the evidence is uncertain
- The study designs included non-systematic reviews and service evaluations
- Most studies did not use a formal methodology
- All had some quality limitations
The lay summary was written by Rashmi Kumar, April 2023.
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