SCIE media releases 2007
Lead, involve and commit – new research on organisational change and improvement
01 November 2007
Social care and health service leaders need to show both innovation and a real commitment to involvement to initiate and sustain change and improvement, according to two new reports launched.
The two reports – commissioned by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) – bring together knowledge from people who use services, practitioners and existing research on service improvement. 'Improving social and health care services' identifies the most effective processes that bring about service improvement – including employee and stakeholder involvement, an understanding of resistance to change and meaningful evaluation. 'Developing social care: service users driving culture change' explores how service users and user-led organisations have influenced and improved the work of service providers. It also looks at what support and resources are needed to ‘normalise’ service user involvement in social care.
Launching the reports at the CSIP Eastern regional performance conference 'Better Outcomes for People – Measuring and Improving Delivery', Head of Knowledge Services at SCIE, Amanda Edwards, said:
“In the last year we have seen some ambitious and encouraging social care policy initiatives. We now need to focus on the specific actions needed to make these visions of improvement a reality."
“Our new research shows that to successfully facilitate change, organisations must involve the people who use services and other stakeholders at every stage of the process; from planning to evaluation. In particular the social care sector will need strong leaders who can take account of the emotional aspects of organisational change, accept that resistance to change is to be expected and ensure that the workforce is clear about the improved outcomes that will make change worthwhile.”
SCIE will now use the findings of the two reports to develop new practice guidance that supports sustainable organisational change.
- View Knowledge review 16: Improving social and health care services
- View Knowledge review 17: Developing social care: service users driving culture change
Media contact
Iris Steen | Director of Communications| Social Care Institute for Excellence| T: 020 7089 7122 | Mobile: 07885 736 643 | Iris.Steen@scie.org.uk
