Who are we?
We are an independent social care charity working with a wide range of partners and people with lived experience, providing innovative consultancy, expert training, extensive resources and information and evidence-based insights for the continual improvement of social care for adults and children.
We seek to:
- influence and shape national policy and practice through policy development and thought leadership
- drive better social care practice and outcomes by producing and sharing insight, research, guidance, improvement resources and materials
- co-produce our work with people with lived experience of the care and support system and support the adoption of co-production across social care
- equip people working within social care and support with the leadership qualities, skills and capabilities they need to deliver better and person-centred care, through training, coaching and leadership development
- support organisations to improve the quality and impact of care and support through evidence-based consultancy.
Our purpose
Core purpose
We collaborate and innovate in social care to improve lives.
Vision
A society which enables people who draw on social care to live fulfilling lives.
Mission
To support best practice, shape policy and raise awareness of the importance of social care, working together.
Values
The success of our strategy doesn’t just rely on what we do, but how we do it. This is where our values come in. We are committed to becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation and living up to our values in everything we do. We are ambitious about building the leadership and culture we need to enable our people to work at their best. We will develop a behavioural framework that ensures we are all living our values and are holding each other to account for continual improvement.
The values we have signed up to
Progressive
Always learning and developing
Inclusive
Working together for equality, diversity and fairness
Credible
Evidence-based, robust and reliable
Transparent
Open and honest
Committed
Focused on making a difference to people’s lives
Our role
Over the last 20 years we have worked across the social care sector gaining an invaluable insight into the issues that have affected people. We know what works in terms of good social care and support as well as why it works and how engaged and supportive communities can make a difference.
It is no longer sufficient nor appropriate to rely on platitudes or statements of intent when addressing the question of inequality in our society. The inequalities in health and social care exposed by the COVID-19 crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement have shown us that this is no longer enough. To uphold the right for people to be treated equally, no matter their background, requires more.
SCIE’s role must be to challenge the structural inequalities in our society as it relates to social care. To do so, it will hold itself to account in recruitment, and how it supports and develops its staff; people who represent the diverse society in which we live. They will be talented and confident in the knowledge that they will be judged by their ability alone. In addition, SCIE will ensure that the voices of those it represents will always include those most disadvantaged by the structures of discrimination in our society, and hold its partners to account, as well. SCIE believes that co-production, both inclusive and transparent, presents the best opportunity to achieve this.
We have worked with knowledgeable and skilled partners to research and evidence the best examples of good social care and we will now focus our resources around three strategic intentions, where we believe we can achieve the greatest impact. We recognise that the policy and operating context is different across the four countries of the UK, and different again between children’s and adult social care. We bring perspectives and learning from working with services for people of all ages, families and communities across the life course. This means we bring insight from different parts of the system, building on the best available evidence and learning from practice and policy in both children’s and adult services. An example of this being when SCIE established the What Works for Children’s Social Care centre and led on stakeholder engagement.
Through our work, research and evidence, from both an academic perspective and from evidence gained through the lived experience of people accessing care and support, we will reflect on the differences in inequalities in social care, as a part of our drive to improve on these areas. We always seek to ensure that our priorities, how we deploy our expertise, and our ways of working reflects these differences.
Our key principles
In order to deliver our strategy, we have established five key principles which will run across everything we do. These will enable us to continue to grow and strengthen our internal capabilities, and consolidate how we work with partners and people who access care and support. These are:
Co-production
- We will work alongside people who access care and support to co-produce and design improved social care for today and for the future.
- We will provide a channel for the voice of people within the community and those who access care and support so that they have a more powerful influence over policy and practice.
Innovation
- We will draw on our experience of leading the Social Care Innovation Network to encourage local authorities, partner organisations, providers and citizens to develop and grow innovative approaches to care
- We will explore the potential for digital technology to enhance practice and create care services which enhance people’s wellbeing and independence
Evidence and practice informed
- We will keep abreast of emerging and innovative practice, research and thinking in social care and the wider community sector, to ensure we can provide thought leadership and understand where we can best contribute
- We will harness the power of data science to inform better decisions that in turn increase independence
Partnership work
- We will collaborate, convening and harnessing the expertise, experience and influence of the wider sector, to explore and adopt new approaches to high-quality, person- and community-centred models of support
- We will work with partners to raise awareness of the importance of social work and social care including through events, webinars, writing and broadcasts
A sustainable and secure SCIE
- We will operate effectively and cohesively, to make the most of our resources and further our charitable aims
- We will clearly define our brand and commercial offer to ensure financial security, increasing our reach and impact and actively marketing our offer to the charity, public and education sectors
- We will invest in our people to retain our sector-leading expertise and ensure we are a great place to work
Our strategic objectives
Embed co-production and the full contribution of people with lived experience in our work, the design and delivery of care and support services and in policy and research to better meet peoples’ needs.
This means we want to place co-production at the heart of research, policy, design and delivery of care and support services.
What we believe
Co-production is about collaboration and autonomy. It brings people, family members, carers, organisations and commissioners together to share influence, skills and experience. This leads to the design, delivery and monitoring of services and projects where people are treated as equals. In this way, co-production is a powerful tool in addressing inequality, as it ensures equality, diversity and inclusion.
The voice, insights and experience of people with lived experience should be embedded within research, policy, and the design and delivery of care and support services. SCIE is committed to developing understanding, increasing confidence and encouraging the application of co-production internally and across the entire social care sector.
What we want to achieve
More co-production through collaboration between commissioners and people delivering care and support, and those with lived experience of accessing those services.
How we will deliver
Year 1: We will co-produce (with SCIE’s Co-production Steering Group) a vision and strategy for co-production in SCIE and a co-production evaluation tool.
Year 2: By implementing our co-production strategy, we will start to deliver our vision for co-production.
Year 3: We will develop and deliver our offer to support the wider sector in adopting co-production.
How we will evaluate our impact
SCIE will use the % of SCIE staff across all teams who are confident in defining co-production and underpinning principles as a key metric. SCIE will undertake benchmarking and annual evaluation of the experiences of staff and people drawing on care and support in relation to how well SCIE is working in coproduction and seek to demonstrate year on year progress.
Drive innovation and improvement in social care to deliver better outcomes for children and adults who need care and support.
This means we will champion new and better ways of providing care and support.
What we believe
Care and support needs to be person-centred, preventative and strengths-based. Delivering this, particularly in the face of increasing demand for services, limited budgets, workforce challenges and widening health inequalities demands working in new and better ways. A key driver for innovation and improvement is SCIE’s commitment to addressing systematic inequalities and promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion.
SCIE is committed to supporting the delivery of outcomes for children and adults who need care and support. We will do this by increasing the confidence of people delivering social care and commissioners to identify and adopt the most effective approaches.
What we want to achieve
Leaders in health and care working jointly and confidently to ensure best practices in care and support are adopted by commissioners and providers of services.
How we will deliver
Year 1: We will build our capacity and capability and develop new support offers in innovation, integration and children’s services which keep the person accessing care at their heart.
Year 2: Our new offer, embodying a person-centred approach, will be tested and implemented.
Year 3: We will seek out opportunities to be a partner in national programmes to spearhead improvement and innovation.
How we will evaluate our impact
SCIE will use the % of respondents that advise us they have changed their practice or approach as a result of the service improvement support we provide as a key metric.
Influence and support implementation and delivery of better policy to improve the lives of people accessing care and support.
This means we will contribute to better policy which achieves true integration and improves lives.
What we believe
For people accessing health and social care support, meaningful integration which extends across not only health and care services but also into housing and education could transform their lives.
SCIE is committed to conducting the research, providing the evidence and influencing policy to make this integration a reality.
What we want to achieve
A direct link between SCIE’s research evidence and more effective and compassionate social care policy emerging.
How we will deliver
Year 1: We will develop a plan to influence national governments and secure better social care policy which is evidence-based, reflects best practice and improves lives.
Year 2: This influencing plan will be rolled out – ensuring the expertise and voice of SCIE is central in the national conversation about social care reform.
Year 3: We will deliver projects based on our innovation and improvement research.
How we will evaluate our impact
SCIE will track the reference or use of our research and policy recommendations in government programmes or plans as a key metric.
Improve safeguarding skills, knowledge and practice to keep children and adults safe and support their social wellbeing.
This means we will drive improvement in safeguarding to protect adults, children, and their social wellbeing.
What we believe
Safeguarding means protecting children and adults from harm, abuse, and neglect. It is essential in all environments, vital in ensuring people feel safe and important for social wellbeing.
SCIE is committed to ensuring effective safeguarding processes are in place across all settings.
What we want to achieve
Effective safeguarding processes across all settings.
How we will deliver
Year 1: We will review current safeguarding approaches and begin developing new tools and programmes for safeguarding audits and compliance in particular environments.
Year 2: Selected new person-centred tools and programmes will be tested and implemented in different settings. We will evaluate which approaches could be transferrable to other sectors.
Year 3: We will seek out opportunities to be the safeguarding partner for national programmes to spearhead improved safeguarding.
How we will evaluate our impact
SCIE will use the % of respondents that advise us they have changed their safeguarding practice or approach as a result of the support we provide as a key metric.
How did we develop this strategy?
To ensure our strategy was fit for purpose, inclusive and comprehensive, SCIE undertook a period of detailed research. This included interviewing experts and analysing the context in which SCIE operates – politically, economically, socially and technologically.
This research informed the development of initial strategic objectives. We then shaped these through workshops and testing with SCIE staff, the Board of Trustees (including a dedicated Task and Finish Group) and SCIE’s Co-production Steering Group of people with lived experience of social care.
Implementation planning then determined how we would bring each finalised objective to life through key projects and activities.
What influenced this strategy?
SCIE’s vision is:
“A society where care and support maximises people’s choices, removes social inequality and enables people to live fulfilling, safe and healthy lives.”
It is a mission to reform society, and therefore a strategy to pursue it must be developed in response to the challenges of today and tomorrow. To be effective, it must be constructed to meet demands presented by political, economic, social and technological factors. To be actionable, it must acknowledge relevant elements of internal and external context.
This strategy has been developed with consideration of relevant challenges and opportunities, including:
- The UK’s population is ageing. Care and support services are experiencing increasing demand in terms of both volume and complexity.
- The social care sector is experiencing significant workforce and budgetary pressures and is exploring ways to address this through the use of technology.
- The social care reform agenda is driving towards integration across health and social care.
- A general election is expected in 2024.
How will we deliver it?
SCIE has identified that collaboration will be vital to successfully delivering its four strategic objectives. SCIE will:
- Create an inclusive culture, which attracts and retains a diverse workforce with the right skills and behaviours.
- Invest in and maintain the robust systems, processes and management required to support the organisation.
- Articulate SCIE’s role and unique value through effective communications, engagement, marketing and brand.
- Deliver within budget and grow revenue, ensuring investment in this strategy is sustainable and appropriate funds are available for key activities.
A member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has been identified as a lead for each activity SCIE will undertake in pursuing these objectives. The SLT and Operational Leadership Team will monitor SCIE’s progress in achieving these objectives quarterly. To do this, they will use the key metrics identified to evaluate the impact of each objective. They will report this progress to the Board on a quarterly basis. The implementation plan for each objective will be reassessed annually. The SLT will also assess risks to the delivery of this strategy and ensure they are appropriately reported and managed.