Research priorities in adult social care: Scoping review

Cyhlarova E, Clark M

Abstract

The NIHR SSCR was commissioned by the NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) to review known research priorities in adult social care and map these to the NETSCC funding streams. The aim was to identify a list of research priorities that NETSCC could consider to commission further adult social care research projects and possible themed research calls.

There are few, large-scale examples of a structured priority-setting exercise in adult social care. One example is the James Lind Alliance (JLA) priority setting partnership (PSP), which recently identify the “top 10” research priorities in Adult social work. Given the lack of such exercises in general in the sector – which of course have both advantages and disadvantages – the approach employed here is to use previous work that has taken various means to identify research priorities for the sector. These include reviews of evidence on a topic which have led to identified priorities (such as in guidance from the National institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)) and consultation exercises. In this report, the authors pull together previously identified research priorities in a format to help inform discussions about what research to commission.

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