Mind The Gap: London Boroughs’ ideas for adult social care, a Knowledge Exchange Event (using World Café principles) took place today, bringing together representatives from nine councils and researchers from the three London Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) and the NIHR School for Social Care Research.

Topics discussed included domestic abuse and safeguarding, the challenges and opportunities of a shared language, how to create a research culture in local authorities, the importance of understanding and acknowledging identities (class, race, ethnicity) for good outcomes, and the evaluation of a Domiciliary Care Trusted Assessor approach.

Participants from the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce at King's included Kritika Samsi, Caroline Norrie, Katharine Orellana, Kalpa Kharicha, Cat Forward, Jo Brown and Mary Baginsky. Lucy Jacobs and Shabnam Ahmed, both NIHR Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship Scheme award holders hosted by the Unit, brought their local authority expertise to the event, with Shabnam leading the discussion about identities.

This pan-London event was jointly organised by social care themes in ARC South London, ARC North Thames, ARC North West London and the NIHR School for Social Care Research. NIHR Applied Research Collaborations are regional collaborations between organisations that undertake applied health and care research.

Header image, from the Twitter feed of NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North Thames, shows Shabnem Ahmed leading a discussion about identities at the event on 18 May 2023.

Read the blog post written by Lucy Jacobs about this event.