Partnership with the University of York

What does this partnership help achieve?

Home Instead isfocused on supporting an ageing population, including those living with complex or chronic conditions. Webelieve in giving people the choice and ability to remain safe and well in their own homes. Working with the SPRU at York University, we aim to increase people’s awareness and understanding of home care, and show that living at home can also mean living well.

The Home Instead Research Programme will contribute valuable evidence and data to the social sector by combining the SPRU’s expertise in research with Home Instead’s knowledge and experience in homecare. This in turn can inform national debate on the future of homecare for the elderly, and help define best practice and new ideas going forward.

Despite the increasing number of older people wishing to stay in their own homes, the area is woefully under-researched, so many remain uniformed of the benefits and their options. Home Instead and the SPRU hope to change that.

The three-year research programme at SPRU is currently underway, and consists of several individual projects. The initial project was to run a multi-stakeholder consultation to identify the research priorities with regards to home care, and ascertain the extent of existing research. These findings have since been published.

Other ongoing projects within the programme include exploring the experiences of homecare providers and research teams with the intent to develop a research toolkit for future use, and developing a detailed description of the Home Instead homecare delivery model according to an international framework, which can then be compared to other homecare services.

Throughout the programme, the research team will be working with other institutions to develop datasets for homecare that can be used to support future understanding and actions.