Making Care Homes Part of the Community? An Evaluation of the Gloucestershire Partnerships for Older People Project

Purpose – This paper report on the evaluation of a project that aimed to improve the integration of care
homes with health and social care services and with the wider community.
Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation adopted a mixed methods approach, combining
quantitative performance data with semi-structured stakeholder interviews and emergency bed use
costings.
Findings – The evaluation suggests that the project made significant steps towards integrating care
homes with the health and social care community and demonstrated cost savings through reduced
hospital bed use.
Practical implications – Health and social care interventions aimed at upskilling care home staff can
increase standards of care and quality of life for residents; they are also likely to highlight unmet needs.
Originality/value – The project demonstrated the need for better integration of health and social care
services with care homes in order to improve quality of life for residents.
Keywords Care homes, Community, Quality of life, Prevention, Older people, Community care,
United Kingdom
Paper type Research paper