Jill Manthorpe

King's College London | KCL · Social Care Workforce Research Unit

Amid increasing demand for public services and stretched resources policymakers often promote ‘social innovation’ to address these tensions. However, critics argue that social innovation may just be a ‘fashionable concept’ or ‘buzzword’ in public policy discourse and that more empirical research is needed to help improve our understanding of the ac...

Background Most people living with dementia live in their own home supported by family carers. One of the most challenging problems they face is managing toilet-use and continence. Carers have repeatedly asked for better advice from healthcare professionals. The purpose of this systematic review was to inform the development of an intervention to s...

Background: NIDUS-Family is a 6-8 session, psychosocial and behavioural intervention, delivered by non-clinical facilitators, tailored to goals set by dementia-unpaid/family carer dyads. It is effective in terms of attainment of personalised client goals. We aimed to determine if it is cost-effective. Methods: This cost utility and cost-effectivene...

Background Clinical pharmacists are increasingly working as part of primary care teams in UK. Many people living with dementia live at home with the support of primary care. Given the complexity of their health problems and their use of several medications, clinical pharmacists may potentially play a crucial role in their support. Aims To explore...

Introduction Pharmacists have traditionally worked in primary care, in the community, and with GPs. However, the role of the clinical pharmacist in primary care is evolving and there are plans to employ more clinical pharmacists in the NHS. With an ageing UK population, there is an increase in the number of people living with multiple long-term con...

Background Only a third of people with dementia receive a diagnosis and post-diagnostic support. An eight session, manualised, modular post-diagnostic support system (New Interventions for Independence in Dementia Study (NIDUS) – family), delivered remotely by non-clinical facilitators is the first scalable intervention to improve personalised goal...

Introduction We report a mixed-methods process evaluation embedded within a randomised controlled trial. We aimed to test and refine a theory of change model hypothesising key causal assumptions to understand how the New Interventions for Independence in Dementia Study (NIDUS)-Family (a manualised, multimodal psychosocial intervention), was effecti...

Introduction This process evaluation was conducted in parallel to the randomised controlled feasibility trial of NIDUS-Professional, a manualised remote dementia training intervention for homecare workers (HCWs), delivered alongside an individualised intervention for clients living with dementia and their family carers (NIDUS-Family). The process e...

This article presents the findings from an evaluation of post-proceedings support (PPS) within Gloucestershire Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC). PPS is offered to parents in the year immediately following a completed FDAC hearing. The article provides background on the formation and development of FDACs across England and FDAC evaluations, befo...

Background Autistic people are disproportionately likely to experience premature mortality and most mental and physical health conditions. We measured the incidence of diagnosed conditions accounting for the most disability-adjusted life years in the UK population according to the Global Burden of Disease study (anxiety, depression, self-harm, harm...

There is a dearth of qualitative research into deafblind people’s experiences, impoverishing our understanding of the phenomenon and contributing to deafblind people’s social exclusion. As an approach which seeks to amplify the perspectives of participants from so called ‘vulnerable groups’, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) appears id...

Objectives Ancillary staff – cleaning, catering, housekeeping and laundry workers – play a crucial role in care homes, by promoting infection control, food preparation and hygiene, and contributing to the care home environment. This study sought to understand the experiences of ancillary staff working in English care homes during the COVID-19 pande...

Introduction In the first randomised controlled trial of a dementia training and support intervention in UK homecare agencies, we aimed to assess: acceptability of our co-designed, manualised training, delivered by non-clinical facilitators; outcome completion feasibility; and costs for a future trial. Methods This cluster-randomised (2:1) single-...

Background People living with dementia at home and their family carers often feel unsupported by healthcare professionals in managing continence problems. In turn, primary and community-based healthcare professionals have reported lacking specific knowledge on dementia-continence. This study aimed to understand more about healthcare professionals’...

Background: Only a third of people with dementia receive both a diagnosis and post-diagnostic support. A new eight session, manualised, modular post-diagnostic support system (NIDUS (New Interventions for Independence in Dementia Study) – family), delivered remotely by non-clinical facilitators is the first scalable intervention to improve personal...

In Northern Ireland, social work-specific legislation is planned for safe staffing across the governmental sector. As part of a broader research project to inform this development, we conducted a scoping review seeking examples of safe staffing definitions, safe staffing-related legislation, policy and practice in social work and associated profess...

The purpose of this study was to examine social workers’ perceptions of safe staffing levels and correlate these perceptions with standardised measurements of well-being in the UK. This cross-sectional mixed-methods study analysed data from 406 social workers from November 2022 until late January 2023. Data were collected using anonymous online sur...

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Introduction We report a process evaluation embedded within a UK Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), which demonstrated that New Interventions for independence in Dementia Study (NIDUS)-Family (a manualised, multimodal psychosocial intervention), was effective relative to usual care, on the primary outcome of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) over one y...

Background:The numbers of older people experiencing both homelessness and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are growing, yet their complex health, housing and care needs remain undelineated and unmet. Older people experiencing homelessness have high levels of memory and cognitive impairment relative to stably housed age equivalent populatio...

Background Although national guidelines recommend that everyone with dementia receives personalised post-diagnostic support, few do. Unlike previous interventions that improved personalised outcomes in people with dementia, the NIDUS-Family intervention is fully manualised and deliverable by trained and supervised, non-clinical facilitators. We aim...

The challenges of maintaining an effective and sustainable healthcare workforce include the recruitment and retention of skilled nurses. COVID-19 exacerbated these challenges, but they persist beyond the pandemic. We explored the impact of work-related quality of life and burnout on reported intentions to leave a variety of healthcare professions i...

Context In England, Personal Assistants (PAs) are part of an international trend towards state funded but client-hired or directly employed care workers. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated pre-existing risks and advantages of this arrangement for both PAs and people with care and support needs. Objectives We aim to report PAs’ refle...

Background Most people living with dementia want to remain living in their own homes and are supported to do so by family carers. We have co‐produced, with family carers of people with dementia and health and social care professionals, a psychosocial intervention (NIDUS‐family). NIDUS‐family is the first fully manualised intervention that is tailor...

Background People living with dementia commonly experience distress or behavioural and psychological symptoms, such as anxiety, which are associated with worse outcomes in this population. Symptoms of anxiety can be challenging to manage, as there is limited evidence supporting the prescription of psychotropic medications and it is unclear if conve...

Background Homecare workers provide essential care at home for people at end-of-life but are often poorly trained and supported. Aim To explore the experiences and needs of homecare workers and the views of homecare clients and carers, and other community-based health and social care staff about the homecare worker role, including identification o...

Background Acute hospital wards can be difficult places for many people living with dementia. Promoting comfort and wellbeing can be challenging in this environment. There is little evidence‐based support for professionals working on acute care wards on how to respond to distress and maximise comfort and wellbeing among patients living with dementi...

Background Previous research has shown that people who have been diagnosed autistic are more likely to die prematurely than the general population. However, statistics on premature mortality in autistic people have often been misinterpreted. In this study we aimed to estimate the life expectancy and years of life lost experienced by autistic people...

Social workers were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined the well-being, burnout and work conditions of UK children’s social workers at five time points of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a cross-sectional mixed methods study analysing data from 1,621 social workers who worked in children’s services in the UK in 202...

Background There is a high prevalence of health problems among single people who are homeless. Specialist primary health care services for this population have been developed in several locations across England; however, there have been very few evaluations of these services. Objectives This study evaluated the work of different models of primary...

Background The numbers of older people experiencing both homelessness and memory problems are growing, yet their complex health, housing and care needs remain undelineated and unmet. There is a critical gap in understanding what can improve the care, support and experiences of this group. In this qualitative study we explore how stakeholders unders...

The closure of day centres during the COVID-19 pandemic placed these, generally under-researched, services of day centres under the spotlight. We report priority areas for support and research concerning English adult and older people’s day centres identified by a 2021 survey. Day centres and other day centre stakeholders have an appetite for evide...

Introduction There has been global investment of new ways of working to support workforce pressures, including investment in clinical pharmacists working in primary care by the NHS in the England. Clinical pharmacists are well suited to support older adults who have multiple long-term conditions and are on multiple medications. It is important to e...

Aim: to explore the psychological wellbeing and work-related quality of life amongst United Kingdom (UK) health and social care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject and methods: Health and social care professionals within nursing, midwifery, allied health professions, social care and social work occupations working in the UK during the pan...

Objective To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of specialist hospital discharge and intermediate care (support after discharge) services for people who are homeless in England. Methods We estimated the comparative cost and consequences of different types of specialist care provided by 17 homeless hospital discharge and intermediate care services. We...

Gambling harms are disproportionately experienced among disadvantaged groups and as such, adult social care (ASC) practitioners are well-placed to identify and support affected individuals. There exists no evidence-based ‘introductory’ question for practitioners to identify those at risk of gambling harms, which includes family and friends (‘affect...

Background Decisions about eating and drinking for people with severe dementia in acute hospitals are often difficult. Using a codesign process, we developed a decision guide for family carers and hospital professionals to help everyone making these decisions. Method We conducted a systematic review and qualitative interviews with people with mild...

In England, “easements,” introduced via the Coronavirus Act 2020, were brought in at the start of the pandemic to support English local authority adult social care services. They enabled local authorities to suspend some of their mandatory duties under the Care Act 2014. Easements were only adopted by eight local authorities and for short periods,...

The social work profession was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined the well-being, working conditions and intentions to leave the social work profession among a sample of UK older people’s social workers. This was a cross-sectional mixed methods study analysing data from 426 social workers who worked in older peopl...

Background The need to improve support following a diagnosis of dementia is widely recognised, but it is unclear how this can best be achieved within UK health and social care systems. A task-shared and task-shifted approach has been recommended, but there is limited guidance on how to achieve this in practice. As part of a programme of research, w...

Background Dementia leads to multiple issues including difficulty in communication and increased need for care and support. Discussions about the future often happen late or never, partly due to reluctance or fear. In a sample of people living with dementia and carers, we explored their views and perceptions of living with the condition and their f...

Objectives: Residential respite (RR) provides a valuable break for family carers, but little known about its offer, take-up or experiences of carers of people living with dementia. This paper aims to further understandings of factors influencing RR use. Design: RR stakeholder workshop and qualitative interviews. Setting: Stakeholder or living...

Background: Autism has long been viewed as a paediatric condition, meaning that many autistic adults missed out on a diagnosis as children when autism was little known. We estimated numbers of diagnosed and undiagnosed autistic people in England, and examined how diagnostic rates differed by socio-demographic factors. Methods: This population-ba...

For a small number of parents home education is a preferred alternative to school and in England more parents are taking up this option. This has refuelled a long-running debate about the adequacy of a regulatory framework under which parents are not required to register their children as home educated and provision is not routinely monitored. This...

This chapter is the first of three to explore in detail developments in multi-agency safeguarding work from the perspective of schools. It draws on interviews with over 200 staff in 58 schools based in five local authorities across England and one multi-academy trust to chart schools’ adaptation to the increased scope and volume of their safeguardi...

The final chapter reinforces the key role which schools play in child protection and safeguarding and reviews the research reported in the book in the context of the austerity measures in place at the time it was conducted. The most important factors influencing the effectiveness of the multi-agency arrangements at local government level in support...

This chapter is based on the views of 68 professionals working in children’s social care or education services in England and an additional 26 interviews with people working in regional and national agencies involved in different aspects of safeguarding and education policy. These interviews contributed to a much better understanding of how schools...

Schools play a vital role in identifying and responding to concerns relating to the protection and safeguarding of children and young people. Staff in schools are well placed to form relationships with children and young people and build up a picture of the risks individual children are exposed to either at home or in the wider community. However,...

This chapter considers the experiences of school staff in relation to information gathering and decision making regarding safeguarding, including making a referral to children’s social care services. It first considers how staff in schools collect and share information regarding children they are concerned about within school. Advice and support av...

Despite the fact that the concept of ‘multi-agency working’ has underpinned developments in this area for at least 60 years, there is scant evidence for its effectiveness and even less for what works in engaging agencies at an operational level. The chapter examines the structures, arrangements and policies that are in place at national and local l...

This chapter examines the historical context in which schools have supported the welfare of children over the past 150 years. It examines the historical context to explore both the ways in which schools have supported the welfare of children and the development of policies designed to protect children’s welfare – from the Children Act 1889 through...

This chapter discusses the experiences of schools in relation to children and families who do not meet the threshold for children’s social care services but who may need ‘early help’ or other forms of lower-level support. First, the reconfiguration of early help arrangements at the local level in the context of austerity is discussed. Second, the i...

Introduction Using co‐design processes, we aimed to develop an evidence‐based decision guide for family carers and hospital professionals to support decision‐making about eating and drinking for hospital patients with severe dementia. Methods Following a systematic review, we interviewed people with mild dementia, family carers and hospital profes...

Introduction Most people living with dementia want to remain living in their own homes, and are supported to do so by family carers and homecare workers. There are concerns that homecare is often unable to meet the needs of this client group, with limited evidence regarding effective interventions to improve it for people living with dementia. We h...

People with care and support needs were often badly affected by Covid-19, although the impact on people employing Personal Assistants (PAs) has not been addressed. We aimed to explore the experiences of people employing PAs during the pandemic to inform care systems and social work practice. Remote qualitative interviews were conducted with seventy...

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, social work and social care practitioners had some the worst working conditions of any sector in the UK. During the pandemic, data revealed that social care occupations had higher COVID infection and mortality rates than the general population. The article reports the changing working conditions (measured via the Wor...

Social care Personal Assistants (PAs) are directly employed by individuals to assist with activities of daily living such as help or support with personal care, shopping, household tasks and community participation. This option is encouraged by UK public funding. In England, disabled people's support organisations initially offered assistance with...

This paper shared the compared results on the psychological wellbeing and work-related quality of life amongst health and social care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Health and social care professionals within nursing, midwifery, allied health professions, social care and social work occupations working in the United Kingdom (UK) du...

Maternity services cannot be postponed due to the nature of this service, however, the pandemic resulted in wide-ranging and significant changes to working practices and services. This paper aims to describe UK midwives’ experiences of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study forms part of a larger multiple phase research project using a cr...

There are long‐standing concerns that people experiencing homelessness may not recover well if left unsupported after a hospital stay. This study reports on a study investigating the cost‐effectiveness of three different ‘in patient care coordination and discharge planning’ configurations for adults experiencing homelessness who are discharged from...

This article reports social workers’ attitudes and approaches to working with people experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH) who self-neglect, and whether these people receive services, including safeguarding, differently from other populations. It draws on telephone interviews in 2020 with twenty-two social workers working with adults i...

Nurse, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), along with other health and social care colleagues are the backbone of healthcare services. They have played a key role in responding to the increased demands on healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper compares cross-sectional data on quality of working life, wellbeing, coping and...

The implementation in England of a Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard (SCWRES), initially confined to social work, started with a first set of eighteen volunteer local authorities (LAs) in 2021. This article discusses a rapid evaluation of the SCWRES during its first year. We used Normalization Process Theory (NPT) to better understand th...

This article reports findings from a study on the effect of the adjustments or ‘easements’ that were made to the 2014 Care Act when measures to manage the impact of COVID-19 were introduced in England in 2020. Only eight local authorities (LAs) implemented the changes permitted. The experiences of five are explored in this article. Data were collec...