Personal Social Services Research Unit
Cornwallis Building
George Allen Wing
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent
CT2 7NF
01227 827672
ascot@kent.ac.uk
www.pssru.ac.uk/ascot
This second version of ASCOT has incorporated the results of research and feedback that we have received, particularly through training and workshops. While the basic measure is and will remain the same, our aim is to improve the associated guidance, and to provide additional information and tools that enhance and extend the applicability and aid interpretation of results. Here we summarise those areas where ongoing and/or planned work will hopefully feed into future developments.
Care homes
There has been a lot of interest in the care homes' multi-method approach to establishing outcomes for residents. We strongly recommend training, and are providing this for those who express an interest. As a result of this and feedback from users of the toolkit, we have already made some amendments, and anticipate further updating the guidance to reflect people's experiences of putting it into practice.
In some instances, users of the toolkit have been using the methods as a basis for an outcomes-based approach to quality assurance, rather than as a measure of outcome. The approach yields a wealth of qualitative evidence, in addition to measuring outcomes for residents.
Skills for Care and Development have funded some research that followed up on the original study on which this element of the toolkit was based and further work, with a view to developing a toolkit for identifying areas for workforce development and evaluating the impact of such development. If you are interested in finding out more about the ongoing work and plans, please contact ascot@kent.ac.uk.
Benchmarking data
The inclusion of ASCOT in the Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) 2011 potentially provides national comparative data and a means of monitoring how these change over time. These data will be available on the Information Centre website (http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/social-care) from late 2011. In addition, data about general population norms will be available once the results of the OSCA study are in the public domain.
Carers
In principle, carers should be included when we measure the outcomes of social care: in their absence we are not measuring the full value of services and support. Some work has been undertaken that has tested and developed outcome items building on the ASCOT domains, and these have been included in a national carer experience survey. This is an area where further work is clearly needed.
Policy Research Unit on Quality and Outcomes of Person Centred Care (QORU)
This new Department of Health-funded research unit was established in January 2011 (www.qoru.ac.uk). The programme of work includes support for ASCOT, and other methodological work that potentially could feed into future developments. This includes:
- A review of methods for including ‘hard to reach’ groups, such as those with cognitive and communication difficulties
- An analysis of ASCS data to establish how best to adjust ASCOT and other indicators planned for the Adult Social Care Outcome Framework (ASCOF) to make them most useful for comparative purposes
- Other work to facilitate application and use of measures of outcome by commissioners, providers and service users
Translation of ASCOT
Following considerable international interest in using ASCOT to measure outcomes in social care, we are working on a set of guidelines which set out the process by which ASCOT tools should be translated into languages other than English. These instructions will draw upon internationally recognised guidelines predominately drawn from health and related fields. In order for any translation of the ASCOT tools to be recognised as official, the process of translation must follow the guidelines exactly. If you are planning to translate any of the ASCOT tools into a language other than English, please contact the ASCOT team (ascot@kent.ac.uk).