How does social care support older adults’ food and drink-related needs/outcomes?

1. We will scope the existing literature to identify what is already known about the food-related needs of older adults living at home using home care services. We will especially focus on the evidence relating to ways of delivering care or combining services. This scoping review will focus on published articles and reports available from searchable databases. However, we will also present and discuss the findings with an online group of service users/carers, care providers, local authorities and community organisations to identify other relevant literature.


2. We will analyse data from a national survey of people using social care services in England, the Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS), to understand the extent of food and drink-related needs. This survey has collected information from people who use publicly- funded social care services, since 2011. We will explore the data over the last ten years to establish any trends over time, or between regions. The data will also be analysed to understand the factors that are related to higher risk of unmet needs. This will include, for example, housing design and suitability, ethnicity, local environment and underlying health needs.


3. The findings from the literature review and data analysis will be considered to identify key messages for policy-makers, managers, care providers and commissioners. We will work with professionals and service user/carer advisors, to develop a brief guide to our findings and recommendations.