James Caiels

Senior Research Fellow

01227 827552

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Research Interests

James is a Senior Research Fellow at the PSSRU, University of Kent. Since joining in 2007 James has worked on a multitude of research projects, primarily funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. These have included the evaluation of policy initiatives (e.g. the Better Fund and Personal Health Budgets).

James is currently a co-investigator in the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Quality, Safety and Outcomes Policy Research Unit (QSO). The QSO is a collaboration between the Universities of Kent and Oxford, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the Picker Institute and Hull-York Medical School. Its primary purpose is to produce robust, relevant, and usable research aimed at improving the quality and outcomes of the health and social care system. He is also working in the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Adult Social Care (ASCRU) which is led by Dr. José-Luis Fernandez at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC), London School of Economics.

James is a member of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) team (www.pssru.ac.uk/ascot) an outcomes measure used internationally in research and evaluation to inform long-term care policy and practice. He has been involved in the translation and cross validation of ASCOT into German and Japanese, and the development of adapted measures (ASCOT-ER, ASCOT-Proxy and ASCOT-ER (OP)).

James’ main research interests are centred around the integration of health and social care, measuring the impact of social care, and the development of adapted outcome measures for people with cognitive and communication difficulties. Recently he has led work developing evaluation methods and identifying outcomes for strengths-based approaches in social work.

James Caiels' Publications

Journal Articles

Journal Article

Understanding how users of home-based aged care services with cognitive impairment rate their social care related quality of life (2025)

Caiels J

25, Article Number: 12 (2025)

BMC Geriatrics

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Journal Article

New Ways of Working to Manage and Improve Quality in Integrated Care Systems in England (2025)

Caiels J

14, 1, 1-10

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

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Journal Article

Enhancing quality of life measurement: adapting the ASCOT easy read for older adults accessing social care.

Quality of Life Research

(2024)

Caiels J, Rand S, Mikelyte R

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Journal Article

Assessing progress in managing and improving quality in nascent integrated care systems in England (2023)

Mirza Lalani, Priya Sugavanam, James Caiels, Helen Crocker, Sarah Gunn, Harriet Hay, Helen Hogan, Bethan Page, Michele Peters, Raymond Fitzpatrick

Journal of Health Services Research & Policy , 29, 122-133

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Journal Article

Strengths-based approaches - perspectives from practitioners (2023)

Caiels, J., Silarova, B., Milne, A., Beadle-Brown, J.

British Journal of Social Work , 00, 1-21

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Journal Article

Supporting the involvement of older adults with complex needs in evaluation of outcomes in long-term care at home programmes. (2022)

Phillipson, L., Towers, A., Caiels, J., Smith, L

Health Expectations An International Journal of Public Participation In Health Care and Health Policy , 1-11

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Journal Article

Personal health budgets: a mechanism to encourage service integration? (2022)

Welch, E., Jones, K., Fox, D. and Caiels, J.

Journal of Integrated Care 3, 30, 251-262

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Journal Article

The Development of a Core Outcome Set for Trials and Evaluative Studies in Adult Social Care. Journal of Long-Term Care (2021)

Sugavanam, T., Caiels, J., Peters, M., Fitzpatrick, R

Journal of Long-Term Care , 438-445

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Journal Article

Strengths-Based Approaches in Social Work and Social Care: Reviewing the Evidence (2021)

Caiels, J., Milne, A., Beadle-Brown, J.

Journal of Long-Term Care , 401-422

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Journal Article

Challenges in integrating health and social care: the Better Care Fund in England. (2020)

Harlock J., Caiels J., Marczak J., Peters M., Fitzpatrick R., Wistow G., Forder J., Jones K

Journal of Health Services Research & Policy 25, 2, 86-93

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Journal Article

Feasibility, factor structure and construct validity of the easy-read Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT-ER) (2020)

Rand S, Towers A, Razik K, Turnpenny A, Bradshaw J, Caiels J, Smith N,

Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability 45, 2, 119-132

Taylor & Francis Online

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Journal Article

A cohesive research approach to assess care-related quality of life: Lessons learned from adapting an easy read survey with older service users with cognitive impairment. (2019)

Phillipson, L., Smith, L., Caiels, J., Towers, A., & Jenkins, S

International Journal of Qualitative Methods 18

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Journal Article

Exploring the views of being a proxy from the perspective of unpaid carers and paid carers: Developing a proxy version of the adult social care outcomes toolkit (ASCOT). (2019)

Caiels, J., Rand, S., Crowther, T., Collins, G., & Forder, J

BMC Health Services Research, 19, 1, 201-019-4025-1

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Journal Article

Letter to the Editor re: McEwan et al (2019) Moving on from Quality Assurance: Exploring Systems — Outcomes in Disability Services (2019)

Stacey Rand,  Ann Marie Towers,  James Caiels

Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities

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Journal Article

Exploring the views of being a proxy from the perspective of unpaid carers and paid carers: developing a proxy version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) (2019)

Caiels J, Rand S, Crowther T, Collins G, Forder J,

Springer Nature

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Journal Article

Developing a proxy-report version of the Adult Social Care Outcome Toolkit (ASCOT) (2017)

Rand S, Caiels J, Collins G, Forder J

Health and Quality of Life Outcomes , 15:108

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Journal Article

Developing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) (2016)

Turnpenny A, Caiels J, Crowther T, Richardson L, Whelton R, Beadle-Brown J, Rand S

Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities

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Journal Article

Implementing personal health budgets in England: a user-led approach to substance misuse (2016)

Welch E, Jones K, Caiels J, Windle K, Bass R

Health and Social Care in the Community

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Journal Article

Personalization in the health care system: do personal health budgets impact on outcomes and cost (2013)

Jones K, Forder J, Caiels J, Welch E, Glendinning C, Windle K

Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 18, 2 suppl, 59-67

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Journal Article

Measuring the outcomes of long-term care (2011)

Forder J, Caiels J

Social Science and Medicine 73, 12, 1766-1774

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Book Sections

Book Section

Personal health budgets: implementation and outcomes (2016)

Jones K, Forder J, Caiels J, Welch E, Windle K

Policy Press

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Reports

Report

Personal health budgets: Targeting of support and the service provider landscape (2018)

Jones K, Welch E, Fox D, Caiels J, Forder J

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Report

Personal Health Budgets: Implementation following the national pilot programme; overall project summary (2018)

Jones K, Welch E, Fox D, Caiels J, Forder J

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Report

A system-level evaluation of the Better Care Fund: Final Report (2018)

Forder J, Caiels J, Harlock J, Wistow G, Malisauskaite G, Peters M, Marczak J, D'Amico F, Fernández J-L, Fitzpatrick R, Jones K

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Report

Personal Health Budgets: Process and context following the national pilot programme (2017)

Jones K, Forder J, Welch E, Caiels J, Fox D

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Report

Making the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit Easy Read (2015)

Whelton R, Turnpenny A, Caiels J, Crowther T, Richardson L, Beadle-Brown J, Apps J, Rand S

QORU working paper

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Report

Developing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) - Appendix (2015)

Turnpenny A, Caiels J, Crowther T, Richardson L, Whelton R, Beadle-Brown J, Apps J, Rand S

QORU working paper

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Report

Developing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) (2015)

Turnpenny A, Caiels J, Crowther T, Richardson L, Whelton R, Beadle-Brown J, Apps J, Rand S

QORU working paper

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Report

Implementing personal health budgets within substance misuse services (2013)

Welch E, Caiels J, Bass R, Jones K, Forder J, Windle K

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2858, University of Kent

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Report

The cost of implementing personal health budgets (2011)

Jones K, Forder J, Caiels J, Welch E, Windle K, Davidson, Dolan P, Glendinning C, Irvine A, King D

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2804, University of Kent

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Report

Early experiences of implementing personal health budgets (2010)

Jones K, Caiels J, Forder J, Windle K, Welch E, Dolan P, Glendinning C, King D

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2726/2, University of Kent and London School of Economics

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Project Outlines

Project Outline

Evaluation of the Personal Health Budgets Pilot (PSSRU Project Outline 91) (2010)

Jones K, Caiels J, Forder J, Windle, K

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Project Outline

Quality Measurement Framework programme. PSSRU Project Outline 67 (2007)

Forder J, Caiels J

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Research Summaries

Research Summary

Perspectives on strengths-based approaches: social workers, commissioners and managers - Plain English summary of research findings (2022)

J Caiels, B Silarova, A Milne, J Beadle-Brown

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DP or working papers

DP or working paper

Perspectives on strengths-based approaches: social workers, commissioners and managers (2022)

J Caiels, B Silarova, A Milne, J Beadle-Brown

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DP or working paper

Taking a strengths-based approach to social work and social care: A literature review (2021)

Caiels J, Milne A, Beadle-Brown J

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DP or working paper

ASCOT Easy Read: usability evaluation of an electronic adaptation (2019)

Razik K, Turnpenny A, Bradshaw J, Rand S, Towers A, Caiels J, Smith N

QORU working paper 2953

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DP or working paper

Factor structure and construct validity of the easy-read Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT-ER) (2017)

Rand S, Towers A, Razik K, Turnpenny A, Bradshaw J, Caiels J, Smith N

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DP or working paper

How can MAX help local authorities to use social care data to inform local policy? Maximising the value of survey data in adult social care [MAX] project. Executive Summary (2015)

Heath C, Malley J, Razik K, Jones K, Forder J, Fox D, Caiels J, Beecham J

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DP or working paper

Using Proxies to assess Quality of Life: A Review of the Issues and Challenges (2015)

Rand S, Caiels J

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DP or working paper

How can MAX help local authorities to use social care data to inform local policy? (Infographic) (2015)

Al-Tahhan, Nat

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DP or working paper

How can MAX help local authorities to use social care data to inform local policy? (Executive summary) (2015)

Heath C, Malley J, Razik K, Jones K, Forder J, Fox D, Caiels J, Beecham J

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DP or working paper

How can MAX help local authorities to use social care data to inform local policy? Maximising the value of survey data in adult social care [MAX] project (2015)

Heath C, Malley J, Razik K, Jones K, Forder J, Fox D, Caiels J, Beecham J

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DP or working paper

ASCOT Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit: Main Guidance v2.1 (2011)

Netten A, Beadle-Brown J, Caiels J, Forder J, Malley J, Smith N, Towers A, Trukeschitz B, Welch E, Windle K

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2716/3, University of Kent

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DP or working paper

Development Studies for the National Adult Social Care User Experience Survey: Technical Report (2010)

Caiels J, Fox D, McCarthy M, Smith N, Malley J, Beadle-Brown J, Netten A, Towers A

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DP or working paper

A Report on the Development Studies for the National Social Care User Experience Survey (2010)

Malley J, Caiels J, Fox D, McCarthy M, Smith N, Beadle-Brown J, Netten A, Towers A

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2721, University of Kent

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DP or working paper

Measuring Outcomes of Information and Advice Services: Final Report (2010)

Windle K, Caiels J, Welch E, Netten A, Masrani R, Welch E, Forder J

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DP or working paper

Measuring the Outcomes of Low-level Services: Final Report (2010)

Caiels J, Forder J, Malley J, Netten A, Windle K

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2699, University of Kent

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DP or working paper

Measuring Outcomes in Social Care: Second Interim Report (2008)

Forder J, Towers A, Caiels J, Beadle-Brown J, Netten A

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2542, University of Kent

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DP or working paper

Measuring Outcomes in Social Care: Conceptual Development and Empirical Design. Quality Measurement Framework Project. PSSRU interim report (2007)

Forder J, Netten A, Caiels J, Smith J, Malley J

PSSRU Discussion Paper 2422, University of Kent

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Conference presentation outputs

Conference presentation output

Personalisation and Prevention in England (2011)

Welch E, Caiels J

Boston, USA

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Conference presentation output

Personalisation and Prevention in England (2011)

Welch E, Caiels J

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Conference presentation output

Personalisation and Prevention in England (2011)

Welch E, Caiels J,

Symposium at Social Policy Association

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Manuscripts

Manuscript

Implementing personal health budgets: Opportunities and challenges for the NHS (2016)

Jones K, Caiels J, Welch E, Windle K, Forder J, Glendinning C, King D

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Blogs

Blog

Meeting local information needs with ASCS and PSS SACE data (Blog) (2015)

Heath C, Malley J, Razik K, Jones K, Forder J, Caiels J, Beecham J

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Unallocateds

Unallocated

Letter to the Editor re: McEwan et al (2019) Moving on from Quality Assurance: Exploring Systems — Outcomes in Disability Services (2020)

Rand S, Towers A-M, Caiels J

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