Regulating Adult Social Care (RASC)

Advisory Group of Service Users and Carers

For this project we define ‘service users’ as those people who are, or who have been, in receipt of social care services whether provided through statutory agencies, voluntary organisations or the private sector. By ‘carers’ we mean those people (eg relatives, friends, advocates) who provide care for service users, normally in an informal and unpaid capacity.

Service users and their informal carers represent a major group of stakeholders in the regulation of adult social care in England. Their views on and experiences of the processes and impact of that regulationare very important to our research. Not only will we be talking to groups of service users and carers all over England, but we shall also consult with the members of our Advisory Group of Service Users and Carers (AGSUC). TheAGSUC will be asked to advise on aspects of data collection and analysis such as the best methods to use to access information from other service users and carers and the wording of interview schedules. It will also advise on the preparation of accessible and user-friendly forms of reporting and dissemination. In addition, up to four members of the group will join the other advisory panel for the research, the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE), to maintain the link between both groups, and to represent the views of their panel to the AGE.

Before establishing AGSUC we consulted with two existing service users’ panels about how we should set-up and run such a group. AGSUC comprises up to 20 people who have been recruited through a variety of routes such as existing networks of user and carer contacts, national and local service user and carer groups, and provider organisations. Members will meet at strategic points during the project (at the end of each main phase), but communication will be maintained throughout the project so that members can advise on particular aspects of the research as it progresses.