Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

Research and development

Social care research is primarily undertaken to develop evidence which informs and underpins social care policy-making.

An introduction to commissioning for social care research

Social care research is mainly funded by the Policy Research Programme (PRP) located within the DH Research and Development Directorate. The PRP’s budget is £32.5m and its remit is to commission evidence to underpin all aspects of the Departments’ policy-making activity.

Research is commissioned in the following ways:

  • through five year programmes in each of its 17 funded research units. The Personal Social Services Research Unit, the Social Policy Research Unit, and the new Social Care Workforce Research Unit work primarily in the social care field
  • through major research initiatives involving grouped studies on a key policy area, such as the Modernisation of Adult Social Care (MASC) and the new Social Care Workforce Research Initiative (SCWRI)
  • through single projects and embedded evaluations (e.g. the individual budgets evaluation).

Current PRP tenders

All research is commissioned through an open and competitive tendering process. The PRP is not able to accept unsolicited applications for funding.

Guide for social care researchers

The PRP has commissioned a web-based guide for social care researchers, containing information on other funding opportunities, education and training news and advice on producing a research proposal.

Current research initiatives

Information on current research initiatives can be found on the PRP website and on dedicated web sites maintained by research contractors. The following regular newsletters are also produced for each of the main research initiatives of relevance to social care:

Additional links

Related links

Adult social care statistics

Comprehensive statistics related to adult social care are produced and published by the NHS Information Centre for health and social care.

Access keys