We’re delighted to share that the Local Area Coordination Network has been awarded the Practice Evaluation Scheme by the School for Social Care Research, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

This exciting project will focus on evaluating and strengthening ‘Safe Waiting’ — a core Local Area Coordination practice. Safe Waiting supports people to identify what matters to them, make decisions, and move towards change at their own pace, while Local Area Coordinators stay alongside them to offer safety, encouragement and connection. It reflects one of the key aspects of Local Area Coordination. Rather than ‘fixing’ problems for people — which can unintentionally reinforce dependency on services — it helps people build their own confidence, strategies, relationships and resilience for the long term.

While Safe Waiting is already embedded in Local Area Coordination practice through inductions and training, guidance and reflective practice opportunities, this project will help us define and evidence what high-quality Safe Waiting looks like in practice and how it contributes to sustainable outcomes for people and communities.

The evaluation will bring together learning from experienced practitioners and people who have received support across participating Local Area Coordination sites. Through collaborative reflection and analysis, the project will develop a clearer understanding of the key behaviours, approaches and mechanisms that make Safe Waiting effective.

Key outputs and outcomes

The key outputs will include:

• A Safe Waiting Theory of Change, clearly setting out how and why the approach works
• A reflective self-evaluation tool for practitioners and managers to strengthen consistency and support professional development
• Recommendations for supporting Safe Waiting to be embedded consistently across all Local Area Coordination sites
• Evidence and learning about how Safe Waiting contributes to stronger, more sustainable outcomes and identifying ways in which Safe Waiting practices could be embedded across different public services

This work will help strengthen practice across existing Local Area Coordination teams, reduce the risk of practice drift, and ensure Safe Waiting remains a core and consistent part of Local Area Coordination delivery. Importantly, the learning will also have relevance beyond Local Area Coordination. By illustrating how Safe Waiting supports prevention and capacity-building, the project will generate practical insight for wider public services — including adult social care, housing and health — as councils continue to look for approaches that build people’s long-term resilience.

The findings will be embedded into the Local Area Coordination Network’s existing learning infrastructure, including induction, guidance, manager development and national learning events. This will ensure the impact of the project continues well beyond the life of the research.

Acknowledgements

We’re incredibly grateful to the School for Social Care Research and NIHR for supporting this work, and to the practitioners and people who will contribute their experience and insight. We’d also like to share a huge thanks to Dr Juliette Malley, Co-Director Social Care Rapid Evaluation Team (SOCRATES) and Deputy Director (Social Care) Policy Research Unit in Policy Innovation and Evaluation (PIRU), and colleagues at the Better Health & Care Hub King’s College London who will be providing support and expertise throughout the course of this project.

This is an important opportunity to strengthen the evidence behind one of Local Area Coordination’s most distinctive practices — and to continue building public services that work with people, not for them.

Contact: Tom Richards, Local Area Coordination Network Manager.

Read more about our wonderful partners: Better Health & Care Hub, Faculty of Nursing Midwifery & Palliative Care, and Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit.

The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. They do this by:

• Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care
• Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services
• Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research
• Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges
• Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system
• Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK international development funding from the UK government.