Voluntary sector care homes the best

Residential care homes for the elderly that are run by the voluntary sector offer a better overall standard of care than public or privately run homes, according to a recent study by researchers Julia Johnson and Sheena Rolph of the OU’s Faculty of Health & Social Care. They also found that voluntary sector homes had the most stable histories.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the project used innovative methodology, engaging a team of volunteer researchers - nearly all aged over 60, and some aged 80 or more - to help trace what had happened to 173 homes originally studied by Peter Townsend in his 1962 seminal study The Last Refuge.

Forty of the homes are still running today. The team revisited 20 of these, replicating Townsend’s original method of inquiry to compare them - then and now. For more information on the project, including photographs and audio clips, visit www.lastrefugerevisited.org.uk

In the recent national assessment of research excellence (RAE 2008), sixty percent of The OU’s Social Work, Social Policy and Administration submission was classed as world leading or internationally excellent.