title: Measuring the productivity of residential long-term care in England: methods for quality adjustment and regional comparison.
abstract: Productivity trend information is valuable in developing policy and for understanding changes in the 'value for money' of the care system. In this paper, we consider approaches to measuring productivity of adult social care (ASC), and particularly care home services. Productivity growth in the public sector is traditionally measured by comparing change in total output to change in total inputs, but has not accounted for changes in service quality and need. In this study, we propose a method to estimate 'quality adjusted' output based on indicators of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT), using data collected in the annual adult social care survey (ASCS). When combined with expenditure and activity data for 2010 to 2012, we found that this approach was feasible to implement with current data and that it altered the productivity results compared with non-adjusted productivity metrics. Overall, quality-adjusted productivity grew in most regions between 2010 and 2011 and remained unchanged for most regions from 2011 to 2012.
authors.affiliation: Personal Social Services Research Unit, George Allen Wing, University of Kent, Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NF, UK. w.yang-33@kent.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7249-4386
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Personal Social Services Research Unit, George Allen Wing, University of Kent, Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NF, UK.
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Forder
authors.affiliation: Personal Social Services Research Unit, George Allen Wing, University of Kent, Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NF, UK.
authors.forename: Olena
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nizalova
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D011788:Quality of Life; D012947:Social Work / Q000191:economics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Care home; England; Regional productivity