Understanding and supporting older people’s moves into and between social care settings: a scoping review

Moves between care settings in later life are challenging for older people but are also sometimes unavoidable. Social care practitioners have a significant role in supporting older people moving into and between social care settings, but may lack understanding of the needs of older people and their carers as well as the confidence, guidance or knowledge of resources. The ‘Better Care Moves’ project seeks to provide practitioners and other stakeholders with coherent evidence and a practical toolbox that will be used to inform and support older people’s moves into and between social care settings. As part of this project, we are undertaking a scoping review to identify and synthesise what is already known about key (unmet) move-related needs of older people and the approaches used by social care practitioners in supporting moves. We searched on seven electronic databases and grey literature including guidance, practice-related materials and reports from 26 websites. Inclusion criteria were: relates to moves of older people from home to a social care setting or between social care settings or from hospitals to social care settings, and relates to social care support or needs, with limits of dates (2010 onwards), language (English) and country (UK only). We screened 8535 records but found limited and fragmentary evidence about social care services around care moves. Our emerging themes include: experience and challenges during the move process (including planning, decision-making, moving-in and post-move), barriers and knowledge gaps in move-related social care practice and lessons from good practice schemes.