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The importance of rehabilitation in promoting independence is recognised in current policy directives on the provision of care to older and disabled people, but has not been widely established within the spectrum of services provided by local authorities. AWorcestershire‐based re‐ablement service presents an effective model of joint working to provide comprehensive multidisciplinary assessments and a therapeutic intervention service aimed at reducing dependency and promoting service users' choice and control over their care programmes.

The purpose of this paper is to share the findings of a research evaluation into a Befriending and Re-ablement Service (BARS) which offers a host of positive outcomes such as reduced loneliness and keeping as well as possible for a growing segment of the world’s population. The recent increase in longevity is one of humanity’s great success stories. But ageing comes at a price, and decision takers worry about the stresses and strains of an ageing society.

Following a literature review, this paper presents the findings of an evaluation of an alternative innovative form of support for older people, namely BARS, that has been developed on Merseyside. Semi- and unstructured interviews were carried out with stakeholders including service users and carers. A cost-benefit analysis is also reported. Finally the theoretical and policy implications of this research are explored.

Befriending and re-ablement officers is both a socially and economically cost effective means of enhancing independent living among older people, reducing loneliness and isolation that can contribute to ill health. The research shows that funding for the BARS scheme should be sustained and expanded, despite or because of the current era of cutbacks in UK and international service provision.

The paper highlights the value, role and importance of both befriending and re-ablement in a time of acute public and voluntary sector funding pressures. The paper is of value to a range of stakeholder groups such as older people, local and central governments and health care commissioners.

As policy makers seek to develop a more preventative and rehabilitative approach to older people's services, new policies and integrated initiatives have made a positive contribution. However, rebalancing the nature of the system as a whole remains elusive.

Re-abling care of frail older people is highly on the agenda in several countries. The purpose of this paper is to have a closer look at the argumentation used for its establishment by local policy actors in the field and the kind of expectations towards the behaviour of frail older people it entails.

The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with 17 local policy actors in two Danish municipalities. The interviews have been analysed with the help of argumentative discourse analysis.

The most important argument for re-abling care appears to be grounded in economic reasons. However, a second, moral argument was found revolving around the older peoples’ activity, which contributes to the establishment of moral expectations towards frail older people to be active.

As the goal of the study was to analyse understandings and values of key local actors, the implementation of re-ablement programmes and the users’ perspective were not studied.

The paper contributes to the investigation of the shift from universal entitlement as a right to towards market rationalities in Danish elder care.

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate an innovative collaboration between health, housing and social care by exploring the “short stay project” apartments from service users’ perspectives and considering the effectiveness of this service model as part of enabling provision locally.

The qualitative methodology for this evaluation was interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, 2011), critically exploring service users’ personal lived experience of the “short stay project”. Three service users (n=3) participated in semi-structured interviews.

This study has identified the “short stay project” can prevent admission into and facilitate discharge from care and health services by offering a temporary stay in self-contained, adapted accommodation. Service users found value in staying at the apartments for differing reasons. However, practitioners must address service users’ emotional and social needs as well as physical needs to reduce the risk of occupational deprivation.

Sample size is not fully representative of the total population making transferability limited.

This research found there is demand for temporary housing provision for service users with health, housing and/or social care needs.

Key drivers of demand for the service are social inequalities relating to homelessness, poverty and gender-based violence rather than the health-related issues that could have been expected. Further research into the development of effective integrated services which maximise service users’ wellbeing and occupational performance is recommended.

Service models which integrate health, housing and social care can be innovative and maintain service users’ independence and wellbeing in the community. Commissioners across health, housing and social care could utilise the Better Care Fund to deliver integrated services to meet rising demands.

This paper aims to highlight the benefits of the 360 SF diagnostic audit for assessing person centeredness of a domiciliary agency and to highlight the challenges they face with some suggested actions. These are exemplars of what is raised in policy and recent reports relating to personalisation, dignity and integration of health and social care and have wider implications for all agencies as they strive to resolve issues for the client.

The approach is a case study describing results of the audit in relation to challenges that include practice development needs, inter agency co‐ordination, collaboration and co‐operation for the achievement of relationship based person centered outcomes in quality improvement work. The pilot study involved data gathered from the clients, relatives and staff, which were analyzed resulting in findings, conclusions and suggestions for ongoing improvement from which action plans were devised and implemented.

The audit results provide examples of the primary interface relationship and co‐ordination challenges, highlighting leaning needs for staff delivering person centred care in domiciliary settings.

This paper raises important practice development issues both inside and outside the agency's responsibility. Use of the tool would support cultural and interface relationship issues affecting the client experience and highlight ways to assist the achievement of collaborative ways of working needed for the integration of health and social care.

The 360 SF (DS) can help organisations provide evidence to CQC and the public for their performance and identify the close interface relationships and their effectiveness in delivering co‐ordinated and integrated health and social care.

The 360 SF DOM has highlighted with evidence the challenges of the systemic culture at the interface, in particular the nature and quality of collaboration, communication and practice development needs across the organisational divide to deliver person centred care and support.

The national programme for personalising adult social care represents a massive change management challenge for local government in England. The programme has entered its third year and this article presents evidence of councils struggling to deliver change on the scale required. In addition, councils now have to find savings at an unprecedented level as part of the new coalition government's emergency budget to tackle the financial deficit.This article demonstrates the need for leadership development to deliver change of a magnitude never before confronted by social care leaders. In particular, the report identifies a need for leadership capabilities to be developed in the two key areas of change management and financial management.The article introduces the Personalisation Tipping Point Framework as one tool to help leaders deliver personalisation programme changes and significant savings quickly. The article concludes that it is possible to deliver personalised services and the financial savings, provided that the right leadership and tools are in place.

Although the concept of social capital is rightly associated with Putnam (2000), arguably its roots lie further back in the nineteenth century, but were first articulated in a “contemporary sense” in 1916 (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2001, p. 41). The authors begin their analysis by summarizing the main types of capital: economic, social, political, human, cultural and symbolic, before exploring the different types of social capital, including bonding, bridging and linking. These are then linked to a variety of related concepts, including: social enterprise, social networks, social value, community development, community resilience and sociability (Cook, Halsall, & Wankhade, 2015). It is argued that social capital is central to these, and is of increasing importance across the globe within the context of the threats and opportunities posed by globalization on the one hand (including the spread of COVID-19) and of potential deglobalization on the other, in part as a reaction to COVID-19 and pre-existing nationalist trends toward limitation of global interactions. The discussion is supported by examination of a range of case studies drawn from societies of contrasting types, including the UK, USA, China, Bangladesh and South Africa. The authors conclude their analysis via consideration of how social capital can be expanded further in order to help meet contemporary and future challenges from whichever direction it arises.