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Participatory research meets validated outcome measures: Tensions in the co‐production of social care evaluation
Author(s) -
Allen Kerry,
Needham Catherine,
Hall Kelly,
Tanner Denise
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12468
Subject(s) - scope (computer science) , agency (philosophy) , outcome (game theory) , constructive , scale (ratio) , participatory evaluation , public relations , production (economics) , field (mathematics) , participatory action research , sociology , citizen journalism , psychology , political science , social science , economics , computer science , physics , mathematics , mathematical economics , process (computing) , quantum mechanics , anthropology , pure mathematics , law , macroeconomics , programming language , operating system
Funding for care service research is increasingly subject to the satisfaction of two requirements: public involvement and adoption of validated outcome tools. This study identifies competing paradigms within these requirements and reveals significant challenges faced by researchers who seek to satisfy them. The focus here is on a study co‐produced between academic researchers and people with experience of adult social care services. It examines to what extent research studies can conduct high‐quality public involvement and genuine co‐production of knowledge, whilst attempting to produce quantifiable outcome scores. Findings add to debate around how to incorporate diverse perspectives in research, which may draw on incommensurate accounts of validity and reliability. Findings also highlight constructive attempts by academic and co‐researchers to make the combination of approaches work in the field. These small scale acts of researcher agency indicate some scope to combine the two approaches in future research studies. However, conclusions foreground the importance of broader awareness of how tensions and power imbalances related to this combination of approaches play out in social policy research practice.