Learning to Care in Care Homes study

The challenge

Most people who live in the 15,000+ care homes in England are aged 65+ and have complex needs such as dementia and/or multiple health conditions. Care home staff need the right knowledge and skills to provide people who live in care homes with good care. They gain knowledge and skills from training courses and learning from other experienced staff at work. But we know it can be difficult for care home staff into practice what they have learnt.

Working in a supportive ‘learning environment’ can help staff to learn better and to put learning into practice. An effective learning environment includes formal training and informal learning such as shadowing and reflecting on situations. Learning is also influenced by the care home’s current practices, policies and culture.

However, not much is known about what a supportive learning environment looks like in a care home or how this can be achieved. Without an effective learning environment, there is a risk that learning will not be put into practice, which can lead to low job satisfaction.

Study aims

The Learning to Care in Care Homes study will address this gap by:

• Establishing what an effective learning environment looks like in different care homes
• Working with care home staff, residents and relatives to design a toolkit together to help care homes assess and improve their learning environment
• Exploring how the toolkit can be put into practice and the impacts it has on staff and care practices
• Refining and sharing the toolkit so it can be used more widely

What does the research involve?

There are three phases in the Learning to Care in Care Homes study.

Phase 1: Developing understanding

In phase 1 we will develop understanding about learning environments in care homes through

• (a) Reviewing published research on supportive learning environments in care settings
• (b) Studying the learning environments in nine care homes in Yorkshire, the South-East and South-West. In each home we will:
• Observe everyday life of residents and staff
• Observe the care practices and learning of six staff, watching how they work and talking with them about how they share their knowledge with others
• Interview up to ten staff to hear their views about learning in care homes
• Examine relevant documents such as training records

Phase 2: Developing resources

In phase 2 we will set up workshops involving care home staff, residents and family members to work together to design a toolkit to help care homes assess and improve their learning environment using information from phase 1.

Phase 3: Implementation

In phase 3 we will test the toolkit in four care homes. We will observe, carry out interviews, surveys and document reviews, to find out what impact the toolkit has on the learning environment. We will assess the cost of the toolkit its benefits, and any changes needed ahead of wider use.

There are two advisory groups of (a) care home residents and families, and (b) care home staff that meet regularly at key points in the study to give their views and contribute to designing the materials we use to recruit people, how we make sense of the findings and how we share these with different audiences.

The research team

The study is led by Leeds Beckett University in collaboration with Bournemouth University, the University of Kent, the University of Leeds, the University of Bradford, the National Care Forum and Hallmark Care Homes.

Centre for Dementia Research staff who are involved are Claire Surr (Chief Investigator), Sarah Smith, Rachael Kelley, Nicky Taylor and Emma Hooper.

Findings/outputs

The study is currently in Phase 1, and we expect to publish our first outputs from this by January 2027.