Community Led Support (CLS) is a strengths-based approach to social care. This involves working with people and communities to achieve what matters to them, and builds on existing relationships, skills, networks and strengths they already have.
The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) - a social care organisation working to enable people at risk of exclusion due to their age or disability to live the life they choose - developed a CLS as a way for the whole social care and health system to work together to make strengths-based working happen in practice. It has now been applied in over thirty local authority areas to understand how best they can work together with other organisations, communities and people with lived experience of health and social care.
A two year study led by the University of Birmingham, King’s College London, and University of Kent as part of the NIHR National Priority Programme for Adult Social Care & Social Work - led by the Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey and Sussex - has been investigating the embedding and impacts of strengths-based practice though the Community Led Support (CLS) programme. It builds on insights from previous studies about the importance of co-production, culture, leadership, and use of data in the implementation of strengths-based approaches. The study team were guided by lived experience and practitioner groups.
Overall, the findings from the study reveal how CLS made a positive impact including social care assessment and care management activities.
Full details can be found here.
