Dr Matthew Ford, Senior Research Analyst at the Social Care Institute for Excellence, (SCIE) introduces a new Care Equity Evidence Hub, bringing together research, data and real-world practice to help health and social care professionals better understand—and address—unmet, undermet and wrongly met need.
Across health and social care, inequities are very apparent. You see them in who accesses support, how people experience services, and the outcomes they achieve.
Many people working in the sector will recognise the challenge. Some people struggle to access support at all. Others receive support that does not fully meet their needs, or does not reflect their circumstances. In some cases, support is in place, but it is not the right fit.
In conversations across the sector, this is often described in terms of unmet, undermet and wrongly met need.
Responding to this is not straightforward. It requires a clear understanding of who is missing out, why this is happening, and what approaches are likely to make a difference.
That is where evidence has a key role to play.
Built with the sector
SCIE’s Care Equity Evidence Hub has been developed as a practical response to this challenge. It brings together research, data and practice evidence in one place, with a focus on helping people use that evidence to improve care and support.
A key part of this has been co-production.
The Hub has been shaped by people across health and social care, including those who draw on care and support, providers, commissioners, policymakers, researchers and voluntary organisations. It has also been guided by an advisory group made up of sector leaders, experts and people with lived experience.
This has influenced not just what is included, but how it is presented.
The aim has been to reflect the issues people are dealing with in practice, and to make evidence easier to find, understand and apply in real-world settings.
Six areas that matter in practice
The Hub organises evidence across six key topics, shaped through engagement with stakeholders across the sector and focused on areas where inequities are commonly experienced.
Underserved populations: Focusing on groups who are less likely to access care or who experience poorer outcomes.
Workforce: Exploring how workforce challenges, including recruitment, retention and conditions, affect equity in care.
Neighbourhood health: Looking at how local systems, communities and services work together to support equitable access and outcomes.
Financial inequities: Examining how cost, funding arrangements and personal finances shape access to care and support.
Geographical inequities: Highlighting variation between areas, including the impact of local provision and differences between places.
Technology in care: Considering how digital tools and technology can support or limit equitable access and experience.
These topics are not necessarily separate issues. In practice, people’s experiences are shaped by a combination of factors. Income, geography, family context and local service availability all play a role. These do not operate in isolation. They build on each other.
An example of this may be someone who is an older woman living with dementia in a care home, with limited English from a minority ethnic background and relies on publicly funded care. The Care Equity Evidence Hub allows users to explore across them, helping to build a fuller understanding of how inequities show up in practice.
Designed for real-world use
The Care Equity Evidence Hub is not another academic database where you have to search across multiple sources and work through long reports to find what matters.
Each area includes clear summaries of key evidence, links to research and data, and examples showing how evidence has been applied in practice. It also highlights where evidence is strong and where it is still developing.
You might use the Hub to:
- understand why certain groups are not accessing your service
- explore what has worked in other areas
- support a service review or redesign
- support how you evidence improvements in access, experience and outcomes
It is intended to support people working at all levels, from frontline providers to system leaders. Each will use it differently, but the aim is the same in supporting better decisions and more equitable outcomes
An open and evolving resource
The Care Equity Evidence Hub is now live, but it will continue to develop.
Feedback from the sector will shape what is included, where the gaps are, and how useful it is in practice. This includes identifying missing evidence, suggesting new topics, and sharing examples of how evidence has been used.
There is no single solution to addressing inequities in care. The causes are complex and long-standing. But improving how evidence is brought together and used is a practical step.
If people can more easily understand who is missing out, why this is happening, and what might help, they are better placed to respond.
