Evaluating and replicating local accountability platforms for residential care homes and social care services.

发展中国家70岁以上的老年人比发达国家多，其中许多人需要社会照顾。有时，人们认为发展中国家的家庭更愿意也更有能力提供这种支持，而不求助于私营部门。事实上，证据表明并非如此。在过去十年左右的时间里，包括疗养院在内的私人提供服务在许多发展中国家迅速扩大。这些安老院中，很多都没有受到甚麽监管，而且有证据显示，服务质素参差不齐。政府加强监管的能力有限，而且这一问题一直是政策重点较低的问题(至少在新冠肺炎大流行之前是如此)。在阿根廷拉普拉塔市进行了研究后，我们与当地组织合作，包括养老院院长和一个由老年人运营的社区团体，开发了一个由当地拥有的创新项目，旨在改善信息共享和质量问责。它于2019年推出，由一个简单的互动信息共享平台(http://www.redmayorlaplata.com/).The网站)组成，提供有关已同意一套已公布的质量原则的当地养老院的信息。它使服务用户能够提供有关提供商的反馈。投诉被调查，如果投诉得到确认，供应商将被从网站上移除。该网站还有其他功能，包括为服务用户提供的一般信息，以支持社会护理提供者的选择和评估。截至2019年底，该网站每月点击量超过1.2万次，收到50多条关于服务质量的信息。其中包括滥用的例子，对这些例子采取了后续行动，导致有关提供者被排除在外。我们认为，将这一活动推广到阿根廷及其他城市可能会有好处。在推广这一方法之前，我们需要更有力的证据来证明它是如何发展起来的，它的运作情况如何，它产生了什么效果，以及它在其他地方复制起来有多容易。我们申请的部分资金是为了支持这项评估。新冠肺炎疫情正对拉丁美洲的养老院造成沉重打击，人们对提高该行业质量和问责制的新方法越来越感兴趣。自从我们提交初步提案以来，阿根廷和其他地方的几个组织已经承诺，根据我们在拉普拉塔的经验，在不同的城市开发新项目。我们申请的部分资金将用于观察和对阿根廷的这些新的延期活动进行一次轻松的审查。我们将使用另一笔赠款(已经授予)的资金来支持巴西的类似工作。我们将以多种不同的形式展示我们的分析结果，既面向学术受众，也面向有潜力将这些发现应用于阿根廷、拉丁美洲和其他地区未来推广活动的其他类型的受众。

More people aged over 70 live in developing countries than in developed countries and many of these people need social care. It is sometimes assumed that families in developing countries are more willing and able to offer this support, without recourse to the private sector. In fact, the evidence says otherwise. Over the past decade or so, there has been a very rapid expansion of private provision, including care homes, in many developing countries. Many of these care homes are subject to little, if any, regulation, and there is evidence that service quality is very uneven. Government capacity to enhance regulation is limited and the issue has remained a low policy priority (at least until the Covid-19 pandemic).Following research in the Argentina city of La Plata, we worked with local organisations, including care home directors and a community group run by older people to develop an innovative, locally-owned project for improving information sharing and quality accountability. Launched in 2019, it consists of a simple, interactive information-sharing platform (http://www.redmayorlaplata.com/).The site provides information about local care homes that have agreed to a published set of quality principles. It enables service users to provide feedback about providers. Complaints are investigated and providers removed from the site if they are confirmed. The site has other features, including general information for service users to support the selection and assessment of social care providers. By the end of 2019, the site was receiving over 12,000 hits a month and had received over 50 messages about service quality. These included examples of abuse, which were followed up and led to the exclusion of the providers in question. We feel there may be benefits in extending this activity to other cities in Argentina and beyond. Before promoting this approach, we require more robust evidence about how it was developed, how well it is working, what effects it has had and how easily it may be replicated elsewhere. Part of the funds we are requesting are to support this evaluation. The Covid-19 pandemic is hitting care homes in Latin America hard and there is growing interest in new ways to improve quality and accountability in the sector. Since we submitted the preliminary proposal, several organisations in Argentina and elsewhere have committed to developing new projects in different cities, based on our experience in La Plata. Part of the funds we are requesting will be to observe and conduct a light-touch review of these new extension activities in Argentina. We will use funds from a separate grant (already awarded) to support similar work in Brazil.We will present the results of our analysis in a number of different formats, both for academic audiences and for other types of audience with potential to apply these findings to future extension activity in Argentina, Latin America and beyond.