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。人们有时认为，发展中国家的家庭更愿意也更有能力提供这种支助，而不必求助于私营部门。事实上，证据表明并非如此。在过去十年左右的时间里，许多发展中国家的私营机构，包括护理院迅速扩大。许多这类护理院几乎不受任何监管，而且有证据表明，服务质量参差不齐。政府加强监管的能力有限，这一问题仍然是一个低政策优先事项（至少在2019冠状病毒病大流行之前是如此）。在阿根廷城市拉普拉塔进行研究后，我们与当地组织合作，包括养老院院长和一个由老年人经营的社区团体，开发了一个创新的、当地所有的项目，以改善信息共享和质量问责制。该网站于2019年推出，由一个简单的互动信息共享平台（http：//www.redmayorlaplata.com/）组成。该网站提供了有关已同意发布的一套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者的反馈。对投诉进行调查，并在确认后将提供者从网站上删除。该网站还有其他功能，包括为服务用户提供一般信息，以支持对社会护理提供者的选择和评估。截至2019年底，该网站每月的点击量超过12，000次，并收到了50多条关于服务质量的信息。其中包括一些虐待的例子，对这些例子采取了后续行动，并导致有关提供者被排除在外。我们认为，将这一活动扩展到阿根廷和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，说明它是如何发展的，效果如何，产生了什么影响，以及在其他地方复制的容易程度。我们要求的部分资金将用于支持这项评估。新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）大流行正在重创拉丁美洲的养老院，人们对提高该行业质量和问责制的新方法越来越感兴趣。自我们提交初步提案以来，阿根廷和其他地方的几个组织已承诺根据我们在拉普拉塔的经验在不同城市开发新项目。我们要求的部分资金将用于观察和对阿根廷的这些新的推广活动进行一次轻触式审查。我们将使用一笔单独的赠款（已经授予）来支持巴西的类似工作。我们将以多种不同的形式向学术界和其他类型的观众展示我们的分析结果，这些观众有可能将这些发现应用于阿根廷，拉丁美洲和其他地区的未来推广活动。

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.