Mark Wilberforce

Mark is a social care researcher, with a particular interest in homecare and the workforce supporting older people.  His recent work includes the Curious about Care platform which uses psychometric methods to promote values-based recruitment, through an engaging, simple online quiz.  His wider psychometric work includes the PERCCI instrument, which measures older people's perceptions of person-centred care.  His other interests span dementia care, and helping the workforce to engage effectively with older people who are uncomfortable or reluctant to accept home support (see HOPES).  Mark is also a leadership fellow with the School for Social Care Research, Director of The Curiosity Partnership (building capacity in local authority research), and a co-editor of the Journal of Long-Term Care.  His earlier career was as a labour market and education economist in the civil service.

Qualifications

• PhD (Social Work), University of Manchester
• MSc (Economics and Social Policy), University of York
• BA (Economics and Politics), University of York

Current / recently completed research

Development of a decision support tool for older people who pay for social care, and their familiesJune 2021 - May 2023

In this study we will create a decision support tool that aims to help older people make decisions about paying for social care.

Helping older people with mental health needs to engage with social care: Enhancing support worker skills through a prototype learning and development intervention (The HOPES 2 Study)1 March 2021 - 28 February 2022

This study will develop a learning package to enable specialist support workers to better engage older people with mental health needs in social care.

Reducing delayed transfers of care (DTOC) for older adults with frailty: a systems-thinking approach to health and social care processes August 2020 - January 2022

This study aims to explore the role of complex social care systems in delayed transfers of care.

The Curiosity PartnershipJune 2020 - May 2025

To develop and evaluate a regional capacity building network: facilitating greater understanding, use and production of research in adult social care.

Curious about CareJuly 2020 - January 2023

The project is developing a situational judgement test to assess the person-centredness of domiciliary care workers.

Exploring experiences of loneliness and improving social care supportApril 2020 - January 2023

This study is testing a service improvement approach from healthcare in which people using and providing a service co-design changes.

The preferences of older self-funders navigating community social care (the PRESENCE study)January 2020 - December 2021

Investigating the preferences and decisions of older self-funders of community social care as they navigate the system.

Helping older people to engage effectively with community social care (The HOPES study)September 2019 - February 2021

This study aims to understand how support workers help older adults with mental health needs to accept and receive social care.

Implementing the Person-Centred Community Care Inventory (PERCCI) as a measure for quality in social care servicesJanuary 2019 - August 2019

How can we translate a person-centredness score into something meaningful for understanding service quality?

Exploring the contribution of the social work role in CMHTs for working age adults and older people October 2016 - 30 April 2019

A study to explore the unique contribution of social workers to community mental health teams.

External roles

• Member of the editorial board for the British Journal of Social Work;
• Associate editor for BMC Geriatrics;
• Member of NIHR RfPB’s advisory panel for the North West;
• Data Monitoring and Ethics Committee (DMEC): NIHR HS&DR,15/144/51 (2017-2020)