Project Summary

The ESSENCE (EconomicS-of-Social-carE-CompEndium) project is an online resource which is free to access. It currently contains a collection of case studies covering a range of social care interventions as well as a database of relevant publications on a broader spectrum of social care interventions. Its aim is to support decision-makers to access and understand the economic evidence for social care interventions (organised in ‘bundles’ of evidence).

We have produced a comprehensive collection that brings together relevant pre-existing research, together with new findings on costs or cost-effectiveness generated mainly through simulation modelling. We want the toolkit to be useful for people outside as well as within the research community.

WORK CURRENTLY UNDERWAY:
We are updating the material on the ESSENCE website to ensure that relevant evidence is available and easily accessible. We are consulting potential users of the material to help us improve the layout and content of the Toolkit. Also, we are working to raise awareness of the Toolkit and encourage its use. We aim to improve wider understanding of this economic evidence base and of the methods of economic evaluation through related training and by developing learning materials. We will soon be adding evidence on economics studies in the child social care field.

Outputs / expected Outputs

The ESSENCE toolkit includes:

26 Bundles of evidence [made of individual case summaries  + Individual publications]

28+ Case summaries

1300+ individual publications