Accelerating Reform Fund programme - SCIE

Accelerating Reform Fund programme - SCIE
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Accelerating Reform Fund
The Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF) aims to boost the quality and accessibility of adult social care by supporting innovation and
scaling,
and
improving care and support services for
unpaid carers.
Read our new report
About the fund
New report
Live project case studies
How we are helping
News
FAQs
Contact
Support options beyond March 2025
About the Fund
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)’s appointed SCIE to provide hands-on support for the Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF) until the end of March 2025. While the main support offer has now ended, we continue to support the much-needed investment in unpaid carers, and we see great potential in ARF innovations. We have developed
multiple support options
for 2025/26.
We would love to know what we can do for you.
Get in touch with us via email.
Our
support offer
aims to identify barriers and enablers, share key learnings and best practice, and support innovation through local partnerships and project development.
There are over 120 innovative projects receiving funding, across 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS).
View a complete list of the ARF project descriptions and locations
(PDF)
The ARF is supporting a minimum of two projects per region, of which at least one focuses on unpaid carers. As part of these projects, local authorities have been expected to work in partnership with others, including care providers, the NHS, the voluntary and community sectors, people who draw on care and support and unpaid carers.
Projects are addressing the shifts needed within health and social care, in line with the Government’s 10 Year NHS Plan, moving care from:
hospital to community
analogue to digital
sickness to prevention.
We believe the ARF will help accelerate progress towards a future where people have choice, control and support to live independent lives, and where care and support is of outstanding quality and provided in a fair, accessible way.
New report: Embracing change: scaling innovation in social care in practice
The learnings emerging from SCIE’s work on the ARF are invaluable for the wider sector, as they provide a clearer understanding of what approaches people use, and what works in practice. Given the limited evidence and learning on this topic at this scale in adult social care, these findings should be seen as the beginning of a significant journey towards improvement.
This programme was positioned as a learning programme – a first step in gathering learning on what works (and what does not) in scaling innovations. This is important as it gave permission to change and to consider brave and bold initiatives and ways of working.
Read the Executive Summary (PDF)
Read the full report (PDF)
Urgent action required on social care reform cannot wait for the Casey Commission; immediate solutions are necessary to deliver for unpaid carers and stabilise the sector. The projects funded by the ARF have potential to achieve this, as they are:
creating a pipeline of scalable innovation to improve the efficiency, integration and quality of care
in line with the Government’s missions, delivering learning to solutions that address the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s three shifts
enshrining ‘home first’ principles that enable people to live independently for longer, such as the Shared Lives service
ready to be deployed now.
We have produced a short policy brief calling for action to ensure innovation has a strategic role in social care reforms and for the elimination of barriers that interfere with innovation.
We are calling on national leaders to:
build innovation into policy reform, starting with co-production with people and communities
incentivise innovation by taking a multi-year innovation fund approach and funding the infrastructure
invest over several years to build capacity, skills and networks for innovation including significant investment in digital support and guidance for commissioning innovation
create a flexible regulatory space that enables a culture of testing and learning through innovation.
Read our policy brief two-pager (PDF)
We want to build on this work to plan what a good social care innovation system should look like. We’re looking for partners interested in working with us to help map out innovation journeys, share learnings from work in progress and develop support to help make innovation business as usual. Please
get in touch
if you are interested in working with us.
Live project case studies
SCIE is working with a range of ARF projects across the country to support innovation for the social care sector, with a particular focus on unpaid carers. You can find out more about projects, SCIE’s role, and emerging learnings and insights by visiting our ‘project case studies’ page. These are being developed in real-time as project work is ongoing.
Case study quote of the week:
Live project case studies
This project not only improves the efficiency and accessibility of carers assessments but also empowers carers to take greater control of their own care and wellbeing. It serves as a powerful example of the positive impact that the ARF can have on adult social care services, fostering innovation, person-centred practice, and digital inclusion.
Renu Purvis, Innovation and Partnership Manager, Kent County Council
Funding allocations and SCIE’s analysis
The DHSC published final
ICS funding allocati
ons
in March 2024. The first £20 million funding allocation was released to the lead local authority for each consortium. The second £22.6 million was released in December 2024.
SCIE published
a summary analysis of the local ARF projects
in March 2024. This includes the make-up of local authority consortia and partnerships, the nature of each project, diversity of providers, and identification of initiatives supporting unpaid carers. In this analysis, we established that projects fall into one of eight clear themes:
Hospital discharge
Digital tools for self-care
Shared living arrangements
Community networks and development
Assessment of needs, carers assessments and carers identification
Information, advice and guidance, and service directories
Other projects that support carers, and
Other projects that support adults and/or the workforce.
How we are helping
SCIE’s involvement has been invaluable in ensuring the success of this initiative.
ARF project lead
We are working with local areas to transform care by helping to identify issues and challenges, galvanising co-production and ensuring people who need care and unpaid carers are at the heart of projects. If you would like help and support, and are not quite sure how we might help you, please do contact us for an initial chat. (
innovation@scie.org.uk
We are also encouraging local authorities to benefit from valuable shared learnings and peer-to-peer support by facilitating communities of practice across projects that have similar themes.
The ARF is a learning programme, so we have an essential role in gathering evidence to understand how to successfully tackle the barriers to scaling up innovation in social care, alongside the Fund’s national evaluation partner, Ipsos.
Our support to projects
Following a series of online support sessions and learning workshops earlier this year, we have now developed a programme of further learning to support all ARF projects. Our current support offer is built around four different strands.
Bespoke support
Providing bespoke, one-to-one support to ARF projects, covering areas such as co-production, recruitment, sustainability, digital innovation, sustainability and scaling.
Communities of practice
I think I’ve learnt more about Shared Lives in this workshop than I have in 20 years of being in social work.
Community of Practice attendee
We are bringing together project leads working on projects with similar themes or issues. We run sessions to encourage peer-to-peer support and share learning across areas that is proving valuable to those who have taken part so far.
Communities of practice strands are:
Promoting Shared Lives and recruiting carers
Digital self-service
Identifying and supporting unknown carers through hospital admission and discharge
Care Act compliance in digital solutions
A selection of key learnings surfaced so far through these sessions include:
Strong co-production with carers is essential. Establishing co-production groups, particularly those chaired by carers, ensures that their voices are heard and that they play a central role in shaping services. This approach leverages the expertise of those with lived experience, fostering a more inclusive and effective support system.
Translating collected data into actionable insights requires active engagement with users. Continuous feedback mechanisms are essential for improving digital tools.
Implementing small, tangible changes was emphasised as an effective strategy to win minds and hearts, both internally and externally. Demonstrating the effectiveness of these changes helps to build trust and shows that improvements can be made without overhauling the entire system at once.
Sustainability involves continuous updates and strong stakeholder relationships, not just financial aspects. Effective evaluation and impact measurement are essential for securing ongoing support.
Read more about our communities of practice
Webinars and events
Delivering a selection of webinars and/or events tailored to address cross-cutting support needs. These events will evolve based on feedback from ARF projects.
The recordings from our previous online support sessions and outputs from our learning workshops, delivered in July, can still be viewed on our online sessions page.
ARF online sessions
Alongside organising SCIE events, we have also hosted a series of workshops at external activities. At the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) 2024, we shared a platform with ARF project leads, our co-production Experts by Experience and London School of Economics to discuss with attendees how we can encourage innovation within social care.
We also hosted a broader digital innovation panel discussion with leading Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) provider Agilisys in which we showcased some relevant ARF projects. Following this, we attended the Conference for Commissioners to understand how we can better inform and engage commissioners with the programme, and encourage their future involvement with these kinds of projects.
News
SCIE Responds to £22.6m Accelerating Reform Fund Boost
SCIE & Agilisys showcase digital innovation and GenAI in social care at NCASC 2024
Innovation projects in adult social care receive £42.6 million boost – SCIE
Accelerating Reform Fund 2023 to 2024: grant determination – GOV.UK
Frequently Asked Questions
General
The Accelerating Reform Fund Department is a £42.6 million fund launched by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to boost the quality and accessibility of adult social care by supporting innovation and scaling, and kickstarting a change in services to support unpaid carers. The fund is open to local authorities with adult social care duties.
The DHSC has provided grant funding to Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) to provide hands-on support to local areas in developing local partnerships and delivering projects, ensuring participants benefit from valuable shared learnings, peer support and expert insights across the country.
SCIE held a series of webinars, open to local authorities/representatives and their local partners.
Please contact us on
innovation@scie.org.uk
for further information.
The first two SCIE webinars took place on Tuesday 14 November and Monday 27 November, please see the
recordings and slides
Yes, it has been launched by the DHSC for local authorities to access in England, to make progress towards the
Government’s 10 Year Vision
The £42.6 million fund has been launched by DHSC to boost the quality and accessibility of adult social care by supporting innovation and scaling, and kickstarting a change in services to support unpaid carers. As part of the communications about the fund, health colleagues in NHS England will be informing health leaders of the Accelerating Reform Fund and its purpose.
The fund will focus on embedding and scaling approaches to transform care and support including for unpaid carers, who play such a vital, selfless role in our society. This will accelerate progress towards the government’s social care vision where people have choice, control and support to live independent lives, and where care and support is of outstanding quality and is provided in a fair, accessible way.
The DHSC is working with NHS England to inform health leaders of the Accelerating Reform Fund and its purpose including via a recent ICS learning network summit, delivery partners group and fortnightly ICS bulletin.
DHSC is working with local government and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) partners, including members of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance, to disseminate information through their channels to ensure partners know how they can participate.
For the vast majority of people care begins at home. Many people wish to play a role in caring for their friends and family, and we recognise that, for some, this can be a significant commitment. ‘People at the Heart of Care’ and ‘Next steps to Put People at the Heart of Care’ highlighted the importance of kickstarting a change in the services provided to support unpaid carers, by building and sharing the evidence. At least one project per area will need to be focused on unpaid carers.
DHSC knows there are some fantastic examples of innovation happening across the sector. While the priorities are intended to be broad to enable local authorities to adapt them to their local priorities, the case studies are intended to illustrate an example of how this priority could be delivered. They are intended to help local authorities bring to life each innovative priority. DHSC and SCIE are keen to hear about more examples under each of these innovations and would welcome local authorities getting in touch to share existing work. Please email
innovation@scie.org.uk
The purpose of the Accelerating Reform Fund is to embed and scale innovations. The funding is to support local authorities to develop projects that fit within at least one of the identified priorities for innovation and scaling, meets their local population needs and is based on relevant statutory duties and legal requirements.
Local authorities can take forward any project they choose to meet their local populations needs, if it falls under one of the 12 priorities for innovation and scaling. Projects that do not contribute to any of the 12 priorities cannot be funded through the Accelerating Reform Fund.
The list of priorities for innovation and scaling is focused on adult social care reform. Therefore, the focus is on carers for over 18-year-olds, as well as transitions into adult social care.
Local areas may also wish to consider how innovations can be designed to take a whole family approach as outlined in both the Care Act 2014 and the Children Act 1989.
The list of priorities for innovation and scaling is focused on adult social care reform.
As highlighted in the list of priorities, local areas might, for example, wish to consider how they can use innovations to also support young carers – such as for priority 7, carers assessments, this could include effective collaboration between adult social care and children’s services and assessments for young carers as they transition into adulthood.
Local areas may also wish to consider how innovations can be designed to take a whole family approach, as outlined in both the Care Act 2014 and the Children Act 1989 (as well as the Young Carers Needs Assessment Regulations 2015).
The DHSC has launched the Accelerating Reform Fund and will oversee the fund, including receiving the Expressions of Interest. The DHSC has provided grant funding to SCIE to provide hands-on support to local areas in developing local partnerships and delivering projects, ensuring participants benefit from valuable shared learnings, peer support and expert insights across the country.
With a wealth of trusted expertise in working collaboratively to help local areas transform care, SCIE will help identify issues and challenges, galvanising co-production and ensuring people who need care and unpaid carers are at the heart of the programme.
This is a learning programme, so SCIE has an essential leadership role in gathering evidence on how to successfully tackle the barriers to scaling up innovation in social care, alongside a national evaluation partner.
The Accelerating Reform Fund is split into two phases: responsibilities for the different phases are.
Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC)
Phase 1 (Oct 23 – Mar 24)
Fund announcement
EOI form made available
Confirms funding
Signs MOUs
Phase 2 (Apr 24 – Mar 25)
Funds SCIE support
Collects mid and end grant reports, which will include grant expenditure
To evaluate the effectiveness of the fund
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Phase 1 (Oct 23 – Mar 24)
Supports with queries on EOI process
Supports connecting LAs and partners
Phase 2 (Apr 24 – Mar 25)
Supports project delivery
Supports project monitoring and QA
Supports connecting similar projects
Evaluation by Evaluation partner commissioned by DHSC
SCIE support
SCIE will be leading the support programme for local authorities and their partners. This will include:
Support to consortia to set up and deliver their chosen projects through a series of group sessions and webinars that will help identify challenges; share learning; and facilitate peer support.
Facilitate expert input and hands-on support for projects that need it, delivered by organisations that have developed or successfully delivered the innovation in other areas, and partners delivering the broader DHSC funded improvement offer.
Share learning across the programme and with the wider sector.
Ensure the collection of evidence to support the Fund’s evaluation.
All local areas are strongly encouraged by the DHSC to contact SCIE to understand how you can work with us and other partners in your local area to develop projects. Please email us at
innovation@scie.org.uk
Developing project plans and a theory of change
With a wealth of trusted expertise in understanding the challenges faced in scaling innovation, and working collaboratively to help local areas transform care, we can help identify issues and challenges and provide general information and guidance. We are developing a theory of change to help support projects which we look forward to sharing in March.
In March, SCIE will contact all consortia to help with tools to develop project plans, including providing support and guidance on co-production.
Linking local authorities to each other and providers
As part of our support offer, SCIE will be available to facilitate peer support.
Working in partnership with health partners, care providers, and voluntary and community groups will be essential to designing effective projects.
As part of the support offer, SCIE will be available to support local areas to form partnerships and develop projects, and facilitate peer support. We can connect you to providers, including the case study providers from the priority list. Our provider list will be updated ongoing, as we become aware of any additional providers supporting local authorities or with capabilities to support, in priority areas.
Local responsibilities/working together
Local Authorities have a statutory responsibility for delivering care. They have been asked to come together in their Integrated Care System (ICS) geography, because ICSs are critical to collaboration between health and social care. The DHSC is allocating funding to local authorities through ICS geographies to encourage collaboration between local authorities and local health boards and provide opportunities to share knowledge, expertise and resources to overcome barriers to innovation.
The lead local authority will receive the allocated funding for the consortium. If, in practice when implementing your projects, it makes sense for another local authority to lead on the implementation, those arrangements can be made at a local level.
Information on the mapping of ICS areas is available on the NHS page under ‘ICB partner organisations’.
Integrated Care Boards do not have a specific role in the Accelerating Reform Fund and do not need to be involved or sign off project plans. Consortia have been formed within Integrated Care System geographies, and funding will be allocated directly to the designated lead local authority.
This is completely separate to and differs from the Better Care Fund, which requires Integrated Care Boards and local government to agree a joint plan, owned by the Health and Wellbeing Boards.
Evaluation
The evaluation partner will be appointed by the DHSC soon. They will be paid by central funding.
The evaluation partner will not be SCIE, as the evaluator will need to independently evaluate the implementation of the SCIE support offer.
An independent evaluation partner will be appointed by the DHSC. They will be paid by central funding.
The evaluation of the Accelerating Reform Fund led by the national evaluation partner will assess where and how the programme supports local areas to overcome barriers to scaling innovation; the implementation of the SCIE support offer; and the ways local areas can scale up innovations after the grant has been delivered. Learning from the programme will contribute to future innovation in the sector.
Local areas are encouraged to conduct their own assessment of impact for their project, funded by their allocation from the fund, of which the national evaluation partner will collate and consider the findings.
ICS consortia are encouraged to conduct their own assessment of impact for their project, funded by their allocation from the fund, separate to, but feeding into the national evaluation. The national evaluation partner will collate and consider the findings.
SCIE would not be able to carry this out, given our involvement in supporting the fund more widely. You can choose whichever evaluation partner you would like.
Funding
All areas are being provided with a base investment to cover initial start-up costs and then additional funding that is more representative for their local population. Therefore, each consortium will receive an initial £300,000 floor (so even for all, not adjusted) to help with set-up costs for projects, in recognition that these are likely to be the same for all areas. This floor represents £12.6 million of the £42.6 million pot.
The remaining £30 million is intended to cover some ongoing programme costs and how it is distributed will be calculated based on the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula (RNF) at a local authority level and summed to the ICS consortia level – indicative local authority top-up allocations have now been published on Gov.uk ARF: Guidance for Local Authorities. The amount is being calculated based on the total number of local authorities opting into the consortium – so, for example, an Expression of Interest with a larger number of local authorities, larger number of people and greater demand and/or needs would result in higher levels of funding.
For local authorities that span multiple ICS geographies, their RNF funding allocation will be added to the consortium they have chosen to join.
If local authorities have chosen not to opt into the Accelerating Reform Fund, the DHSC intends for most or all of their RNF funding allocation to be redistributed amongst all ICS consortia across the country, based on the ASC RNF.
Final funding amounts were confirmed by DHSC on 9 February 2024.
The funding is available in financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25. However, the funding is being issued as a non-ringfenced grant and therefore there will be flexibility to roll over funding.
The aim of the grant is to incentivise the scaling-up of projects to new areas that can be further supported through existing local authority funding.
The ARF is about encouraging scaling up of innovative projects. The funding shouldn’t be used for backfill. If a local authority is already implementing a project that meets the criteria of the fund and falls under one of the 12 priorities, they should consider how to scale it or expand the scope in some way to ensure the funding is additional.
Ideally the fund is to scale up innovations that have some evidence that they work. Due to the need to ensure sustainability and robustness of the projects within one year, we would expect that local authorities used the fund to mainstream or scale up local pilots or innovative initiatives that have some evidence of success and track record.
Yes. As it is not a ringfenced grant, there is local flexibility to local areas to spend the funding however they best see fit to scale their projects.
No, the fund has to be spent against the activities described in the Expression of Interest (EOI) in general terms and later on in a detailed project plan.
SCIE will monitor and quality assure the progress of the projects for DHSC to ensure the fund is being used appropriately in relation to its objectives.
The funding will be provided to the designated lead local authority in each consortium. Once the lead local authority has received the funding allocation, they will distribute across the consortium as required.
The funding will be provided in two tranches, the first will be provided to local authorities in March 2024.
The second tranche will be provided in 2024/25, conditional on completion of mid-grant reporting.
The Fund includes the commitment of up to £25m for unpaid carers, and all areas will need to submit one project relating to unpaid carers.
It is important that projects are sustainable beyond the lifetime of the Accelerating Reform Fund, and we are asking local areas as part of the Expression of Interest to consider how they can ensure projects have a lasting impact.
As part of the support programme, SCIE will help projects consider sustainability. They will collect and share learnings from projects across the country to enable projects to be successfully embedded and scaled. The national evaluation partner will also assess how local areas can be best supported to continue to deliver and scale-up innovations post-delivery of the grant.
We are bringing together stakeholder experts in innovation and will be liaising with providers of innovative initiatives to help support the design and development of projects and their sustainability throughout their duration, sharing advice and learnings as we progress.
Accelerating Reform Fund: Frequently Asked Questions
Download FAQs (PDF)
If you have questions about SCIE’s support as part of the Accelerating Reform Fund programme, please
email us
Useful links
Gov.UK press release: Innovation projects in adult social care receive £42.6 million boost
Gov.UK: Guidance for local authorities
List of innovative priorities