Building community capital in social care: is there an economic case?

Knapp, Martin, Bauer, Annette, Perkins, Margaret and Snell, Tom (2013) Building community capital in social care: is there an economic case? Community Development Journal, 48 (3). pp. 313-331. ISSN 0010-3802

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Abstract

Current debates about the sustainability of public commitments include discussion of the adequacy and affordability of collective health and social care responses to the rapidly growing needs of ageing communities. A recurrent theme in England is whether communities can play greater roles in preventing the emergence of social care needs and/or helping to meet them. Various approaches have been suggested, including community development, community capacity-building and creating social capital. We investigated whether there is an economic case for initiatives of this kind, cognizant of the fact that there are many other objectives for any local scheme. We used a cost–benefit approach and decision-modelling techniques to examine potential costs and economic consequences in a context where evidence is limited and there is little opportunity to collect primary data. We conclude that there could be sizeable savings to the public purse when investing in community capital-building initiatives at relatively low cost.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/
Additional Information:	© 2013 Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Journal of Economic Literature Classification System:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty
Sets:	Departments > Social Policy Collections > Economists Online Research centres and groups > Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) Research centres and groups > LSE Health Research centres and groups > NIHR School for Social Care Research
Funders:	Department of Health for England, National Institute for Health Research School for Social Care Research
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2012 08:36
URL:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46440/

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