Experiences of ‘My Support Broker’ peer brokerage
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A mixed methods study of peer brokerage and support delivered through My Support Broker
IRAS ID
174702
Contact name
Karen James
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The McPin Foundation
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 31 days
Research summary
The proposed project is a mixed methods study which aims to provide a rich description of the work of one organisation providing peer brokerage in health and social care, and to evaluate the impact of this organisation on the clients and volunteers that engage with it.
My Support Broker recruits and trains locally-based Peer Support Brokers and Coaches who have personal experience of using social care services across a number of conditions.
Peer Support Brokers work with people with social care needs to source, plan and manage their wellbeing and social care support.
Peer Support Coaches are volunteers who provide informal, practical and emotional back-up to help the client put their plan into action. Peer Support Coaches may support clients to do their own support planning, accompany users to activities, be available to listen to concerns, or help them to overcome difficulties such as when using public transport.
We will use anonymised data that is routinely collected by My Support Broker to assess clients’ wellbeing, social inclusion and employment/volunteering/training status before being put in contact with a Peer Support Broker and six months later.
We will qualitatively analyse anonymised support plans to assess the quality and completeness of the plans and the range of support options accessed.
We will conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with 30 clients to explore their experience of using the service, their perspectives on the impact of working with the service, what has helped them and what has been difficult.We will conduct two focus groups and up to 10 individual interviews with Peer Support Coaches to understand the impact on them of involvement with the service, including impact on confidence and skills, and movement towards employment.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
15/IEC08/0028
Date of REC Opinion
23 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion