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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SoCaTel (A multi-stakeholder co-creation platform for better access to long-term care services)

Teaser

Summary

As estimates show, one quarter of the EU population is going to be aged 65 and over by the middle of this century. There are many challenges that the ageing population face on a daily basis, as there are a substantial amount of barriers for accessing long-term care (LTC) services. The SoCaTel project targets the improvement of LTC services for this growing population, while promoting active and dignified ageing in Europe. SoCaTel aims at advancing accessibility, responsiveness, efficiency, transparency and transferability of social and care services. A useful, transparent and easy-to-use platform co-created by different stakeholders is at the core of this improvement. Service users, care professionals, researchers and innovators are collaborating throughout the whole process, from design to development and testing of the SoCaTel co-creation platform onto implementation; facilitating the co-creation of novel services that address emerging needs and encourage bottom-up innovation. This platform will be piloted in four European countries (Ireland, Spain, Finland and Hungary) representing a variety of welfare models, care systems and addressing different challenges. The platform will be co-created using the Quadruple Helix approach, enhancing cooperation between academic institutions, public administrations, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and end-users. Most importantly, the SoCaTel platform will simultaneously empower citizensâ€™ voices, view business opportunities for SME\'s and will be finally released as an open source facilitating its uptake by public administrations across Europe.

Work performed

During the first year of project implementation, firstly, the ethical framework was set up defining the ethic requirements of the SoCaTel project having to comply with the GDPR regulations. Recommendations, indications and templates for proper handling of all ethical and legal aspects of the project were offered in all pilot sites and in the development of the SoCaTel platform.

Secondly, the ground rules for the co-creation processes were set up from the perspective of an online co-creation, and taking into account the needs of older citizens. The co-creation manual was launched providing detailed information about relevant co-creation methodologies and tools as well as instructions for the organization of upcoming co-creation sessions. Furthermore, qualitative research into older peopleâ€™s unmet needs and barriers to long-term care (LTC) services delivery was held in four EU countries (Ireland, Spain, Finland and Hungary). As a result, important topics were defined so as to be addressed in co-creation sessions designing both the platform and the LTC services in specific contexts. The co-design of the SoCaTel platform resulted from the integrated work of the technical team, social researchers and co-creation experts who translated usersâ€™ needs and preferences expressed during the research phase into functional requirements, completing the plan for the platform building. The preliminary off-line co-creation workshops were organised in order to test and fine-tune the first platform mock-up, collecting feedback from different stakeholders engaged early in the co-creation process. As a result, the platform concrete architecture design was set up, identifying components and modules for two interfaces: a) for professionals and b) for end-users / family carers, allowing the start of the platform infrastructure design. Another significant outcome was the increased commitment to SoCaTel o public administrations and other Quadruple Helix actors due to their early engagement in this co-creation process. Regarding the platform back-end development, data sources for the Knowledge Base were defined and classified, and these were examined as to how the data would assist the co-creation process. The Data Management Plan for the overall project was subsequently set up.

Thirdly, the impact assessment framework was convened for analysing the effects of the SoCaTel project. Prospective preliminary policy recommendations for fostering co-creation processes and digitalisation of LTC services were proposed by project partners based on these results. And fourthly, the first draft of the Exploitation plan was assembled, although the Intellectual Property Rights, the sustainability strategy the outlook to the market and the business plan will be defined later with more detail in the months to come. Moreover, a range of communication and dissemination activities were carried out such as communication videos, presentations at international conferences, outreach events for engagement of stakeholders, social media communications, amongst others.

Finally, regarding the change management in pilot sites in the four countries, where the SoCaTel platform would be piloted, were prepared for evaluation, so as to prevent risks of implementing changes into service creation and delivery, and to support host stakeholders in co-designing and making the platform and new services their own.

Final results

The uniqueness about SoCaTel is that it will be digitalizing a co-creation process, so as to have a social impact on a large scale at the European integrated level, involving municipalities, social services, professionals, relatives, informal carers, communities and all stakeholders in the way long-term care (LTC) services are co-created and co-designed, addressing citizensâ€™ real needs. It will facilitate the use of relevant co-creation techniques for the co-design of services with a variety of stakeholders involved, from end-users to service providers, while promoting participative and inclusive co-creation processes. The SoCaTel platform will become a multi-stakeholder tool using the semantic data search to support the continuous online co-creation of innovative solutions for the improvement of LTC services.
The SoCaTel method is concerned with fully-functioning LTC services designed on-line, materialized and implemented as a model for uptake by European administrations and companies and entrepreneurs. As a tool for ideation of more cost/efficient social and care services that will be transferred to society, the development of SoCaTel platform will have a huge societal impact. It will provide support for end-users and/or their families and communities when needed, while introducing, spreading and improving co-creation methods within social and care institutions. The scientific impact is breaking grounds. Regarding the economic impact, the exploitation plan is continuously being developed throughout the project implementation, when a final review will be provided on how the project results are used thereafter. SoCaTel will create tangible value for a wide range of stakeholders involved in LTC and it will also be an inclusive co-creation practice for more marginalized populations while achieving a greater gender balance. Moreover, SoCaTel is intended to impact on eGovernment, public services (i.e. social services, health and care services), third sector organizations, private-sector providers and end-users and their formal and informal carers, relatives, in cases requiring LTC services. SoCaTel could also measure the development of citizensâ€™ engagement in participatory processes of co-designing services and improving, in the long-term, LTC services for citizens.