The Office for Disability Issues, South East Regional Initiative (SERI) final reports were published in May 2011.

About the project

The South East Regional Initiative (SERI) was established by the Office for Disability Issues (www.odi.gov.uk) to demonstrate and measure the impact of new approaches in increasing the voice, choice and control of two key population groups;

• older people living in residential and/or nursing care and
• older people at risk of moving into residential/nursing care.

SERI is an ambitious and complex change management and qualitative research programme that is being delivered by the Older People and Ageing Programme at the National Development Team for Inclusion (www.ndti.org.uk) in partnership with 3 local authorities and their partners in the South East - Oxfordshire, Portsmouth and West Sussex – and the Centre for Policy on Ageing (www.cpa.org.uk ).

There are two key elements to the work:

1. The provision of change management consultancy and support for the three areas identified above and relevant regional agencies in the South East, to embed independent living for older people with high support needs;
2. Qualitative research and analysis to complement quantitative monitoring data and analysis undertaken by analysts at ODI, to build a robust evidence base for “what works”; and to establish the impact of independent living on the two population groups. The qualitative research focuses on the experiences and outcomes for individual older people in the three areas.

The initiative covers the spectrum of support that older disabled people need to lead their lives, regardless of their eligibility for state funded support and care. The focus of the Initiative, therefore, and of the support and research programme referred to above, is not just about health and social care but the widest possible range of options and opportunities for support, including (but not exclusively):

• The role and influence of peer/ user led organisations and networks;
• Access to and investment in housing related aids, adaptations and equipment;
• Access to and capacity of community based support including social networks and mechanisms for participation;
• The nature of personal and personalised support (e.g. to enable people to contribute to family and community life);
• Accessible transport and mobility aids/assistance;
• Access to information, advice and support to keep healthy and well (e.g. assistance with long term conditions such as expert patient programmes and self care/management);
• Access to leisure and learning opportunities.