Applying a system approach to explore social care services to support people with complex needs: preparatory work for a NIHR Doctoral Fellowship application.

The Career Development Award funding will be used to cover 1.5days/week of research fellow time for 12 months to explore research priorities and to undertake training in System Thinking modelling methodologies to be applied during a doctoral programme of research, and to prepare the application for funding to NIHR Academia or the Economic and Social Research Council. The doctoral project will focus on services accessed by people drawing on care and support when affected by adult-onset rare neuromuscular degenerative conditions. Research priorities like unmet needs, ease of access, resources use, inequalities will be discussed with expert by experience and other stakeholders during activities funded by this award to prioritise the most relevant outcomes and make an informed decision around the issues to explore during the future project. During the doctoral study, interventions recognised as potentially effective via the scoping review and using an improvement design tool, will be modelled on the specific context, previously analysed using system dynamics, enabling the prediction of their effects. This award will enable the applicant to engage with stakeholders, map services and get trained in system thinking techniques applied to social care. Research methods courses, academic visits expenditure and public involvement reimbursement have been included.