1. Alexandra Lopes and Isabel Dias
SOCIOLOGY INSTITUTE  UNIVERSITY OF PORTO
3RD JULY 2017

2. PROJECT RATIONALE METHODS OUTPUTS IMPACTS GOALS
3 years research project. Started in June Completion expected in June 2018
Funded by the European Union’s Research and Innovation Program Horizon2020
Designed to give a meaning to the concept of Social Investment as it is applied to Long-Term Care (LTC) and to articulate the aspirations of the European Commission’s Social Investment Package (SIP)
International consortium of institutions from 11 different countries, coordinated by the London School of Economics and Political Science
Research team includes leading experts and organisations in the areas of social policy, social economics and long‐term care and combines experience in research on social and financial returns of investment, social impact analysis, social law and demography

3. PROJECT RATIONALE METHODS OUTPUTS IMPACTS GOALS
Demographic ageing is challenging countries around the globe increasingly confronted with growing LTC needs from older persons
Many and varied efforts are directed to extending and restoring people’s autonomy and independence but the need for care is expected to increase, especially the need for formal care
Only a few EU countries provide extensive, publically financed care for older people. In many countries, most care is still provided on an unpaid, informal basis by family members, most of whom are women
Difficulty in “selling” the idea of expanding welfare and social services to national governments struggling to provide the very basic coverage, especially in times of budgetary constraints and pressure towards a focus on financial sustainability
LTC is more often portrayed as a cost rather than a contribution to social capital and social cohesion in pursuit of the European social model
Impacts of investments in LTC in Europe have not been easily measured and quantified

4. PROJECT RATIONALE METHODS OUTPUTS IMPACTS GOALS
BROAD AMBITION: develop a model of social metrics that can be used to measure the social impacts and economic returns of different LTC services and schemes with a view to identifying the most promising alternatives to realize the ambition of the social investment policy paradigm
Investors
Investment
Returns
Those allocating resources
- variety of agents: public/private; formal/informal; commercial/not for profit
- variety of resources: monetary; time; effort; infrastructures
LTC provision
- tackling different types of needs: health/social care; ADL’s/IADL’s; dementia; needs of carers
- focusing on different approaches to needs: prevention; rehabilitation; assistance; palliative; hospice care
Results of LTC: costs and benefits
- may be experienced as positive or negative; may be of a material or of a non- material nature; may be experienced individually or collectively
- variety of costs: fiscal; social expenditure; private expenditure; social costs; opportunity costs; preventive costs
- variety of benefits: social wellbeing; economic benefits; efficiency; opportunities; quality and equity 
Looking at LTC from a SI perspective involves looking at the broader social picture in which care arrangements unfold and considering all social actors affected by the decisions that are taken regarding those arrangements
Picture 1. The social investment flow in LTC

5. PROJECT RATIONALE METHODS OUTPUTS IMPACTS GOALS
LTC as capacitating policy
Increase the flow of workers into the labour market
Current and deferred implications in fiscal terms and in social expenditure
LTC as securing human capital
Support autonomy and independent living postponing the need for institutional care
Prevention and rehabilitation
LTC as inducer of equity and efficiency
Secure income stability and financial sustainability
Correcting structural dimensions of inequity and preventing impoverishment
LTC as generator of quality of life
Increase wellbeing of those with caring responsibilities
Quality of life of those requiring assistance

6. PROJECT RATIONALE METHODS OUTPUTS IMPACTS GOALS
Social Return on Investment (SROI) approach to measure and understand the impacts of LTC arrangements
SROI is a principles based method for measuring the social value of an activity relative to the resources invested in it
Great deal of emphasis on stakeholders’ views
Putting financial ‘proxy’ values on all the impacts identified by stakeholders that do not typically have market values
Information requirements to undertake this exercise are very demanding if one is to identify in the most precise manner possible the resources that are pooled into LTC provision and the actors involved in LTC provision so that the total costs of providing care for the different actors and the impacts (positive and negative) of different arrangements for different stakeholders can be computed

7. PROJECT RATIONALE METHODS OUTPUTS IMPACTS GOALS
Feasibility Framework Tool, together with assessment scales, thresholds and an Impact Map that will assist implementation of investment in LTC by public authorities, social insurance funds and private investors
Outline models of investment that overcome financial and regulatory barriers and that contribute to the improvement and scaling up of new ways to provide LTC services

8. PROJECT RATIONALE METHODS OUTPUTS IMPACTS GOALS
Contribution to improve reliability of estimates on long-term care costs and returns
Raise awareness about the importance of considering the quality of public expenditure rather than just the quantity of public expenditure
Transcend a narrow fiscal approach and locate the discussion about aspirations of LTC within the EU Treaty and related aspirations for the maintenance and improvement of social standards
Disentangle the impact mechanisms of LTC provision to identify investments that are good value in that field and develop innovative assessment tools that can actually bring a fresh approach to the consideration of the social value of LTC and help comparing options in view of their expected returns

9. For more information contact:
For more information contact:
Alexandra Lopes, Instituto de Sociologia da UPorto
The SPRINT Project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No