An investigation, evaluation and development of techniques to enable the spread and adoption of innovative practices, based on the Trent region older people services project (TROPSP)

This report contributes just over a third of the contribution to the researcher's D.Prof programme (see Ai Exhibits). It is a synthesis of many different activities and avenues of investigation and learning. This report is about one specific project and is focused on the ways to support the spread and adoption of innovative practices. It is not intended to be a report of the entire D.Prof Programme as the other areas are covered separately (see Exhibits Ai for D.Prof Programme Design). The literature review threw up a number of conflicts of definitions and perspectives, especially in the terminology that can be applied to 'spreading good practice' and 'social marketing'. The many paradoxes and contested concepts are highlighted in the review and the discussion that follows. Whilst this part of the D.Prof programme is centred on a work-based project - The Trent Region Older People Services Programme (TROPSP) - it has been difficult to separate learning in this project from other work based experiences in the same period. The deliverables and outputs generated (see Part B Exhibits) demonstrate both the breadth and depth of the researcher's experience and learning during this D.Prof programme. The experiential nature of action-based research is highly subjective as the researcher is an active participant in the investigative process, where personal actions immediately affect and have consequences on the context and subject matter under investigation. This report, therefore, needs to be read in the light of its context for the researcher, and understood as a piece of qualitative, action orientated research, rather than an analysis driven by more positivist or scientific values. The literature review, assessment of the TROPSP project and discussion about the researcher's personal learning themes, combine to produce a set of conclusions and recommendation as diverse and contested as is the topic of interprofessional social marketing itself. The paradoxes and tensions include: how different theories and frameworks can form unhelpful (or helpful) mental models; the importance of context, perspectives and expectations and how they can influence strategy and implementation of good practice; the tension between the individual and the organisation; how working with key influencers can be as damaging as it can be as supportive; and finally, the issue of whether the aim in social marketing is to spread good practice (Push out) or to enable adoption (Pull in). The work summarised in this report has received national and international recognition. The contribution to the modernising the NBS has been significant and there is much interest from other countries in using some of the techniques developed and used in the TROPSP work based project. The implications for professional practice, for those working with modernising healthcare as well as specifically for the researcher, are important.