Healthy Later Living in a time of COVID. CASP Policy Labs:Executive Summary.

The CASP project’s aim was to develop a University of Bath (UoB) Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Faculty wide Policy Lab (PL) initiative to approach policy issues using innovative design orientated methods.
The UoB is also committed to engaging locally to ensure maximum benefits of their research can be shared and applied to local community issues and activities. Building on the small number of existing PL models in UK public policy settings, the project sought to enhance these new approaches in two key ways:
• first by building capacity and capability through the Centre for the Analysis of
Social Policy (CASP) in the HSS which would have a regional and local basis; and
• second by involving service users by experience (including carers) in the PL
sessions, which has not been a feature of initiatives such as the UK Cabinet
Office PL programme.
Policy Labs (PLs) were planned for three administrative areas within the West of England Combined Authorities Area (WECA). These are Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Bristol and South Gloucestershire (S Gloucestershire). A final Regional PL was held for the whole WECA area to discuss feedback from the local PLs and future plans. The topic for the PLs was Healthy Ageing (subsequently retitled to Healthy Later Living) which also ties in well with the UoB Healthy Later Living campaign and network.
The process of building the PL team, designing the events and developing the networks and contacts to support the events was established and the first PL for BaNES was held in March 2020. The findings from this event assisted the project to enhance the understanding of best practice on PLs, and lessons learned from the first event were included in planning for the next two PLs for Bristol and S Gloucestershire. These two PLs were held in March 2021 since the intervention of the COVID-19 (Covid) pandemic prevented the project from delivering all events as planned in 2020. The Covid pandemic has had a significant impact for carers and older people and the second two PLs have addressed the issues raised by the pandemic in relation to healthy later living.
The project was funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) programme through the UoB. Full description of the process and issues from the PLs are described in more comprehensive reports submitted to the UoB, which include details of the presentations and discussions for the PLs. This document provides a summary of the key findings and conclusions of the PLs, including a critique of the PL process used in the project. And how it might be taken forward.