We asked older people’s day centre stakeholders and others working in health and social care about their views on day centres’ preventive function. Our findings, published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Wellbeing, highlight how work undertaken in day centres falls under the radar as a systemic contribution to the prevention agenda within health and social care.
Despite repeated government focus on growing community health and care services and current preventive efforts aiming to reduce pressure on the NHS and to move more care into the community, there has been a failure to invest in day centres.
Our research aimed to further understandings of how day centres can contribute to health and social care’s preventive agenda. We identified perceived strengths and opportunities at all three levels of prevention: primary (prevent), secondary (reduce) and tertiary (maintain). There were also systemic opportunities, such as day centres being in a position to capture and use evidence, and more joined-up working.
We spoke to day centre stakeholders (providers, staff, volunteers, a service user and a carer) and people working in health and social care (social prescriber, hospital occupational therapist, social worker, people in strategic social care and health roles and a GP).
Participants told us that day centres for older people are well-placed to contribute more formally to the preventive agenda. Staff and volunteers keep a watching eye on attenders’ health and wellbeing and intervene when needed to prevent things getting worse, reduce the impact of conditions that can exacerbate, and assist with maintaining the health and well-being of attendees. All of these aligned with the prevention framework. However, the benefits of anticipatory care they may offer can be overlooked by people in decision-making roles due to tight budgets and current limited joint commissioning practices.
Recognition of day centres’ contribution, investment and more research about potential health and care savings linked with day centre use are needed to maximise day centres’ upstream preventive contribution.
Policymakers and statutory decision-makers need to make themselves aware of the existing evidence about day centres’ outcomes.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring there is a choice of high-quality care services available for people who need them. There is a local requirement for anticipatory care. These two requirements, together with the preventive added value day centres can offer to the NHS, suggest there is a good case for improved joint LA and NHS commissioning via Integrated Care Systems, and for individual day centre places to be commissioned by GPs where their patients may benefit from non-clinical community support and agree. GPs may wish to develop links with their local day centre providers.
Dr Kritika Samsi is theme lead for social care research at ARC South London and a research fellow at the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College London
Dr Katharine Orellana is a research fellow at the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College London.
Older people’s day centres’ preventive work: views of day centre providers and their stakeholders. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. Samsi, K & Orellana, K (2025)
Read about the research evidence about older people’s day centres and their local links
This study/project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
We are grateful to the study participants for sharing their perspectives with us.