Opportunities for the transfer of United Kingdom best practices for the provision of public residential care facilities for the elderly to Malaysia

Sulaiman, N

Abstract

By the year 2020, 9.5 percent of the Malaysian population will be aged 60 years and
above. To cope with the increase in elderly, the phenomenon of decreasing family size
and other demographic and social factors affecting the family structure has resulted in
the need for more public residential care facilities for the elderly to take over the
traditional responsibilities of families. Therefore, learning from the best providers is
invaluable to establish best practice among the providers in Malaysia. Since the early
1920s, the UK provision of Public Residential Care Homes for the Elderly has evolved
continuously establishing UK providers with national frameworks and standards of
care practice delivery. With this valuable experience, UK practice, debates, and
experiments were followed with great interest by other developing countries such as
Malaysia. It would be very beneficial if Malaysia could adapt and adopt the provision
structure and best practices from the UK that could be transferred into Malaysia.
Facilities Management is gaining increasing recognition in many public organisations in
the Western world. Facilities Management can benefit an organisation with its
integrated Facilities Management practices at Strategic, Tactical, and Operational levels
to deliver best value and best practices to the ultimate users, particularly so in the
sector of social care services. The desire to improve both theoretical and practical
contributions to the current practices in Malaysia, has ignited the aim of this study to
seek opportunities for the transfer of UK best practices for the provision of Public
Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly to Malaysia. The purposes of the study were
a process of identifying best practices in the UK which could be adopted by Malaysian
providers. The lines of inquiries were set to first identify Best Practice Approach in
both provisions at each level of practice, seeking to determine Barriers and Enablers
for Best Practice Transfer, and finally identifying lessons for the improvement of the
provision in Malaysia. A range of research methods consisting of Content Analysis;
Visual Photography; Participant Observation; Video Documentary; and Expert
Interview were employed to acquire a substantial set of data from selected sources of
evidence and research settings in the UK and Malaysia. Lessons learned from the study
were considered and a range of important findings emerged. Predominantly, the
contributions of this study can be seen as a theoretical contribution, as well as
practical contribution, that could finally benefit the Malaysian providers of Public
Residential Care Homes for the Elderly.

Citation

Sulaiman, N. Opportunities for the transfer of United Kingdom best practices for the provision of public residential care facilities for the elderly to Malaysia. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2011