evidence-informed practice

Research soundbites: culture, change and community justice

Fergus McNeill discusses a literature review of the management of change within community justice organisations, conducted with Ros Burnett and Tricia McCulloch. The review explored: the nature and character of occupational, professional and organisational cultures in community justice; how such cultures respond to, accommodate and resist change processes; how and why processes of change succeed and fail in criminal justice organisations; and effective approaches to the management of change in criminal justice.

Drugs research: an overview of evidence and questions for policy

In 2001, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation embarked upon a unique and challenging programme of research that explored the problem of illicit drugs in the UK. The research addressed many questions that were often too sensitive for the government to tackle. In many cases, these studies represented the first research on these issues and the policy implications have been far-reaching. This report outlines the results of the largest independent programme of drugs research of its kind within the UK.

SCIE: Knowledge Reviews

Knowledge reviews pull together knowledge from research, practice and people who use services. They describe what knowledge is available, highlight the evidence that has emerged and draw practice points from the evidence. Topics include residential child care, adult mental health services, improving social and health care services, social work education and looked-after children.

SCIE: systematic reviews

The most trustworthy knowledge comes from systematic reviews where a whole body of work on a given topic is examined, using set ways of deciding what is relevant, how the quality of different studies should be judged and how the messages should be brought together. Looking at a whole body of work in this way means that there is less potential for the messages from research to be unduly affected by single studies.

SCIE: systematic maps

SCIE has developed systematic mapping of social care research. Systematic mapping is a way of taking stock of the existing literature on a particular topic. It is a tool that offers policy makers, practitioners and researchers an explicit and transparent means of identifying narrower policy and practice-relevant review questions. It also enables the identification of gaps in the evidence base and the assessment and comparison of in-depth systematic literature reviews within the broader literature.

Confidence Through Evidence Toolkit

A part of IRISS's Evidence Informed Practice Portal, the toolkit provides guidance on the process of finding and using evidence for service innovation and improvement. It has four steps designed to help users acquire, assess, adapt and apply evidence in practice, and involves a number of learning activities to help improve skills and confidence in these areas.

research in practice for adults: key Issues

Resource designed to provide ready access to relevant policy, available evidence and emerging practice on topics of current importance. It addresses topics where the evidence base is currently less well-developed, but where practitioners and managers still need to access emerging evidence and information to help inform their practice. Themes include outcome-based commissioning and contracting, support brokerage, joint strategic needs assessment, and social firms.

SCVO: evidence library

Developed by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and funded by the Scottish Government, this evidence library is an online information resource whereby research into Third Sector issues in Scotland can be easily browsed, accessed at speed and stored, if required, in a personalised document briefcase for future reference.

EPPI-Centre: evidence library

Provides systematic reviews of research evidence across a range of different topic areas and provides support for others who are undertaking systematic reviews or using research evidence. A large number of systematic reviews in the fields of education including initial teacher education (ITE), health promotion and public health are available.