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.
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 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.
Research briefings that provide a concise summary of the research knowledge on a particular topic and signpost routes to further information. They are designed to provide research evidence in an accessible format to a varied audience, including practitioners, students, managers and policy-makers. The briefings have been undertaken using a transparent methodology.
Provides user abstracts that give practitioners and others easy access to research results. Most user abstracts are based on Campbell reviews, but some are based on other high-quality systematic reviews. The resource presents the findings of the reviews in a plain language, and focuses on information relevant to practitioners and decision makers, for example, people who need the research evidence in order to make the best decisions concerning other peoples welfare. Topics include domestic violence, children, crime, mental health and older people.
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.
Part of the Glasgow School of Social Work Research series, Professor David Donnison from the University of Glasgow, speaks about advocacy services in Scotland.
Video interviews with Fergus McNeill at one of the "What Works" workshops series at the Surgeons Hall, Edinburgh, 5th February 2010.
This episode of Radio 4's Thinking Allowed series includes a segment on shyness. Susie Scott, Research Associate in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, spent three years collecting personal stories and accounts of people who see themselves as shy, exploring the social context in which this feeling arises, how it affects our interaction with others, and the way that cultural norms and values shape our perceptions of 'shy' behaviour.
This is the outcome of an extensive review of evidence about the effectiveness of interventions designed to tackle children and young people's involvement in gun and knife crime. It discusses predicting who is most likely to be involved in violent crime, the impact of where children and young people live on their involvement, how young people's relationships, perceptions and choices affect involvement, anti-gun and anti-knife interventions, and youth offending and youth violence research, ending with conclusions.