Webinar: Championing a research culture within Adult Social Care

Championing a research culture within Adult Social Care – How are we making robust decisions without calling upon the research base?

Research enriched practice has always been a gold standard within social care. However, making it a natural part of practice within busy frontline local authority teams dealing with complex and fluid situations has always been a challenge. In this webinar Liza Turton and Rachel Scourfield who are both Consultant Social Workers for Neath and Port Talbot will share how they are using their NIHR Practice based Research Leaders Award to create a model that supports frontline staff, policy development and strategic plans.

The Award supported a Championing a Research Culture project working with three pilot teams from across adult services within the local authority to undertake a journey from exploratory conversation with support from Nick Andrews of DEEP, through to skills training and regular case mapping sessions where complex situations and decisions are explored with compassionate communication using the research sources to guide, support and inform robust decision making. The impact of this model is summed up in feedback from a senior within a pilot team:

“The articles have made them (Social worker) think about the case from a different perspective, and also how behaviour directed at the (Social Worker) from a carer has impacted upon their work with a service user”.

Social Care Wales are supportive of this unique project, to understand what it takes to bring research and evidence into everyday practice, strategic policies and delivery.

Presented by: Rachel Scourfield & Liza Turton, Neath Port Talbot Council.