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Wakefield, J, Lavender, S, Nixon, K, Hornby, S, Dobel-Ober, D, Lambley-Burke, R, Spolander, G, Bonner, P, Mallen, C and Campbell, P (2021) Social Work and Social Care: Mapping Workforce Engagement, Relevance, Experience and Interest in Research. The British Journal of Social Work. ISSN 0045-3102
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Abstract
Evidence-based practice (EBP) has been promoted within social work/social care, with emerging evidence of benefit to practitioners and service users. Advocates argue that EBP enables practitioners to have the skills to interpret and evaluate evidence and be actively involved in research. This project aimed to evaluate awareness, experience/skills and value of research, and explore barriers to engagement with research. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken across a diverse range of social work/care staff at a large National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and partner Local Authority. The survey included both closed and an open-ended response to facilitate a mixed method analysis. In total, 208 staff responded (55 percent response) and findings show a high rating on the relevance of research to professional development (73 percent); however, a low level of actual involvement (10 percent) and low levels of confidence/knowledge across a range of research skills. Identified barriers include a lack of knowledge on where/how to begin, lack of evidence that it improves practice, the potential to threaten practice and low capacity and time. These findings highlight a potential gap between a current drive for social work/care to be more evidenced based and the ability of social work/care to enact this approach.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | evidence-based practice; research; social care; social work; survey; training |
Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine |
Divisions: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine |
Depositing User: | Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 15 Sep 2021 14:49 |
Last Modified: | 15 Jun 2022 10:39 |
URI: | https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/10001 |