Turning research into action: What does the literature say

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Turning research into action What does the
literature say?

• Kerry Lewig, Fiona Arney and
• Dorothy Scott

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Australian Centre for Child Protection

• Joint initiative
• Commonwealth Government (DEST)
• University of South Australia
• Funding
• 10 years

Mission To enhance life opportunities for
children in Australia who are at risk of abuse or
neglect
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Our Role

• Through close collaboration with government
  and community organisations, the role of the
  Centre is to help translate research and
  evaluation into successful policy and practice.

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The research, practice and policy cultures
Practice
Policy
Research-policy gap
Research-practice gap
Research
Source Davies, Nutley Smith (2000b) Lomas,
2000b Pyra (2003,) Shonkoff (2000).
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The research, practice and policy cultures

• Practice
• Time frames for results
• usually short
• Languages for communication
• guidelines and protocols
• Priorities for knowledge
• efficiency and effectiveness
• Work environment
• immediacy of service delivery

Policy
Research-policy gap
Research
Research-practice gap
Based on Davies, Nutley Smith (2000b) Lomas,
2000b Pyra (2003,) Shonkoff (2000).
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Research is more likely to be used by
practitioners if it is

• seen to have relative advantages in terms of
  effectiveness or cost effectiveness
• compatible with current beliefs, working
  practices
• low in complexity
• relevant to current practice, is effective,
  efficient, and practical
• adaptable to suit practitioner or agency needs
• able to be piloted

Source Black Donald, (2001) Davies, Nutley
Smith, (2000b) Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman,
Wallace, (2005) Innvaer, Vist, Trommald,
Oxman, (2002) Nutbeam, (2003) Percy-Smith,
Burden, Darlow, Dowson, Hawtin, Ladi, (2002)
Pyra, K. (2003)
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The research, practice and policy cultures

• Policy
• Time frames for results
• usually short or medium
• Languages for communication
• issue briefs, govt reports, media
• Priorities for knowledge
• feasibility, implementation
• Work environment
• multiple decision-makers,
• political, economic and social
• forces

Practice
Research-practice gap
Research-policy gap
Research
Based on Davies, Nutley Smith (2000b) Lomas,
2000b Pyra (2003,) Shonkoff (2000).
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Research is more likely to be used by
policy-makers if it

• is unambiguous, understandable, well-supported,
  and readily available
• is timely, relevant and has uncontested
  methodology
• is compatible with political vision and not
  controversial
• indicates actions that are achievable within
  existing or future resources, systems and
  structures
• requires relatively small changes, has low
  implementation costs and can be reversed without
  high costs
• is of good quality and includes effectiveness
  data

Source Black Donald, (2001) Davies, Nutley
Smith, (2000b) Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman,
Wallace, (2005) Innvaer, Vist, Trommald,
Oxman, (2002) Nutbeam, (2003) Percy-Smith,
Burden, Darlow, Dowson, Hawtin, Ladi, (2002)
Pyra, K. (2003)
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The research, practice and policy cultures
Policy
Practice
Research-policy gap
Research-practice gap

• Research
• Time frames for results usually long
• Languages for communication highly technical,
  expert language
• Priorities for knowledge theory, methodology,
  scientifically
• answerable questions
• Work environment research rigour, pressure to
  publish, academic
• reputation

Based on Davies, Nutley Smith (2000b) Lomas,
2000b Pyra (2003,) Shonkoff (2000).
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Challenges/Opportunities
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• Research on child development, the design of
  social policies, and the delivery of human
  services for children and families reflect three
  related yet separated cultures.
• The capacity to navigate across their borders,
  to understand their different rules of evidence,
  to speak their distinctive languages, and to
  achieve credibility in all three worlds while
  maintaining a sense of intellectual integrity in
  each, requires respect for their differences and
  a commitment to their shared mission. (Shonkoff,
  2000, p.181).

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Strategies for building bridges

• Sustain communication between researchers and
  users
• Involve practitioners/decision makers throughout
  research process
• Generate knowledge in a shared manner
• Allow time for people to understand what is being
  proposed/discussed
• Utilise opportunities for researchers to shadow
  policy-makers and vice versa
• Include decision makers in governing or
  consulting bodies of research centres

Source Black Donald, (2001) Davies, Nutley
Smith, (2000b) Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman
Wallace, (2005) Innvaer, Vist, Trommald,
Oxman, (2002) Lomas (2000) Nutbeam, (2003)
Percy-Smith, Burden, Darlow, Dowson, Hawtin,
Ladi, (2002) Pyra (2003)
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Building agreement around evidence

• Work for consensus on what is legitimate evidence
  
• Recognise which questions that are best answered
  by research
• Consider efficiency as well as effectiveness
  outcomes
• Accept that ethics, cost, practicability,
  complexity prohibit some research
• Undertake research relevant to local needs
• Commission research about what works for key
  questions
• Establish a strong and relevant data base on
  what works
• Develop research capacity in each public policy
  areas

Source Davies, Nutley Smith, (2000b, p 361)
Percy-Smith, Burden, Darlow, Dowson, Hawtin,
Ladi, (2002)
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Types of knowledge

• Organisational knowledge from organising
  services through governance and regulation
  activities
• Practitioner knowledge from delivering services
  tends to be tacit, personal and context
  specific
• User knowledge from using services tends to be
  tacit
• Research knowledge from planned strategy, mostly
  explicit and provided in reports, evaluation
• Policy community knowledge from wider policy
  context

Source Walter, Nutley, Percy-Smith, McNeish,
Frost, (2004, p viii).
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Improving dissemination of research

• Summarise findings, identify key issues, make
  recommendations
• Clearly present data, use case studies or
  examples
• Give actionable messages based on multiple
  studies
• Limit use of academic references, footnotes
• Use multiple dissemination methods (eg reminders,
  meetings, outreach visits, use of opinion
  leaders)
• Ensure research transfer is seen as ongoing
  process
• Use opinion leaders to disseminate research
  evidence
• Encourage researchers to become involved in the
  dissemination of their own research

Source Lavis, Robertson, Woodside, McLeod
Abelson (2003) NHS Centre for Reviews and
Dissemination (1999) Nutley Davies (2000)
Percy-Smith, Burden, Darlow, Dowson, Hawtin,
Ladi, (2002)
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Overcoming individual barriers to research use

• Improve access to research materials (eg
  libraries, computers and venues where knowledge
  can be shared)
• Training in research management and use
• Secondment to research organisations
• Develop links with researchers
• Provision of examples of good practice in
  relation to research collaboration

Source Barwick, Boydell, Stasiulis, Ferguson,
Blasé Fixsen (2005) Fixsen, Naoom, Blase,
Friedman, Wallace, (2005) Gerrish, K.,
Clayton, J. (2004) Hemsley-Brown, Sharp,
(2003) Jones Seeling (2004) NHS Centre for
Reviews and Dissemination. (1999) (Walter,
Nutley, Davies, 2003)
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Environmental barriers to research use

• Lack of/failure to use authority to implement
  change
• Perceived lack of support from colleagues
• Workload, job stress, and burnout
• Limited capacity for change management
• Lack of resources
• Shifting time scales, and timing of decisions
• Governments ideological base, electoral mandates
  policy legacies
• Closed and time-pressured policy making process
• Power relationships and budget struggles
• Public opinion, dominant social values, interest
  groups and media
• Political instability or high turnover of policy
  making staff
• Public service culture

Source Barwick et al (2005) Black Donald,
(2001) Bowen Zwi, (2005) Davies, (2002)
Elliot Popay, (2000) Fixsen et al , (2005)
(Hemsley-Brown Sharp), (2003) Innvaer, Vist,
Trommal and Oxman (2002) Jones Seeling
(2004) Lavis et al (2002) Muir Gray, (2001)
NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, (1999)
Nutbeam, (2003) Percy-Smith et al (2002) Pyra,
(2003) Walter, Nutley Davies, (2003).
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Responding to environmental
influences

• Work towards establishing a culture that is
  responsive
• to change
• Develop skills in managers to become effective
  change agents and to create an environment
  supportive of change
• Ensure evidence based information is readily
  available and implications for practice are
  easily understandable
• Commit to research utilisation by emphasising it
  in formal goal statements
• Establish formal units for promoting research
  utilisation
• Provide training in locating, understanding and
  applying research to the local context

Source Barwick et al (2005) Black Donald,
(2001) Bowen Zwi, (2005) Davies, (2002)
Elliot Popay, (2000) Fixsen et al , (2005)
(Hemsley-Brown Sharp), (2003) Innvaer, Vist,
Trommal and Oxman (2002) Jones Seeling
(2004) Lavis et al (2002) Muir Gray, (2001)
NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, (1999)
Nutbeam, (2003) Percy-Smith et al (2002) Pyra,
(2003) Walter, Nutley Davies, (2003).
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Responding to environmental
influences

• When undertaking and seeking to apply research
• Take account of constraints people are working
  under
• Consider how evidence fits with experiential
  knowledge
• Understand that research must compete with many
  other influences
• Accept that influencing policy making is an
  uncertain process
• Acknowledge that some decisions may appear
  irrational, yet they are appropriate given
  political and/or institutional constraints
• Be willing to tolerate some oversimplification,
  compromise and trade off in use of research
  evidence

Source Barwick et al (2005) Black Donald,
(2001) Bowen Zwi, (2005) Davies, (2002)
Elliot Popay, (2000) Fixsen et al , (2005)
(Hemsley-Brown Sharp), (2003) Innvaer, Vist,
Trommal and Oxman (2002) Jones Seeling
(2004) Lavis et al (2002) Muir Gray, (2001)
NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, (1999)
Nutbeam, (2003) Percy-Smith et al (2002) Pyra,
(2003) Walter, Nutley Davies, (2003).
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Research use in child protection

• While interest in using research in policy and
  practice is growing, it is not known how widely
  research is used in the field of human services
  generally (Black Donald, 2001 Nutley Davies,
  2000)
• Very little is known about how research is used
  in child protection
• There is uncertainty when applying research use
  principles to child protection from other fields
  (such as health)

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A study of research use in child protection

• The aim of the study is to investigate the degree
  of research utilisation in the child protection
  field
• It is hoped that findings will help to inform
  policy makers, practitioners and researchers as
  to how to close the cultural gaps and more
  effectively use research in the child protection
  field

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A study of research use in child protection
Design Three phases

• Phase 1 Literature review
• Phase 2 Stage 1 Survey
• Phase 2 Stage 2 Telephone interviews
• Phase 3 Future work Examining research
  translation and impact from the point of view of
  research and policy

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A study of research use in child protection
Phase 2 Survey

• Main role Child protection and out-of-home care
  service provider/Policy professional/Other
  service provider
• Jurisdiction
• Research priorities
• Research use (5-point Likert)
• Print sources
• Research importance (5-point Likert)
• Consent to telephone interview
• Response rate 8.4 (mailing list 5913)
• Final sample 464
• 222 (47.8) of respondents agreed to a follow up
  telephone interview

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A study of research use in child protection
Survey Findings Research Use
How often do you use research findings in your
main role? 1 Never, 2 Seldom, 3 Sometimes,
4 Often, 5 Always
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A study of research use in child protection
Survey Findings Research Importance
How important do you think research findings are
for your role? 1 Never, 2 Seldom, 3
Sometimes, 4 Often, 5 Always
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A study of research use in child protection
Telephone interviews

• Selection procedure

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A study of research use in child protection
Telephone interviews

• 30 minute telephone interview
• Explores facilitators barriers to research use.
  For example
• Is there anything that helps or hinders your
  ability to access and apply research in your
  current role?
• Are there any studies that have significantly
  influenced your role, practice, or understanding
  of issues in the child protection field?
• Have you ever read a piece of research that was
  easy to understand? What was it that made it easy
  to understand?
• Interviews commenced early-August

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A study of research use in child protection
Telephone interviews early findings
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A study of research use in child protection
Telephone interviews early findings
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A study of research use in child protection
Methodological Issues

• Sample skewed toward high research users
• Initially research use calculated using scores
  from
• How often do you use research
• How important is research
• Number of print sources able to name
• However once interviewing was under way, answers
  to how often do you use research (articles
  rather than journals, due to library updates and
  list of new articles etc)