Columbia University School of Social Work

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Columbia UniversitySchool of Social Work

• 1 March 2006
• Using Knowledge in Policy and Practice
• Amanda Edwards

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Summary

• History and context
• What counts as knowledge
• A trusted source of knowledge
• Useful and useable products
• Beyond the bookshelf and the web

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SCIE was set up to

• Draw together and spread evidence of what works
  best in social care
• Quality Strategy for Social Care
• Help local councils and other service providers
  take decisions about changing the ways services
  are delivered, and help practitioners make better
  decisions
• Quality Strategy for Social Care

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Judgement

• Informed judgement is the hallmark of
  professionalism
• Roy Parker
• Is making decisions that do not make themselves
• Gillian Stamp

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About SCIE

• Launched in 2001 by Government, SCIE develops and
  promotes knowledge about good practice in social
  care
• Draws on and analyses knowledge from a range of
  sources to produce recommendations and resources
  for practice and service delivery
• Improves access to knowledge and information in
  social care Social Care online
• Works in partnership
• Products and services are free

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Knowledge

• What counts as knowledge?
• The sum of what is known Shorter Oxford
  English Dictionary
• Different Types of Knowledge
• Best available knowledge
• SCIE knowledge reviews
• SCIE position papers

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Sources of Knowledge in Social Care
Policy
Practitioner knowledge
Research
User knowledge
A KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR SOCIAL CARE
Organisational knowledge
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Systematic knowledge review in social care

• A trusted source of knowledge
• Clearly identified questions
• Comprehensive clear search and inclusion
  criteria
• Rigorous quality appraisal framework
• Open synthesis needs to show the working

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SCIE Practice Guides

• Useful and useable products
• Comprehensive
• Developed in partnership
• Easy to use
• Can be updated

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Some examples

• Foster Care
• www.scie.org.uk/fostering
• People management
• www.scie-peoplemanagement.org.uk
• Carer Practice Guide
• www.scie.org.uk/carers/
• Learning Organisations
• Assessing the mental health needs of older
• people
• www.scie.org.uk/assessingmh/

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Social Care Online
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About Social Care Onlinewww.scie-socialcareonlin
e.org.uk

• The UKs most extensive database of social care
  information
• FREE access
• No passwords
• Regularly updated by SCIEs in-house team
• Fully abstracted
• Access to original documents wherever possible

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Conditions for spreading and using knowledge

• Willingness to share an appetite
• Confidence trusted source
• In a form that is easy to use
• Active dissemination and support for
  implementation

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Beyond the bookshelf and the web

• Practice Partner network
• E-learning
• Partnerships with trainers and educators,
  research organisations and inspectorates e.g.
  National Institute for Health and Clinical
  Excellence (NICE), The Commission for Social Care
  Inspection (CSCI)

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More challenges

• Beyond the bookshelf
• Gaps
• Knowing what and knowing how
• In the knowledge base
• Breadth and depth

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• You know you have succeeded when someone says it
  was their own idea

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www.scie.org.uk