15 March 2013
Evidence in Social Welfare Policy and Practice Conference, 7 Dec 2012
This blog highlights a conference that was held to celebrate the launch of Social Welfare at the British Library www.socialwelfare.bl.uk a new free online service offering a single point of access to our vast print and digital collections on social welfare and social policy.
Developed in partnership with the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the School of Social Work, Allied and Public Health, University of Staffordshire , Social Welfare at the BL showcases and provides a single point of access to our social policy and welfare content, collections and services for researchers, policy makers and managers in government and in the voluntary, independent and statutory services sectors.
The Conference
The Conference was opened by Roly Keating, CEO, British Library followed by a brief presentation on the Social Welfare Portal by Jude England, Head of Social Sciences.
The first presentation by Dr Jo Moriarty, Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College focused on the need for good evidence in social care, some of the challenges in disseminating evidence in the sector, and the need to think beyond academic users to the general public and frontline care staff. The presentation drew in part on her NIHR School for Social Care Research funded project, Social Care Practice with Carers.
The presentation by Prof. Pete Alcock, Director, Third Sector Research Centre, University of Birmingham, focused on the Centre’s work in disseminating research on the development, role and organisation of the sector. It showcased the Third Sector Knowledge Portal, a free resource bringing together reports from third sector organisations, academic research, and government studies in one easy to use collection. Through its unique thesaurus, the KP helps voluntary organisations, government departments, academics and others to access evidence on a broad range of topics related to the sector, including commissioning, service delivery, impact measurement, social and community enterprise, volunteers and volunteering, and fundraising. The presentation concluded with some preliminary results from a KP user survey.
The keynote presentation by Prof. Jon Glasby, Director, Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham looked at the role of evidence in health policymaking, how policy is implemented, and how knowledge spreads. Using at case study from his own career, Prof Glasby explored what constitutes valid research evidence. He concluded by calling for a move from evidence- to knowledge-based practice, arguing that: 1) there is no such thing as a hierarchy of evidence - the ‘best’ method for researching any given topic is that which will answer the research question most effectively; and 2) the lived experience of service users/carers and the practice wisdom of practitioners can be just as valid a way of understanding the world as formal research
Dr Georgina Brewis, John Adams Fellow, Institute of Education, University of London, and founder, Campaign for Voluntary Sector Archives, with Gareth Millward, Phd student at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, opened the afternoon session with a presentation on the value of charity archives as evidence for research, policy and practice. They argued that use of archival evidence would prevent reinvention of the wheel, by showing which policies and interventions had been tried in the past and whether or not they worked.
Diana Leat, Board Member, Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, considered the value of preserving and giving access to foundation archives. These organisations are in many senses different form other voluntary organisations in that they do not have to raise funds and therefore have the freedom to fund what could be considered niche causes. Their archives help to record the historical and political context of particular periods and add to the overall sense of the role of the third/voluntary sector within society across time. Foundation archives can reveal why certain projects were funded and others not, how the development and growth of small, newly formed organisations can be supported in non-financial ways and help tell the story of how issues first 'bubbled to the surface' in the public consciousness
The conference concluded with a lively panel discussion on use and abuse of evidence, chaired by Amanda Edwards, Deputy Chief Executive, Social Care Institute for Excellence with Dr Helen Kara, independent author, researcher and consultant, and Pete Simcock, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire University School of Social Work, Allied and Public Health Birmingham. The panel and audience debated how evidence is used to inform social welfare policy and practice. The session was interactive and tackled questions such as: different interpretations of the same evidence, the barriers to use and dissemination of evidence, and whether there are sometimes good reasons not to use evidence. The audience were asked to vote on the questions before and after the discussion, to see if views had changed.
Please visit the event web page to listen to a podcast of the conference proceedings.