FOCUS ON EVIDENCE
Can we ever ‘ think too much ’?
Jon Glasby looks at why a new UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care has been commissioned , and what work it aims to achieve over the next seven years
When I was training as a social worker , someone who went on to be very senior said , ‘ You ’ ll make a good social worker , but the trouble is you think too much ’. I know what they meant : you have to walk before you can run , you should listen before talking , and you have to ask questions in ways that people can hear . I was probably a very irritating student .
However , framing this as ‘ you think too much ’ is really interesting . With something as important as adult social care , with something that touches people ’ s lives in such difficult , emotional , intimate ways , how can we ever ‘ think too much ’?
All too often , we see practice (‘ doing ’) and evidence / research (‘ thinking ’) as separate worlds , when really they are two sides of the same coin .
With scarce resources and severe financial and service pressures , we need services based on the best evidence of what works , but we also want evidence that answers questions that are genuinely important to practice and that makes a real difference in people ’ s lives .
Deep down , I suspect that the young me : ( a ) wanted to know whether things could be better , and ( b ) how to actually achieve this .
These questions should be at the front of every professional ’ s mind . After all , we would be alarmed if we went for complex surgery and the person performing the operation was not up to speed with best practice and latest evidence .
Indeed , as one of our stakeholders pointed out , rather than just reading the latest research paper , we would want the surgeon to have helped write it .
Implementing evidence is difficult in any public service , but there are particular issues in adult social care . From funding pressures to the fragmentation of current services , and from workforce shortages to the implications of COVID-19 , it is a huge challenge creating the time , space and conditions needed to implement evidence in the realities of practice . Many people are probably burnt out from trying .
Against this background , a new £ 15 million UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care has been commissioned .
IMPACT ( Implementing Adult Care Together ) will offer a brand new approach , and has funding for seven years from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Health Foundation . It will be an ‘ implementation centre ’, supporting use of evidence to make a difference to frontline services and to people ’ s lives .
Working within and across the four nations of the UK , IMPACT will draw on different types of research evidence , the lived experience of people who use services and their carers , and the practice wisdom of social care staff .
We believe that all of these are important ways of understanding the world and need to be brought together if we are to agree on what needs to change and how to bring this about .
IMPACT has been getting up and running between April and June of this year . Our leadership team of 13 policy , practice and academic partners includes people with experience of drawing on care and support , as well as organisations working with and for carers and frontline workers .
Wider IMPACT consortium members range from Age UK to the Office for National Statistics , and from the UK Home Care Association to Citizens Cymru Wales – and of course includes the Royal College of Occupational Therapists . We also have international advisers based in similar centres in Sweden and The Netherlands .
Throughout this , we have been really grateful for the support of the Royal College of Occupational
54 OTnews August 2021