Beyond broadcast:
the art (and science) of getting
research into practice
Dez Holmes
Director
Research in Practice
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Knowledge utilisation
Passive dissemination is
not effective
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Five key mechanisms for successful utilisation:
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Dissemination, interaction, social influence,
facilitation, incentives and reinforcement
Nutley et al
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Mission: to build
capacity in
evidence-informed
practice in services
for children
Knowledge mobilisation
Academics
Broker
Practitioners
The broker interprets, analyses
and summarises evidence to
increase understanding and use
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Evidence-informed practice
organisations
‘Research-based
practitioner’ model
‘Embedded research’
model
‘Organisational
Excellence’ model
Social workers should
not blindly apply or
impose research
findings to every
individual client, but
instead use their own
experience as well as
the client’s preferences
to honor client selfdetermination (Petr 2009)
Barriers and de-motivators
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Policy
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Users
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Employers
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Individuals
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Evidence
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Motivators and enablers
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Leadership
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Culture
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Communication
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Support to understand
and use evidence
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Commitment
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‘push factors’
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Clear expectations of professionals
Greater scrutiny of decisions (e.g. courts,
inspection, performance assessment, media)
Government pressure to tackle enduring
problems (e.g. troubled families, integration of
health and care, cost of care)
Integrated working with other disciplines and
professions – what knowledge does your
organisation ‘bring to the party’?
Evidence-informed commissioning
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‘pull factors’
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We’re more likely to achieve the outcomes if we
know more about what’s likely to work best
It’s at the heart of continued professional
development
It supports transparency in decision-making of
the organisation and gives us the opportunity to
explain to families/users/carers how decisions
are made
It equips us to make cases for investment
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360˚ support for EIP
website
publications
change projects
learning events
in-house workshops
handbooks
research reviews
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Children experiencing domestic violence
(Stanley 2011)
Safeguarding in the 21st century (Barlow
and Scott 2010)
One in ten: key messages from policy,
research and practice about young people
who are NEET (Tunnard, Barnes and Flood
2008)
Relatively speaking: developments in
research and practice in kinship care (Nixon
2008)
Disengagement and re-engagement of
young people in learning at Key Stage 3
(Morris and Pullen 2007)
Conduct Disorder in older children and
young people (Joughin and Morley 2007)
Parental mental health problems (Tunnard
2004)
frontline briefings
child development chart:0-11years
learning programme
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range of events:
Partnership Conferences
• Research Messages Workshops
• Team Managers’ Workshops
• In-house workshops
• webinars
certificates provided to
contribute to re-registration
requirements
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website
Change Projects
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Collaborative learning between researchers and
practitioners to create new knowledge and
accessible evidence-informed resources for
practitioners
Change Projects include:
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Analysis and Critical Thinking in Assessment
Housing and Play
Change Project around the topic of early intervention
commissioning
Parental Capacity to Change / Training Transfer
Voice of CYP (2014)
a ‘third generation approach’
Evidence-based actuarial tools
Professional judgement
Unaided clinical
judgement in relation
to the assessment of
risk of harm, is now
widely recognised to
be flawed
Barlow 2012: 20
Checklist
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Improve access
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User engagement
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Analyse barriers
and enablers
Align needs and
knowledge
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Support for
knowledge use
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Credibility
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Training
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Co-production
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Unilever’s “5 levers of change
model”
Make it PERSONAL
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“Evidence is to a practitioner what a
rudder is to a boat...
Both rudder and sail actually.”
“It’s like the compass and the safety
helmet to a climber.”
“It’s the recipe that helps you know what
you’re doing and why you’re doing it –
and what difference you’ve made.”
“It protects you and it gives you
confidence – like wearing shin-pads and
stilettos at the same time.”
“It’s the raft you hold onto when
everything else in your organisation is
adrift.”
Thank you
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