Practitioner Research Project Overview
This project has been developed by IRISS and CRFR, University of Edinburgh and aims to build
on learning from the previous Practitioner Research Older People (PROP) project1. The project
aims to develop research capacity and knowledge exchange amongst practitioners and to
generate evidence about issues relevant to practice. The focus will be on integrated working
practices built around personal outcomes for people who access support. Working with
partners from health and social care, a group of practitioners will be supported to identify a
research question, and to plan and implement a research project. The practitioners will develop
research awareness and skills and their organisations will increase their research and
knowledge exchange capacity especially in relation to use of data.
This project represents a targeted intervention making direct and meaningful connections
between research and practice and changing behaviour, attitudes and culture amongst
individuals and within organisations.
1. Background and Rationale
There are significant challenges around implementing integration, using evidence in practice
and measuring personal outcomes in the UK. This project is underpinned by two key premises,
that in order to improve integration there is a need:
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for an improved evidence base that relates directly to the needs of those providing
services
to better share the evidence base through supporting increased use by key audiences
One way to achieve both objectives is through moving towards the co-production of knowledge,
between academic researchers and those involved in delivering integration in practice. The
appetite for practitioner research represents an opportunity to improve practice through
evidence use in integration. One of the factors that increases the use of evidence is the
development of collaborations between researchers and practitioners, particularly collaborations
which provide support for practitioners to “try out” research findings and conduct their own
research2.
This project therefore has the potential to make a contribution to the Scottish Government’s
national outcome 15, ‘Our Public services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and
1
2
http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/prop/2012/05/04/welcome-to-props/
Nutley (2003)
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responsive to local people’s needs’3. The project will also contribute to the Scottish
Government’s proposed Health and Care Integration Outcomes4.
In addition, strong relationships amongst the project partners will facilitate good communication
and dissemination networks. Many partners were involved in the earlier PROP and this project
will build on the learning and reflections from that work.
Project partners will represent health and social care organisations from statutory, third and
private sectors.
2. Project Aims
Using a practitioner research programme format, this project seeks to add to our understanding
of effective research use in practice. In particular, seeking to strengthen the use and usefulness
of evidence around the role of personal outcomes in the design and delivery of integrated
services.
In order to achieve this, the project aims to:
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Extend theoretical and practical understandings of the knowledge translation, brokerage
and exchange processes that are effective between academics, users, policymakers and
practitioners when sharing good practice in the production and use of evidence relating
to integrated health and social care;
Improve the volume and quality of research created by those involved in delivering
integrated health and social care services;
Increase awareness of, and improve access to this research;
Support greater engagement and collaboration between researchers and practitioners
involved in researching and delivering integrated care across health and social care
contexts.
3. Project Outline
The project will be designed, managed and co-ordinated by a collaboration between IRISS (Dr
Vivien Moffat/ Dr Stuart Muirhead) and CRFR, University of Edinburgh ( Prof Heather
Wilkinson). Partner organisations will form a steering group to oversee progress and will
identify and support participating practitioners. Programme delivery will include supporting
networking and knowledge exchange between those individuals and organisations undertaking
the research projects, and the promotion and dissemination of this research across wider
national networks. Each practitioner will be supported by a mentor and will complete a study
module from the MSc in Integrated Service Improvement earning 20 credits.
(http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/health/issh/studying/pg-integrated-serviceimprovement)
The project will involve four stages over 21 months from the 1st April 2014:
1.
2.
3.
4.
3
4
Preparation and co-ordination
Action and evaluation
Dissemination and translation
Impact evaluation
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/outcomes
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/05/6469/12
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The practitioner researchers themselves will be directly involved for a twelve month period
between August 2014 and July 2015.
4. Activities and Deliverables
Stage 1 – PREPARATION and CO-ORDINATION (April - July 2014)
We will work with partners to recruit up to 3 practitioner researchers from each organisation.
Key activities during this stage:
1. Steering group meeting in early June to add detail to the overall thematic focus; share
recruitment materials; share programme content; address any questions
2. Work with partner organisations to recruit practitioners by end June
3. Identify and recruit mentors
4. Develop training session programme
Commitment from partner organisations:
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This project will be supported by IRISS core funding and contributions in kind from both
organisations; partners will be asked to contribute £1000 for each practitioner.
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Partners would be required to commit to supporting participation of up to 3 practitioners,
for 12 months from Aug 2014 - July 2015. This would include allowing 1 day each week
to complete the research project, 6 days over the 12 months to attend training sessions
and 2 days to complete the study module at the University of Edinburgh. In addition, we
would expect that practitioners would be supported by their line managers and other
colleagues. Support from line managers and colleagues was identified as an important
enabling factor in the PROP project that may help to facilitate the development of
knowledge brokerage activity.
Stage 2 – ACTION and EVALUATION: Practitioner Research Programme (August 2014 July 2015)
The main activity in stage 2 is to undertake and evaluate a practitioner research programme
(PRP) that will provide training and support for health and social care practitioners drawn from
the partner organisations. The PRP will run over eleven months, during which time practitioners
will engage in a small scale piece of research directly related to the project’s main themes of
integration, evidence use and outcomes focused working and to the priorities set in the steering
group meeting in stage one.
The PRP will involve training and support throughout the process. Six one day training sessions
will be delivered over eleven months. Sessions will build knowledge around the co-production
and dissemination of research including content on governance and ethics, methods of data
collection, analysis, report writing and presentation. The sessions will focus on doing research,
sharing experience, developing outputs and evaluating the process. Content of the sessions will
be based on the programme used in PROP, but will also be flexible to meet the specific needs
of these practitioner researchers. In addition, each practitioner researcher will complete a
module from the MSc in Integrated Service Improvement.
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Each practitioner researcher will be allocated a mentor who will support the methodological
development of the project and provide guidance on relevant literature etc. Mentors, along with
partner organisations and the project team will also support practitioners to use their research
findings in their practice, and support the dissemination and use of their research findings both
within their service, organisation and wider afield. The practitioner researchers and their
mentors will aim to meet together during the training sessions and will maintain phone and email
contact between sessions. The practitioner researchers will be encouraged to provide support to
one another and to see the PRP as the establishment of a practitioner research network.
A range of outputs are envisioned and include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
A report and briefing paper from each project
Feedback to the workplace of each participant on the findings
Added-value benefits from networking with participants from other organisations
Findings to be fed back to all partners and participants during the final one day joint
event
e) Targeted dissemination work for each project and overall findings as appropriate
Evaluating the Process: an evaluation of the PRP will test and explore what we know about
practitioner research and build on our learning from the evaluation of the previous PROP
project. As well as regular feedback from all participants (practitioner researchers, mentors and
partners) we will trial a range of different interventions identified as good practice in practitioner
research to identify whether this learning translates across services and into practice. For
instance, we will further explore the previously successful approach of recruiting teams of
practitioner researchers working on joint projects across more than one organisation. In
supporting sole practitioner researchers we may explore methods of sharing learning with
colleagues. The PRP participants will be supported by an on-line community of practice via
Basecamp, facilitated by IRISS. This will be set up as a private space for those directly involved
in the PRP, to share documents, discuss issues on-line, blog about their experiences, share
ideas and information.
Stage 3 – DISSEMINATION and TRANSLATION (May - September 2015)
Each practitioner researcher will be expected to produce a briefing paper based on their
practice research project, guided by a template developed by the project team. These outputs
will be made available via online repositories for practice and policy audiences (primarily Social
Services Knowledge Scotland, the Learning Exchange, IDOX). A grid containing basic
information about each study in the practitioner research programme, such as research
questions, method, key findings, will also be produced and made available. The individual PRP
briefing papers will be widely promoted and disseminated using a range of channels: IRISS and
CRFR newsletters, websites, twitter accounts, targeted emails to health professionals, social
work managers, teachers and academics. Additionally, the emergence of generic lessons
across the various topics under investigation, and building on the findings from throughout the
programme, will be drawn together in an accessible format of ‘Key Findings Guide’ written by
the practitioner researchers and supported by the academic mentors and project team. These
will highlight new insights from across the PRP and will be sent to all local authorities, NHS
Boards and social care providers in Scotland and across UK networks5.Additionally, towards the
5
(NB: Social Services Knowledge Scotland is a gateway to information and learning materials for Social
Service and Health professionals (http://www.ssks.org.uk/); the Learning Exchange is a digital library for
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end of the project, we will hold an knowledge exchange event to reflect and capture experiences
of the PRP.
Stage 4 – IMPACT EVALUATION (September – December 2015)
An evaluation will be built across the whole programme of activities, events and outputs using a
range of written and oral tools and strategies. By making use of this continuous evaluation and
reflection, IRISS will take the lead in this stage to specifically examine the initial impacts of the
PRPs individually and as an overall project.
Quantitative metrics will be inappropriate to capture evidence of the likely impact of this project6
7
.Instead a mixed method approach will be utilised to include case studies, written surveys,
graffiti walls, recorded ‘sound-bites’ and event evaluations throughout the programme, and
semi-structured interviews towards the end of the programme. Drawing on the work of Nutley et
al8, the overall evaluation will seek to map ways in which the project activities have achieved the
outputs and benefits outlined in the project aims. It should be noted that assessing impacts
during the project (stage 3) and directly afterwards (stage 4) will give very early indications of
impact; definitive findings will only become apparent in the extended period after the project is
completed.
social services education and training (http://lx.iriss.org.uk/); IDOX information service is a evidence and
research service for the public sector (http://is.idoxgroup.com/products/info_service.cfm).
6
Meagher et al (2008)
7
Molas-Gallart et al (2000)
8
Nutley et al (2007)
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