Research in Practice
“I think we can directly attribute improvements in outcomes to our membership of Research in Practice. I wonder why we didn’t join sooner!.” — Kevin Williams, Chief Executive, The Adolescent and Children’s Trust (TACT).
Research in Practice exists to support children’s services — provided by local authorities, voluntary sector organisations or other public sector bodies — to use research in order to achieve the best outcomes for children and families. We aim to build capacity for evidence-informed practice: that is, practice that is informed by evidence about the services, interventions and approaches that work. If a family needed medical help for a child, they’d expect health professionals to be drawing on research into the condition, diagnosis, prognosis and effective treatment. Our work is about bringing the same approach to social care, education and other services for families.
We support a network of over a hundred subscribing organisations to learn from each other and to move forward together. Real innovation in bridging the gap between research and practice comes from sector-led change — where organisations work together to share their knowledge, experience and approaches.
We do this by providing:
- Multi-media research summaries — printed, on-line, audio and film-based
- Learning events, workshops, courses and e-learning
- Networking activity to support knowledge and skills exchange
- Collaborative action learning projects
- Website resources
- Tailored in-house support for subscribing organisations
We are also part of wider national and international collaborations. For example we are core partners in the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children’s and Young People’s Services (C4EO). Funded by the Department for Education, C4EO offers support to local authorities and their wider partners, working with them to help improve services and outcomes. We are also core partners in the Local Authorities Research Consortium (LARC) which supports local authorities in carrying out their own research and evaluation. And we are part of international collaborations to share learning about how to support evidence-informed practice in services for children and families.
The impact of Research in Practice: a case study
A recent collaborative learning project looked at how to support young people’s engagement in learning at Key Stage 3 — typically ages 11 to 14. The research shows that this is a time when children’s engagement can start to decline, and if this isn’t addressed it can have very significant implications for their learning and their life chances. But not much was known about why and what can be done to help.
We brought together a group of professionals from 13 local authorities. They looked together at the research and they each carried out a local project designed to improve practice or planning, informed by the research. Their work produced a set of guidance materials and tools which were then tested and evaluated by another group of organisations and published in a handbook, together with case studies of innovative practice and films. The handbook looks at issues like how to use data well to identify young people at risk of disengagement; how to provide a coordinated service response; how to help pupils support each other in transferring from primary to second school; the particular help that children in public care might need; how to involve children in setting up a pastoral support programme, and how to involve parents and carers effectively.
As one of the organisations involved in the project said: “Relationships – positive relationships are crucial to work with young people and take time to establish, especially with thoscfe who have already begun to disengage. Other adults need to be positive at school and at home and it is important to work at improving those relationships.” – Children’s practitioner
For more information see www.rip.org.uk.