Social Justice

Research in Practice for Adults

Research in Practice for Adults (ripfa) promotes the use of evidence-informed policy and practice in adult health and social care.

Ripfa’s purpose is to help our partners to use evidence, from research and other sources, to improve outcomes for service users and carers who require the support of adult social care services. Adult social care provides support to older people, people with learning disabilities, mental health problems, physical disabilities or sensory impairment.

Ripfa supports the development of evidence-informed practice through the provision of a programme of learning events, publications, the development of learning tools and by creating networks where partners can share their knowledge and experience.

Research in Practice for Adults aims to:

1. Develop effective models of research utilisation
2. Create networks that will enable Partner agencies to share each other’s experiences
3. Incorporate the knowledge and experience of social care practitioners into learning programmes
4. Build expertise in integrating service user views into our operations and those of our Partners
5. Commission new reviews of research where significant gaps are identified
6. Promote better research utilisation strategies within national policy and practice frameworks

The impact of Research in Practice for Adults: a case study

Research in Practice for Adults was approached by one of our partner agencies with a request to find out what research says about the impact of a new governmental policy on re-ablement schemes (an approach to supporting people to learn, or relearn, skills required to live independently). The request was to prepare and submit a written evidence review on the subject matter.

As part of the routine process, our research officer searched for written material through the available online databases and literature. As this was a new policy, not surprisingly, the search revealed very little research in this area. Additionally, practice knowledge about how local authorities were tackling the consequences of this change was scarce.

The research officer contacted the agency and suggested that instead of writing up a literature evidence review, ripfa would organise and facilitate a virtual group of representatives from different agencies with experience in the subject area to share their learning. The idea was enthusiastically accepted and a telephone conference lasting 90 minutes was prepared and facilitated at an agreed time, allowing the participants to share their experience, challenges and local learning to date. All those participating in the knowledge exchange, especially the person who had originally requested the support, found the process helpful.

For more information see www.ripfa.org.uk.