Research in Practice for Adults - What's New

Welcome to the sixteenth edition of what’s new from research in practice for adults. In this issue you will find out about some recent changes to the research in practice for adults team, details of current projects and events, and our plans for the coming year.

New faces in the research in practice for adults team

The team is looking a little different since our last what’s new, with the addition of one new, and one more familiar, face.

We are very happy to welcome our new Research and Development Officer, Anthea Duquemin, to the team. Anthea says: “Here at research in practice for adults it’s wonderful to be able to focus on sharing research findings in ways that can really influence work practices”. With a background in social research including a number of health and community projects – both carrying out research herself and supporting others to do so – Anthea is very much looking forward to her new role, in particular working on research in practice for adults’ third change project over the coming months.

This month we have also seen the return of Research and Development Officer, Naomi Blundell, to the team. After eight months of maternity leave, Naomi is very pleased to have resumed work on the development of our web resource, the Evidence Base for Integrated Care, a joint research in practice for adults and Integrated Care Network (ICN) project, and she will also be developing some new evidence clusters for the website.

Looking forward to 2010 – our new workplan

We are now well and truly immersed in our new workplan, which sets out our plans for the twelve months from April 2009 to March 2010, while keeping some flexibility so that we can always respond to your changing needs as our Partner organisations. This year we will be:

• further developing our models for delivering one-to-one support, to ensure that Partners are able to get the most from their twenty hours
• exploring the potential of our newly redesigned website, when it is complete, for supporting and delivering evidence-informed practice in new ways
• working with our Partners to agree upon a topic for our third change project, and subsequently completing the development stage of this project
• offering local practical workshops for those undertaking research, wishing to commission research, or wanting to understand the detail of evidence-informed practice
• exploring the use of stories within evidence-informed practice, including work with a story teller to record stories from the front-line of support provision, and developing an audio collection of stories

…and much more! Please contact us if you would like further information about our current workplan.

Network activity

As the research in practice for adults Partnership grows, we are increasingly able to support the development of regional networks.

Yorkshire regional Link Officer meeting

March saw the first meeting of the Yorkshire Regional Link Officers. Our network in the region has expanded over the past year so that Barnsley and Sheffield have been joined by Doncaster, Leeds and Wakefield.

representatives from four of the five agencies were able to attend; we met for a couple of hours and discussed a range of issues including local attempts to embed evidence-informed practice, research governance framework, regional work and what we can do to support staff to use evidence more.

The group are planning a regional event for October and are meeting again soon to plan this further.

Change projects

There has been lots of activity around our existing change projects over the past couple of months.

Safety Matters

The final resources from the Safety Matters project are now in the writing stage. It is looking like we will be producing a practitioner handbook, an information and awareness raising leaflet, a literature review and a Councillors’ Briefing. We are delighted that we have been granted a session at the National Children and Adults Services Conference in October to launch these resources. We will be presenting a workshop with Paul Bedwell and Stephen Bunford, two representatives from Essex County Council who have been heavily involved in the Safety Matters project and key to its success. We will also be holding our own event in the autumn to launch the resources to our network and explore some of the issues that have arisen throughout the process.

SDS360

The second change project SDS360: the process of change in self-directed support is also moving on. The group held their third meeting in Birmingham at the end of March and we were delighted to be joined by a number of guests: Councillors Lesley Faulkner and Peter Miller from Dudley Council came and spoke about progress to date in Dudley and the role that councillors can play in supporting the transformation of social care; and David Ilott, Finance Team Leader for SDS from Lancashire County Council and Sharon Whitehorn, Finance Officer at Southend-on-Sea offered two alternative perspectives on how those working in finance teams can support new developments. The final meeting of the development group is being held in Dartington in a couple of weeks and then work will start in earnest on capturing and crystallising the learning to date for sharing with other members of our network.

If you would like to know more about either of the existing change projects then please get in touch with George on 01803 860098 or by email at george@ripfa.org.uk.

New website

Stuart, our Web Manager, is continuing his hard work developing our new website. More details will follow soon, but if there’s anything that you’d like us to include please contact Tracy on 01803 869753 or by email at tracy@ripfa.org.uk.

Coming to the end of this year’s event calendar

We are coming to the end of our 2008 to 2009 events calendar, with our new programme beginning in October. Some places are still available, so please contact either your Link Officer or our Events Coordinator Barbara on 01803 869756 or by email at barbara@ripfa.org.uk for further information and bookings.

Users as researchers

June 11, Taunton

This is the final Users as Researchers workshop in the 2008 to 2009 event calendar. These workshops have been provided in response to the increasing interest in those who use services being involved in carrying out research relating to that support, and explore some of the practical implications of users as researchers as well as discussing the impact that user researchers have. There are just 16 of a total forty places left at this popular workshop so we recommend booking your place as soon as possible if you would like to take part.

Does integrated care really work? Moving the evidence base from process to outcomes and efficiencies

May 6, London and June 2, Liverpool

Our Integrated Care events are now fully booked – if you wanted to book a place and were unable to get one, you may like to look at the resources from the event, including slides from PowerPoint presentations, which will be available on our website afterwards. We plan to provide a further event focusing on Integrated Health and Social Care in our 2009 to 2010 event calendar so keep watching this space for further details, and book your places early to avoid disappointment!

Directors Policy Forum

June 18 and 19, Northampton

The Directors Policy Forum is an annual event provided by research in practice for adults for Directors and Heads of Services within the Partnership, giving an opportunity for them to hear about recent policy and practice developments and to influence our programme of future work.

Choice and control on the ground

June 30, Birmingham

This is our final event of the 2008 to 2009 calendar, and also the largest. It will explore the ‘grass roots’ level of personalisation, exploring choice and control from the perspectives of service users, carers and frontline practitioners. Real solutions and practical examples of ways to maximize and support choice and control will be provided. To date, confirmed speakers include Jeff Dandridge from Value Works, discussing the shop4support initiative; carers from Inclusion South West who will describe their experiences of accessing choice and control as well as approaches to setting up trusts; and speakers from Housing Options who will explore ways of helping service users access choice and control when finding a place to live.

Contact your Link Officer or barbara@ripfa.org.uk as soon as possible to ensure your place at this event!

For further information about these or any of our other events please go to www.ripfa.org.uk or contact our Events Coordinator, Barbara on 01803 869756 or at barbara@ripfa.org.uk.