Written by ARC NWC Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dr James Coleman Watson and ARC NWC Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dr Danielle Christian.

Social care involvement in research

Social care and social work professionals can often struggle to become involved in research. This is due to numerous factors, many of them systemic; increased need, long-term under-funding of the care sector, issues with staff recruitment and retention, which all understandably result in focusing on their key priority – delivery of care and support. However, the expertise of frontline social care professionals is critical to inform research to potentially mitigate some of these issues, increase evidence-based practice and spread positive change.For social care organisations and professionals to become involved in research, they need support, and it is the responsibility of academic researchers to provide this support.

National Institute for Health and Care Research social care research capacity building funding

The Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (ARC NWC) has received funding from the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) to develop a social care capacity building programme, part of a national ARC-wide scheme to support research into social care. This programme is managed by Dr Danielle Christian from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and Dr James Coleman Watson from The University of Liverpool. The NIHR funding supports three workstreams, focusing on: (1) Research and implementation capacity building, (2) education and training around research and evidence, and (3) research collaboration. The three workstreams include a cohort of social care workforce research internships, a roundtable of stakeholders and a developmental community of practice including organisations across North West Coast.

Social care workforce research internships

Eleven research interns from ARC NWC member organisations have been recruited and are about to start work on their projects researching a wide range of topics, including falls and medications in a care home for people with advanced dementia, social isolation in intermediate care settings and the impacts of forced adoption on mothers. Research interns are supported to identify a research question and collect data to answer that question. The aim is that their research leads to improvement in service delivery and in turn, better outcomes for service users. Research interns receive expert academic supervision, and further, additional support from stakeholders, including patients and the public. The IMPlementation and Capacity building Team (IMPaCT) provide general support as well as training, introducing interns to research methods.

Social care roundtable

The social care roundtable brings together stakeholders across children and young people’s, adults, and older people’s social care services. Membership includes local authority social care services, the Health Innovation Network (HIN), ARC NWC public advisors with lived experience, care homes, community health and care providers and academics from multiple universities across the region (Edge Hill, University of Central Lancashire, Lancaster University, and The University of Liverpool). The roundtable aims to understand how we can support the workforce to develop their research and implementation skills.

Community of Practice

A community of practice (CoP) will be developed to tap into the wealth of existing networks across the region, including ARC NWC member organisations, lived experts, health and social care providers, local authorities, third sector organisations, and hospital trusts. Supported by the capacity building programme, IMPaCT and ARC NWC, the CoP will provide a platform for social care staff and organisations to identify the challenges faced from their viewpoint. The aim is to foster social care involvement in research, through the development of research questions, establishing whether potential solutions come through new research or the implementation of existing evidence into practice. The aim of the CoP is to promote positive changes for social care staff and better outcomes for service users. There will be opportunities to become involved in the CoP and the resulting collaborations, with further information sent out in due course.

The social care capacity building programme will run until March 2026 and if you would like to learn more, please get in touch with Danielle (dchristian@uclan.ac.uk) or James (james.watson2@liverpool.ac.uk).