What is effective evidence?
How we define effective evidence
Using evidence to inform practice is at the heart of the Performance and improvement framework for social services. For a long time, there have been questions in social care about how ‘evidence’ is defined and whose knowledge, or evidence, counts.
A definition of effective evidence was developed with local authority staff as part of the workshops that helped develop this guide:
“Effective evidence helps develop an understanding of phenomena and answers questions. It’s contextual, relevant, and timely, drawing on different sources of knowledge (for example, research, lived experience, practitioner, and organisational knowledge). Effective evidence is accessible, and all relevant individuals can engage with it. It’s useful and can lead to improvement, but it’s also open (transparent) about its limitations.”
This definition identifies some key things to think about when planning an evaluation or research project, such as transparent and inclusive approaches.
Taking a whole-system approach
Emeritus Professor Sandra Nutley and her colleagues at the Research Unit for Research Utilisation, University of St Andrews, suggest that developing effective evidence is a complex task. It needs a whole-system approach to evidence that enables:
- practitioners to access evidence that's engaging and can be applied in practice
- organisational systems that allow practitioners to use and apply evidence
- organisational cultures that provide learning environments in which practitioners can experiment and try things out.
The Developing Evidence Enriched Practice (DEEP) programme, developed in Wales, has a range of tools and approaches to support taking a whole-system approach to the generation and use of evidence.
Case studies
These case studies show how evidence can inform performance improvement.
Refreshing Respite: West Wales Care Partnership
In early 2019, the West Wales Care Partnership decided to carry out a review of respite care services across the region. Working with the Wales School for Social Care Research, they began by exploring research evidence and organisational evidence about respite from other parts of the UK.
They then used this as a catalyst to gather local knowledge from unpaid carers, practitioners, and the people they support. They achieved this through discussions in each of the three counties that form part of the West Wales Care Partnership – Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, and Pembrokeshire.
These discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and then analysed for key themes. These themes and many of the associated stories and quotes were then shared in a regional event involving a researcher, senior managers, practitioners, unpaid carers, and the people they support.
People who took part in this event worked together to identify a set of principles and priorities for development, which were then included in the Refreshing Respite report and associated recommendations.
The key themes that were raised during the day were also turned into a poem that was shared at the end of the event. This poem talked about the importance of connecting the head and the heart when using a ‘what matters most’ approach.
Members of the partnership took some of these themes forward, including an exploration of how local hospitality services can contribute to providing short breaks for unpaid carers.
This approach based on dialogue to explore and use diverse types of evidence had the additional benefit of building relationships and trust between carers, practitioners, and managers.
COVID-19 innovation: The North Wales Research, Innovation and Improvement Coordination Hub
The North Wales Research, Innovation and Improvement Coordination Hub carried out a review of innovations in health and social care that took place as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The work used Most Significant Change techniques to capture people’s stories about the changes that took place and to learn from them.
The findings of the review are being used to identify which changes they should keep and where they need to improve, particularly around integrated health and social care and the use of digital technologies. The report is available here: Population Needs Assessment Rapid Review.
App development: Here2there (H2t) ForMi app
In 2019, a small group of people in North Wales identified challenges services were facing in relation to showing the impact of their interventions and making their planning processes as person-centred and meaningful as possible. This is what led to the development of the Here2there.me (H2t) ForMi tool.
ForMi allows an organisation to support individuals, through a website and smartphone app, to develop a person-centred profile and a set of goals and actions. Individuals then collect evidence of their achievements in words and pictures on the smartphone app, similar to many social media apps. This ‘timeline’ of words and pictures is called the ‘story’.
The H2t.me ForMi app has been piloted in a range of services over a two-year period. This has included learning disability services, children’s homes, and work support programmes. This has all been supported through a grant from the North Wales Transformation Project for learning disability services and a Welsh Government Small Business Research Initiative competition called ‘Better lives closer to home’.
You can find out more about the project at www.here2there.me.uk.