about us

Our mission is to promote positive outcomes for children and families through the use of research evidence.

Our purpose is to identify effective methods of understanding and using research by providing services to a collaborative network of committed agencies

research in practice believes that its mission can be achieved if:

• children and families receive services that are informed by research on the most effective ways to promote positive outcomes for them
• knowledge of research is embedded in the delivery of professional services for children and families
• practitioners, managers and policy makers take personal responsibility for developing their research knowledge and use
• employing agencies take responsibility for creating the culture and resources to facilitate effective use of research knowledge
• researchers and research funders work in an ethical way which includes establishing a sense of ownership for service providers and users, and which is likely to benefit children and families
• there is collaborative exploration by a committed network, using experimentation, innovation, reflection, evaluation, modelling and action-learning to create something which is unique, transparent and valuable.
  

research in practice achieves its aims in several ways:

1. by working intensively with a small number of ambitious agencies - testing and evaluating new methods of promoting evidence-informed practice which others may adopt and replicate

2. by promoting evidence-informed practice (EIP) across a broad membership using a variety of methods at many organisational levels. These include professional development through

our work programme: what we do

Our extensive work programme is developed with and for all Partners. This is a constantly evolving process that reflects the dynamic relationship between our staff and the network of over 100 agencies. There are six strands to this work:

• the research in practice website
• network exchange
• change projects
• learning events
• publications
• working with research in practice for ADULTS

All these services are mutually supportive and arise from well-documented research demonstrating the need for multi-faceted interventions to bring about change and growth.

One distinguishing feature of our work is that we recognise that research dissemination is only a first step in promoting evidence-informed practice. We put equal,and often more, emphasis on supporting the implementation and adoption of research findings into everyday professional practice. This broader focus is now reflected in the development of all our services, and is underpinned by this website.

Our approach also seeks to promote a more participative relationship with our Partners - one which encourages innovation, experimentation, evaluation and review - which complements developmental work already emerging from within participating agencies.

By regularly and transparently evaluating the impact of what we do and the progress made by our network, we aim to be both responsive as well as proactive, both to the needs of our Partner agencies and ultimately to the needs of our end users - vulnerable children and their families.