change projects

Change Projects such as the Using Evidence in Court, Leadership for Evidence Informed Practice and the Partnership Working on the front-line are designed to engage all Partners at various levels in their agency.

Click below for further information about:

• General information about Change Projects

• NIFTY Evaluation

• Partnership Working on the front-line

• Alcohol and Offending

• Engagement

• Completed Projects

A Change Project is given structure and substance by a team of interested and informed individuals who will exchange expertise and opinions at an initial seminar. This team will shape the resulting format and content of the Change Project. The value of such work lies in its dynamic nature, whereby Partners have the opportunity to design services and products that will work for them within their agencies. At the same time the work meets the wider aim of the Change Project to deliver useful tools for others in the form of handbooks. Change Projects have, to date, started as and when opportunities have arisen.

While there is no universal model of a Change Project, it is likely that all will contain the following elements:

• each Change Project topic emerges from consultation with Partner agencies about current and future priorities for service and skill development
  

• the output of each Change Project originates in practical work undertaken by practitioners, policy makers, research in practice staff and researchers working together

• all Change Projects are supported by review and refinement over a period of eighteen months to two years

• membership of each Change Project is formed by an open call for expressions of interest from Partner agencies. This 'team' of up to seven agencies then leads one or more stages of the Change Project
  

• budgets are allocated in advance of pilots and final 'products', though the precise nature of these will be determined as part of the Change Project work itself

• these 'products' will be produced in draft first - to be tested, refined, piloted, evaluated, re-refined and published for the benefit of the whole network

• both draft and final materials may be accompanied by a launch or large symposia event held to share the messages learned from the Change Project

• pilot and final materials are posted to the research in practice website, usually alongside further internet support, to enable universal access to our learning.

As with all our services, the primary aim is to influence, and ultimately, improve outcomes for children and families. We will select and support a new project when it:

• holds improved outcomes for the service-users central to its aims

• adopts an evidence-informed approach to all aspects of its development

• seeks to include service users and/or service user views in the Change Project

• is inherently practical and hands-on

• will result in a product or event that can be shared widely to help improve practice.

It may be that the Change Project addresses specific needs within social care such as Using Evidence in Court, or it may focus on core strategic issues such as Leadership for Evidence Informed Practice.

A future Project is planned, which will focus on the acquisition of skills in front-line partnership working, focusing on inter-agency work with domestic violence. We plan also to support smaller Change Projects that enable Partner agencies to address their specific concerns and work together in small groups locally.