Support available to Link Officers and individual Partner agencies

Link Officers are the glue that help bind a Partner agency into the research in practice network and the evidence informed practice agenda. Over ten years we have established strong support mechanisms for Link Officers. This paper notes the result of a review of progress to date and ways in which this support will be both strengthened and supported.

Support to date

1. Link Officers’ Annual Meeting (LOAM) – 24-hour workshop with five aims:
• to update Link Officers on recent developments in evidence-informed practice from across the research in practicenetwork
• to share ideas about integrating evidence-informed practice within Children’s Services
• to make the most of networking opportunities between Link Officers and research in practicestaff
• to provide an arena where voluntary organisations and local authorities working with children and families can network and share ideas
• to enable Link Officers to input into the research in practiceworkplan.


2. Regional Meetings – a half-day meeting six months after the Link Officers’ Annual Meeting with three aims:
• to enable Link Officers  to continue networking on a local level, and to exchange practices and policies with agencies in their region
• to provide an opportunity to discuss strategies for further developing evidence informed practice within their agency
• to update Link Officers on new resources available from research in practice.


3. Link Officers’ emailXchange with four aims:
• to enable Link Officers  to seek assistance and advice on research, policy and practice issues from the whole network of Partner agencies
• to keep Link Officers (and their agencies) informed about new products, opportunities and developments within research in practice
• to support Partner agencies in showcasing effective practices at national level by seeking examples on request from the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) and other government agencies
• to enable Link Officers to have easy access to a searchable web-based database of queries and responses.


4. Regional Lead contacts with three aims:
• to provide regular personal support that also ties each Partner agency into a regional grouping
• to ensure that each Link Officer has a named member of research in practice staff to contact for advice and assistance
• to bring Link Officers  together for regional meetings.
  
  Regional Leads will maintain monthly email and telephone contact with Link Officers.  Regional Leads can also offer up to two days a year support, if requested, to agencies seeking help with inducting new Link Officers, launch events, or strategy meetings. Furthermore, Regional Leads  can offer assistance in advising Link Officers about research in practice’s Associates and workshop facilitators for other in-house work.


5. Link Officer Pack (www.rip.org.uk/loPACK/index.asp) with two aims:
• to induct new Link Officers and provide guidance to support all aspects of the Link Officer role
• to provide links to further information about the research in practice service relevant to the Link Officer role.

Additional contacts and support offered

• research in practice will provide two more contact opportunities over the year (free of charge) in addition to the Link Officers’ Annual Meeting (October) and the Regional Meeting (April) which are organised by research in practice. The additional two are offered to Partner agencies and need to be requested by them. We can offer a ‘menu’ for these two days of additional support, including:


1. One-off dedicated Link Officer support session for the Link Officers to help them fulfil their role. This offers an opportunity to discuss in detail with their Regional Leads.
2. in-house staff sessions provided by research in practice staff, including evidence informed practice / research in practice launch and re-launch sessions
3. Presentations to and discussions with Partner agency Senior Management Teams, evidence informed practice and/or research in practice Strategy/Steering Group
4. Help to plan programmes for in-house training sessions or conferences
5. Quick ‘evidence check’ on requested topics
6. Advice on setting up/completing/reporting on a local evaluation.

This would be provided at no additional cost where all the work is done by research in practicestaff and/or one day provided by an Associate. We will ask the agency to pay the direct costs of others involved, or where more than one day of an Associate is required.