Relevant and Rigorous

1. Relevant and Rigorous? Action research evaluation and practitioner research in social care Ian Shaw (University of York) Inter-Centre Network for the Evaluation of Social Work Practice (Intsoceval) 6th Annual Workshop, 25th September � 26th September 2003 University of Stirling, Scotland. Inter-Centre Network for the Evaluation of Social Work Practice (Intsoceval) 6th Annual Workshop, 25th September � 26th September 2003 University of Stirling, Scotland.

2. Presentation Aims Report and reflect on a study of small-scale, local research and evaluation carried out by social care practitioners, and consider its relevance for policy evaluation and action research.

3. Location of Practitioner Research Health related practitioner research Housing practitioners Teachers Social workers

4. PR in Social Care An audit and case study evaluation of practitioner research in social care in South East Wales (2002-3) and its possible implications for the development of action research evaluation Keane, S., Shaw, I and Faulkner, A. (2003) Practitioner Research in Social Care: an Audit and Case Study Analysis Report to Wales Office of R&D for Health and Social Care, Wales Assembly Government

5. Inquiry Design Audit Telephone screening interview of 42 projects in south east Wales from 1999-2002 Classification/typology Case studies Theoretical sample of eight projects Interviews/documents Recommendations

6. Classification of PR in Social Care

7. Diversity in PR Simple/private PR Simple/multi-stakeholder PR Complex multi-stakeholder PR Complex/private PR

8. Purposes in PR Practitioners are not insensitive to matters of ethics, but they do sometimes act as if they are in a subordinate relationship to an expert, whose advice � whether rightly or wrongly recalled - is treated as beyond question. This illustrates a possible risk in PR that practitioners may be too easily discouraged from seeking ethical approval, due to lack of experience in weighing the seriousness of ethical obstacles. � Issues of consent occurred to some degree in all the projects studied, and the level of negotiation lay on a continuum.

9. Purposes in PR (2) There is no clear evidence of PR that involving service users in the development and management of the research project ever took place in these case studies, nor in the other studies audited. With regard to utilisation of findings, there was often a sense of disappointed expectations. There was also a strong aspirational quality to practitioners� accounts of PR utilisation. Are PR results more likely to have an impact when they resonate with agency priorities?

10. Methods and Processes of PR The role of support and networks is important in PR, though it is not easy to draw simple conclusions, or to identify the factors that are associated with supportive projects. PR projects that work well are often those that enjoy a variety of congruent roles that include both support and shaping influences. Yet for some, the individualism of the research project is what drives the researcher.

11. Methods and Processes (2) Practitioner researchers tend to take an ambivalent attitude to research methodology. This can lead to a dependence on the advice of others. This may make the project methodology fragile This was often linked to growing awareness, and learning on the job. Practitioners doing PR move back and forth between insider and outsider roles

12. Colleagues and professionals In choosing to undertake PR there are elements of socialisation, selection, earmarking those seen as promising, career motivations, formalising emergent research interests, and so on. positive relationships between research project and agency were not universal. Joined up PR is almost completely absent. Some practitioners and their sponsoring agencies apparently did not make any connection between problems and developments in delivering joined up services, and the PR process.

13. PR and social care careers �������� A general positive impact on a career in social work �������� A stepping-stone in a move � previously planned or otherwise � towards a career in which research is central. �������� PR involvement regarded as an end in itself, with no identifiable impact on career or identity.

14. Some Reflections Practitioner research in social care poses questions and issues that act as gateways to several of the major debates within social care � the quality of practice and research, evidence based interventions, career development, ethical decision making, and so on. � Terms like �use�, �insider� and �own account� often mask the complexity of the PR process. �There is a striking degree of diversity in what passes under the PR rubric.

15. Some Reflections (2) Quantitative skills were probably lacking throughout the researcher group, and there were few more through-going qualitative designs The tendency for PR practitioners to be marginalized in one way or another renders their survival capacity at constant risk.

16. Some Reflections (3) The absence of user involvement in almost all PR is likely to reinforce an assumption that practitioner expertise does not have to be complemented by service-users� understanding. PR is, as a consequence, less likely to promote social justice issues in service development and delivery. Yet we would not wish to promote a practitioner-blame culture, by suggesting that this is due solely to practitioner-level decisions. It may be part of a PR culture that promotes a service development and delivery agenda and is often linked to higher education demands ways of writing that do not encourage multiple stakeholder involvement.

17. Some reflections (4) The role of practitioner researcher as both insider and outside, and as moving between the two, is sensitive and frequently difficult. There is an ever-present risk of marginalisation for the practitioner researcher. This stems mainly from the frequent points at which relationships of authority and power shape the decisions � for good and ill - about access, methods, and utilisation of research results. Despite the tendency to polarise practitioner and academic research that we have just noted, there were hints that the two roles are both exposed to elements of risk of marginalisation.

18. Recommendations that interested government departments review the extent, character, development and associated career opportunities of practitioner research in social care that steps be taken in the light of that review to promote the quality of practitioner research in social care. We advise at the present time against the selective promotion of one type of PR at the expense of any other type of PR. the support of university based centres for the development of PR

19. Recommendations (2) there is need to respect and even increase the present diversity of types of PR in social care the development of approaches to PR that draw on the ideas presented above regarding multiple ownership and a wider range of research sophistication

20. Recommendations (3) The development of a PR bursary system, similar to that already existing for teachers eg through the GTCW Discuss in context of implementation of the research governance frameworks in Wales and England Review IPR claims in PR in the light of the diversity of ownership claims That social science, social policy and cognate departments in higher education develop guidance for postgraduate students that legitimises the collaborative dimensions of PR feed PR issues into the present work being undertaken by the Social Care Institute for Excellence on the knowledge base of social care.