Evidence Request Bank development

This one-year feasibility study will explore and establish an Evidence Request Bank to produce and share appraised summaries of evidence for the voluntary and public sectors, in direct response to their practice needs. This fills a gap - opening up the evidence base for delivering public and voluntary services, particularly around early years, social care and other areas of potential preventative work. It creates a channel for partnership development and shared service development.

The evidence bank will respond to requests for reviews of evidence from practitioners or policy-makers in the partner organisations. The process for evidence requests will be:

1) Partner service practitioners or managers develop a request for evidence: this is refined in discussion with the project manager to ensure that it is a clear researchable question

2) A research strategy for the request will be developed and discussed

3) Evidence will be appraised and selected

4) An evidence response report will be drafted

5) The report will be sent for peer review by both academic and research-user reviewers to ensure:
a. The quality and appropriateness of the evidence report
b. The coverage of relevant literature and ensuring there are no gaps
c. That the report is in plain language and addresses the needs of a practitioner and manager audience

6) The report will be given to the research-user who requested it, and a plan for its use will be developed with the organisation

7) The report will be lodged in a public Evidence Bank allowing further access from interested practitioners.

8) The report will be discussed by the project management team to ensure wider learning and to plan further dissemination to relevant audiences

The project builds on piloting work carried out as part of a Big Lottery funded knowledge exchange project which has developed the concept of the Evidence Request Bank with a consortium of voluntary agencies, conducted 6 reviews and evaluated the uses of the reviews with the practitioners involved. In the pilot, evidence requests have led to increased funding for services, informed service developments, informed policy-related work, contributed to the production of resources, and been used to share learning from research amongst staff. 100% of pilot participants reported that they would like to use such a service in the future.

This application would enable the Evidence Request Bank to widen its scope to include users from both statutory and voluntary organisations. This is in response to requests from these partners to develop the model. Over the year of this funding phase a business model for the project would be developed to ensure sustainability beyond the ESRC funding.

As a knowledge exchange project, the needs of non-academic partners are central to the whole approach. The project will be of immediate benefit to the main partners and to a wider group of potential stakeholders who share similar interests and concerns about developing services. Ultimately it will benefit the services users and wider publics through increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy and by enhancing quality of life, and health through the development of practice.

West Lothian Council (WLC) staff working within the areas of violence against women, equalities, child protection, and early interventions with children and families within WLC will be directly included in the project.

Parenting across Scotland (PAS) is a partnership of charities which offers support to thousands of parents and children in Scotland. Both PAS and partner agencies will benefit from the evidence bank as described above, and PAS will provide a link between the project and relevant policy-makers in the Scottish Government. Ultimate beneficiaries through the PAS partnership are parents and children using partner services.

Children in Scotland (CiS) is the national agency and united voice of over 400 voluntary, statutory and professional organisations and individuals working with children and their families in Scotland. CiS staff and members will benefit from the project. Ultimate beneficiaries through the CiS channel will be children and their families who use the statutory and voluntary sector services provided by CiS members.

Academic beneficiaries: The project will also benefit academics and PhD students interested in developing skills for working with and communicating to non-academic partners. In particular PhD students engaged with the project will develop skills in the selection, review and apprising of evidence and in writing in plain language for a mixed audience. They will gain insight into the concerns of those delivering and developing service which may enhance their ability to develop relevant research in their future careers.

Partners and wider groups who share similar interests will benefit through:
1) Appraised reviews of relevant and reliable evidence to
* inform service planning, practitioner knowledge and funding bids
* strengthen services
* increase collaboration and improve efficiency
* support services to respond to public sector change
2) Practical access to and confidence in use of research, the benefits of an evidence-based approach, and how this relates to practice
3) Improved capacity for assessing quality of evidence
4) Opportunities to share research-based knowledge and use this as a starting point for collaboration, partnership and development of services with other public sector and third sector colleagues also in the "Bank"

Ultimately the development of services and practice based on a clear appraisal of the evidence can contribute to the development of new services that respond to the needs of service users, improved and evidence-based practices. These contribute to increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy; and to enhancing quality of life, and health of relevant service users.

The impact of the project will be evaluated through an overarching impact assessment using a Research Contribution Framework developed by Morton (2012) and utilized in a number of other projects by CRFR. This framework will be used to help develop, plan and evaluate the programme, ensuring its effectiveness.