Supporting A Charter for Social Work Research in Adult Social Care

The NIHR School for Social Care Research joins with other organisations including local authorities, universities and the NIHR to support A Charter for Social Work Research in Adult Social Care.

Growing out of the work of the Research Advisory Group for the Chief Social Worker for Adults in England, the Charter asserts the importance of research evidence and sets out a vision for greater engagement with research by the social work profession.

In the foreword to the Charter, Chief Social Worker Lyn Romeo notes that:

‘Research is never an optional extra, indeed in these challenging times it is more important than ever. We need to integrate high-quality research evidence into improving our practice and social workers need to be engaged in developing this evidence’.

The School has long championed initiatives to build capacity for the social care profession to use and generate research, as exampled in the Charter. The School’s Associate Director, Professor Jill Manthorpe, and Research Programme Manager, Dr Michael Clark, contributed to the development of the Charter.

The Charter calls on funders to support social work research through the systems and funding streams they offer, as well as to review research infrastructure.

Professor Martin Knapp, Director of the School, said:

‘I welcome the publication of the Charter and the pathway it sets out. As a research funder, the School is committed to supporting the Charter and ensuring that the social work profession has the appropriate tools and channels to use and generate research. We are committed to sharing learning from our initiatives to build research capacity in adult social care practice and expand these further to support the profession.’

Read the Charter at: Research Advisory Group for the Chief Social Worker for Adults (2023) A Charter for Social Work Research in Adult Social Care. Birmingham: BASW.

Header image: from the cover of the Charter