King's College London

The Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit (HSCWRU) has announced that it will be hosting a celebratory event to mark the contribution of Making Research Count to knowledge exchange at King’s College London. Under its Research Director, James Blewett, the initiative has been a fixture at the university since 2005. From April 2025, HSCWRU will be taking a new approach to knowledge exchange and workforce engagement: building on the Unit’s wide-ranging events programme, the move will take shape as Making Research Count departs from King’s.

Making Research Count has been an important part of the social care sector for nearly 30 years. Originating from the Family Support Network, it was launched by a group of leading social work academics in the UK. The project was part of the growing debate on the meaning of evidence based or evidence informed practice. The principles upon which it was originally based remain highly relevant today:

• The importance of research literacy for the social care and social work workforce
• A commitment to a values and rights driven practice and research environment
• Recognition of the expertise of those who use services and practitioners who work and manage them
• An organic link between those who generate the research related knowledge and those who apply it to practice
• Understanding the inter-relationship between policy, practice and research
• High quality research being based on methodological pluralism

The project moved to King’s in 2005, as the Social Care Workforce Research Unit (the present Unit’s predecessor at the university) was becoming established. Over the following years, under James Blewett’s direction, the project developed strong links with local authorities across London and the Southeast and across adults’ and children’s services. It delivered numerous research dissemination events, frequently in concert with Unit researchers, ranging from international conferences to smaller scale seminars. Many of these events were delivered in the local authorities themselves. As well as this local research dissemination activity Making Research Count also:

• Facilitated and led a national practitioner led research programme
• Produced Department for Education commissioned research reviews
• Held regional practice and research groups for experienced practitioners and managers
• Organised regional journal clubs reviewing the latest research-based literature
• Delivered several training programmes and evaluations in Malta
• Participated in the West London Social Work Teaching Partnership
• Designed CPD programmes that explored how research methodological principles could be applied to service design, commissioning and management
• Offered research governance support and advice around research being undertaken in local authorities
• Delivered the academic component of a national return to social work programmes (pre, during and post Covid)
• Participated in a progamme to support international recruits adapt to the UK social work context

The pandemic led to Making Research Count moving online and this enabled the project to grow in the extent and depth of its activity: last year 14,500 practitioners and managers from across the country attended over 150 learning events. From spring 2025, the University of Bedfordshire will take over sole coordination of Making Research Count, although HSCWRU hopes that its research will feature in future programmes.

As the Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit moves into a new phase of dissemination and engagement it will mark Making Research Count’s achievements over the past 20 years with a celebration event – details to follow. HSCWRU looks forward to building on the project’s contribution to the sector and the important legacy it leaves.