Research as an added extra? Why every social care organisation needs a research culture 

Dr Laura Tucker explores why establishing a culture of research empowers staff, strengthens practice and improves outcomes for people who draw on care and support. She shares best practice for supporting research across adult social care organisations. 

Across the social care sector, in the context of increasing caseloads and decreased resources, things like research can feel like an unattainable luxury. However, shifting the perspective to view research not as an ‘extra’ but as the very foundation of effective practice and a learning organisation is transformative. Embedding a robust research culture within a social work organisation does more than just tick a box to suggest ‘best practice’, it empowers practitioners, improves service user outcomes, and sends a clear message that evidence-informed practice is valued and routinely embedded alongside the practice wisdom of experienced practitioners. 

The benefits of research-mindedness 

At its core, a research culture combines research-mindedness with professional curiosity. In other words, practitioners who are already in the habit of asking “what” and “why,” start asking “how do we know this works,” and “how could we do this better?” When organisations value research, they move away from old habits and the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset toward a model of continuous improvement which is part of daily practice rather than an additional strain on resources. As such, a culture of research-mindedness is foundational to any organisation which routinely acquires, shares and applies knowledge to improve performance, respond effectively to challenges and operate efficiently. 

For practitioners, this shift is energising. Opportunities to engage and participate in research activity holds potential to enhance the social care practitioner role into that of a co-producer of knowledge. This not only increases job satisfaction and motivation, promoting staff retention, but can build professional confidence and resilience. When social care practitioners are supported to contribute to creating the latest evidence, which has relevance for their local context and needs, they can feel more confident in their decision-making and intervention and can develop approaches to practice which maximise effectiveness and impact. 

Bridging practice and research: supporting practitioner-researchers 

To truly embed research culture, organisations must move beyond simply providing access to online resources which report the latest research. They must actively support practitioners to develop skills in and conduct research. Achieving this calls for a two-pronged approach: 

The embedding element: there are social care organisations that are now supporting practitioners to attend research webinars, complete short training courses, undertake internal evaluation projects or assume ‘Research Champion’ or similar roles who can bring current research into the practice environment.  All of these activities normalise the position of research in practice spaces and challenge the idea of research as an academic pursuit carried out away from the realities of frontline social care practice. 

The investment element: for the last few years, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has offered funding across different awards and opportunities to support social care organisations to develop their staff through secondments, internships or formal and structured training and development awards. This investment recognises social care practitioners as critical to bridging practice and research and aims to resource social care organisations to develop their practitioners into skilled practitioner-researchers.  

Building the case for support 

Building this culture needs strong leadership which understands the critical need for research driven practice and policy but investment in practitioner research in isolation isn’t enough. Establishing a robust research culture embedded across social care also means considering the support that social care organisations need to make this a reality in terms of knowledge, infrastructure, and resources and learning from effective approaches across the sector.    

ADASS and the NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) Specialist Centre for Social Care want to progress this with a series of regional roadshows through 2026. These events will be aimed at sharing effective approaches to building research cultures across the sector and building a national understanding of the challenges social care organisations face in building their own research culture. 

Find out more about how the RSS Specialist Centre supports social care research by visiting our website, or book your place at a roadshow event near you to make sure you have a say in identifying and addressing the challenges for social care research.  For more information contact Professor Michaela Rogers m.rogers@sheffield.ac.uk or Dr Laura Tucker laura.tucker@york.ac.uk who are leading the Strategic Programme for Practitioner Research within the Specialist Centre.