42 research outputs found

    ‘Race’, ethnicity, and experiences of practice: perspectives of child and family social workers working in England

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    This article reports a portion of the findings from a 5-year longitudinal study on child and family social work, commissioned by the Department for Education. The study explored issues relating to child and family practice over the five years, utilising a mixed-methods design, including large-scale surveys, quantitative telephone interviews and semi-structured interviews and culminating in an annual report, published by the Department for Education at the end of each wave. This article focusses on wave four, and on the semi-structured interview phase, which explored how practitioners felt their racial or ethnic identity impacted on their experiences of practice. Five themes were developed across the different topics explored in the interviews; structures and organisations; workforce and colleagues; lack of diversity; working with families and intersectionality. This article presents these themes as part of the challenging context of inclusivity and anti-racism in contemporary social work, and makes recommendations regarding workforce diversity, training needs and reducing the additional burden carried by social workers from minoritized ethnicities, by amending the regulatory requirements of practitioners, education providers and continuing professional development recording

    Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (Wave 5) Research Report

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    In 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a consortium led by IFF Research, working with social work academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, to conduct a longitudinal study tracking the careers of local authority child and family social workers in England. This landmark study aimed to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work (CFSW) by tracking individuals over a five-year period. In Wave 1, 5,621 local authority (LA) child and family social workers in England took part in the survey between November 2018 and March 2019, comprising almost one in six of local authority child and family social workers in England. This report covers all five annual waves of the survey, investigating trends over time, with a focus on the latest period of fieldwork (Wave 5). Wave 5 fieldwork consisted of 1,283 completed surveys conducted between September and November 2022 (for the main survey) and a further 245 completed surveys with newly qualified child and family social workers who were doing or had recently completed their Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE). The main survey sample constitutes of a starting sample established at Wave 1. This enables longitudinal analysis of respondents who have completed all five waves of the research. Also at each wave, ASYE respondents who completed the previous wave are invited to take part in the main survey. However, because these respondents joined the main survey after Wave 1, they are not included in the longitudinal sample. Analysis within this report is based on a wave-on-wave snapshot of the main survey findings for each wave. Chapter 2 focuses specifically on the longitudinal findings, based on respondents who have completed every wave of the research

    Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (Wave 3) Research Report

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    In 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a consortium led by IFF Research, working with social work academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, to conduct a longitudinal study tracking the careers of local authority child and family social workers in England. This landmark study aimed to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work by tracking individuals over a five-year period. In Wave 3, new questions were added about the impacts of Covid-19 on child and family social workers’ workplace wellbeing, access to learning and development, flexible working, relationships with colleagues, and relationships with children, families and carers

    Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (Wave 2) Research report July 2020

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    The landmark new study aimed to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work by tracking individuals over a five-year period. In Wave 1, 5,621 local authority child and family social workers took part in the survey, comprising almost one in six of the population.1 This report covers the second year of the research project

    Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (Wave 1) Research report August 2019

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    In 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a consortium led by IFF Research, working with social work academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, to conduct a major new longitudinal study tracking the careers of local authority child and family social workers in England over five years. The aim of this landmark new study is to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work. In particular it aims to establish a much stronger understanding of child and family social work recruitment issues, career pathways, choices and decisions and how these differ across different individual, job and employer characteristics

    CD147 mediates intrahepatic leukocyte aggregation and determines the extent of liver injury

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    Background: Chronic inflammation is the driver of liver injury and results in progressive fibrosis and eventual cirrhosis with consequences including both liver failure and liver cancer. We have previously described increased expression of the highly multifunctional glycoprotein CD147 in liver injury. This work describes a novel role of CD147 in liver inflammation and the importance of leukocyte aggregates in determining the extent of liver injury. Methods: Non-diseased, progressive injury, and cirrhotic liver from humans and mice were examined using a mAb targeting CD147. Inflammatory cell subsets were assessed by multiparameter flow cytometry. Results: In liver injury, we observe abundant, intrahepatic leukocyte clusters defined as ≄5 adjacent CD45+ cells which we have termed “leukocyte aggregates”. We have shown that these leukocyte aggregates have a significant effect in determining the extent of liver injury. If CD147 is blocked in vivo, these leukocyte aggregates diminish in size and number, together with a marked significant reduction in liver injury including fibrosis. This is accompanied by no change in overall intrahepatic leukocyte numbers. Further, blocking of aggregation formation occurs prior to an appreciable increase in inflammatory markers or fibrosis. Additionally, there were no observed, “off-target” or unpredicted effects in targeting CD147. Conclusion: CD147 mediates leukocyte aggregation which is associated with the development of liver injury. This is not a secondary effect, but a cause of injury as aggregate formation proceeds other markers of injury. Leukocyte aggregation has been previously described in inflammation dating back over many decades. Here we demonstrate that leukocyte aggregates determine the extent of liver injury

    Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) 2015: advancing efficient methodologies through community partnerships and team science

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    It is well documented that the majority of adults, children and families in need of evidence-based behavioral health interventionsi do not receive them [1, 2] and that few robust empirically supported methods for implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) exist. The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) represents a burgeoning effort to advance the innovation and rigor of implementation research and is uniquely focused on bringing together researchers and stakeholders committed to evaluating the implementation of complex evidence-based behavioral health interventions. Through its diverse activities and membership, SIRC aims to foster the promise of implementation research to better serve the behavioral health needs of the population by identifying rigorous, relevant, and efficient strategies that successfully transfer scientific evidence to clinical knowledge for use in real world settings [3]. SIRC began as a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded conference series in 2010 (previously titled the “Seattle Implementation Research Conference”; $150,000 USD for 3 conferences in 2011, 2013, and 2015) with the recognition that there were multiple researchers and stakeholdersi working in parallel on innovative implementation science projects in behavioral health, but that formal channels for communicating and collaborating with one another were relatively unavailable. There was a significant need for a forum within which implementation researchers and stakeholders could learn from one another, refine approaches to science and practice, and develop an implementation research agenda using common measures, methods, and research principles to improve both the frequency and quality with which behavioral health treatment implementation is evaluated. SIRC’s membership growth is a testament to this identified need with more than 1000 members from 2011 to the present.ii SIRC’s primary objectives are to: (1) foster communication and collaboration across diverse groups, including implementation researchers, intermediariesi, as well as community stakeholders (SIRC uses the term “EBP champions” for these groups) – and to do so across multiple career levels (e.g., students, early career faculty, established investigators); and (2) enhance and disseminate rigorous measures and methodologies for implementing EBPs and evaluating EBP implementation efforts. These objectives are well aligned with Glasgow and colleagues’ [4] five core tenets deemed critical for advancing implementation science: collaboration, efficiency and speed, rigor and relevance, improved capacity, and cumulative knowledge. SIRC advances these objectives and tenets through in-person conferences, which bring together multidisciplinary implementation researchers and those implementing evidence-based behavioral health interventions in the community to share their work and create professional connections and collaborations
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