Web resources - social care

Social care is a very broad topic so this review will focus on web resources relevant to social care as delivered through social work services, as this is the area in which I work.  Part of my responsibility within Glasgow City Council Social Work Services is to manage a staff library, and I am also involved in the wider area of staff information and communication.  Social work aims to provide care and protection to children and their families, ensure care and support to vulnerable adults (including those with disabilities, mental health problems or addictions), provide care and support for elderly people to support them in the community, support carers and provide criminal justice services to offenders, their families and through victim support.  A wide range of staff, including professionally qualified social workers, community workers, occupational therapists, social care assistants, staff working in day and residential units and home helps, are involved in delivering services.  Most of these staff are based in local authority departments, but increasingly services are delivered in partnership with health, education, voluntary sector and private providers.

Policy, Legislation and Standards

Scottish Executive - Community Care Services
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Care

The Executive aims to work in partnership with service users and carers, local authorities, the NHS, the Care Commission, and the voluntary and independent sectors to promote better quality and more inclusive community care and other care services across Scotland.

Scottish Executive - Children and Family Services
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Young-People

The Education Department develops and administers policies for children's rights, support for families, child protection, regulation of childcare centres and pre-school education, and looked after children.  A Youth Crime strategy has been drawn up to tackle the problem of persistent offenders.

Scottish Executive - Criminal Justice
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/criminal/16910/14763

The Scottish Executive funds Scotland's local authorities to provide criminal justice social work (CJSW).  CJSW delivers a range of services for offenders aged over 16 years of age and supports the framework of community sentences available to the courts.

Social Work Services Inspectorate
http://www.swia.gov.uk

SWIA works with partners in the public, private and independent sectors to promote excellence in social work services.  The focus of all inspections and reviews is the positive impact of social work services on people's lives.

Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care
http://www.carecommission.com

The Care Commission inspects and regulates care services by taking account of the National Care Standards.

21st Century Social Work Review
http://www.21csocialwork.org.uk

The Review Group has been asked to advise the Scottish Executive on the future shape and delivery of social work services in Scotland.

Local Services Information

Information about local social care services can usually be found on the web site of a particular local authority.  A good example of comprehensive information on social care services (in Glasgow) can be found at:

Glasgow City Council Care & Support
http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/Care_Support/

Use left hand links under Care & Support to view full information.

Information to Improve Service Delivery

Until recently front line staff in social care have not systematically used evidence based research, and other information resources, to inform service delivery but this is changing, partly due to the increased focus on CPD and registration requirements.  Key resources can be identified relating to individual client groups, but most of the following resources have a wider social care focus:

Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE)
http://www.scie.org.uk/

SCIE promotes good practice in social care by reviewing knowledge to find out what works best.  This knowledge is for social care workers, employers, educators, researchers, service users and carers.

Social Care Online
http://www.scie-socialcareonline.org

Social Care Online replaces eLSC and Caredata to give access to the UK's most complete range of information and research on all aspects of social care.

CareData
http://www.elsc.org.uk/caredata/caredata.htm

CareData supports management and practice through extensive abstracting of relevant social work and social care literature.  It is now being replaced by Social Care Online (see above).

Social Science Information Gateway - Social Work
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/roads/subject-listing/World-cat/socwork.html

The service aims to provide a trusted source of selected, high quality Internet information for researchers and practitioners in the social sciences.  It is part of the UK Resource Discovery Network.

Research in Practice
http://www.rip.org.uk/

This research implementation project, based at the Dartington Hall Trust, aims to promote positive outcomes for children and families through the use of research evidence.

SCARE Briefings
http://www.elsc.org.uk/briefings/index.htm

A Social Care Access to Research Evidence (SCARE) briefing is a summary of information on a particular topic to update practice at the health and social care interface, produced by the Trent Focus Group and the Trent Institute for Health Services Research on behalf of SCIE.

Be Evidence Based
http://www.be-evidence-based.com/

The Be Evidence Based web site is designed to provide easy access to key findings from critically appraised research in the field of social care.  It is owned and managed by the Centre for Evidence-Based Social Services (CEBSS) in partnership with SCIE.

NHS Scotland ELibrary - social care
http://www.elib.scot.nhs.uk/portal/elib/pages/index.aspx

Social care is listed in the topic directory on the home page.

Professional Bodies and Training

Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW)
http://www.adsw.org.uk/

ADSW is a constituted group of senior social workers working in Scottish local government who have come together to promote social welfare and social inclusion and the interests those who use social care services.

British Association of Social Workers (BASW)
http://www.basw.co.uk/

BASW is the largest association representing social work and social workers in the UK helping, supporting, advising and campaigning on their behalf.

Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)
http://www.sssc.uk.com/

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has responsibility for establishing registers of key groups of social services staff; publishing codes of practice for social service workers and employers; regulating the training and education of the workforce and promoting education and training.

Scottish Executive Education & Training - social care and social work
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/social-care-social-work

The National Workforce Group (NWG) has been established to provide cohesion and strategic direction for the development of the social services workforce of the future.  This site gives information on a number of initiatives to improve recruitment and training.

Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE)
http://www.sieswe.org/

The Institute aims to contribute directly to change in social work higher education in response to recent Government policy.

Other Useful Resources

Community Care
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/

The site of Community Care journal offers access to news, jobs, article search and many other features.

British Journal of Social Work
http://bjsw.oupjournals.org/

This is the leading academic social work journal in the UK covering every aspect of social work.

Researchweb
http://www.researchweb.org.uk/

This site has been established with funding from the Scottish Executive, and is being developed as a tool for the informed social work professional.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation
http://www.jrf.org.uk

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is one of the largest social policy research and development charities in the UK.  This site provides access to summaries of research and other publications.

Research Works
http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/researchwks.htm

A series of briefing papers summarising the findings of research undertaken by the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at York.

Cathie Pratt
Senior Officer (Library/Information)
Glasgow City Council Social Work Services
Nye Bevan House, India Street, Glasgow G2 4PF

Email:  cathie.pratt@sw.glasgow.gov.uk
Web:  http://www.glasgow.gov.uk