Social services information landscape

Knowing who does what and where to find information can be daunting. It can be easy to get disoriented or lost

This guide will show you around and provide a quick overview of who does what and where to find information.

IRISS (Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services)

Independent, non profit body promoting:

• Evidence informed practice
• Knowledge exchange
• Innovation in service design

IRISS resources:

• Multimedia learning materials
• Case studies
• Insights
• IRISS.fm internet radio /podcast
• Videos
• Digital storytelling

Learning Exchange

A digital library of multimedia resources on aspects of social services

Learning Exchange content:

• Multimedia learning
• Audio and video
• Policy
• Research reports

Centres for Excellence

• Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability (SCLD)
• Centre for Excellence for Looked after Children in Scotland (CELCIS)
• Scottish Training on Drugs and Alcohol (STRADA)
• Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC)
• Criminal Justice Social Work Development Centre for Scotland (CJSW)

Other specialist organisations

• WithScotland (formerly Scottish Child Care Protection Network (SCCPN) and the Multi-agency Resource Service - child protection (MARS)
• Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research SCCJR

SSKS (Social Services Knowledge Scotland)

• Managed by NHS Education for Scotland.

• Built on NES technology.

• A portal to world wide information based on NHS Education for Scotland's digital library and information resources.

• Pulls in information from a wide range of sources, including the Learning Exchange, Centres for Excellence etc.

• Specialist topic areas

• Specialist communities of practice

SSKS resources:

• Search - many sources at once
• Evidence summaries
• Research reports
• Topic guides
• Learning and development resources
• Specialist organisations
• Full text journal articles
• Digital books
• Policy and reports
• Databases
• Communities of practice

SSSC (Scottish Social Services Council)

• The regulatory body for social services
• Promotes and supports workforce development
• Workforce solutions

Care Inspectorate

• The independent scrutiny and improvement body for care and children’s services
• Regulates and inspects care services
• Social work and child protection inspections
• Make sures that people receive the highest quality of care and that their rights are promoted and protected

Scottish Care

• The voice of the independent care sector in Scotland.
• Represents the largest group of independent providers of residential care, day care, care at home and housing support

Improvment Service

• helping improve the efficiency, quality and accountability of local public services in Scotland
• purpose is to help councils improve the health, quality of life and opportunities of all people in Scotland through community leadership, strong local governance and the delivery of high quality, efficient services
• Scottish agent for the Local Government Association's Knowledge Hub - a secure online knowledge sharing platform to connect, communicate and share learning with peers across local government.

SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence)

• Independent charity working with adults, families and children's social care and social work services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also works closely with related services such as health care and housing.

SCIE resources include:

• Practical guides
• 'At a glance' summaries
• eLearning resources
• Briefings
• Self-assessment tools
• Social Care Online
• Social Care TV

How do we co-ordinate all these various resources?

Knowledge into Practice.

A strategy and action plan for embedding knowledge in practice

• The strategy looks beyond infrastructure and access to information
• Focuses on helping practitioners find and apply knowledge in practice in order to improve outcomes.

It was formulated by the following organisations.

• NES
• SSSC
• IRISS
• ADSW
• Scottish Government
• Improvement Service

Known as the Knowledge Collaboration, each has made a formal commitment to implement the strategy.

Implementation will also require effort from a wider range of social services organisations as well as the workforce.

These organisations include....

• ADSW
• SSSC
• NHS Education for Scotland
• IRISS
• Care Inspectorate
• Scottish Government
• Improvement Service
• COSLA
• CCPS (Community Care Providers Scotland)
• Scottish Care

Governance arrangements are being set up to ensure co-ordination of activity across health and social care

workforcesolutions.sssc.uk.com

The SSSC's Workforce Solutions website offers learning and development resources for employees and employers

www.sssc.uk.com

Scottish Social Services Council

www.scswis.com

Care Inspectorate

www.iriss.org.uk

The information landscape

www.scottishcare.org

The representative organisation for residential, nursing and domiciliary care providers in the private sector

The social services information landscape

Who's who and who does what?

https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk

Improvement Service

http://www.improvementservice.org.uk

lx.iriss.org.uk

IRISS's digital library of social services resources

www.ssks.org.uk

A gateway to information and learning materials to support practitioners in day to day work and in learning

http://s.iriss.org.uk/T01NCk

www.scie.org.uk

Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Social Care Online

www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk

Social Care TV

www.scie.org.uk/socialcaretv

Produced by IRISS and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5UK: Scotland license