Service users and social care practitioners are often marginalised in the production of research, but a system for assessing the quality of social care knowledge will need a more subtle and inclusive approach than a simple hierarchy in which findings from experimental studies take precedence.

Social services are under pressure from Government and the public to demonstrate the effectiveness of what they do. If the search for useable and relevant measures of effectiveness is to succeed, practitioners, managers, and policymakers must have an understanding of the underlying social science concepts such as Evidence-based practice (EBP).

This concept is now promoted as a 'scientific' approach to policy and practice. However, the concept was developed in the field of medicine, and many would ask whether we can safely apply it to the messy process of social problem solving?

The promotion of evidence-based practice also has implications for the content and focus of social work education and training, and for the selection and recruitment of staff and students.

Evidence-based Practice and Social Work provides a comprehensive overview of developments in this field and highlight many important debates and dilemmas.

Writers give clear pointers to the need for a new partnership between research, policy and practice, able to promote effective services. They suggest a more inclusive version of EBP that is better able to respond to the uncertainties of social work practice in the real world.

Contents include:

An empirical study of the obstacles to evidence-based practice
Brian Sheldon, Professor of Applied Social Research/Director, Rupatharshini Chilvers, Annemarie Ellis, Alice Moseley, and Stephen Tierney, CEBSS, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter
The limits of positivism revisited
David Smith, Professor of Social Work, Dept of Applied Social Science, University of Lancaster
A problematic relationship? Evidence and practice in the workplace
Nick Frost, Senior Lecturer in Continuing Education, University of Leeds
Promoting evidence based practice in a child care charity: The Barnardo's experience
Tony Newman, Principal Officer, Research and Development, and Di McNeish, Head of Research, Barnardo's, Cardiff
The Social Care Institute for Excellence: The role of a national institute in developing knowledge and practice in social care
Mike Fisher Professor and Director of Research and Reviews, Social Care Institute for Excellence, London
Evidence based social work practice: A reachable goal?
Frank Ainsworth, Research Scholar and Lecturer (Adjunct), School of International, Cultural and Community Studies, Edith Cowan University and Patricia Hansen, Head, Department of Social Work, Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick
Reframing an evidence-based approach to practice
Stephanie Tierney, Research Assistant, CEBSS, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter
What works about what works? Fashion, fad and EBP
Carolyn Taylor, Lecturer in Social Work, and Susan White, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Applied Social Science, University of Manchester.