About The Social Care Elf - National Elf Service

Which organisations are behind the Social Care Elf?

The Social Care Elf was originally jointly funded by Minervation Ltd, the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the LSE and the NIHR School for Social Care Research as part of the Social Care Evidence in Practice (SCEiP project). It is being relaunched in September 2023 by some of the DCC-i crew and colleagues, in partnership with these supporting organisations.

Supporting organisations include DCC Interactive Ltd (DCC-i), Making Research Count, the Social Services Research Group and the Social Care Institute for Excellence.

Who are in our core team?

Daisy Long, Chief Social Care Elf Blogger (DCC-i & National Centre for Cross Disciplinary Social Work, Bournemouth University)
Lizzie Furber, Elf Blogger and Editorial Team (DCC-i)
Chloe Whittall, Elf Blogger and Editorial Team (DCC-i)
Gavin Rogers, Elf Blogger and Editorial Team (DCC-i)
André Tomlin, Project Manager, Minervation Ltd

Who writes for the Social Care Elf ?

Daisy Long, Educator, Ex-Social Worker. Strategic Development Consultant, DCC-i; Visiting Fellow, Bournemouth University.
Gavin Rogers, Specialist Trainer, DCC-i
Lizzie Furber, Specialist Associate, DCC-i.
Chloe Whittall, Director & Independent Social Worker, DCC-i.
Sarah Carr, Independent Consultant at Sarah Carr and Associates Ltd.

We also have an open invite for practitioners, academics, educators, policy makers, and people with lived experience of social care services to come and join us down in the woodlands helping to make research relevant to practice at this critical time.

More details to follow…

Who has previously written for the Social Care Elf?

Douglas Badenoch, Director of Minervation Ltd, Chief Blogger The Lifestyle Elf & The Diabetes Elf
Gerry Bennison, User Researcher and Educator in Health and Social Care
Sarah Carr, Independent Consultant at Sarah Carr and Associates Ltd
Daisy Long, Educator, Social Worker. Strategic Development Consultant, DCC-i; Visiting Fellow, Bournemouth University
Anji Mehta, Project Manager, NIHR School for Social Care Research
Katherine Bishop, Learning and Development Officer for Research in Practice and Research in Practice for Adults
Susannah Bowyer, Research and Development Manager at Research in Practice
Jeanne Carlin, Family Carer and Retired Social Worker
Mike Clark, Research Programme Manager for the NIHR School for Social Care Research and Senior Research Fellow at the PSSRU, LSE
Ian Cummins, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of Salford
Ermintrude, Social Worker in London
Andrew Errington, Professional Head of Social Work in an NHS Trust.
Jenny Fisher, Senior Lecturer, Research Institute for Health and Social Change, Manchester Metropolitan University
Clarissa Giebel, Researcher and PhD student, PSSRU, University of Manchester
Mark Harvey, Social Worker and area manager of a local authority Community Learning Disability and Autism Service
Liz Hughes, Senior Lecturer, Mental Health Research Group, University of York
Martin Knapp, Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the LSE
Sarah Knowles, Research Fellow, NIHR School for Primary Care Research
Mary Larkin, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University
Jane Greenstock, Research Analyst, Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), London
Jill Manthorpe, Professor of Social Work at King’s College London and Director of the Social Care Workforce Research Unit
Anji Mehta,
Robin Miller, Senior Fellow and Director of Consultancy at HSMC, University of Birmingham
Tanya Moore, Social Worker and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Hannah Morgan, Lecturer in Disability Studies, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University and co-director of the Centre for Disability Research (CeDR)
Jo Moriarty, Research Fellow, Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s College
Nikki Newhouse, Researcher at Health Experiences Research Group, University of Oxford
John Northfield, Chief Blogger, The Learning Disabilities Elf
Lindsey Pike, Research and Development Officer, Research in Practice for Adults (RiPfA)
Christopher Sampson, Health Economist at the University of Nottingham
Lucy Simons, Research Fellow at NIHR MindTech Healthcare Technology Cooperative, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham
Martin Stevens, Senior Research Fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit
Caroline Struthers, Training Coordinator for The Cochrane Collaboration
André Tomlin, Managing Director of Minervation Ltd, Chief Blogger The Mental Elf
Martin Webber, Reader in Social Work at the University of York, Director of the International Centre for Mental Health Social Research, Academic Lead for Making Research Count (York)

What sources do we search for evidence?

Journals

We currently search over 50 UK and international English language, peer reviewed journals that are of relevance to social work and social care:

Websites and databases

We also search a number of online databases and social care research websites:

Campbell Collaboration: www.campbellcollaboration.org/
Cochrane Library: www.thecochranelibrary.com/
Health and Social Care Information Centre: www.hscic.gov.uk/
Health Services Management Centre: www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/social-policy/departments/health-services-management-centre/index.aspx
Joseph Rowntree Foundation: www.jrf.org.uk/
King’s Fund: www.kingsfund.org.uk/
NatCen Social Research: www.natcen.ac.uk/
National Institute for Clinical Excellence: www.nice.org.uk/
NIHR School for Social Care Research: www.sscr.nihr.ac.uk/
Personal Social Services Research Unit: www.pssru.ac.uk/
PubMed www.pubmed.gov
Race Equality Foundation: www.raceequalityfoundation.org.uk/
Research in Practice for Adults: www.ripfa.org.uk/
Research in Practice: www.rip.org.uk/
Social Care Institute for Excellence: www.scie.org.uk
Social Care Workforce Research Unit: www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/scwru/index.aspx
Social Policy Research Unit: www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/
Social Services Research Group: www.ssrg.org.uk/

Suggest a new source or a specific piece of evidence for inclusion

We are always on the look out for new journals, websites or databases to scan for high quality research, policy and guidance relevant to UK social care. We are also keen to hear about specific articles and publications that you think we should be blogging about.

Please email us at feedback@thesocialcareelf.net if you have any suggestions for sources or papers we should be including.