Evidence based practice and social work: Developing critically engaged research minded practitioners through enhancing research methods teaching

Evidence based practice (EBP) has become increasingly prominent in social work practice in Global North countries in recent decades. In the UK, as in other countries, this move has created an opportunity for ever more profiteering in the provision of social work interventions, evaluation and measurement of performance, although still largely funded by public money.
Lacking an agreed definition, EBP manifests in different ways in individual countries, often depending on what current governments deem to be most efficient, cost effective and publicly acceptable. ‘What works’ in social work practice becomes less about the needs of those who enter services and more about creating the narrative conducive to neoliberal practice (and profiteering) in public services.
Primarily teaching research methods our module has evolved to meet what we view as the changing needs of future social work practitioners, from understanding the basics of research design and data analysis to more sophisticated skills of critiquing ‘evidence’ as presented by private organisations and the ability to question standardised outcomes focused intervention.
This chapter outlines findings from two strands of internal research at our institution with social work students, including annual surveys on attitudes to research and qualitative exploration of how evidence is presented and acted on in placement. We reflect on the growing need to ensure our students are capable of understanding and resisting, and ultimately offering alternatives to, metricised social work practice when working with complex, vulnerable families and individuals and how we are addressing these needs in the classroom.