Making Research Count

Your Route to Knowledge-Based Practice in Social Work and Social Care

Making Research Count is a national collaborative research dissemination initiative, established by a consortium of universities (including the University of Bedfordshire) and developed by regional centres.

The consortium of universities has a proven track record in social work and social care research as well as providing social work education at qualifying and post qualifying levels. These common interests provide a foundation to promote "knowledge-based practice" in social work and social care.

These university-based regional centres have formed collaborative partnerships with member agencies, to promote and develop knowledge-based practice and improve services in social work, social care and their interface with allied agencies in the statutory and voluntary sector.

Each regional centre has established a unique approach to knowledge based practice based on the needs of local partnerships. This has included:

  • Workshops, seminars and developmental events
  • Support to develop an agency approach to knowledge-based practice
  • Shared regional knowledge-based events
  • Conferences
  • Production of national and local research summaries
  • A website

The University of Bedfordshire's partners each pay an annual subscription in return for a negotiated range of services.

Making Research Count provides:

An extensive programme of events for those working in/with social work and social care;

Regular events specifically for those in Workforce Development;

Monthly, online journal clubs, one for Children’s Social Work/Care and one for Adult Social Work/Care, that meet to identify and discuss key areas of emerging social work research/policy. See Research Forums for more information

  • Access to recordings of our ‘expert speaker’ webinars;
  • Topic-specific resource lists. E.g:
    • Child Sexual Exploitation;
    • County Lines;
    • Domestic Violence and Abuse;
    • Professional Resilience;
    • Working With Racial/Ethnic Diversity;
  • A quarterly newsletter, with details of our forthcoming events and other, research-related news items. View the latest issue
  • Access to specialist support, consultancy, etc., at discounted rates.

View details of our current programme of events

Our partners

If you would like information on joining MRC, please contact Gayanthi Hapuarachchi, Co-ordinator, at gayanthi.hapuarachchi@beds.ac.uk