Research Assistant Evidence and Evaluation; IMPACT

The Post

The Research Assistant will support the delivery of the UK Centre for implementing evidence in adult social care - IMPACT (Improving Adult Social Care Together). They will work closely with Professor Louise McCabe, Deputy Director Evidence and Evaluation. This is an opportunity to be part of an exciting and innovative Implementation Centre funded by the ESRC and the Health Foundation to improve social care outcomes by implementing evidence-based practice in the sector across all four UK nations.

The post holder’s core responsibilities will be with the review of evidence to support change; internal evaluation of the centre’s projects and support for national work in Scotland.

IMPACT is an 'Implementation Centre', drawing on knowledge gained from different types of research, the lived experience of people using services and their carers, and the practice knowledge of social care staff. Its aims are to enable practical improvements on the ground, and make a crucial contribution to longer-term cultural change, by:

• Supporting more widespread use of evidence in adult social care, leading to better care practices, systems and outcomes for people who use services, their families and communities;
• Building capacity and skills in the adult social care workforce to work with evidence of different kinds to innovate, improve care and deliver better outcomes;
• Facilitating sustainable and productive relationships between the full range of adult social care stakeholders to co-create positive change/innovations and improve outcomes for people using adult social care and their families;
• Improving understanding of the factors which help and hinder the implementation of evidence in practice, and using this to overcome longstanding barriers to positive change.

More information about IMPACT can be found here:

IMPACT is led from the University of Birmingham, with multiple partners across the UK. Stirling is the lead Scottish HE partner and the role is located in Stirling alongside the Deputy Director Evidence and Evaluation, Professor Louise McCabe. The role holder will report to Professor McCabe. Their role will also involve working with multiple staff across the UK who are delivering local projects and also with the central IMPACT team located at the University of Birmingham.

• Supporting monitoring and evaluation activities across the Centre, in accordance with the Theory of Change and evaluation protocols
• Undertaking evidence reviews
• Promote equality and value diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture
• Ensuring quality of evidence assessment and translation for practice
• Supporting staff to implement evidence protocols and procedures across IMPACT
• Synthesising and reporting on monitoring and evaluation data from across IMPACT
• Planning and contributing to academic and other publications arising from evidence review and evaluation
• Delivering academic workshops to build theory/key concepts from IMPACT’s practical work on the ground