ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the contribution of the Barnardo's research and development team to the introduction of evidence-based social welfare practice in the UK's largest voluntary child care agency.
Barnardo's has made an explicit commitment to evidence-based services, and is the first child welfare organisation to do so.
Current approaches to evidence-based social welfare practice are illustrated and their relationship to the model provided by evidence-based medicine is discussed.
To clarify the links between research and practice, analogies are drawn with the processes by which research is thought to influence policy.
Examples are provided of promising strategies for supporting developments in services for children and families on the basis of the best possible evidence for their effectiveness.
