ABSTRACT
Not for many years has interest in social work research been as widespread and as earnest as it is currently in the UK. Amongst social work practitioners, there is a growing appetite for the means of bringing research into the workplace. From the 'Research Briefings' prepared as part of the Government's Quality Protects programme, to the more formal collaborative arrangements developed by many service providers with key producers of social work research (such as Making Research Count and Research in Practice), researchers and practitioners appear to be encountering each other with new-found enthusiasm. Within the academy itself, social work research is beginning to emerge from the shadows of cognate disciplines. For example, this book has its origins in the ESRC-sponsored seminar series Theorising Social Work Research, which was an explicit, well-organised and effective device to secure more formal recognition of social work by its most prestigious potential funder as a distinctive (if not discrete) academic discipline amongst the social sciences. In government too, new organisations and structures are beginning to take shape that seek to engage directly with social work research. These include the advent of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and the Department of Health's Research Governance Framework (Department of Health, 200 I).
