Presented at LILAC 2018

1. TACKLING
WICKED PROBLEMS
IN SOCIAL SERVICES:
USING CRITICAL APPROACHES AND
WORKPLACE INFORMATION LITERACY
WITHIN EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE
DR LAUREN SMITH | KNOWLEDGE MANAGER
IRISS (INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SERVICES)
GLASGOW
@walkyouhome

2. FOCUS
Wicked problems
Social services context
Iriss Evidence Search and Summary Service
Critical approaches to practice

3. The challenge is to connect the
world of research and knowledge
on the one hand, and the world of
day to day practice on the other so
that we continue to improve the
way we do things.
(Scottish Government 2012)

4. 1. No definitive formulation
2. ‘No stopping rule’ (things keep changing)
3. No true or false answers, but good or bad
4. No immediate and no ultimate test
5. Every solution is a one-shot operation
6. No criteria to prove all options have been considered
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a
symptom of another problem
9. How we see problem defines what solutions are tried
10. Planner is liable for the consequences of the actions they
generate
Rittel and Webber (1973)
WICKED PROBLEMS

5. 11. Multiple value conflicts
12. Multiple ideological, political or economic constraints on possible solutions
13. Great resistance to change
14. Data to describe the problem is often uncertain or missing
15. Multiple possible intervention points
16. Consequences of intervention difficult to imagine
Horn and Weber (2007)
SOCIAL MESSES

6. although people stated
that they most trusted
academic research, it was
least
used
McCormick 2013
(Carnegie UK Trust 2018)

7. Structured opportunities for
social workers to engage in
critical reflection and
analysis of knowledge and
evidence are
uneven and patchy
(Grant et al. 2017)

8. To be efficient and effective
we need to know and
understand what has already
been done well before; and
how a good understanding of
the evidence base for any
intervention can help with this.
However, it is not always easy
to know where to find relevant
evidence, or how to assess its
quality and make best use of it.
(Muirhead and Coutts 2018)

9. Iriss Evidence Search and
Summary Service
Launched in October 2017, Iriss ESSS is funded
by the Scottish Government. It aims to bridge
the knowledge-practice gap, a priority for the
Scottish Government, supporting people
delivering social services in the public,
independent and third sectors to identify and
apply evidence, ensuring that decisions about
practice, service development are informed
by sound evidence.

10. 1. Research is competing with other
factors in the decision-making process.
2. Decision-makers do not always value
research evidence.
3. The available research evidence may
not be relevant for all audiences or
decisionmakers.
4. Research evidence is not always easy
to access or use.
Lavis et al. (2006)
BARRIERS TO RESEARCH IN ACTION

12. SERVICE OFFER
Evidence
outputs
Evidence
support

13. Workplace
information
literacy

14. Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make
balanced judgements about any information we find and
use. It empowers us as citizens to develop informed views
and to engage fully with society.
(CILIP 2018)

15. A sociocultural perspective centres upon communities and
how information literacy “shows itself” in the different collective
practices and activities of each group, rather than trying to fit
a group’s information actions and understandings to a
previously established model of information literacy.
(Hicks 2018)

16. Knowing what sources of information are relevant and
necessary
A practice that facilitates a ‘way of knowing’ about the sources
of information that will inform performance and participation
Situational and driven by the need to access information
contained within the symbols and artefacts and obtained
through interactions
A problematic and often highly contested practice: information
landscapes are socially, politically and historically constituted
and this influence shapes information and the type of
knowledge and information behaviours and activities that are
valued
(Lloyd 2010)
IL IN THE WORKPLACE

17. Critical
approaches to
political problems

18. Accessing paywalled
resources: limited access to
social services content
through NHS Education
Scotland + limited document
delivery budget
Copyright limitations: novel
service, inappropriate
restrictions, complex
processes
Referring to sources: how to
communicate meaningfully
but accurately
Communication with
external partners and funder

19. Critical pedagogy is an educational movement
that gives people the opportunity to develop
the knowledge, skills and sense of responsibility
necessary to engage in a culture of questioning.
(Smith 2013)
PRINCIPLES OF
CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

20. Collaborative, patron-centred exploration
Worries about seeming incompetent
Lack of agency and authority within system of scholarly
knowledge production
Opportunity to render visible and critique the power
structures of scholarly knowledge production, search
tools, sources and reference itself
Empathy - affective connection
Explaining what we're trying and why
"I don't know, let's find out together"
(Wallis 2017)

21. Rigorous, transparent and
evidence-focused approaches
familiar in health evidence
Social services practice less based
on reviews of academic/research
evidence
Acknowledgement that
'knowledge' in social services is
not only from peer reviewed
journals but also includes
accounts of good practice and
lived experience

22. EVIDENCE HIERARCHIES
Using such hierarchies to
exclude all but the highest–
ranking studies from
consideration can lead to
the loss of useful evidence
(Nutley et al. 2013)
Neglect too many important and relevant issues around evidence
Tend to underrate the value of good observational studies
Pay insufficient attention to the need to understand what works, for
whom, in what circumstances and why (programme theory)
Provide an insufficient basis for making recommendations about
whether interventions should be adopted
Hierarchies based on study design:

23. Quantitative methods of analysis can be developed
consciously to complement the practice of critical
librarianship
Must be driven by the intent to challenge social inequities
e.g. quantitative inquiry around who's being cited,
knowledge from which societies are privileged above others,
whose voices are heard
Use the insights gained to critically reflect and
(crucially) act on practices of searching,
summarising and representing knowledge
(Berg 2018)
Applying critical quantitative appraisal to
evidence used in summaries

24. How's it going?

25. 1. Disability hate crime reporting
2. Child sexual abuse
3. Parental substance misuse
4. Child sexual abuse images online
5. Social work student placements
6. Distributed leadership in early years
7. Voluntary social care recruitment
8. Self directed support in rural areas
9. Palliative and end of life care
10. Coercive and controlling behaviour
We have produced 10 Outlines across a range of topics
of relevance to the social services workforce in Scotland:

26. SW assessments (4.17%)
Inform intervention (4.17%)
Funding bids (4.17%)
Innovation (8.33%)
Research (8.33%)
Quality of services (12.50%)
Evaluate impact (12.50%)
Staff development (12.50%)
Other (12.50%)
Knowledge and skills (20.83%)
EVIDENCE NEEDS

27. Social worker assessments
Children’s plans
Service development proposals
Training materials
Funding proposals
Lecture content and slides
Articles sharing good practice

28. 98%
Writing clarity
98%
Evidence quality
98%
Meets evidence need
94%
Understandable
94%
Meets format requirements
94%
Amount of evidence
94%
Usefulness of evidence
92%
Evidence access
Outputevaluation

29. Access
Understanding
Awareness
Confidence
0
1
2
3
4
5
Average impact score (out of 5)

30. EVIDENCE BASED LIBRARY AND
INFORMATION PRACTICE
Positivist approach to LIS in which all practical decisions
made within LIS should be based on research studies. These
research studies are selected and interpreted according to
some specific norms. Typically such norms disregard
theoretical studies and qualitative studies and consider
quantitative studies according to a narrow set of criteria of
what counts as evidence.
(Wikipedia 2015)

31. Tensions between critical
constructivist approach to
practice and positivist focus of
EBLIP
Necessity of demonstrating
impact of work and reporting
positive, quantifiable outcomes
within context of precarious
employment
Difficulty in attributing causality to
changes in social service
workforce's information behaviour
Looking at quantitative empirical
approaches through a critical lens
(Berg 2018)

32. What's next?

33. CONVERSATION OPENERS
Encourage practitioners
to critically reflect on their
information practices,
learn from each other
and identify what they
need to use knowledge in
action
Starting points for learning
opportunities and
guidance led by 'learner'
not 'educator'
Based on principles of
problem posing
education
Alternative to banking
model of educationOutcomes & CO tool developed by Ellen Daly and
designed by Ian Phillip, Iriss

34. 1. Describing the content of discussion
2. Defining the problem
3. Personalising the problem
4. Discussing the problem
5. Discussing the alternatives of the problem

35. MEANINGFUL EVALUATION
Build evaluation into service design
Open Badges - encourage critical
reflection and provide meaningful
feedback with opportunity for dialogue
Longitudinal studies of impact on
professional practice
Discussions across sector around impact of
interventions and areas for improvement

36. KEYS TO SUCCESS
Interdisciplinarity
Rejection of tradition for
tradition's sake
Non-hierarchical structure
Whole-system approach
Openness to 'new' practices
Freedom to fail

37. Berg, SA (2018) 'Quantitative researchers, critical librarians' in Nicholson, KP and Seale, M (Eds.) (2018) The politics of theory and the practice of librarianship. Sacramento,
CA: Library Juice Press.
Carnegie UK Trust (2018) Evidence exchange 2017: evidence use and trust. https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/carnegieuktrust/wp-
content/uploads/sites/64/2018/03/Evidence-Exchange-infographic.pdf
Cavaleri, Steven A. (2008) Are learning organizations pragmatic? Learning Organization 15(6), pp.474–85
Coutts, P and Brotchie, J (2017) The Scottish approach to evidence: a discussion paper. https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications/scottish-approach-evidence-
discussion-paper/
Grant, S et al. (2017) Newly qualified social workers’ readiness for practice in Scotland. British Journal of Social Work, 47(2), pp.487–506
Grint, K (2010) Wicked problems and the role of leadership. http://informalnetworks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Wicked_problems_and_the_role_of_leadership.pdf
Grint, K (2008) Wicked problems and clumsy solutions: the role of leadership. Clinical Leader 1(2), pp.11–15
Hicks, A (2018) 'Making the case for a sociocultural perspective in information literacy' in Nicholson, KP and Seale, M (Eds.) (2018) The politics of theory and the practice of
librarianship. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press.
Horn, RE and Weber, RP (2007) New Tools for Resolving Wicked Problems: Mess Mapping and Resolution Mapping Processes. Watertown, MA: Strategy Kinetics
LLC. http://www.strategykinetics.com/New_Tools_For_Resolving_Wicked_Problems.pdf
James, W (1907) Pragmatism: a new name for some old ways of thinking. New York: Longman, Greens and Co. https://archive.org/details/157unkngoog
Lavis, J., Lomas, J., Hamid, M. & Sewankambo, N. (2006) 'Assessing country-level efforts to link research to action', Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(1), pp.620-628
Lloyd, A-M (2010) 'Information literacy in the workplace landscape' in Lloyd, A-M (Ed.) Information Literacy Landscapes. London: Chandos
Muirhead, S and Coutts, P (2018) Scottish evidence summit 2018, event report. https://www.iriss.org.uk/news/features/2018/03/19/scottish-evidence-summit-2018-event-
report
NHS Digital (2018) Information sharing presents major barrier to social workers. https://digital.nhs.uk/article/8558/Information-sharing-presents-major-barrier-to-social-workers
Nutley, S et al. (2013) What counts as good evidence? Provocation for the Alliance for Useful Evidence. https://www.alliance4usefulevidence.org/assets/What-Counts-as-
Good-Evidence-WEB.pdf
Parkhurst, J (2016) Appeals to evidence for the resolution of wicked problems: the origins and mechanisms of evidentiary bias. Policy Sciences, 49(4) pp.373–393
Rittel, HW and Webber, MM (1973) Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences 4(2), pp.155–169
Scottish Government (2012)Knowledge into action: a strategy and action plan for in Scotland’s Social Services 2012-15 https://www.gov.scot/Resource/0040/00404827.pdf
Smith, L (2013) Towards a model of critical information literacy instruction for the development of political agency. Journal of Information Literacy, 7(2) pp.15-32
Wallis, L (2017) 'Information of my own: peer reference and feminist pedagogy' in Accardi, M (Ed.) The feminist reference desk: concepts, critiques, and conversations.
Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press
Wikipedia (2015) Evidence based library and information practice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_library_and_information_practice
REFERENCES AND READING

38. Illustrations by Ali Jones and Josie Vallely
Graphics by Lauren Smith using Piktochart
IMAGES
QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU
@walkyouhome