Funding Secured for Vital Research into Improving Social Workers Knowledge of Acquired Brain Injury

The UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF) and a team of experts have secured more than £250,000 of funding to lead a research project addressing the skills and knowledge gap in Social Work education around acquired brain injury. ‘Heads Together’ is a two-year research programme looking at improving Social Workers’ knowledge of acquired brain injury (ABI) and improving their understanding of the social care needs of people with ABI and their families. Funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) will see Dr Andrew Bateman, from the University of Essex and UKABIF Chair, lead the project. The team will also include: Caroline Bald from the University of Essex; Dr Michael Clark from the London School of Economics & Political Science; Dr Mark Holloway from Head First Assessment Rehabilitation and Case Management LLP; Dr Mark Linden from Queen’s University Belfast; Dr Andy Mantell from the Brain Injury Social Work Group and Dr Alyson Norman from the University of Plymouth.

The team will be supported by the Brain Injury Social Work, INSWABI and UKABIF throughout the 24-month proposal looking to improve ABI understanding and practice, leading to better social care outcomes for people with ABI and their families. The research will see the development of educational resources for Social Workers, service users and their families to better address the needs of clients, including materials for families and service users to support advocacy when working with Social Workers and help support the potential role of Social Workers within an interdisciplinary team.

Dr Andrew Bateman, said: “We know that some difficulties following ABI can be invisible. In order to meet the needs of people with ABI, Social Workers need specific knowledge and skills to recognise and understand these underlying difficulties. With this knowledge, Social Workers can ensure appropriate social care is provided, and they can use skills to identify and work around their clients’ ABI challenges. We need a better understanding of Social Workers’ current ABI knowledge. This research opportunity will address this along with looking at what are the barriers to acting on this knowledge, how can organisations and managers better support Social Workers and what kind of training is needed?”

Last year, a Safeguarding Adult Review into the death of 42-year-old Brighton man ‘James’, who had an acquired brain injury, found the current safeguarding system to be insufficient and a lack of expert knowledge in brain injury among the agencies working to protect him. Following that Review, UKABIF wrote to Social Work England and the Secretary of State for Health, gathering more than 100 signatures from experts across health, social work and law in support of their call for improved training for social workers.  

Chloe Hayward, Executive Director of UKABIF, added: “We believe social workers play a vital role in supporting individuals and families affected by ABI but cannot do so effectively without the knowledge they need to practice to the best of their abilities.”