Useful resources
Links to useful information about mental health social care.
On this page:
Advice and funding
View current funding opportunities from the NIHR: Funding opportunities (NIHR).
Research Support Service (RSS) Specialist Centre for Social Care
Hosted by the RSS Hub delivered by Lancaster University in partnership with the Universities of Liverpool (including Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre), Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan, this partnership provides national leadership and co-ordination of expertise and wider specialist networks to develop and deliver innovative social care research.
This centre has a breadth of interdisciplinary experts at the forefront of social care research who work collaboratively to offer a range of research support services.
Find out how to access support from the RSS: Research Support Service Specialist Centre for Social Care (NIHR).
HEE-NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic Programme
The NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic (ICA) Programme provides research training awards for health and social care professionals, excluding doctors and dentists, who wish to develop careers that combine research and research leadership with continued practice and professional development.
Find out more: HEE-NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic Programme (NIHR)
Social Care and Society, University of Manchester
Social Care and Society at The University of Manchester is a leading research group for social care research.
See more information about their work, or reach out to the team about collaboration: Social Care and Society.
Learning and development
NIHR Learn
Free online learning resource. You can access NIHR Learn if you are employed by the NIHR, NHS, a UK university or another UK publicly funded organisation conducting and supporting clinical research.
Access NIHR Learn.
NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR)
In addition to being a research funder, the SSCR has developed online resources for social care researchers:
- Dedicated funds for building research capacity.
- Methods reviews written by social care researchers, covering many aspects of methodology and different approaches needed for researching particular social care context, for example, care homes.
- Scoping reviews covering a wide range of topics, useful for identifying research gaps and act as an introduction to different aspects of social care.
NIHR Past Funding Awards
Details of past funded NIHR research applications: Funding and awards (NIHR).
NIHR Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit
This resource has been developed to support researchers to better understand how to embed EDI in research design and to meet the NIHR’s EDI requirements.
The toolkit advocates for best practice that goes beyond the NIHR’s current requirements.
Access the toolkit: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit (NIHR RSS Leicester and Partners Resources)
NIHR SSCR Project Findings
Summaries of research findings and conclusions from SSCR: Project findings (SSCR)
Essence Toolkit
The Essence Toolkit aims to help those planning and shaping services and treatments for adult people with social care needs and their carers to make informed decisions about which services and treatments to provide, and how much they cost.
Access the Essence Toolkit (Essence Project).
Social Care Research Impact
The Social Care Research Impact site contains lots of helpful tools to help increase the impact of your mental health social care research.
Visit Social Care Research Impact.
NIHR Journals Library
The NIHR Journals Library website provides access to information about research funded by the NIHR. The NIHR is the world’s first health research funder to publish comprehensive accounts of its commissioned research within its own publicly and permanently available journals.
The Journals Library comprises a suite of six open access peer-reviewed journals reporting results from a range of health research areas. Each publication also provides a direct link to the relevant details, documents and outputs of its corresponding research project on the NIHR Funding and Awards website.
Access the NIHR Journals Library.
NIHR Centre for Engagement and Dissemination
The NIHR’s Centre for Engagement and Dissemination brings together its activities in patient and public involvement, engagement and participation with its strengths in research dissemination.
The NIHR has set up a website to present high quality summaries of findings from health and care research, making research informative, accessible, relevant and ready for use for all.
Visit the NIHR Evidence website.
Reports and reviews
These are reports by colleagues in mental health social care and social care research that might be useful when thinking about designing mental health social care research.
Our own reports can be found in the news section.
Valuing the role of the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector in social care
This NIHR RDS West Midlands and Birmingham Voluntary Service Council report was published in 2024.
It presents the findings of a piece of work undertaken by NIHR Research RDS West Midlands in partnership with Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC), to explore voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise sector involvement in social care research.
Read the report: Valuing the role of the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector in social care research summary report (NIHR RSS).
NIHR SSCR methods review on research ethics in social care
Published by Dr Michael Dunn in 2020, this methods review clarifies the requirements for the ethical conduct of social care research involving human participants from SSCR.
Read the full review: Research ethics in social care (PDF).
Articles
Mental health social care: scoping and developing new and necessary health and care research system
By considering mental health social care as a distinct health and care research system, this paper outlines key priorities for research, funding and capacity building.
Read the article: Mental health social care: scoping and developing new and necessary health and care research system
A realist evaluation of social care practitioners’ experiences with and understanding of applied healthcare research
This article presents findings from a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded realist evaluation to understand and explain how, why, for whom, and in what contexts mental health social care practitioners engage with research.
Read the article: A realist evaluation of social care practitioners’ experiences with and understanding of applied healthcare research
Relational practice, a critical component for successful social work
The article highlights the importance of relational practice—building strong, empathetic connections—in effective social work. While it improves outcomes for both clients and professionals, it lacks a clear, consistent definition and robust evidence base. The authors call for more research, standardisation, and reflective approaches to embed relational practice across services.
Read the article (Taylor and Francis Online): Relational practice, a critical component for successful social work
The hidden cost of trauma: maternal mental health and child removal
Katy Cleece explores the rising number of children being removed from their mothers due to maternal mental health issues, often rooted in unaddressed trauma. The report highlights how gendered violence, poverty, and systemic inequality intersect to create a pathway from trauma to misdiagnosis (especially with Personality Disorders) and ultimately to child removal.
Read the article: The hidden cost of trauma: maternal mental health and child removal
