Who we are and what we do
Who we are
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is an independent charity, set up in 2001 as a cornerstone of the Government's "Quality Strategy for Social Care". SCIE makes a unique contribution to improving the quality and consistency of social care practice by developing, promoting and embedding knowledge and good practice in social care. SCIE's principal funders are the Department of Health in England, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
SCIE works with people and organisations throughout the social care sector to identify useful information, research and examples of good practice. Using this information, we produce resources which evaluate practice in a particular area of social care, draw out key messages for good practice and identify areas where more research is needed to inform good practice. We also run a free on-line resource called Social Care Online. Practitioners, researchers, service users, carers and policy makers rely on SCIE's resources as a central and trusted point for evidence-based good practice guidance.
SCIE's work covers the breadth of social care, including services for adults, children and families, human resource development, social work education, service user involvement and more.
What we do
SCIE produces free good practice guidance - information about what works well - across all aspects of social care. Our work covers:
- adults' services
- children and families' services
- e-learning
- people management
- social work education
- stakeholder participation
- using knowledge in social care.
We disseminate our good practice guidance in print and on the web, making it as accessible as possible to as large a number of people as possible. All of our work is based on evidence - both from literature and practice.
Typical SCIE outputs include:
- knowledge reviews, which pull together knowledge from service users, research and practice. They describe what knowledge is available, highlight the evidence that has emerged and draw practice points from the evidence.
- guides, which are one-stop shops for social care practitioners, presenting key findings, current legislation and examples of what is working well to guide and inform practice.
- position papers, which present a summary of a particular policy question, for example whether service user involvement has made a difference to social care services. They identify issues and key messages and are available both in hard copy and online.
- Social Care Online - the UK 's most extensive database of social care information.
- a range of SCIE events, for example, seminars and workshops, fringe meetings at party conferences, national conference.
- attending other people's events where we speak, present, hold workshops and disseminate our good practice guidance.
Click here to find out more about SCIE's publications on the main SCIE website.
SCIE was established by the government in 2001 as part of a wider strategy for social care improvement. A number of other bodies were established at the same time although some have been reorganised since. SCIE works closely with them.
Click here to find out more about what SCIE does on the main SCIE website.