Social work

Remember that you are on an interdisciplinary course. Therefore, it may be worthwhile for you to check the subject resources pages for Social Sciences, Criminology, and Psychology as well.

These collections provide instant access to scholarly research, journal articles and book reviews. They may be accessed 24/7 and each collection has its own help and guidance on the home page.

Journal and database collections

Academic Search Premier A multi-disciplinary database that contains full text for many peer reviewed journals. It is easy to use and contains images and a visual search with information for health and social work related topics.
BASE is one of the world’s most voluminous search engines especially for academic open access web resources.
Box of Broadcasts is an on demand TV and radio service for education. The academically-focused system enables you to record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels, and search an extensive archive. Box of Broadcasts is intuitive and easy to use, so you may find you can start straight away
Childlink is unique in providing European, British and Irish information. Childlink has been designed to give the most up to the minute, easily accessible, cost effective service that includes information on welfare, education, health, lifestyle, justice, youth affairs, employment, and benefit issues.
CINAHL Complete Access to top nursing and allied health journals, evidence-based care sheets and quick lessons providing overviews of disease and conditions. Useful for psychological aspects of social work.
Community Care Inform Adults provides critical information in a quick and accessible format to help social work professionals make and evidence their decisions. It is aimed at social work professionals working with disabled and older people.
Community Care Inform Children also provides critical information in a quick and accessible format to help social work professionals make and evidence their decisions. It is designed for children and families social workers.
CORE gives you access to millions of scholarly articles aggregated from many Open Access repositories.
Education Research Complete is the largest database of education journals in the world, with over 2400 journals, nearly 1400 of which are full-text.
Emerald Insight contains a collection of 30 journals for professionals and practitioners in the areas of health and social care, learning disabilities, children’s services, mental health and community.
Family Law Reports covers cases resulting from family and child law issues.
Health Research Premium Collection Over 800 full text nursing and health journals which cover nursing, allied health, social care and alternative and complementary medicine.
MEDLINE is the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) premier bibliographic database containing more than 29 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.
PsycINFO Psychology database from the American Psychological Association (APA), containing citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations.
SAGE Research Methods is a database which supports research at all levels by providing material to guide users through every step of the research process. Resources include a methods map, case studies, datasets, books, reference works, journal articles and instructional videos from world-leading academics.
ScienceDirect is home to almost one-quarter of the world’s peer-reviewed full-text scientific, technical, social and medical content.
Scopus is the world’s largest abstract and citation database, containing 24,600 journals from 5,000 publishers. It is excellent for literature reviews or for finding out what has been published in your area as it can locate high quality journal articles, book chapters and more, for any subject.
Social Care Online is the UK’s largest database of information and research on all aspects of social care and social work. Updated daily resources include legislation, government documents, practice and guidance, systematic reviews, research briefings, reports, journal articles and websites.
Taylor & Francis Online are a collection of multidisciplinary journals covering subjects such as business, social work, arts and humanities.
Wiley Online Library A large multi-disciplinary database covering medicine and health, nursing, psychology, social work and policy, family and children and education.

Carers UK “the voice of carers”. Provides information, advice and support for carers and improves the understanding of caring through research and awareness campaigns.
Community Care Inform Adults The UK’s largest providers of online resources for social workers and social care professionals. Login with your university credentials to access the resources.
Community Care Inform Children The UK’s largest providers of online resources for social workers and social care professionals. Login with your university credentials to access the resources.
Drugwise provide evidence-based and non-judgemental information on drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Equality and Human Rights Commission A statutory remit to promote and monitor human rights; and to protect, enforce and promote equality.
Home Office Lead government department for policies on immigration, passports, counter-terrorism, policing, equality, drugs and crime.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation An independent non political body which supports research in housing, social care and social policy. Contains several hundred research summaries.
King’s Fund helps to shape policy and practice through research and analysis; develop individuals, teams and organisations and promote understanding of the health and social care system.
Legislation.gov.uk Search and find UK legislation
Mental Health Foundation UK’s leading mental health research, policy and service improvement charity.
MIND Information, advice and support for mental health issues.
NICE Evidence Search (formerly NHS Evidence) is a service that provides fast access to authoritative health and social care evidence and best practice through a web-based portal.
Race Equality Foundation Explores what is known about discrimination and disadvantage and uses this evidence to develop interventions that overcome barriers and promote family origin equality in health, housing and social care.
Rights of Women An organisation working towards achieving justice and equality by informing, educating and empowering women on legal rights.
Social Care Institute for Excellence An independent charity working with adults, families and children’s social care and social work services across the UK.
Social Care Online UK’s largest database of information and research on all aspects of social care and social work. Resources include legislation, government documents, practice and guidance, systematic reviews, research briefings, reports, journal articles and websites.
Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) for excellence in research in social policy, especially health and social care, poverty, welfare and social work.
Social Welfare Portal British Library allows searching and access (much free, apart from journal articles) to key UK resources in the areas of: children and families, older adults, disabilities, minority groups, community development and regeneration, welfare benefits, social services, offenders and the criminal justice systems. Items include: UK government reports, journal articles(see above) and reports from research organisations including NACRO, Demos and Barnardos.
UK Youth National network of organisations dedicated to supporting young people to realise their potential. The focus is on developing and promoting non-formal learning opportunities for all.
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a directing authority for health for UN countries responsible for providing leadership on global health matters.

Research

Research Ethics Guidebook Guide for researchers which includes: advice on writing research proposals, ethics committee approval and issues arising during fieldwork.

Professional bodies

The British Association of Social Workers BASW is the largest professional association for social work in the UK with the aim of promoting the best possible social work services for all people who may need them, while also securing the well being of social workers.
Social Work England is the regulator for social workers in England. They maintain the professional register, set the professional standards, quality control education and training and investigates complaints.

UK National Statistics

NHS Digital An Executive Non Departmental Public Body. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 sets out their responsibilities, including: collecting, analysing, managing and presenting national health and social care data.
NHS England Statistics Statistics on a range of health and care subjects, used to inform debate, decision-making and research both within government and by the wider community.
Official Statistics This site covers statistics relating to information gathered on public health, health services provided by the National Health Service (NHS), social care, and health and safety at work.