What is Evidence-Informed and Evidence-Based Practice, and why it matters  

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What is evidence-informed and evidence-based practice and why is it important?

Evidence-informed and evidence-based practice supports our decision making by gathering information from a range of valuable sources, including: 

• quantitative and qualitative research 

• process, impact and economic evaluations 

• professional expertise 

• lived experience  

• stakeholder knowledge 

• organisational data. 

Why is it important? 

• To give us the best chance of improving outcomes. Any activity or change that we implement can either: improve things, make no difference, or make things worse. So, using the best available evidence gives us the best chance that something will ‘work’ as intended, improve outcomes, and not cause any unintended harm.   

• To help use money and resources wisely. When there is a range of potential activities, evidence helps identify the one with the greatest impact, or the one that works as well as others, but costs less.   

• To ensure that practitioners, decision-makers and organisations continue to learn and grow. Successful organisations encourage reflective practice and professional curiosity, and routinely integrate new, credible and trustworthy evidence into decisions, mobilising new learning and adapting practices. 

Evidence Based and Evidence Informed – what’s the difference?

As a starting point, I always find it helpful to make a distinction between evidence-informed (or evidence-led) and evidence-based. Evidence-informed approaches are aligned to current research findings alongside practice expertise, knowledge and lived experience, and are underpinned by a theory of change. While this leaves room for promising innovation, there should be a commitment to evaluation. When approaches and interventions are validated by robust evaluation, then they can be described as evidence based.

How HMI Probation supports use of evidence and research 

HM Inspectorate of Probation is independent and our purpose is to report on the effectiveness of work with both adults and children who have offended through our inspections of probation and youth justice services. Our purpose statement explicitly references research, inspections, and evidence-based judgements and guidance. We use research evidence alongside inspection findings and knowledge to inform our understanding of what helps and what hinders probation services, to develop our inspection programmes, guidance and effective practice products, and to consider system-wide change that could change lives for the better. 

Within the inspectorate, I lead a small social research team which contributes to the evidence base for high-quality services and helps to maximise the robustness and impact of inspection. We recognise that it is important to upskill staff to have a sufficient understanding of the role of research and evaluation. We also need to pay attention to dissemination, engagement and impact. Expanding and strengthening the evidence base will be of limited value without effective ‘knowledge translation’ and ‘knowledge mobilisation’ where the evidence is used and impacts on policy and practice. Evidence needs to be reported in clear and accessible ways, tailored to the specific audience, and focusing on the key considerations and implications.  

We are very focused on getting the right balance between accessibility and academic credibility. To help promote a research and evidence-based culture and an appetite to embrace and learn from research findings, our core products have developed over time. They include:  

• long read Research & Analysis Bulletins  

• shorter Academic Insights papers from academics and researchers across different organisations and jurisdictions  

• Reflections from research videos with leading academics setting out their top pieces of advice for high-quality services 

• Visuals like the A-Z of some research messages and concepts and the PRESENCE components for the delivery of high-quality probation and youth justice services.  

 

My Top Tips for building and implementing the evidence base 

Evidence-informed and evidence-based practice isn’t easy. There are many challenges, probably the most obvious is the pressure and demands placed on frontline staff, and the limited time and space that many people have to engage with evidence and to support research activities. Others include competing or changing priorities, our own biases, a lack of available data, and not planning or thinking about gathering evidence or planning evaluation until it is too late.  

However, alongside these challenges and barriers, there are various enablers and good practices which can be employed. 

Building the evidence base 

• Work with people to pinpoint any specific problems and to find out what the important evidence questions are and how to answer them. Have frequent conversations with practitioners and researchers to inform what to focus on, when, why, and how (recognising the value of differing types of research, and thinking about the short term and longer term). 

• Identify the experts on specific topics, building upon existing knowledge, experience and skills, and trying to avoid partiality. 

• Weigh up the current evidence. Although there are lots of opinions and ideas, many initiatives have not been fully evaluated to see if they work. New ways of working or interventions will need testing in proportion to the potential risks or benefits they carry and the strength of the existing evidence base.  

• Design evaluations in advance, thinking about any helpful data that is routinely collected and paying attention to the desirable outcomes and how they could be measured.  

• Encourage decision-makers and the people undertaking research to work together, breaking down any barriers. Invite well-respected colleagues to get involved, share the benefits with their peers, and encourage others to do the same. 

Implementing the evidence base  

• Find the best available evidence on the topic you are exploring. Make sure to check the quality of each piece of information (i.e., how trustworthy it is, and how relevant it is to the problem or question) and create a narrative of what it is telling you, applying the knowledge to real world decisions and practice. 

• Communicate clearly about evidence. Give people the evidence that they need at that time with ways to find out more. Use different types of communication and, time it carefully. Make evidence products look attractive and talk about evidence in a way that people understand and find both relevant to their needs and interesting.  

• Talk about evidence frequently, and identify opportunities for meaningful engagement and discussions regarding the current evidence and its implications and create channels to feed these back into practice development. 

• Build support for utilising evidence and research, helping decision-makers to become skilled in accessing and understanding evidence. Consider coaching, training, mentoring, and supervision. 

• Support the organisation to embed evidence-based practice. Ideas include:  

• developing tools, protocols, and committees to remind people and help them to use evidence at the right time 

• making everyone responsible for evidence-informed and evidence-based practice 

• rewarding and giving feedback on attempts to use and implement the evidence base. 

You can read an interview with Robin and learn more about the work of his team here: Prison Service Journal 271 | Centre for Crime and Justice Studies