Bridging the gap: the development of knowledge briefings at the health and social care interface

The move to more evidence-based practice has been a recent and much-advocated feature of public policy, especially in health and social care. An essential element of this approach is to make available summaries of evidence in an understandable form, which can then be used to support decision-making in planning and practice. The present paper describes the development of just such a set of information digests for the health and social care interface. A distinct divide exists between the knowledge bases usually accessed by practitioners and professionals in these two fields, even though they often share populations and concerns. The authors describe the challenges and processes of developing a set of briefing documents summarising policy and research literature on health and social care topics. The paper introduces the project and its intentions, and describes the development and application of the conceptual basis and production methodology behind the briefings. The issues raised by summarising research evidence on potentially controversial topics within the limits of a briefing are also discussed.