The Link Officer is critical as they act as the bridge between RiPfA and Partner agencies. If Partner agencies are to gain the best value from membership, the Link Officer preferably needs to be a second or third tier officer who works in either workforce development or operational delivery, and has close links to the other area.

Link Officers require the support of senior managers, and it is beneficial to identify a senior Strategic Champion whom the Link Officer can contact with any questions or concerns about organisational support for evidence-informed practice.

Link Officers support their organisations to embed the use of evidence through

• encouraging staff to sign up to the RiPfA bulletin and Research and Policy Update
• sharing the Delivery Programme with managers
• identifying and encouraging people to attend events and get involved in Change Projects
• disseminating hard copy resources to service areas
• advertising the RiPfA website to staff
• identifying with senior managers the priority for one-to-one support and requesting this from RiPfA
• using the discussion forum to post and respond to questions
• attending the annual Link Officers’ event to gain learning about evidence-informed practice, support from RiPfA and network examples of practice improvement.

Tips from Link Officers for getting the most out of membership include

• adding information about RiPfA to your email signature
• including RiPfA information in your internal bulletin
• taking RiPfA resources to management meetings and displaying them in training rooms
• signing staff up to the RiPfA bulletin and Research and Policy Update at the end of training sessions
• including RiPfA resources in induction and putting an evidence-informed practice goal in appraisal forms
• booking a place at a webinar and inviting a group to attend by projecting the screen
• asking attendees at events to provide a short write-up for your internal bulletin.

For support in the Link Officer role, or to identify who your Link Officer is please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .