Evidence-Informed Performance Improvement 2
National Performance Indicator: increase the percentage of people aged 65 and over with high levels of care needs who are cared for at home Dr Gillian MacIntyre and Ailsa Stewart Glasgow School of Social Work, University of Strathclyde
Methodology
It is a pity that the authors failed to use a single UK produced database to find the evidence. The databases used are all produced in the USA (COPAC is a catalogue) and therefore it is not suprising that they failed to find grey literaure in the searches. American databases do not include UK reports etc.
It would be interesting to know why the researchers did not use UK sources such as Social Policy & Practice, AgeInfo, Community Abstracts or even Planex (produced in Scotland). All these databases include a wealth of information on UK research and practice including reports and other grey material from many sources.
Approximately 30% of the content of Policy & Practice alone is grey literature.
Failure to search these UK sources inevitably means that there is a danger of bias in the final review and its recommendations.