Social Care Spotlight: quick access to trusted knowledge, all in one place

Wednesday, 24 June, 2026

Finding reliable, up‑to‑date information can be challenging - especially if you don’t have a library service on hand. That’s where The Knowledge Network comes in. It’s an integrated service for health and social care, bringing together high‑quality evidence, journals, books and learning to support your day‑to‑day work.

Our Social Care Spotlight is back, shining a light on resources that can help you save time, stay informed and strengthen practice - whatever your role or job title.

Start with OpenAthens

The key is an NHS Scotland OpenAthens account. It's quick to register and unlocks free access to everything in the digital library - journals, eBooks, databases and more. One login, all in one place: Get started with an OpenAthens account

Learn in minutes with Open Badges

Short on time? Our Open Badges offer bitesize learning designed to help you get to grips with what's available and how to use it. They're practical, flexible and easy to fit around your work: The Knowledge Network Open Badges

Journals that reflect real-world practice

Our subscriptions include titles that speak to a multidisciplinary and international audience, such as:

You'll also find more tailored recommendations on our Social care page, including journals and books relevant across roles and settings: Selected resources for social care

eBooks for wellbeing and beyond

Explore our growing eBook collections, including the Wellbeing eBooks curated by the NES wellbeing champions and free to read via The Knowledge Network: NES Wellbeing Matters collection

You can also have a say on what eBooks are included in the library by making your own requests via our eBook suggestion form.

Evidence, made easy

If you need clear, concise summaries of evidence, try Nursing and Allied Health Reference Source (NAHRS). It's simple to use and designed to help you find answers fast: Evidence summaries

We're running a training session on 28th July covering NAHRS and other evidence summary tools - worth joining if you want to know more: Getting the best out of evidence for practice

Build skills and confidence

We also offer a range of guidance on our Turas Learn site, Finding and using knowledge:

What's coming next

Changes are on the way for The Knowledge Network Library Search and we'll be running live training sessions to support the update. To stay in the loop, subscribe to our Knowledge Nuggets newsletter

Take a look

The Knowledge Network brings together trusted resources to support practice across health and social care

👉 Register for OpenAthens and explore the resources available to you today: Social Care | The Knowledge Network

For further assistance, please contact: Knowledge Services Help Desk

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