Help with topic browsing

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The topics tree structure

The topic tree is available for reference, in hierarchical and alphabetical formats, as a PDF file.

• Download the hierarchical topic tree (122kb PDF file)
• Download the alphabetical topic tree (541kb PDF file).

The topic tree was last updated in May 2008 - download a document outlining the Changes in the topic tree - May 2008 (37kb PDF file).

Use the Browse social care topics to find records by topic and see how topics are related.

The topic tree
How to combine topics
How to view related topics
How to search for topics

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The topic tree

The top level of the topic tree has fifteen main topic areas. Use these to find your topic of interest.

Key

Each topic has:

1. A plus sign next to it. Use this to expand the topic tree to reveal sub-topics
2. A tick box. Tick the box to select the topic, add it to the combine topics box and display any related terms (see example below)
3. A topic title. Click on the title to view all the records for that topic
4. A number in brackets. This is the number of records in this topic

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How to combine topics

Tick the box beside a topic to add that topic to the Combine topics box. Navigate through the topic tree and add any additional topics you require. Click on 'Search' to view the records for these topics or reset the search by selecting 'clear'.

Note: adding more than two topics may dramatically reduce the results returned

Note: Combine topics uses AND so will only produce results that include both topics. To search more than one topic e.g. adoption or fostering, use the Advanced search options.

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How to view related topics

Tick the box beside a topic and any terms related to that topic will apear to the right of the topic tree. These can also be selected or added to the Combine topics box. See below for an example:

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How to search for topics

To find a topic add a word to the find topic search box and press Search.

If the topic is recognised the search will return a list of topics that include your search term and highlight them with a red arrow. See below for an example using 'law':

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