Communities of practice support and development

What is a community of practice?

In our work, we define a community of practice as:  

A group of people who share a common interest or profession and come together to learn, share knowledge and experiences, and solve problems. 

Key features of a community include: 

• bringing people together around a common interest, passion, expertise or profession
• regular, active participation and collaboration between members
• learning through sharing knowledge and experiences
• feeling more connected to your work, and colleagues supporting each other
• connecting with people from your own and other organisations.

Why are we offering this support?

We know that there are social care challenges which would benefit from a community approach. 

But people are still unsure what communities are, what skills they’ll need to run one, and how much work is involved. 

From our own experience, we’ve found communities can be a valuable tool in supporting people to share ideas and good practice.  

And we know there’s a demand for this support, because people have asked us for information and advice about setting up a community. 

By offering this support, we aim to help make sure that new communities are planned and run in a way that gives them the best chance of achieving their goals. 

Offering this support will also help us to achieve the ambitions of ‘Ymlaen’ – the research, innovation and improvement strategy for social care. 

What could support look like?

Our support could include: 

• open sessions to meet our communities team and learn more about communities of practice 
• a one-to-one chat to see if this support is the right fit 
• regular one-to-one support sessions based on agreed goals 
• bringing community managers together to learn from each other.