Communities of practice support and development - frequently asked questions

If you have questions about our communities of practice support and development service, you might find the answer you're looking for on this page.

I’m not sure if this support offer is right for me. Is there someone I can talk to?

Of course. If you’re not sure whether this support offer is right for you, contact us on communities@socialcare.wales and we can help you decide. We’ll also discuss whether the support is right for you in our initial meeting.

How involved will you be in our work?

We’ll discuss this in our initial meeting. We’ll agree together what the support will look like.

Will you help me facilitate my community meetings with members?

Depending on what support we agree together, we can share advice on how to facilitate online and in-person meetings, based on what we‘ve learned from facilitating our own community meetings. If this is an area that you feel you need extra support with, we can help you develop a plan for some of your initial meetings, attend them and provide you with feedback based on what we observe. This would be time limited and depend on capacity.

What are you expecting from me? I'm not sure I have the time, but I am interested.

That’s OK. We’ll go at your pace and agree together how often we meet and for how long. If you decide the support isn’t right for you at any time, we can pause or end the support and you can get back in touch with us if you decide you’d like to start accessing the support again.

Is it OK to change my mind halfway through?

Yes, of course. If you decide this support offer isn’t right for you at the moment then we can bring our support to an end. You’re free to get back in touch with us in the future if you’d like to restart the support.

How often will we meet one to one?

If we agree the one-to-one support is right for you, we’ll discuss how often we meet to suit your availability and ours.

The subject matter of my community is really sensitive and confidential. Do you have a contract that will help reassure my senior leadership team about this?

Yes, we have a contract which covers the topic of confidentiality. We’ll talk you through this and both sign it before we start working together.

Will you help me measure the success of my community?

If you’d like help measuring the success of your community, we also offer evaluation support through our Insight Collective website.

I’m nervous that you're the regulator.

As well as our role to register the workforce, Social Care Wales can also help you to improve your practice. This service is separate to our regulation work