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Evidence summaries

You told us that finding up-to-date research relevant to your practice can be a challenge.  

To support you with this, we're producing evidence summaries that present research findings in ways that are easy to understand.

Depending on the information available, our evidence summaries can offer:

  • a short explanation of how the topic relates to Welsh legislation and policy
  • links to relevant data on our National Social Care Data Portal
  • promising practice examples from Wales
  • access to further support, including our communities of practice, our innovation coaching service, and our evaluation support
  • links to related events and training
  • a list of the five most relevant resources that are either open access or freely available on the NHS Wales e-Library.

We've chosen our topics and sub-topics for 2023 to 2024 based on our work to set research priorities, as well as using the priorities set by ADSS Cymru.

Meet the team

Dr Eleanor Johnson

Dr Eleanor Johnson

Research manager

research@socialcare.wales
I manage our research team. We encourage and promote good quality research on social care in and about Wales by setting research priorities, supporting researchers, and managing research projects. We pull together findings from research to provide insights for people working in social care through our Social Care Wales evidence summaries. Before working at Social Care Wales, I was a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Centre for Research in Health and Social Care. My research includes paid care work, housing with care, and social care volunteers. I also taught social science research methods to master's degree students. Most recently, I carried out an NIHR, School for Social Care Research funded project on 'Covid, Closeness and Care'. This involved exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted upon direct care provision in private homes and residential care homes for older people. My PhD research – carried out at Cardiff University (2018) – compared the experiences of care workers and the provision of care in a high-cost and a low-cost residential care home for older people.
Dr Kat Deerfield

Dr Kat Deerfield

Research coordinator

research@socialcare.wales
My main responsibility is creating evidence summaries, which are overviews of research on topics important to people working in social care. I research things that people in the sector have said they want to learn more about, and then I turn this into content for the Insight Collective website. I’ve previously worked in support roles in communications and marketing and in research roles in academia and the third sector. I also spent two years working as a freelance editor and proofreader. I worked for the Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE) at Cardiff University for five years, first as a project administrator and then as a research associate.
Dr Grace Krause

Dr Grace Krause

Research coordinator

research@socialcare.wales
My role is about making research accessible to people working in social care. As a team, we take academic research, research done by other organisations or people with lived experience, and data collected by Social Care Wales, and make this information easy to understand. I'm a trained social worker and have experience of working with a range of people. This includes people with learning disabilities, substance misuse issues, and people engaged in survival sex work. I have a master's degree in criminology and a PhD in social sciences. My research includes a variety of topics from education, attitudes towards vaccination and the way people talk about moral beliefs, as well as inequality in the workplace.