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Linked data research in adult social care

We’re running a priority-setting exercise as part of our leadership role for Administrative Data Research (ADR) Wales. We’ll identify 10 key research priority questions for adult social care in Wales that can be addressed using linked data research.

Why have we chosen this as one of our priority-setting exercises?

We think it’s important to make use of data that’s already collected to inform and improve social care policy and practice. This was set out in the research and development strategy for Wales 2018 to 2023 launched by Social Care Wales and Health and Care Research Wales. And it’s in our research, innovation and improvement strategy Ymlaen (2024 to 2029).

We’re running this exercise as part of our role as social care theme lead for the ADR Wales programme of work, which means we’ll be taking on an ambassador role for linked data research across the sector. 

We’re focusing on adult social care because the work carried out with children’s social care linked data is already more advanced. 

How can linking data provide research opportunities?

Linking adult social care data from across Wales with other data sources (for example in health or housing) can help us understand more about the needs and issues people have. When we link data, it gives us a more complex and comprehensive picture at a population level than a single data set can provide.

The priority-setting exercise will focus on data that’s relevant to the adult social care sector. It’s data that’s already widely and routinely collected and can be de-identified, which means there’s no way to identify individuals.

Linking this data could help us ask questions about things like:

  • who is accessing social care services
  • patterns of access between social care services and other services like healthcare
  • identified needs that are not currently being met
  • current and future demand on workforce and resources
  • the role of unpaid carers and volunteers
  • outcomes for people accessing care and support like their physical or mental health and well-being.

The exercise will help us identify how linked data research can help shape future policy decisions and make a positive difference to those accessing care and support as well as for the social care workforce.

How will we carry out the exercise?

We’re bringing together a range of stakeholders including organisations that routinely collect data, people with lived experience of care and support, social care practitioners, third sector partners, researchers and policy makers.

We’ll use different methods of engagement, including surveys, focus groups, workshops and interviews to identify 10 priority areas for linked data research. And we’ve set up a working group to help shape and steer the exercise.

As the exercise progresses, we’ll be presented with options for priority areas. We’ll firstly check to see where research has already been carried out. And where questions remain, we’ll identify those that can be answered through linked data research.

We’ll then go back to our stakeholders to review the questions and choose a shortlist of themes. And we’ll make this process as accessible as possible to include a wide range of views.

A final workshop will be independently led to help us develop a consensus for the top 10 research priorities.

Who is helping us carry out this work?

We’ve set up a working group to explore how we can use linked data research to answer questions about what adult social care people in Wales need. 

It’s chaired by our project lead Lynsey Cross, a Social Care Wales and ADR Wales research officer. 

ADR Wales is part of the ADR UK investment. ADR UK brings together data and approved researchers to enable research that can inform policy decisions and more effective public services.

The group includes representatives from local authorities, third sector, Welsh Government, academia, a member of the public and a prioritisation specialist.

The working group meets regularly and reviews and shapes progress along each step of the priority-setting exercise.

Engaging with our stakeholders

We’ll be asking specific groups to share their views with us.

For example, we’ll survey data owners and experts on possible research questions generated by the data that’s already available and collected in a usable way. 

We’ll also ask them to identify barriers or challenges they’ve experienced within adult social care services in Wales that linked data could help address.

We also want to hear from people with lived experience. This means talking to people who access care and support as well as frontline staff who work in the sector. We’ll be running focus groups to learn about the issues they face and look at ways these can feed into the scope of the project as part of researchable questions that could be answered using linked data.

An update on our work

We used different methods (like a survey, interviews and events) to gather people’s views on adult social care in Wales and find out what’s important to them. We analysed their feedback and drew up a list of 15 research priority areas that can be addressed using linked data research. These have been reviewed by our working group.

  1. Forecast future demand and resource allocation for social care services, including housing with care and support and day services.
  2. Understand the use and availability of different types of social care services across Wales.
  3. Understand the impact of preventative and early intervention services (such as home adaptations or telecare) on the use of other health and social care provision. 
  4. Understand differences in the costs associated with social care provision across service type and rural and urban areas, as well as the impact of funding changes on provision.
  5. Establish the effectiveness of measures to reduce carbon emissions in social care.
  6. Understand the needs of different groups to make sure future commissioning of social care services can respond to them. These groups include unpaid carers, neurodivergent people, people with learning disabilities, and young people with physical disabilities.
  7. Understand the relationship between social isolation, loneliness and social care provision.
  8. Understand how social care is provided across a person's lifetime and the relationship between social care provision and the overall health of people using care services.
  9. Understand the characteristics and needs of individuals who pay for their own social care.
  10. Explore the relationship between social care funding and the quality and effectiveness of service provision.
  11. Understand the impact of waiting times for social care provision on individuals who need care and support.
  12. Understand where health and social care services work together and how this impacts on people accessing care and support as well as the services involved.
  13. Understand what factors impact the health and well-being of social care staff, and how these factors may also affect recruitment and retention.
  14. Understand the relationship between workforce-related factors - such as staffing levels, terms and conditions, training needs, language skills and other relevant skills - and the care and support provided.
  15. Explore the role of digital innovation and technology in social care.

Want to know more?

Take a look at our page explaining how we're leading on the social care theme within ADR Wales and our linked data research blog exploring the benefits of this approach.