Skip to Main content

Communities digest: Find out what’s been happening in our communities in July and August

05 September 2024

We believe creating spaces to connect and develop relationships will lead to lasting, positive change.

Our communities bring together social care practitioners, innovators and people with lived experience to create the energy and momentum for change.

They’re spaces for people to share their knowledge and ideas and to learn from others, creating relationships across different sectors and across Wales.

The communities meet both online and in person, while members can also connect through an online platform.

Here, the Insight Collective brings you some of the highlights of what’s been happening in our communities over the past two months.

Evidence Community

Our Evidence Community came together in July for a ‘Research Conversations’ workshop facilitated by Dr Ceryl Davies and Dr Louise Prendergast from Bangor University.

Ceryl and Louise shared their findings from research that explored the enablers and barriers to engaging with care leavers across Wales.

In August, the community held another ‘Research Conversations’ workshop on the theme of co-production. This session was led by Dr Nina Maxwell and Dr Martin Elliott from Cardiff University.

The community also held its quarterly core group meeting. The Evidence Community core group is open to anyone who wants to have more of a say in the direction the community takes. If you’d like to become a member of this group, please contact Community Manager Rhiannon Wright on rhiannon.wright@socialcare.wales. 

Lots of new blogs and news articles have been published on the community’s online platform, on themes including fabricated or induced illness (FII), working with Romani and Traveller communities, and collaborative social care research with older people.

There was also an interesting discussion on the platform about some of the challenges that emerge when working as a social worker in a mainly health-focused setting.

Join the Evidence Community

Place-Based Care Community

In July, the Bevan Commission joined the Place-Based Care Community to talk about the future of health and care in Wales based on their recent publication on the topic.

Members raised important points about working collaboratively, sharing information often and in different ways, and the day-to-day challenges of their settings.

We hope to bring these topics into future conversations in the community.

In August, members expressed how challenging it can be to try to show impact when some preventative and place-based work doesn’t neatly translate into numbers.

In response, the community welcomed Nick Andrews from Developing Evidence-Enriched Practice (DEEP), who shared information about Most Significant Change as a potential evaluation method.

Nick's session led to a great discussion, and members had the chance to experience being storytellers and story gatherers.

Join the Place-Based Care Community

Responsible Individuals Community

The Responsible Individuals Community came together in small ‘Coffee and connect’ sessions to get to know other Responsible Individuals in their own service type.

Members met in Newport and heard from Dr Tegan Brierley-Sollis about embedding trauma-informed approaches in services, and how to protect staff from vicarious trauma. They had time to think about how to apply the information to their own services.

In an innovative pilot, the community worked with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) and DEEP to bring Responsible Individuals and inspectors together online to explore different approaches to measuring and communicating the outcomes of people using social care services.

Participants looked at four very different approaches to outcome measurement and were given space to discuss their thoughts and develop a shared understanding.

The community’s August meet-up marked a year since the community launched. Members reflected on the achievements and benefits of the community, before breaking off into smaller groups to share good practice around different approaches to quality of care reviews.

The community worked with CIW to create a blog which explains what happens to Annual Returns once they're submitted by Responsible Individuals.

Join the Responsible Individuals Community

What’s happening in September?

  • We welcome members of all communities, and anyone who isn't yet a member but wants to learn more about models of care, to join us at the Residential Child Care Conference 2024 in Cardiff (12 September) and Llandudno (25 September). This event is for all registered providers of children’s residential care in Wales. Visit the Social Care Wales website for more information.

Meet our community managers

Rhiannon Wright

Rhiannon Wright

Evidence Community

I’m passionate about making social care research and evidence accessible and easier to use in practice. I’m a qualified social worker and have a background in local authority children’s services. I also spent many years in the third sector working therapeutically with children, focussing on the topics of sexual exploitation, harmful sexual behaviour and developmental trauma. Just before joining Social Care Wales, I worked for a regional safeguarding board, coordinating adult and child practice reviews and developing their quality assurance strategy.
Lilla Vér

Lilla Vér

Place-Based Care Community

I look after our Place-Based Care Community. My role is to create and nurture a space for people to learn together, connect and support each other. My previous experiences include developing support pathways in the criminal justice and substance misuse systems and project management.
Mathew Morgan

Mathew Morgan

Responsible Individuals Community

I've recently joined as the community manager for the Responsible Individuals (RI) Community. Before this, I worked within the fitness to practise hearings team. Prior to joining Social Care Wales I worked as an RI at the Swansea-based housing charity Goleudy. The charity specialises in supporting adults in transitional supported living settings. I oversaw the establishment of the RI role, the re-registration of services with Care Inspectorate Wales, the registration of domiciliary care staff with Social Care Wales and led the response to COVID-19.