Communities digest: Find out what’s been happening in our communities in November and December

06 January 2025

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

In November, the Evidence Community held three Reflecting on Evidence sessions about different evidence summaries produced by our research team.

The evidence summaries were:

In November and December the community also held two communities of enquiry. They invited Dr Lucy Treby to introduce her research, 'What is the relationship between supervision and practice in child and family Social Work?'.

Dr Laura Eddins then explored the topic 'Understanding the family justice system in Wales: Key governance areas and opportunities for trauma-informed approaches'.

On 23 January the community will be holding another 'reflecting on evidence session, where they'll discuss the topic 'Telling lies to people with dementia: is it ethical?'. If you’d like to attend, you can sign up here.

On 5 February they'll hold another community of enquiry on the topic of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). If you’d like to attend this session, you can sign up here.

Join the Evidence Community

Meet our community managers

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

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

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.