Reflections from my PhD placement at Social Care Wales

About my placement

Hi, my name is Abi and I am completing a six-month placement at Social Care Wales alongside my PhD studies. My placement focuses on developing opportunities for linked data research in social care. I was drawn to this project because it complements my own PhD research, where I’m using administrative data to explore variations and barriers to accessing safeguarding for older adults in Wales.

Working with partners to improve data sharing

During my placement, I joined a team of colleagues who are working in partnership with Administrative Data Research Wales to promote the sharing and use of administrative data for linked data research. This is an innovative type of research where information shared by different organisations is connected so we can build a bigger picture of how people interact with services over time.

Wales as a leader in linked data

In 2007, Wales became the first UK nation to develop the infrastructure needed for linked data research in the form of the SAIL databank, a Secure Data Environment (SDE) for administrative data.

This work has inspired current UK-wide projects, including the new Health Data Research Service; NHS England said of the project: “We’re learning from successful models like the SAIL Databank in Wales”. And cross-nation projects such as the Ministry of Justice’s BOLD initiative now make use of the SAIL databank’s expertise and data capacity.

Expanding data linkage in social care

Our goal now is to develop more data linkage opportunities in social care, particularly adult social care, where historically there has been less administrative data available for researchers.

This relies on organisations being able and willing to share high‑quality administrative data. Supporting this has been a major focus of my placement. I worked with the team at Social Care Wales and an external animation company to create a short video explaining the processes and good practice involved in data sharing for organisations.

What this experience has taught me

This experience has taught me a lot. During my time at Social Care Wales, a few key lessons have stood out:

The importance of trust and confidence: Organisations such as local authorities and charities support thousands of people and hold sensitive information. These organisations take their duty of care seriously, and they need confidence that their data will be used safely and responsibly.

Secure data environments like SAIL use the Five Safes Framework to control how data can be accessed and by whom. Data Sharing Agreements and Data Protection Impact Assessments are also in place to protect data security and confidentiality.

Strong relationships: I’ve also learned how important relationships are between researchers and those working in services. Social Care Wales supports these relationships through evidence communities, which give social care professionals and stakeholders opportunities to share knowledge and stay up to date with new research.

I joined an evidence‑sharing session on the social inclusion of older people, which was attended by professionals from across Wales. Events like this help ensure the workforce can apply the most current evidence in their practice.

The field is evolving quickly: I have learned that administrative data research is always evolving, and Social Care Wales has a lot of expertise in this area. For example, my colleague Owen has written a blog about how Natural Language Processing (NLP) can help researchers understand thousands of case files written in different ways, and how this could improve our understanding of social care.

Social care research will undoubtedly change massively over the next few years, and I am excited to be working, as part of my PhD, on the CARE Lab study, which is the first to use Wales’ new Adults Receiving Care and Support (ARCS) census. This study will help us better understand how adults with care and support needs in Wales access services.

Looking ahead

I will leave my placement with a much deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities of using administrative data for research. Behind the statistics are social care staff, stakeholder groups and public organisations working hard to help us understand people’s journeys through care in Wales, and to improve those journeys in the future.