Using participatory methods to reflect on models of children’s residential care

06 November 2024

The Children’s Commissioning Consortium Cymru (known as the 4Cs) and Social Care Wales organised two events in September on models of children’s residential care in Wales. In this blog, Dr Gill Toms reflects on how the Developing Evidence Enriched Practice (DEEP) team and our Evidence Community Manager Rhiannon Wright supported delegates to share and learn.

Our backgrounds

Through the Evidence Community, Rhiannon helps people access, gather, and use research. Our role in the DEEP programme is to help people talk well together to share and learn from all types of evidence.

Our methods: exploratory talk

We started each event by sharing the 'exploratory talk' method. This is a form of conversation that helps build collective understanding as people explain why they think and believe what they do. We encourage questions within this method so that disagreements are explored. This helps create an environment that's open and supportive of sharing and learning.

One of the workshops we facilitated reflected on the Supporting positive outcomes in children’s residential care evidence summary.

The Social Care Wales research team provided an overview, and small groups were then encouraged to discuss four questions:

what they liked about the evidence summary
what made them reflect
what was missing
how the evidence summary could link to practice.

People were then given an opportunity to ask questions and share reflections, inspiring some really interesting discussions. For example, conversations at both events turned to how residential homes could be redesigned to avoid having a staff office. This approach was highlighted in the evidence summary as a way to make residential care feel more homely. At the events, suggestions were shared by homes that had already made this adjustment. Other settings shared how they had made the staff office a safe and positive space for young people.

At the end of the session, we asked people to place sticky notes on our reflection wall to show actions they intended to take as a result of what had been shared and learnt.

These included:

looking at how to limit staff office time and move to paperless processes
listening, first and foremost, to young people
reviewing the evidence summary collectively (regionally) to consider how to improve practice.

"DEEP and approaches to evidence enriched practice helped to create an environment of curiosity and positive challenge. This helped those attending feel safe to share their stories and to explore their ideas and assumptions."

- Hannah Williams, Assistant Director of Improvement, Social Care Wales.

Our methods: magic moments

We also facilitated a 'magic moments' workshop at the end of both events. This approach helps us to share and learn from short stories of experience. We asked if people could share a positive story about children’s residential care so we could hear about the good practice that’s already happening.

In their groups, people shared and discussed their own magic moments. If they wanted to, they could then share with the whole room. We heard wonderful stories about making a positive difference to the lives of young people. Sometimes these differences were fairly immediate, but other times people reflected on how positive changes had come to light over a longer period of time.

Sharing these personal magic moments ended the day on a very positive and hopeful note.

Find out more!

For more information on DEEP approaches visit the DEEP website. Our events page lists current opportunities to learn more about DEEP methods.

We also have a range of inspiring evidence summaries to explore.

Key contacts

Dr Gill Toms

Research and practice development officer (DEEP)

I have a background in psychology and research. My research interests include dementia and short breaks for unpaid carers. I'm based at Bangor University and have worked in DEEP for a couple of years. I've really enjoyed learning more about social care from practitioners and from people who access social care services.

I feel fortunate to be in a role where I can learn so much from others. Outside of work, my passion is walking in the mountains and along the coastline of North Wales. Hefyd, dwi’n mwynhau dysgu Cymraeg ond dw i eisiau gwella!

Rhiannon Wright

Community manager, Social Care Wales

I manage our Evidence Community, which aims to make research and evidence more accessible and bring it to life for busy practitioners.

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.