SUE EVANS COLUMNIST
OUR newly appointed board met for the first time last week and we are keen to harness their expertise and varying perspectives to steer the work of Social Care Wales – a new leadership body for the social care sector.
One of my aspirations is to ensure that Social Care Wales remains focused on improving the lives of those who rely on social care services by supporting the wide range of professionals involved in providing it.
To do this, my team and I meet regularly with citizens, front-line professionals, commissioners and provider organisations so that we can learn from their experiences and use this to inform our activities and resources.
We also work with a range of strategic partners to achieve our goals. For example, we are working with Qualifications Wales to develop a new suite of qualifications for social care workers in Wales and with universities to learn from international research about current and emerging trends in social care provision, so these can be considered for Wales.
I recently met with a few consultant social workers and, as the name suggests, these are experienced practitioners who have established themselves as experts in specific areas of practice.
It was great to see their enthusiasm for social care and a commitment to celebrate success and tackle challenges where needed.
Their leadership roles support local practitioners to embed best practice and they are working across Wales to help us gather evidence of what is working well.
They have been instrumental in shaping a new social care research strategy for Wales, which we will be consulting upon soon.
The strategy recognises that research into social care has been limited historically when compared to research into clinical practice.
Our aim is to increase the capacity and capability of social care research in Wales, so we can be assured that practice is the best it can be.
The School of Social Care Research, hosted by Swansea University, will work with academics, researchers, practitioners and managers across Wales to support Welsh Government’s vision, set out in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.
It will be interesting to see if some of the very welcome funding for dementia research that has recently been secured in Cardiff can be targeted towards research into care and support for those who are living with dementia, as well as on diagnosis and clinical treatments.
I am sure this would be welcomed by those who are caring for and supporting family and friends with dementia.
The growth of Dementia Friends and Dementia Friendly Communities is helping improve understanding and provide a supportive environment across Wales.
We want to further our knowledge about what works well to improve support and prevent deterioration by looking at local and international evidence, and rolling out best practice across Wales.
Our regulatory work provides us with insight into poor practice, which then informs our workforce development priorities.
It is worth noting that the number of practitioners in Wales who are referred and sanctioned through our fitness to practice panels is a very small proportion of the overall workforce.
There is great social care practice across Wales but it is patchy and we will work collaboratively to deliver our commitments and continue the improvement journey.