Social care practice and policy that’s underpinned by innovation, high-quality research, data and other forms of evidence

We carry out the workforce data collection every year to give a snapshot of the social care workforce in Wales. We ask local authorities and independent service providers to send us data on their workforce numbers and characteristics.

We’ve run the collection since 2021, after Welsh Government’s Performance and Improvement Framework for social services in Wales replaced previous collections with a single process managed by us.

The collection is different to information published about the registered workforce as it collects data on everyone working in social care. It also looks at things like contracts and working hours, as well as joiners and leavers and where they move to and from.

We carried out research into the maturity of social care data in Wales. Our aim was to help every local authority in Wales understand how they can make best use of the data that’s collected, processed and shared as part of their provision of social care.

Once we’ve assessed all 22 local authorities, we’ll be publishing a report in 2024 to 2025 that gives an overview of the social care data landscape in Wales.

In July 2023, we published a report, which highlighted gaps in the current support for digital innovation in social care in Wales. We then looked at how we could support digital innovation by assessing the digital maturity of social care in Wales.

Working with 97 service providers and 8 infrastructure organisations, we reviewed 9 existing models of digital maturity and were informed by 6 experts who had developed digital maturity models. 

We brought together partners and stakeholders to develop a new research, innovation and improvement strategy for social care. We want to create a culture where evidence is central to the provision of social care and where it’s used to inform decisions at all levels.

Between October and December, we asked people what they thought about the strategy. As part of that consultation, we also ran 4 workshops (40 people in total), so that people leading, developing and providing social care feel confident, supported and inspired to use evidence and innovation.

We’ll use the feedback gathered to inform the final version of the strategy, which will be published in 2024 to 2025. 

In 2023 to 2024, we worked on a new service for social care called Insight Collective. The Insight Collective aims to make a positive difference to social care by focusing on three areas – research and data, sharing and learning, and coaching and advice.

The service, which will launch in 2024 to 2025, will give people working in social care access to the latest social care research and data, guidance about training, opportunities to work together, and advice about the support that’s available.

In September, we launched a new coaching service to help people working in social care address needs and challenges. We know that innovation is happening across social care, but often it is not recognised. With the right support, innovations in social care can benefit more people. That is why we crated the innovation coaching service.

In 2023 to 2024, our innovation coaches supported nearly 25 people and teams. We took a flexible approach to the way we worked to get an understanding of the best way to package and offer our support to help people who work in social care make best use of it. We’ve supported a wider variety of projects from testing methods to improve staff well-being and increasing staff retention; scaling up ‘microenterprises for care’ initiatives to re-designing the ‘front door’ of the referral system for adult services.

We had positive feedback from people who’ve used the service, but we want to continue to find new ways of explaining it and showing what it can do for the sector.

We've been producing evidence summaries that present research findings in ways that are easy to understand. These go together with a wraparound offer of support and content from the Insight Collective to help people interpret and use evidence in their work.

In 2023-24 we published four evidence summaries on the Insight Collective: trauma-informed approaches, attraction and recruitment, improved well-being and workforce retention, and place-based care. We’ve had positive feedback from people delivering care and support, researchers, and educators.

Related content

Our outcomes

Research, data and innovation

Insight Collective