An overview of our progress against this outcome in 2024 to 2025
Social care services that use strengths-based approaches focus on what people can do well. Instead of just looking at their problems, these services help people use their skills and resources, and community support to reach their goals.
“Health and social care in Wales remain heavily focused on acute needs, making it difficult to shift towards the preventive and long-term approach needed for a sustainable system. Despite widespread agreement that prevention is essential, investment does not go far enough and, in some cases, is moving in the wrong direction.”
Future Generations Commissioner 2025
“From the workforce perspective, we have seen evidence of positive implementation of social services resulting from a focus on the principles. Equally, the general ethos of the [Social Services and Well-being (Wales)] Act, giving people more voice and control and approaches such as ‘what matters’ conversations, have helped cross divides that may exist within workforce cultures, albeit not always consistently. This has enabled workers to work beyond prescribed boundaries and explore wider options.”
Final report: evaluation of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, March 2023
Our 2024 workforce survey revealed:
47 per cent want a leadership role in the future (up from 36 per cent in 2023)
60 per cent believe it’s possible for them to become a leader (up from 50 per cent in 2023)
37 per cent sought progression in the last year
79 per cent feel supported by their colleagues (in-line with the 78 per cent in 2023)
70 per cent feel supported by their manager (up from 66 per cent in 2023)
80 per cent feel valued by their colleagues (down from 71 per cent in 2023)
70 per cent feel valued by their manager (up from 61 per cent in 2023)
In 2024 to 2025, we continued to support social care services to embed strengths-based approaches by:
Providing leadership development programmes for social care services
We’ve run a range of leadership development programmes, including Introduction to Compassionate Leadership sessions, which were attended by nearly 350 people. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Those who took part reported increased confidence and practical takeaways – 99.5 per cent said they learned something they could use in practice.
This year, 45 students passed the Team Manager and Middle Manager Programmes, with everyone saying the programmes met their needs ‘quite well’ or ‘very well’. Feedback from the New Directors programme was positive, with all the directors who took part in evaluation interviews saying the programme met their expectations and they’d recommend it to others. Bespoke sessions were also run for local authorities and internal teams.
Providing approaches and resources to support positive cultures in social care
We’ve been working with Care Inspectorate Wales, Care Forum Wales and the National Commissioning Board to develop a positive cultures guide. This guide aims to help social care services provide better services and improve outcomes for people who provide and use care and support. This work has provided practical tools and strategic leadership to support positive workplace cultures that are inclusive, fair and equitable, and that proactively promote and value diversity.
Developing the sector’s confidence on strengths-based outcomes practice
We’ve been supporting local authorities with a strengths-based practice programme, which includes training, mentoring and a community of practice. We published a guide for social care leaders, commissioning managers and workforce training leads to help their organisations work in a strengths-based way along with strengths based eLearning. We held regional workshops with Responsible Individuals (RIs) and the feedback was positive. The programme also supported the implementation of the Collaborative Communication Skills model in several local authorities.
Supporting the transformation of children's services with partners
We’ve been working with Welsh Government, ADSS Cymru and children’s services providers to make sure the programme of activities is in-line with the broader sector’s priorities. Our work has included leading a National Models of Care conference, a briefing for the Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee, publishing an evidence summary of the latest research on supporting positive outcomes in children’s residential care and developing a data dashboard to assess workforce changes around the removal of profit in children’s services.
We’ve delivered Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy (PACE) training approach to support therapeutic approaches in children’s residential care. We’re seeing more interest in therapeutic approaches, with many local authorities asking for more support. We’ve received positive feedback about the impact of this work from many groups, including directors of social services, Responsible Individuals and Welsh Government.
This work’s impact has included providing an evidence base that’s influenced service design for new residential services, and targeted support for new teams and registered managers with developing their workforce’s skills. We were recognised, in partnership with the Children’s Commissioning Consortium Cymru’s (4C’s) Young commissioners, for providing a platform for the latest evidence and the voice of young people living in residential care at the national ‘Models of Care’ events.