Ymlaen implementation plan: 2025 to 2026

Identify shared priorities for research, innovation and improvement so we can direct attention, resource and action to where it’s needed most.

Why?

We want to make sure our focus is positive, helpful, productive and informed by what matters most to people. We need to take an intersectional approach, where we consider how different kinds of discrimination can interact and shape people’s unique experiences.

What Social Care Wales will do in 2025 to 2026:

We want to provide leadership in supporting the use of evidence in improving the delivery of social care.

We’ll work with partners to set joint priorities for research, innovation and improvement work for social care. We’ll do this by:

• working with IMPACT to identify evidence of innovations and improvements to inform future priority-setting exercises
• working with ExChange and its network to consider how we use the identified priorities to inform our work
• working together with the National Office for Care and Support to join up research priorities with existing research or data collection tools and maximise the learnings. This work, for example, would help consider additional questions for the annual Have your Say workforce survey.

We’ll support innovation in social care by:

• identifying opportunities across Wales and the UK to share and learn from innovation initiatives to help develop our approach, and share evidence and resources
• learning from research and good practice to shape our approach through evidence, forums and communities of practice.

We’ll maintain an effective National Social Care Data Portal for Wales to make better use of data and evidence to improve services and outcomes for people accessing care.

We’ll provide leadership for the Administrative Data Research (ADR) Wales social care theme programme of work. We’ll do this by:

• maintaining an adult social care data research group
• running a PhD placement scheme
• working with ADR Wales to encourage input of shared quality data into the SAIL Databank.

We’ll design, develop and support the implementation of new safeguarding tools, approaches and resources to support the social care sector, by:

• creating a thorough and accessible Group C national resource pack to enhance safeguarding practices across multi-agency partnerships
• delivering Train the trainer events
• bringing together a review group to support safeguarding standards and framework.

We’ll develop confidence in strengths-based practice in social care by:

• supporting local authorities with developing and embedding strengths-based practice
• running a national mentors’ network to reflect and share good practices
• supporting the increase of strengths-based practice skills within our organisation and across our work
• providing on-line training for the social care workforce on strengths-based conversations and reflective practice.

We’ll provide leadership, expertise and input for policymakers for continuous improvement and innovation work by:

• supporting policy development around key priorities, such as the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025
• leading the agreed programme of work to support innovation for social care on behalf of Welsh Government, as set out in Wales innovates: creating a stronger, fairer, greener Wales.

We’ll carry out research and collect and analyse data about the workforce, through:

• our annual data collection exercise with local authorities and social care employers
• developing, delivering and implementing our annual 'Have your say' workforce survey.

‘Join the dots’ between different types of support for research, innovation and improvement in social care.

Why?

We need to co-ordinate the support for people co-designing, delivering and leading services that nurtures a positive culture of working together. We need to bring about action and be flexible to meet different needs.

What Social Care Wales will do in 2025 to 2026:

We’ll continue to share and promote findings from partner work with our networks through the Insight Collective website.

We’ll continue to bring together our community of practice for Responsible Individuals.

We’ll work with partners to support innovation in social care, by:

• working with Ymlaen partners across health and social care, in Wales and further afield, to develop and promote support offers for innovation in social care
• helping partners to understand social care through promotion, conversations and feedback
• seeking opportunities to connect people with peers and support.

We’ll work with Contracts for Innovation Cymru (formerly Small Business Research Initiative) to:

• identify opportunities to join up our work and collaborate on supporting social care innovation and ‘challenge’ projects
• signpost our respective networks to each other’s services and offers where relevant.

We’ll fund, support and promote the Developing Evidence-Enriched Practice (DEEP) programme to:

• design, develop, deliver and support the implementation of DEEP tools, approaches and resources
• deliver DEEP training and events.

We’ll facilitate networks, workshops and events to support leaders to strengthen workforce well-being.

We’ll work with partners to explore ways to support evidence lead roles in local authorities, by:

• securing resources to support evidence lead roles
• building a network for people with interest in knowledge mobilisation and research in social care
• developing access skills, analysis research and evidence skills
• learning from lessons from our practice and service design work.

We’ll bring Ymlaen partners together to join up and learn from our work on research, innovation and improvement by:

• supporting joint National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) training across Wales
• helping people in social care apply for the Bevan Exemplar programme
• supporting the Regional Safeguarding Boards to implement the Group B safeguarding training package
• working with ExChange to forward plan and spot opportunities to join up our work and signpost our networks to each other’s services
• working with IMPACT to support learning by sharing resources and signposting our networks to each other’s services and offers where relevant.

We’ll work with the National Office for Care and Support to:

• promote services on research, innovation and improvement through targeted communications to encourage local authorities to take up the services on offer
• bring together research and innovation partners in regular meetings to join the dots between partners’ work and avoid duplication.

We’ll work with Health and Care Research Wales to set up a task and finish group, involving people working in social care, to identify what local authorities need to support research. This includes learning from existing research active local authorities and the Welsh Health Determinant Research Collaborations (HDRCs) in Torfaen and Rhondda Cynon Taf. The group will contribute to a workplan which will:

• identify research being undertaken across local authorities in Wales
• review existing support for research in local authorities and identify ongoing support needs and/or resources
• identify activities to promote research culture across local authorities and discuss plans for implementation.

We’ll work with Health and Care Research Wales to identify shared communication challenges and opportunities, and the different audiences we’re each trying to reach through our work. Through this work we’ll develop a communication plan to address the challenges through joint working.

Create conditions that enable positive and lasting change in social care.   

Why?

We need to make it possible for people to learn, grow and respond to the challenges in social care. Areas like regulation and funding approaches have the potential to put up barriers if they’re not designed to support the vision and ambitions for social care.

What Social Care Wales will do in 2025 to 2026:

We’ll continue to develop and improve our framework and resources to support workforce well-being. We’ll help people turn these values into practice through dedicated learning and information sessions.

We’ll bring together our Evidence Community for social care researchers and practitioners.

We’ll help build skills using evidence-based approaches to support the delivery of therapeutic care for children and young people.

We’ll publish a guide and develop an engagement plan to help people create and nurture positive cultures, and support its implementation and learning. Working with partners, we’ll increase understanding of positive cultures and how they contribute to social care.

We’ll increase knowledge, understanding and skills to support social care research by:

• implementing our researcher support offer
• continuing to develop our research, innovation and improvement skills resource
• creating and hosting research roadshow events for each region’s safeguarding board. These events will link research and lived experience to current sector improvement conversations.

We’ll work with Health and Care Research Wales to improve the ways that pathways to impact are embedded in research bids and knowledge mobilisation activities. Together, we’ll encourage and promote research projects funded by Health and Care Research Wales’s funding approaches and our researcher support offer.

We’ll produce and publish high quality evidence summaries around priority topics in social care.

We’ll work together with IMPACT on future plans to encourage collaboration, rather than duplication, on areas of work such as our evidence summaries and the evidence reviews.

Through our communities of practice support and development service, we’ll:

• support people in social care to explore if a communities of practice approach can help them achieve their goals
• work with IMPACT to help develop and sustain their networks.

Provide direct support to people working in social care to encourage research, innovation and improvement.

Why?

We need to support research, innovation and improvement in ways that respond to the ambitions and complexities of social care, with a focus on our national policy aspirations to create a fairer and more equal country.

What Social Care Wales will do in 2025 to 2026:

We’ll improve knowledge and skills for compassionate leadership. We’ll do this by:

• offering bespoke support to organisations, including developing additional resources
• connecting practice and support through a compassionate leadership network.

We’ll continue to deliver multi-disciplinary local authority support to encourage innovation and improvement. This includes:

• packages of support for two local authorities which will generate early insights to help shape the consultation phase of this work
• testing assumptions and gather learnings from a set of service proposals
• beginning a test phase of our refined model with two new local authorities.

We’ll deliver innovation support for people working in social care, and host innovation surgeries as a way of connecting with and supporting people to address social care challenges.

We’ll deliver evaluation support for people working in social care, by:

• delivering a series of rolling evaluation training sessions
• providing bespoke advice and support through drop-in sessions and short intensive evaluation support
• developing a guide for local authorities to support and capture reporting frameworks to encourage joint working.

We’ll promote and encourage our knowledge mobilisation offer to help provide access and support in using high-quality evidence and knowledge to improve outcomes.

We’ll work with Health and Care Research Wales to:

• co-create a complementary package of training for social care researchers in practice and in academia. This work will build on our 'Research understanding training', and the 'Good practice research training' by Health and Care Research Wales
• identify the social care research-related training offered by existing training providers, and signpost people to any relevant training
• explore various methods of promoting research career pathways for social care, including through case studies and visual representation. Together, we’ll share the information to social care professionals to promote research career opportunities
• explore whether and how Health and Care Research Wales’ training could be integrated into CPD/L guidance and implement if appropriate
• raise awareness and promote the use of research in social care. We’ll co-develop an explainer video and a one-page guidance on ‘What is social care research and why is it important?’ for practitioners. This will build on Health and Care Research Wales’ definition of social care research, and our 'What is social care?' video.
• map out what we and our partner organisations each do to support research. We’ll start with research skills and move on to map other areas that complement the work, such as infrastructure, knowledge mobilisation and communications. We’ll identify what we offer, to whom, and how it’s delivered, before developing a visual representation of this to show what’s on offer for people working in social care.

Inspire new ways of working.

Why?

We need to be bolder and more courageous in tackling the challenges and inequalities faced in social care. This is the only way we’ll create innovative and sustainable models of care and support.

We need to challenge the way things are done now, which will deliver more of the same, while appreciating work already being done to improve outcomes. This will help us respond to what matters, now and in the future.

What Social Care Wales will do in 2025 to 2026:

We’ll design, develop and support the implementation of new digital literacy and innovation tools, approaches and resources. We’ll do this by:

• publishing a report on the digital maturity and literacy of social care in Wales
• developing a plan to support digital confidence and innovation
• creating shared tools and resources
• maintaining and developing our digital potential tool
• contributing to, influencing and supporting the use of AI and other digital innovation in policy and working groups, networks and communities of practice in Wales and other parts of the UK.

We’ll continue to bring together our Place-based care community of interest to explore, develop and share opportunities.

We’ll design a pilot project to test new ways of embedding positive cultures in social care.

We’ll continue to bring together the community of action, support service design and development to allow evidence-based approaches to support the development of children’s residential care.

We’ll support the Welsh Government’s programme for the transformation of children’s social care by:

• developing a workforce plan for residential children’s care
• developing a workforce data dashboard to share with key partners
• bringing together and offering support to networks, communities of practice and key stakeholder activity.

We’ll design, develop, deliver and support the implementation of new innovation tools, approaches and resources by:

• building innovation capabilities in the social care workforce
• providing innovation coaching training to groups, to help spread the tools and methods used as part of the coaching
• identifying and developing ambassadors for innovation coaching.

We’ll publish innovative practice examples and research initiatives on our project finder, to help spread ideas and practice.

We’ll continue to support the delivery of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan by:

• developing and delivering a programme for people from ethnic minority backgrounds to support progression into leadership roles, through shadowing, coaching and skill development
• leading on the collection of data and publication of the social care report for the health and social care Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES).

We’ll advocate for social care in national policy and working groups to make sure their work reflects the goals and needs of social care.