Unlocking the power of adult social care data in Wales - event guide

Lisa Trigg, Assistant Director of Research, Data and Innovation at Social Care Wales, will provide some important information ahead of the day's event.

Lisa's team supports people working in social care in Wales to use research and data to inform policy and service design and practice, as well as supporting people to innovate in their work.

Before joining Social Care Wales, Lisa worked at the London School of Economics for seven years, carrying out research that compared international social care systems.  

Her PhD research compared the government approaches in England and Australia to improving quality in residential care for older people.  

Before this, Lisa worked as a consultant and leader in customer relationship management in Australia and the UK. This work was in sectors including utilities, IT, media, telecommunications, travel and health care.

Mike Emery is the Director of Technology and Innovation in the Health and Social Service Group in Welsh Government, as well as the Chief Digital Officer for NHS Wales.

Mike leads the policy agenda for Welsh Government for digital and data health and social care. This involves putting funding, delivery and regulatory frameworks in place to enable the delivery of the Welsh Government's digital and data health and social care plans, which underpin the wider ‘A Healthier Wales’ strategy.

He's also responsible for the life sciences and innovation policy areas, working with health and social care partners and the commercial sector to stimulate new ways of working and make sure innovations are adopted more widely.

This item was recorded at our event in Cardiff on 23 January.

Lynsey Cross is carrying out a priority-setting activity with and on behalf of people who work in or access adult social care.

The project aims to identify a list of key questions from the sector which could be answered using linked data.

This session will offer participants the opportunity to learn about the linked data research process and why this would benefit the adult social care sector.

It’ll also be a space to share themes and questions which may benefit from linked data research.

A short break.

The aim of the data maturity project is to support all local authorities in Wales to understand how they can make best use of the data that’s collected, processed and shared as part of their delivery of social care.

Understanding how data mature your organisation is allows you to know where to focus your resources to make the best use of the data you collect.

Becoming better at using the data we collect ultimately improves services. It does this by giving you the information you need to make more informed, evidence-based decisions.

This workshop will be delivered by Rob Dutfield, Principal Economist at Alma Economics, who has extensive experience of supporting organisations to get the best out of their data.

The Zoom link will remain open during the lunch break.

Dr Rich Fry is an Associate Professor in geographic information systems and health geography and lead of the Environment and Health Research Centre (ENVHE), which uses advanced data analysis techniques to understand the factors that influence health and well-being.

ENVHE brings together geographers, epidemiologists, statisticians and data scientists who work with the routine health and social care data held within the SAIL Databank to produce policy-relevant insights.

In this presentation, Rich will discuss how we can use address-level linkages to link multi-sectoral data, including social care data, to understand healthy ageing in Wales.

Joseph Wilton leads the team in Welsh Government responsible for the collection of data, research and innovation for social services.

This workshop will set out the landscape of adult social care data collection, including what's currently happening, what will be happening over the next few years, and what's currently being explored.

Attendees are invited to consider how data can be made more useful for them and help shape the direction of improvements over the coming years.

A short break.

In a session chaired by Lisa Trigg, Assistant Director of Research, Data and Innovation at Social Care Wales, an expert panel will discuss how different stakeholders can involve the public in decisions around data sharing, and transparency around using public data. Members of the panel will then join delegates in breakout rooms for further discussion.

The panel will consist of:

Lynsey Cross, Research Officer, ADR Wales social care theme

Ashley Akbari, Professor of Population Data Science Research, Swansea University

Owen Davies, Data and Intelligence Manager, Social Care Wales

Bethan Bonsall, Senior Policy Lead, Information Commissioner’s Office

Lisa brings the day to a close.