Consultation: Social Care Research and Development Strategy for Wales 2017-22

A consultation on a proposed five-year social care research and development strategy for Wales has opened today – and the authors would like your views about it.

The national strategy sets out a vision in which Wales is “internationally renowned for its excellent social care research that supports the people of Wales by informing and improving social care policy and practice”.

It looks at five main areas:

• Involving the public in social care research and development
• Research priorities
• Use of existing and routinely collected data
• Developing the workforce and organisations
• Making research results available.

The strategy also makes recommendations for 16 areas of action to help build and improve social care research and development in Wales.

The strategy was developed by a new partnership between Social Care Wales, the Wales School for Social Care Research, and Health and Care Research Wales with input from citizens and our partners.

Gerry Evans, Social Care Wales’s Director of Regulation and Intelligence, said: “We believe the time is right for Wales to have a national co-ordinated approach to building social care research and development. There are already many strengths to build upon, including the quality of social care research in Wales and the strength of the social care improvement agenda.

“Excellent social care research can support practitioners with providing high quality, sustainable social care. And we want to work with the public, people who use care and support, and their carers to develop a better understanding of what research needs to be carried out and how it can have a positive impact where it matters.”

You have until 21 August 2017 to have your say and you can respond to the consultation here: Social Care Research and Development Strategy for Wales 2017-22