Building better social care in Wales
Doing Adult Safeguarding with Service Users and Carers Presented by: Dr Jeremy Dixon, University of Bath *A discount code will be provided to attendees for those who wish to purchase Jeremy’s book, Adult Safeguarding Observed* This presentation describes social workers’ accounts of doing adult safeguarding work with service users, family carers and paid carers. It… Read More
Championing a research culture within Adult Social Care – How are we making robust decisions without calling upon the research base? Research enriched practice has always been a gold standard within social care. However, making it a natural part of practice within busy frontline local authority teams dealing with complex and fluid situations has always… Read More
Find out more about our upcoming events and webinars, and how you can sign up, on this page. For a list of past events, visit our archive.
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This webinar will present the findings from a three year project exploring the needs and outcomes of autistic children in care in Wales. This study was undertaken in three parts, involving a variety of methods. Part one involved analysis of linked data using the SAIL Databank to understand more about the numbers of care experienced children receiving a diagnosis of autism, the age of diagnosis and their educational outcomes and mental health diagnoses into adulthood. Part two consisted of a survey distributed to foster and kinship carers in Wales, to gather information on the diagnoses of children in care, as well as levels of autistic traits, attachment disorder traits and other strengths and difficulties. The final part involved research interviews with social work professional's and foster and kinship carers in three local authorities in Wales, to understand more about what is working well and current challenges, specifically around the diagnosis and support needs of autistic children. Findings from each section will be presented, alongside information about the next steps and future work to be undertaken.
Online, Teams
12:00
- 14/01/2026
The focus of this conference is moving from understanding the criminal exploitation of children to taking action. Whilst there has been growing impetus on multi-agency safeguarding, there is still a lack of legislation on modern slavery and the criminal exploitation…
ExChange Wales brings leading researchers together with practitioners and service users to share expertise, research evidence and care experiences.
Through our conferences, workshops, lectures and seminars, ExChange provides free, high-quality training to support the ongoing development of social care professionals across Wales. Attracting leading national speakers, together we learn and advise on research, impacting both policy and practice. Our events and resources enrich skills while foregrounding the lived experience of care-experienced people.
We have a range of ways that you can work with ExChange. If you wish to host an ExChange workshop, webinar, podcast or blog, simply contact us.
Our third webinar in our conference series – On the Journey: Navigating Mental Health “Supporting people with mental health problems to build social networks and reduce loneliness: lessons for practice and research from intervention trials” Abstract People with mental health problems are more likely to have smaller networks and experience loneliness and social isolation than… Read More
Our fourth webinar in our conference series – On the Journey: Navigating Mental Health Abstract The ability to form strong relationships is viewed as central to mental health recovery. Few studies have explored the experiences of people with mental health problems in forming or maintaining romantic relationships. This study addressed this gap through conducting focus… Read More
Our second webinar in our conference series – On the Journey: Navigating Mental Health “Webinar: What works to improve the mental health of care-experienced children and young people: Systematic review evidence” Abstract The mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people remains a major concern. To date, it has not been clear which… Read More
Our first Webinar in our conference series – On the Journey: Navigating Mental Health Abstract In this presentation, offered as a basis for discussion, Peter, drawing on his own and other people’s lived experience, aims to help us rethink both understandings of mental wellbeing and distress and helpful ways of addressing the difficulties we may… Read More
Last year, a group of hosts in and around Cardiff, some from CASCADE, worked together to provide Christmas dinner and a celebration for care-experienced people. The team were filled with nerves ahead of the big day, with referrals still coming in up to the week before Christmas. A chef volunteered three days of their time… Read More
** WALES ONLY** Parent Advocacy Online Workshop (Wales) We are inviting social work practitioners and managers, parental advocates, parents, advocacy managers, family support workers and academics in Wales to participate in an online workshop on parental advocacy and its effectiveness in supporting parents whose children are open to social care. The event is part of… Read More
Understanding care pathways and placement stability for infants in Wales with Dr Laura Cowley from Population Data Science, Swansea University on 4 October 12:30-14:00. This presentation provides new empirical evidence about entry routes to care, pathways through care, and placement outcomes for the very youngest children in the care system in Wales. By addressing questions about… Read More
