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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The experiences and outcomes of autistic children in foster and kinship care in Wales
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
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Discriminatory Abuse: Using Stories and Narratives to Explore Professional Responses
This presentation will outline current research on discriminatory abuse, illustrating themes with reference to safeguarding adult reviews. A novel research project will be outlined, drawing on story completion methods to explore practitioner responses to discriminatory abuse.
Online, Teams
12:00
- 04/02/2026
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Safeguarding People Living with Dementia
Research has shown that dementia makes adults more susceptible to abuse and neglect. The Care Act 2014 provides local authorities and other agencies in England with duties to safeguard adults from such abuse with partnership being a key principle. However, little is known about social care and health professionals’ views and practices on partnership working in this area. Our project aimed to understand how social care, health care and voluntary sector professionals understood abuse and neglect for people living with dementia, their understanding of safeguarding law and policy and their perspectives of partnership working. In this presentation we report on three sets of findings. First, we report on findings from a realist literature review which drew from 44 studies published between 2014-2024. Second, we present findings from three datasets in England to examine the distribution of safeguarding concerns and enquiries among older adults with dementia in England, and to explore variations by sex, age, and region. Third, we report on semi-structured interviews with eighteen multi-disciplinary professionals including social workers, safeguarding managers, general practitioners, advocates and support workers. We will explain what is original from our findings as well as messages for social care practitioners.
Online, Teams
13:00
- 10/02/2026
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Jumping hurdles and appearing above the parapet: Navigating interagency working to support people experiencing self-neglect
Self-neglect presents distinctive challenges and can have high stakes for individuals’ self-care, health and wellbeing. It often requires extensive collaboration, which can involve some, or all, of: Social Care, Health, Fire & Rescue, Housing, Environmental Protection, the police and voluntary sector organisations, among others. Several Safeguarding Adults Reviews attest to the logistical, interprofessional and legal challenges practitioners face in navigating this. This webinar draws on the findings of an interview study with 69 practitioners / managers, 16 people with lived experience of self-neglect, and 2 family carers. Their experiences showed the potential for inter-agency working to achieve positive change, but also the complex dynamics impeding it. Where there were good mutual understanding, shared interprofessional spaces, and practically-oriented procedures, collaborative working strengthened self-neglect support; at other times, negotiating collaboration was likened to ‘jumping hurdles’ or putting one’s ‘head above the parapet.’ Keeping a collective focus on the person experiencing self-neglect becomes harder for practitioners to do when their attention is absorbed by inter-agency processes and barriers. This discussion will explore the need for – and approaches that show promise in helping – professional curiosity in safeguarding and self-neglect to be complemented by ‘interprofessional curiosity.’
Online, Teams
12:00
- 23/02/2026
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Learning from Adult Practice Reviews (APRs)
Adult Practice Reviews (APRs) provide a vital opportunity to learn from cases where adults at risk have experienced significant harm or death, identifying systemic strengths and weaknesses within safeguarding practice. Commissioned by the National Independent Safeguarding Board (NISB) Wales, this 2025 thematic review analysed 25 APRs covering incidents from 2016–2022, with the aim of informing the new Single Unified Safeguarding Review (SUSR) process introduced in October 2024. The thematic review identified recurring challenges across Wales, including fragmented multi-agency coordination, limited use of advocacy, inconsistent consideration of mental capacity, and variable documentation of adults’ lived experiences and wishes. Examples of good practice were evident, such as the consistent use of advocacy services, person-centred “This is Me” documentation and innovative local inter-agency collaboration mechanisms. This presentation will share findings from the thematic review, explore the implications for policy and practice in Wales and outline how learning from APRs must shape the implementation of the SUSR process. It offers a call to action for embedding systemic, person-centred and accountable approaches to adult safeguarding.
Online, Teams
13:00
- 25/02/2026
Check out our latest conference.
Safeguarding Approaches for Criminally Exploited Children
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.
