Mountain Measured? Measuring the Mountain project comes to an end

For the last three years, the Measuring the Mountain (MtM) project has been gathering people’s experiences of using care and support services, or of being an unpaid carer, to understand more about what life is like for people day-to-day.  They have also conducted two Citizens’ Juries to explore key themes that arose from the stories.

Funded by Welsh Government, the research project led by the University of South Wales (USW), has been an important element towards understanding the early impact of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. 

The final reports from 2019 / 2020 have been published and these are available on www.mtm.wales along with the reports from 2018 and key documents and videos created over the lifetime of the project.

A database of over 450 stories has been published, which will form a hugely valuable bank of information, useful to people working in and around the care and support sector for informing practice, aiding policy decisions, and influencing the focus of future research projects.

The work of the Jurors in both 2018 and 2020 were a great success, producing a total of 31 recommendations.  The reports and the recommendations are available on the project website and recordings of the Citizens’ Jury sessions from 2020 can be found on the project YouTube channel.

The mountain is still some way from being fully measured, however, the work undertaken has got some of the way there.  The project hopes to have left a legacy of valuable information and resources so that others can continue to learn and develop their policies and practice. 

The reports, stories and recommendations housed on www.mtm.wales will be accessible until 2026.

Dr Rachel Iredale, Principal Investigator for MtM and Associate Professor in Public Involvement at USW: “The work of MtM has only been possible thanks to the generosity of people in Wales sharing their stories and participating in the Citizens’ Juries.  It has been a testament to the willingness of people to get involved in research, to want to use their experiences to influence change and bring about improvements, and of people’s enthusiasm for citizen-led processes that influence policy and practice.

“MtM really allowed us to capture the lived experience of service users and unpaid carers right across Wales. Their voices are not heard typically and we gave some people the opportunity to speak up for the first time. By putting all the voices together we have magnified them and have ensured that they have been listened to - and will be acted on by Welsh Government. 

“Feedback has been fantastic. Our Jurors are available to work with any organisation, large or small, dealing with social care issues and offer them the perspective of the lived experience. We will all be keeping a close eye on how the Welsh Government respond to the recommendations.”