Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care

The aim of the Multi-Professional Framework is to support organisations to deliver joined up, outcome focused, evidence-based community services, through a place-based multi-professional working model of care. Collaboration through place-based systems of care offers the best opportunity to meet the holistic needs of individuals and of the local population. This will challenge some of the traditional boundaries between professions and between services.  

The Multi-professional Framework for Integrated Working was developed in partnership with Professor Mark Llewellyn and Professor Carolyn Wallace working closely with colleagues from the Strategic Programme for Primary Care, part of the NHS Wales Executive. We helped to build an evidence-base around this work - through a scoping review of the literature and an online consensus building exercise - ahead of collaborative action research with practitioners to co-design the Development Matrix, a self-assessment tool allowing practitioners to locate their place in a matrix describing ‘what good looks like’. In addition to the tool, a series of recorded resources were produced to support the implementation of the approach: (2062) Development Matrix for Multi-Professional Working - YouTube. 

The research was funded by Welsh Government's  Volunteering Wales Strategic Grant, administered by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA). It was carried out by WIHSC in partnership with the  Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School. The focus of the research was volunteering in residential care homes supporting older people in Wales.  

The report found that care homes value the roles volunteers play in their settings. These roles are often focused on spending quality time with residents in a way that’s not always possible for paid staff. Volunteers enhance social care by increasing the range and depth of relationships available to residents, as well as broadening the range of activities they can engage in. We found that the ongoing management and support of volunteers takes considerable time, energy and skill. Several care homes involved in the research didn’t have the capacity or resources to do this as effectively as they’d like. 

This completed project was highlighted by the Wales Innovation Network (WIN) as a standout project and Dr Sarah Wallace was invited to the Senddd for their impact report launch. A further invitation followed to be part of a symposium talking to this project and its findings by WIN and the All-Wales Policing Academic Collaboration. 

WIHSC was commissioned by the Welsh Government to complete a review of evidence of variation in terms and conditions for social care employment contracts in Wales. The key findings of the report show that there is some evidence of variation in pay and conditions within and between each of the social care sectors and between them and the NHS.

The research was supported by a number of key stakeholders who acted as a reference group for the project. Stakeholders included the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), Care Forum Wales, Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), Social Care Wales, ADSS Cymru, UNISON Cymru, Health Education and Improvement Wales, Welsh NHS Confederation, Senior LA HR Management, Senior NHS Workforce and Organisational Development Management. 

The Welsh Government commissioned a partnership of academics across four universities in Wales to deliver the evaluation of the Act. This independent national evaluation – the IMPACT study – ran from November 2018 to October 2022. It was led by Professor Mark Llewellyn, Director of the WIHSC at USW. The Final Report of our work (available in both Cymraeg and English, in Summary version, and Easy-Read format) is now published.

WIHSC was awarded a contract of more than £1m to lead an evaluation of the Welsh Government’s £146million Health and Social Care Regional Integration Fund (RIF).  
 
RIF is a five-year funding programme with the aim to establish and mainstream six new national models of integrated care to achieve the vision of ‘A Healthier Wales: the Welsh Government’s long-term plan for Health and Social Care’. Delivering integrated care, where organisations and care professionals are aligned, is essential to improving outcomes for people who use health and social care services.

• Lisa Griffiths – Administration Manager
• Ceri Jenkins – Projects Secretary
• Dr Sophia Kier-Byfield - Senior Research Assistant 
• Professor Mark Llewellyn – Director of WIHSC, and Professor of Health and Care Policy
• Marina McDonald – Research and Support Officer
• Dr Sion Tetlow – Research Assistant
• Professor Carolyn Wallace – Professor of Integrated Care
• Dr Sarah Wallace - Senior Research Fellow

Alka Ahuja MBE is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and the National Clinical lead for the Welsh Government Technology Enabled Care Centre. She is the elected Chair for the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) in Wales and has previously held a number of roles in RCPsych Wales Devolved Council, including Chair of the Child and Adolescent Faculty and Public Engagement Officer. She was also the vice-chair for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists until recently. 

Alka is a Visiting Professor at University of South Wales and an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University. She joined the University of South Wales as a Visiting Fellow in 2006 and is now a Visiting Professor since 2014. 

Her interests include qualitative research, neurodevelopmental disorders and co-production in healthcare and digital health. She has published in peer reviewed journals and was awarded an MBE for her services to the NHS during the pandemic. 

In the past, she has done her psychiatry training in India and worked as a lecturer and researcher at Mumbai University. Her research and writing in psychosocial issues in street children in India have been recognized nationally and internationally. 

Jeremy has had a long-term connection with USW, being WIHSC’s first Associate in 1993. Jeremy has worked for over 20 years in the public sector, mostly in health, in roles that ranged from hospital management to strategic planning for NHSWales. This gave him a deep insight into how the public sector works and the challenges faced by managers at all levels. In addition, Jeremy spent 19 years in the private sector across the UK and Europe in roles that directly related to healthcare. This experience provided Jeremy with a broader perspective on service provision giving invaluable insights into how different sectors can work together. Jeremy also has experience in the academic sector, both as a lecturer and an external examiner. More recently, he has worked in partnership with academia in research and development projects for the pharmaceutical industry. He also delivers lectures for USW. 

Tony has nearly 40 years experience in local government, firstly with the former Glamorgan Education Authority before moving into Social Services with Mid Glamorgan County Council. He became a director with Bridgend in 1999 where he managed the full range of social care and housing services. He was responsible for leading the Council’s transformational change programme. 

Tony is a former policy adviser to the Welsh Local Government Association on Social Services and community safety issues and was spokesperson on workforce issues for ADSS Cymru. His communication skills resulted in him frequently commenting on social care matters on radio, television and national journals. He also played a major role in responding to the worldwide publicity arising from the premature deaths of a number of young people in the Bridgend area in 2008. 

He has been a member of a number of national bodies, including the Care Council for Wales where he chaired the Workforce Development Committee. He was a Board Member of the UK Alliance (Sector Skills Council for Care and Development). Most recently he was a member of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Advisory Panel on Substance Misuse and has practised as an executive coach and mentor. 

Highlights of Tony’s career include successfully leading the first whole scale voluntary housing stock transfer in Wales and being the author of ‘Social Work in Wales: A Profession to Value’, a major research project on the recruitment and retention of social workers which became universally referred to as the ‘Garthwaite Report’. He recently produced new guidance for local authorities in Wales on collaboration and governance in social services. 

Marcus Longley is Emeritus Professor of Applied Health Policy at the University of South Wales. He was educated at the universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Bristol, and worked in the NHS for 14 years, in a variety of managerial and planning posts, and for two years with the Welsh Health Planning Forum, before joining USW in 1995. Current interests include public and client/patient involvement in shaping policy and service delivery; integrated working across public services; and many aspects of service redesign.

He has led many studies of different aspects of health and social care provision, including recently reviews of Community Health Councils in Wales, and healthcare provision across rural Mid Wales, He has been a Specialist Advisor to both the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee and the Welsh Local Government Association, served as an Advisor to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain for many years, and was a member of the Welsh Government’s Self Care Board. He was elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges’ of Physicians in 2008. He has been a member of the Bevan Commission, the body that advises the Minister for Health and Social Care in Wales, and now serves as an Expert Advisor. He is also Lead Partner for Wales, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies/Kings Fund. In 2013 he was appointed Vice Chair of the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and also now serves as an Independent Member on the Joint Committee of the Welsh Health Specialist Services Committee. 

Margaret’s career in public services spanned both local and national government. Beginning in children’s residential services, she has substantial policy and leadership experience across a range of roles in public policy particularly in social care including staff development and training, service improvement and regulation and inspection of services. She has experience of developing health and social services policy and legislation and its strategic and operational implementation through partnership and coproduction with a range of stakeholders including people who use services and their carers. This includes leading the programme of implementation for the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act. Margaret chairs the Children’s Commissioner for Wales Adult Advisory Panel and is a member of Pobl’s Care and Support Board.

Jonathan trained at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, qualifying in 1979. After a year as a research SHO in geriatric medicine, he moved to Merthyr Tydfil in the South Wales Valleys to train for General Practice. He was a GP in Merthyr from 1984 to 2015 when he retired from active clinical work. 

He has been the Chair of the Bro Taf Primary Care Audit Group from its inception in 1996. He was a Senior Clinical Adviser for Primary Care Quality, a division of Public Health Wales from 2000 to 2016 advising Government about performance and Outcome Measures. He has been External Professor of Primary Care at the School of Care Sciences, University of South Wales since October 1997 and has worked with WIHSC on many projects. 

His research interests include postnatal depression, quality and clinical effectiveness (with special reference to diabetes and coronary heart disease), primary care development strategies (particularly in communities experiencing socio-economic deprivation), the consultation as a cross-cultural experience and multi-disciplinary learning in primary care. 

Morton Warner spent the first half of his professional life up to 1983 in Canada where he was Director of the Graduate Programme in Health Services Planning at the University of British Columbia. Following this he was with United Medical Enterprises in the UK, and the World Health Organisation at the Caribbean Regional Office. 

Morton then worked in the NHS from 1987 and was Executive Director of the Welsh Health Planning Forum from 1989 until 1995, when he was appointed to the University of Glamorgan as Director of the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care up until April 2008 when he retired. 

His research interests include: the development of virtual organisations and networks in health and social services as an aid to services integration; increasing effectiveness in linking policy to practice policy connect”; and the systematic study of substitution in the areas of technology, workforce and the location of care as a mechanism for promoting efficiency in delivery. 

He holds a PhD in Medical Sociology from the University of Wales and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians. He has authored or co-authored eight books and over one hundred papers. 

Richard Williams directs the Psychosocial & Mental Health Project for the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was a child and adolescent psychiatrist for 38 years prior retiring from the NHS. Richard's interest is psychosocial resilience. He led a multi-national team of editors to publishing the book Social Scaffolding in July 2019. His current research concerns better care staff of healthcare services. He is a member of the team researching the long-term impacts of the Manchester bombing in 2017. He advises governments and professional organisations on managing the psychosocial aspects of emergencies, disasters and major incidents and teaches postgraduate students. 

Gareth Cooke, PhD (Portfolio)
The Implementation Science of Commissioning and Implementing Health and Social Care Services.

Leanne Hadley, PhD
What matters to me when I am paying for care? The Madeline Dementia study.

Katrina Whale, PhD
Child Criminal Exploitation - An exploration of the experiences of the Youth Justice System for a Victim of Child Criminal Exploitation.

Paul Twose, PhD (Portfolio)
The role, staffing and impact of therapy professionals working in critical care.

Xela Dafauce Bouzo, PhD (Portfolio)
Exploring Realistic Methodologies for Public Participation and Stakeholder Involvement in Health and Local Government Decision-Making 

Jonathan Prescott, MRes
Towards healthy intimate and family relationships: ‘what matters’ and well-being amongst cared-for adults and carers.

Diana Fologea, PhD
The Inspiring Families Programme: An Evaluation of the Pilot Project Performed in Mid and West Wales to Support Families Affected by Domestic Violence Who Have Chosen to Remain Together.

Maria Rogers, MPhil / PhD
Investigating Art-on-Prescription in Wales: How to Achieve Critical Success Factors for Sustainability.

Judith Radford, MPhil / PhD
An exploration of identity on resilience and student experience in undergraduate adult nursing students.

Samantha Pywell, PhD (Portfolio)
Inclusive and effective teaching of social prescribing in higher education: coproducing curricula.

Amrit Takhar, DPsych Counselling Psychology
Exploring experiences of, and barriers to, social inclusion for Asylum Seekers and Refugees (ASR) in Wales: a mixed-method study.