The Centre for Adult Social Care Research was delighted to have the work of our Lived Experience Collective shortlisted for the Health and Care Research Wales 2025 Awards in the Public Involvement category. The award was announced at this year’s Health and Care Research Wales annual conference.
A heartfelt congratulations to our wonderful colleagues at the Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre who won the award for their Parents Research Advisory Group.
Our Lived Experience Collective has only this year celebrated its first anniversary, and the group has already built a strong collaborative team approach to adult social care research work.
They have played an active and valuable role across a wide range of involvement and engagement activities. This has included contributing to research bids, taking part in research-specific Public and Professional Involvement groups, and helping shape studies as public co-applicants. They have also participated in a project on co-producing adult social care research and worked with Administrative Data Research (ADR) Wales and Social Care Wales to set research priorities for social care research. In addition, they have co-designed and delivered co-production teaching workshops for Master of Social Work students at Cardiff University, and submitted a collective formal response to theWelsh Governments Disabled People’s Rights Plan.
Alice Butler, our CARE Public and Professional Involvement Officer said:
“We are truly honoured to see the work of our Lived Experience Collective recognised. Our members are people with first-hand experience of adult social care support in Wales, and they consistently go above and beyond to bring their expertise into CARE-led and supported research.
As Public Involvement Officer, I have the privilege of connecting researchers, professionals, and individuals with lived experience, and of working alongside such a dedicated group to ensure public involvement is at the heart of CARE and adult social care research. Together, we are making research more meaningful, more accessible, and more impactful for the public and the social care sector.
Our members are research champions. They advocate for lived experience to be embedded in every stage of social care research, while developing their own confidence and skills as collaborators and advisors. Their contribution is invaluable, and I am incredibly proud of what we are achieving together.”
