2. What is ASCC? ASCC is a partnership between Bangor, Cardiff & Swansea Universities. ASCC seeks to: Work closely with social care policy-makers & practice organisations to establish effective approaches to increasing the quantity & quality of social care R&D in Wales. Enhance research capacity & skills in the social care workforce. Promote the up-take of research evidence into social care practice. Three regional teams are piloting & evaluating three distinct Social Care R&D capacity-building projects. ASCC Academy.

3. ASCC North Wales Partnership with the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. Seeks to build social care R&D capacity within the third sector both nationally, regionally & locally. Focuses on the development of quantitative skills to inform mixed methods research. Builds on existing work to identify & exploit national datasets to inform the planning & delivery of social care services. Work is underway to: Establish national networks to take forward research on the experiences & support needs of individuals abused during childhood, as well as related work on safeguarding. Strengthen existing networks to take forward research about carers.

4. ASCC Cardiff University Led by WISERD, Cardiff University, and linking with the Social Services Improvement Agency (SSIA). Project will develop a capacity building curriculum for staff working in the social care sector. Will work with social care employers and stakeholders to explore opportunities to develop research-based activities within the sector; and it will evaluate the research training necessary to support these aims. Team will develop a ‘blended learning’ approach (a mixture of e-learning and support provision) to develop the programme. It will collaborate with related training developments, the Wales Doctoral Training Centre, and the Swansea-based ASCC project.

5. ASCC Swansea University Focussed on the development of evidence enriched practice … or ‘Making Research Count’. Nationally – developing strong links with Care Council for Wales and SSIA, and making best use of all available resources, e.g. SCIE, RiP & RiPfA. Locally – pilot work with four Local Authorities and a large third sector social care provider, e.g. approaches to community based prevention, relationship centred social work and dementia service development. Recognising that research is only one part of evidence, along with practitioner wisdom, the voice of service users and carers and organisational knowledge - BUT when brought into the mix, it can make a positive difference to people’s lives …….. as the following photostory will hopefully show.