Social Care Wales’s goal is to build a comprehensive, inclusive data strategy and a stronger, data-empowered social care service in Wales.
They needed support to develop new data and insight products that would deliver on these ambitions.
Fast facts
Social Care Wales aims to make a positive difference to social care in Wales
35,261 social workers on the register (March 2022)
Committed to ‘Digital by Choice’ with a digital strategy and approach to digital training for the social care and early years sector
The challenge
Social Care Wales launched a data portal in 2018 to bring a range of social care data into one publicly accessible web portal.
But the tools and data were disaggregated, resulting in poor user experience and insights. The underlying technology was also no longer supported and didn’t align with Social Care Wales’s digital direction.
“Our data strategy for social care is an ambitious programme of work that covers a broad range of work streams. The development of the national data portal for social care in Wales is a key component of our strategy.”
Owen Davies, Social Care Wales
How we helped
We worked closely with Social Care Wales to understand their needs, launching the updated data portal within just 13 weeks.
The first step was to help generate a roadmap for strengthening existing tools that would serve the needs of users and fulfil data ambitions.
Using a sprint methodology in collaboration with Social Care Wales, we designed a first iteration of the new portal. Improved functionality, a more friendly look and feel, and key user stories were built in. And we integrated Power BI data visualisations to deliver a seamless and modern user experience.
Everything was developed in house and to tight deadlines.
“We worked collaboratively with our Social Care Wales colleagues to build the updated portal in just 13 weeks. We look forward to continuing our partnership to develop new ways of bringing together data and evidence to drive insight into the Welsh social care sector.”
The results
The initial development phase and portal launch is now complete. We’ll be maintaining the portal, ensuring all data is kept up to date, until Social Care Wales can take over. At that point, we’ll support the handover with knowledge and asset transfer.
Further developments to enhance the portal are also in progress – particularly around helping those who are less data literate through bringing together data and evidence, as well as improving data quality.
“We needed to work with an organisation with the skills to help us through this review and construct potential options for improvement. Grant Thornton offers a great deal of experience and a diverse range of skills that can be called upon. We’ve been impressed with their professionalism and reliability.”
Owen Davies, Social Care Wales
