Dr Ceryl Davies, social work lecturer, has received a Health & Care Research Wales grant to explore the barriers and enablers to effective engagement with care leavers. Ceryl will lead the two-year bilingual study in partnership with Conwy Borough, Ynys Môn and Torfaen Councils and GISDA, the Caernarfon based charity that provide support and accommodation for homeless young people in the area.

Ceryl explained, “The aim of this study is to explore the key barriers and enablers for engagement with care leavers. The results of this analysis will have generalisability for multi-agency services engaging with and supporting the needs of care leavers across Wales. In addition, the aim is to evaluate how much social value is generated by adopting the new engagement framework and toolkit with care leavers, in particular the influence of the new model on targeting resources to achieve improved well-being outcomes for care leavers accessing support and services.”

This research project is one of 26 Health and Care Research Wales funding call awards for 2021-22, which have a combined lifetime value of almost £6.4million.

The schemes offer varying levels of support addressing different research needs, from supporting talented individuals to become independent researchers to funding high-quality research projects relevant to health and wellbeing needs across Wales.

Michael Bowdery, Head of Programmes, Health and Care Research Wales, said, “We were thrilled to see so many high-quality applications this year, both for project grants and personal awards. Our recent funding increase has allowed us to fund a few more awards than usual in a range of significant health and social topics aligned to Welsh Government priorities, including cancer, diabetes, looked after children, care leavers, mental health, emergency response and equality, diversity and inclusion. Collectively these projects are another example of the potential of research to make a real difference to people’s health and wellbeing.”