CASCADE is committed to involving the voice of lived experience across its research work. The Public Involvement team at CASCADE is always looking for ways to involve wider voices. We are thrilled to announce this exciting new partnership with AFKA Cymru and Kinship Cymru to establish a ‘Kinship Carer Research and Policy Advisory Group’. Researcher… Read More
Research Methods Training
At CASCADE we have a commitment to involving people with lived experience of children’s social services in our research. We believe this is a vital part of producing relevant and impactful research. However, it can be difficult for adults and young people to contribute and understand what we do in research. Bridging that gap is… Read More
Film premiere: Harmful relationships and crime
On Tuesday 11th July five inspiring young people visited SPARK to share the premiere of their two co-produced films exploring the impact of Child Criminal Exploitation. The event was hosted by CASCADE and attended by a small group of invited guests from across a range of related organisations. These included: Violence Prevention Unit, South Wales Police, Swansea… Read More
Involvement Blog May 23
Our Involvement Board is CASCADE’s strategic lived experience governance board. The boards’ main function is to hold us accountable, provide scrutiny, identify areas for improvement, and strengthen our relationships with our public, professional, and funding stakeholders. The board was originally set up to provide strategic governance for our ‘Public Involvement team’ only, but we are… Read More
Welcome Elaine
My name is Elaine and I started at CASCADE right at the end of March. My role is to support the involvement of people with experience of accessing social care services in research. I will do this through working with young people and parents. The groups advise on different stages of research, to make sure… Read More
The 4C’s
Young people felt that carers should know what a young person has been dealing with along with their likes and dislikes and how to care and communicate with young people. They felt that carers should be kind, happy and motivational. When it came to what carers should do, there were a wide range of thoughts… Read More
Key messages
We’ve made lots of progress sharing the charter across Wales and wider, some of the highlights include: Key Messages Project In this new part of the project, started in January 2022, we have partnered with Voices From Care Cymru, NYAS Project Unity and Ohana group from Hertfordshire LA. We set out to create some illustrated… Read More
The Journey so far as a peer researcher – participation
I am one of the founding members of the Family Advisory Board (FAB group), in Camden in 2014 and became the coordinator for the FAB group recently, a lay member of the Camden Safeguarding Children Partnership, and a trained Parent Advocate for Child Protection Conference. I am also a Relational Activist and actively promote Family Group Conferences, Parent Advocacy, Parent Participation, and use my experience through relationship and working collectively with others to achieve social change. Read More
Returning to CASCADE
After a long 7-year ‘leave of absence’ as Children’s Commissioner for Wales, I have recently returned to Cardiff University and the CASCADE Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre to resume academic life. Read More
Coproduction Workshops Family Voice
The Family Voice project has been busy arranging coproduction workshops both in Camden and in North Wales. My name is Delyth, and I am the Peer Researcher based in North Wales, supported by Y Bont. I have been inviting families from North Wales who have had experience of attending a Family Group Conference onto the… Read More