Project Management updates from the Care Work Partnership
As the year is drawing to a close, it feels like an ideal time to reflect on some of the recent activities we have undertaken as part of the Care Work partnership.
On 18th November, we launched our partnership’s monthly Community of Practice webinar series. This Community of Practice (CoP) is open to people working in social care (social care and social work, care providers, local authorities, etc), people with lived experience (service users and family carers) and researchers. The inaugural webinar introduced the Care Work partnership to this community and focussed on the theme of ‘Supporting, Enhancing and Sustaining the Social Care Workforce’. This webinar was also a useful way to gather input on what CoP members hoped to gain from attending this webinar series and the topics they would be interested in hearing more about. There were 48 attendees in total and, since then, our CoP membership has continued to steadily grow.
Naomi Friel
(Partnership Project Manager)
King’s College London
December 2025
Later in November, the Care Work team had the opportunity to meet in-person, many of us for the first time, at our first annual Away Day in York. This was a valuable opportunity to reflect on the work completed so far within the partnership, update each other on work packages and projects, and to plan for the upcoming year. Working together in-person highlighted the breadth and depth of social care workforce expertise and perspectives in the room and focussed our minds on the tasks ahead.
Our second CoP webinar was held this month on the topic of delegated healthcare activities in the sector, and featured guest speakers from the Department of Health and Social Care, King’s College London, University of Salford and Skills for Care. This webinar sparked a lively discussion and demonstrated the importance of this very topical subject. It was also great way for CoP members undertaking similar work to connect with each other and form future networks.
We are currently planning next year’s webinars (future topics include ‘Workforce wellbeing’ and ‘Digital technology in adult social care’) and are incredibly grateful to our Chairs and guest speakers who have accepted the invitation to be involved in these future sessions. If you want to stay informed of upcoming future webinars, please complete the CoP Consent Form to be added to the mailing list.
It has been a very busy couple of months and managing a partnership of this scale and complexity can be challenging at times; however, I am looking forward to seeing what 2026 has in store for us.
