ARC West’s funding ended on 31 March 2026. This site is an archive and is no longer updated.
17 December 2020
Every piece of social care data collected about an individual means something to that person and their family, making ‘routine data’ a misnomer. This was one of the insights from the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West and Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) joint event held on 10 December. The point was made by Debbie Keatley, a member of HDR UK public involvement advisory group talking about the importance of good quality public involvement, in a timely reminder of the real people’s experiences behind the data.
The event brought together more than 150 people, including researchers, public contributors, NHS, funders and industry staff. Delegates were from the four countries of the UK and further afield, including Australia, Pakistan and Spain.
Professor John Macleod, Director of NIHR ARC West, said:
“When we first discussed running this event, we thought it would be a popular topic. It’s an emerging field with so much interesting work already going on, particularly in response to the COVID pandemic. We were delighted by the enthusiasm of the delegates on the day, the quality and diversity of the presentations alongside the professionalism and patience of our speakers, who had to deal with the inevitable technical hiccups. Thanks to everyone involved for making the event such an inspiring experience.”
David Seymour, Alliance Executive Director at HDR UK, said:
“This year, of all years, has highlighted the importance of applied social care research. As conveners of the UK Health Data Research Alliance, which brings together data custodians across the UK, we’re delighted to have been able to support this event. It was a great manifestation of the collective will to work together and learn from each other. Many thanks to John and the team at ARC West for leading its organisation, and to all the speakers who gave us such fascinating insights. We look forward to collaborating further and enabling more research using routine social care data to improve the lives of our most vulnerable members of society.”
Read HDR UK’s report of the event (PDF).
Speakers covered a diverse range of topics, including developing national social care and care home data sets, patient flow, social care analytics and individual-linked data. Watch all the presentations in our YouTube event playlist.
Download John Macleod’s presentation (PDF)
Download David Seymour’s presentation (PDF)
Download Ellen Coughlan’s presentation (PDF)
Download Josefine Magunsson’s presentation (PDF)
Download Claire Goodman’s presentation (PDF)
Download Jane, Efrosini and Robin’s presentation (PDF)
Download Rich Wood’s presentation (PDF)
Download Julien Forder’s presentation (PDF)
Download Lucy Griffiths and Alex Lee’s presentation (PDF) (no video)
Download Aideen Maguire’s presentation (PDF)
Download Gary Davies’ presentation (PDF)
Download Jenni Burton’s presentation (PDF)
Download Laura Shallcross’ presentation (PDF)
The majority (93 per cent) of respondents to the feedback form said they would recommend the event to a colleague. Satisfaction with the day’s content, structure and platform were all high. Some comments included:
“Really inspiring day, would be great to make a regular event?!”
“Such a great platform to deliver an almost all day event. Technical issues are to be expected but great to have it all recorded and the slides to be available.”
“A few technical issues but I actually really liked the format of the platform for online conferencing otherwise. Really interesting talks.”
“Great content and really good remote delivery. I think most delegates are quite patient (or should be) if there are any technical issues such as sound, since we’re all learning these new ways as we go along! Thanks.”
“Some great presentations and the platform made a nice change from Zoom despite a few technical glitches!”