HomeHow We WorkRegional Innovation Co-ordination Hub

Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan

The Regional Innovation Co-ordination (RIC) Hub supports innovation in health and social care across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan by showcasing good practice, supporting the spread and scale of new approaches and bringing people together to solve issues. We are hosted by the Health Board, within the Dragon’s Heart Institute, and work across the area’s Regional Partnership Board.

Get in touch by emailing [email protected] if you have an idea you’d like to explore together.

Our Resources

Newsletters

If the global health and care sector were a country it would be fifth largest emitter of carbon (C02e), highlighting the urgent need to develop more sustainable ways of working across the sector!

In this newsletter, the Hub has collated a number of good practice examples, a guide to the circular economy, an update on social prescribing and information on the Bevan Commission’s Let’s Not Waste programme, to accelerate the adoption of sustainable solutions and ways of working. Read more.
This report highlights just some of the work that the Regional Innovation Co-ordination Hub has delivered to drive innovation in Cardiff and the Vale in 2022/23. Read more.
Innovation can sometimes seem like a intimidating and inaccessible term, but at it’s simplest, innovation means the creation and implementation of new ideas, methods, products and ways of working. Anyone can innovate!

In this newsletter, the Hub answers the question ‘What is innovation?’ and shares the latest on smart technology and how it can be used in our health and social care system. Read more.
People with lived experience can offer a unique perspective on our health and social care services based on real experience. They can tell us first hand what it is like to experience a certain issue or service

In this newsletter, the Hub shares best practice of how services in our region have used lived experience as an asset from a variety of perspectives and provide further information to help incorporate lived experience into health and social care.. Read more.
The RIC Hub has pulled together resources, regional assets and examples of local innovations to help you take your innovative ideas forward. Check it out!
Social prescribing has been recognised as having a key role to play in ensuring a sustainable health and social care system that looks after the wellbeing of the population in Wales. Click here to read about the fantastic developments in our area.

Our Films

The RIC Hub worked with Enfys, a psychology and occupational therapy team that work with children and young people who are looked after, adopted, and on the edge of care, to capture the lived experience of one young girl growing up in a transracial foster placement. This heart-warming film addresses the challenges she has experienced and showcases how those challenges can be overcome.
The Hub has worked with Innovate Trust to showcase a pioneering Smart House in the Vale of Glamorgan. The house uses smart technology to help increase independence skills for residents who have complex needs and learning disabilities transitioning from school or college into the community.
This film tells the story of Stacey and Joanna, two inspiring people with a learning disability, who were employed by learning disability services. It highlights the benefits employing people with lived experience can have to both services and individuals.
As part of their investment in social prescribing, the South West GP Cluster in Cardiff joined up with parkrun and the Royal College of General Practitioners to host their own parkrun Practice event, which aims to encourage people to be more active and take control of their wellbeing.
Grow Well is a community gardening project within the South West GP Cluster in Cardiff. We worked with them to showcase the benefits social prescribing can have on health and wellbeing.
Teenagers from across South Wales have begun a week-long fitness challenge to boost their wellbeing and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. See more at Teens step up for mental health – CAVRPB
Cardiff and Vale Regional Innovation Coordination Hub have joined up with the Fathom Trust’s Making Well Project to explore the benefits Green Prescribing can have to people’s health and wellbeing.
The Nitrous Oxide Project has led to a huge reduction in Nitrous Oxide use in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. We worked with them to showcase their story so it can be adopted across Wales and beyond.

RIC Hub Guides

Innovation and adopting new ideas can sometimes seem daunting with many different factors to be considered. This series looks at those factors to introduce them and give you a starting point for understanding how to identify and overcoming issues.  

Your organisation may have specialist staff who can help you, whether with innovating or with particular elements, such as information governance and performance management. In addition, the RIC Hub may be able to offer support.  

The articles are based on our experience of working with colleagues in a number of organisations and we welcome your suggestions for additional articles.  

A different approach to commissioning focused on collaborative working to achieve agreed outcomes. Read more.
You have a proposal you would like to develop; if asked how it will work in a strategic context, how do you answer? Read more.
Piloting is an integral part of testing innovations and demonstrating how ideas can be adapted to local conditions as part of effective spread and scaling. But what makes for a successful pilot? Read more.
Complying with legal and organisational requirements supports effective and safe innovation. Read more.
Collecting and analysing data plays a vital part in understanding service delivery and demonstrating the impact that your work is having. Harnessing the data helps to tell the story for your innovations. 
Read more.
Innovating often creates or makes use of intellectual property. Understanding the creation, uses and protections such as copyright and patents will support effective innovation and adoption. Read more.
Putting value at the heart of decision-making means that we need to rethink how services are delivered, adding value at every step. The Value-Based Approach is a systematic way of considering and using resources to give better outcomes for every person. Read more.  
Engaging with people with lived experience can have a positive impact on the work that we do and can inform changes to services and the way we work. To do so meaningfully, it’s important to understand what works well, what the challenges and barriers might be and how to overcome them. The Hub has created a guide to give you a place to start. Read more.
Drawing upon existing resources and literature, the Hub has pulled together an easy guide to help navigate common challenges, barriers and enablers of employing people with lived experience. Read more.
When you think of innovation a number of things might come to mind, like technology, sci-fi and Steve Jobs. You might think that innovation is done by specialists, entrepreneurs and scientists. But at its simplest, innovation is the creation and implementation of new ideas, methods, products or ways of working. Read more.
In 2021, Welsh Government announced its plan to make the circular economy in Wales a reality in the Beyond Recycling strategy. But what exactly is the circular economy, what are the benefits and enablers, and what are the challenges we might face when moving to this way of working? Read more.

Cardiff and Vale Local Innovations 

There are many interesting and exciting innovations being put into place across Cardiff and the Vale. This series looks at examples from across the local area reflecting the variety of approaches being taken to improve lives, health and wellbeing.  

Want to create a self-sustaining and community-driven food hub in your area? Check out this inspiring innovation from the Vale of Glamorgan. Read more.
Accidental drug poisonings are a leading cause of preventable deaths among people who use opioids in the UK. We looked into the Cardiff and Vale Area Planning Board’s innovative solution. Read more.
Off-the-shelf IT solution to revolutionise obtaining patient consent. Read more.
Mike is one of two unpaid carers representatives on Cardiff and Vale Regional Partnership Board. He shared his experience of the role, its challenges and what he hopes to see in the future of our health and social care system. Read more.

RIC Hub Commissions

Social Prescribing Evaluation Framework

The RIC Hub has been developing an evaluation framework for social prescribing with the Wales School for Social Prescribing Research (WSSPR). To help us better understand social prescribing in our region, WSSPR have produced two reports which provide a foundation for the development of the framework. The Development Matrix has been developed with stakeholders from across services in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan to make sure it is right. For more information on the framework, please get in touch with the team by emailing [email protected]

WSSPR have undertaken a scoping review into the patient experience of social prescribing to give us a great starting point to develop the evaluation framework. An insightful read for anyone interested in social prescribing.
Stakeholders told us what data they think is important and easy to collect. This group concept mapping report presents the findings of the study into stakeholder views and has helped shape the data included in the evaluation framework.
This Development Matrix provides an evaluation framework for services and projects to self-assess their progress. It can be used to help services compare their progress over time and facilitate conversations between services in Wales.
WSSPR have developed a dedicated Person Reported Experience Measure (PREM) for social prescribing with Cardiff and Vale UHB’s Patient Experience team. The PREM is a tool that can be used by social prescribing providers to assess user experience and evaluate services. Please feel free to download to use in your social prescribing service
In this film, Professor Mark Llewelyn (Director of the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care) explains what the Social Prescribing Development Matrix is, why it has been developed, the benefits of utilising the tool, and how it can be used.

Health Technology Centre Report

The Health Technology Centre (HTC) report summarises the health and social care research, innovation and improvement landscape across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. It provides an evidence base for future priorities and contains a wealth of information about assets in the region which can be utilised in a drive for innovation.  

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Setting Our Agenda

We have worked with the RPB team and partner agencies to jointly develop the 2022/23 work plan for the RIC Hub. The work plan sets out the major areas for attention. Our RIC Hub steering group provides the focus and direction to deliver the plan.

Our Role:

  • We identify and showcase good practice so innovative approaches can be spread and scaled across the region and across Wales
  • We bring people, resources and organisations together to deliver benefits that could not be achieved alone
  • We drive innovation led health and social care based on the needs of our population

We work with RPB partners to ensure that we focus on the areas most in need of innovation and enable real, lasting change. A key part of this is finding new ways of coordinating, aligning, developing and implementing impactful, beneficial sustainable change and ways of working across the region that are also linked to national and international initiatives. By working in partnership, we are able to bring the right people together to showcase and spread the things that are going well, and work together to find solutions to challenging issues.

The RIC Hub works to support the RPB’s Starting Well, Living Well and Ageing Well partnerships’ work programmes.

Our Priorities

DECHRAU’N DDA
STARTING WELL

We want every child in Cardiff and Vale to have the opportunity to thrive. Our work focuses on children in vulnerable situations and the services that support them.

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HENEIDDIO’N DDA
AGEING WELL

We know how hard it can be to find help when people need it the most. We want to make sure there is community support to help people stay as healthy as possible so they can carry on doing the things that matter most to them.

Learn more

BYW’N DDA
LIVING WELL

As a Partnership we have worked together with people with a learning disability, their families, carers and the third and independent sector to produce a clear direction for the planning and delivery of adult learning disability services across the region over the next five years.

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Case Studies

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