Diane Seddon

Reader in Social Care

 

Tel: 01248 388220

Email: d.seddon@bangor.ac.uk

 

Profile:

Diane has taken a leading role in developing a successful social care research programme and has an excellent record of accomplishment, attracting research grants totalling over £7 million. Diane has led a successful carer research programme and has an established reputation for completing policy relevant research that has impact.   She has led reviews of national policy implementation, including evaluations of the National Carers Strategies in England for the Department of Health and in Wales for the Welsh Government.   

Diane is a member of the Welsh Government Ministerial Advisory Group on Carers.  She has acted as a Specialist Advisor on Domiciliary Care to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, House of Commons.

Diane contributes to the development and delivery of the Welsh Government’s Research Infrastructure Support System.   As Co-Investigator and Social Care Research Lead for the Wales Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research, she leads initiatives to better integrate research, policy and practice. Working collaboratively with the Alternative Futures Organisation, Diane is the Lead Academic taking forward a Social Care Research Innovations Lab, to provide virtual and pop-up spaces that support research development and knowledge exchange.  She is an Advisory Group Member, Wales School for Social Care Research, advising on the strategic direction of the School, and member of the School’s PhD Fellowship Committee.  Diane is a panel member for the Welsh Government’s Social Care Research Grants and Fellowship Committees.  She has been actively involved in developing opportunities for social care managers and practitioners to undertake applied social care research and recruiting doctoral students to Wales.

 

Book Chapters:

Seddon, D., Toms, G. and Verity, F. (2020 in press) Social care: research, policy and practice in Wales. In Williams, C. and Gwilym, H. (Eds.) Social Policy for Social Welfare Practice in Wales – New Directions. British Association of Social Work.

 

New Research:

Short breaks for people living with dementia and their carers: exploring wellbeing outcomes and informing future practice development through a Social Return on Investment approach
Funded by Health and Care Research Wales, Welsh Government (October 2020 - September 2022)

Researchers from the Bangor Institute of Health and Medical Research, Bangor University (Gill Toms, Diane Seddon, Rhiannon Tudor-Edwards and Carys Jones) and their partners Person Shaped Support UK Ltd and Shared Lives Plus have secured funding for a two-year study to explore an alternative to day centre support for people living with dementia and their families in North Wales. The study aims to understand how beneficial personalised short breaks can be and what elements of these breaks are important.

The study will explore a community-based service called TRIO provided by Person Shaped Support UK Ltd. Implementing the Shared Lives model, people living with dementia are matched with others who share similar interests and they regularly spend time together in the home of a TRIO companion who provides meaningful activities in the local community. The model is based on building genuine relationships between people and keeping people connected with their local community. There are seven Shared Lives schemes in Wales and the study will help to showcase this model of support.

The study will use an economic analysis - Social Return on Investment. This will enable the research team to evaluate the added social value created, considering the ‘value’ to peoples’ lives from their own perspectives. This approach will highlight what parts of TRIO are particularly important. The research will inform the work of professionals involved in commissioning and delivering services. It will also help establish the utility of Social Return on Investment analysis as a method to evaluate community-based models of support.

Contact points: Gill Toms (g.toms@bangor.ac.uk) and Diane Seddon (d.seddon@bangor.ac.uk)