For the last three years, Measuring the Mountain has been gathering people’s experiences of using care and support services, or of being an unpaid carer, to understand more about what things are like for people day-to-day.  We have also conducted two Citizens’ Juries to explore key themes that arose from the stories in more detail.

Funded by Welsh Government, our work has been an important element towards understanding the early impact of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.  We have now published our final reports from 2019 / 2020 and these are available on www.mtm.wales along with the reports from 2018 and key documents and videos that we have made over the lifetime of the project.

We have also published a database of over 450 stories that were shared with us.  These form a hugely valuable bank of information which we hope is useful to people working in and around the care and support sector for informing practice, aiding policy decisions and influencing the focus of future research projects.

The work of Measuring the Mountain has only been possible thanks to the generosity of people in Wales sharing their stories with us and participating in the Citizens’ Juries.  It has been a testament to the willingness of people to get involved in research, to want to use their experiences to influence change and bring about improvements, and of people’s enthusiasm for citizen-led processes that influence policy and practice.

The work of our Jurors in both 2018 and 2020 was incredible, producing a total of 31 recommendations.  You can find their reports and the recommendations they contain on www.mtm.wales/the-citizens-juries and if you visit our YouTube channel (either via www.mtm.wales or by searching ‘Measuring the Mountain’ on YouTube) you will find recordings of the Citizens’ Jury sessions from 2020.  These are a fantastic source of information filled with insightful discussion and thoughtful questions from our Jurors.

The mountain is still some way from being fully measured, however, the work we have undertaken since 2018 has got us at least some of the way there.  We hope to have left a legacy of valuable information and resources so that others can continue to learn and develop their policies and practice. 

The reports, stories and recommendations housed on www.mtm.wales will be there until 2026 – please share them, make use of them and help to get a bit more of the mountain measured.