Definition
Used to refer to the way people ‘travel’ through the social care ‘system’, and the different points of contact ‘customers’ have – for example, first contact, assessment, care and support planning and review.
The bigger picture
As well as continuing the perception of people who require support as ‘customers’, the term ‘customer journey’ implies a standard, linear and transactional process, which begins with the application of a label that determines which pathway or referral route people will follow, and the service they will be prescribed. There’s no sense of a personalised, person-led approach, based around what matters most to people, or of relationships that evolve.
Saying it differently
Alternatives depend on the context and on ways of working. Ideally language and practice should focus on people and relationships, not processes.