Today, at the NCASC conference in Bournemouth, Think Local Act Personal joined Social Care Future, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Association (LGA) to launch important new work on how we talk about adult social care and why it matters.
Over the past year, we’ve been part of a collaborative project exploring a simple but powerful question: How can changing the way we communicate about adult social care help build public understanding and strengthen support for investment and reform? With expert support from Frameworks UK, this work sets out fresh insights into what really connects with people.
The launch includes Frameworks UK’s new research report, ‘How to talk about social care’, alongside a quick start guide to help communicators start putting the findings into practice right away. More detailed guidance, tools and learning opportunities will follow in the months ahead.
This research builds on foundational work led by Social Care Future to ‘change the narrative’ around adult social care, and points to new opportunities to strengthen the story we tell by:
- Placing stronger emphasis on fairness across incomes and places.
- Offering more step-by-step explanation of what social care is and does when working as we’d like it to
- Emphasising solutions using real life examples of social care at its best
- Employing the metaphor of social care acting as ‘glue’, connecting together the things that support us and strengthen our ability to live our lives in the way that we want to.
For TLAP, this work aligns closely with our long-standing commitment to language that respects, includes and uplifts. How we talk about social care shapes how people understand it and whether they believe in a future where everyone can live their life their way.
We’re proud to help bring this work to life and look forward to supporting the next stage: putting these insights into practice.
