Reviewing our event: Creating a society that values care – what we can learn from framing and narrative development?

A big thank you to all the speakers, panellists and attendees who joined our webinar earlier this week exploring how we can build national support for reform and investment in care. It was a great opportunity bring together to an amazing panel of communicators, campaigners, policy experts and people with lived experience, to learn across care; from early years to adult social care, paid and unpaid.

Following a presentation from our Strategy Director, Phillipa Williams, sharing some of the insights from Claremont’s work in this space, our Business Director Georgie Howlett kicked off conversations with carer and activist Marie Nixon. Marie is a carer to her son and her husband and talked about the emotional and physical toll of caring, how care can be both deeply personal and profoundly shaped by wider systems, and of unfortunate encounters with professionals who should have known better. Akin to some of the findings Phillipa shared from Claremont’s research for Carers Trust, for Marie, the importance of being listened to and having professionals respect your relationship was fundamental. As she put it,

“Being treated as an equal partner is absolutely vital because I’m then in a better position to support Stuart or Sean going forward.” Marie Nixon, carer and activist

Georgie then brought together our stellar panel including Phillipa, Dr Sophie Flemig (Elevate Great), Rohati Chapman (Carers Trust), Sarah Ronan (Early Education and Childcare Coalition), Neil Crowther (Social Care Future), and Abby Jitendra (Joseph Rowntree Foundation) for a more focussed debate. Everyone brought an openness to listen to one-another, to sharing research, policy, best practice and of course their hopes and fears. Broadly there were three key themes which emerged:

Moving from the economic argument

• The panel agreed that whilst economic arguments can help make the case for investment, especially at a policy level, it is much more effective to build wider momentum by rooting our work in core values and a vision for change.
• In fact, Sophie highlighted the unhelpful narratives that the economic argument can lean into and how we need to move beyond that:

“Let’s build solutions for tomorrow rather than for yesterday and start by reframing from the ‘I have, you lose’ to a narrative that shows that we all stand to gain.” Dr Sophie Flemig, Elevate Great

Starting with people drawing on support

• Policy and systems matter, but the experiences and voices of those who give and receive care must be at the centre of any change.

“The brilliant thing about care is that it’s really easy to understand, like most of us have got experiences doing it… the problem itself is very simple. And let’s make sure we don’t lose sight of that.” Abby Jitendra, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Show what’s possible

• International examples show that change is achievable when care is treated collectively, built in as social infrastructure, not just reliant as a private matter and responsibility.
• Indeed, the panel stressed that collectively there was a need to move beyond crisis narratives to show what good care looks like, whether that be accessible early years support, well-resourced adult social care, or systems that enable people to live full lives.
• Focusing on practical examples and positive change is important to build belief that improvement is possible and to inspire action across the sector.

“What feels fundamental is that we are able to paint real pictures of what good can look like in our work. The more we’re able to show specifics, and the impact that has on an individual, the more we can counter the feeling that there is a crisis, to show that things can be different and there is hope of change.” Phillipa Williams, Claremont

Whilst the panel highlighted how much – together – we do know about what needs to change, Sarah brought the session to a close with an important reminder of the reality and context of the world around care in the UK right now, and just how important that is too:

“It’s really difficult at the moment to get people to care about stuff when they are trying to survive… the impact of deteriorating living standards is really impacting the bandwidth and capacity that people have to empathise… We all really need to also care about raising living standards too, because when we do that, we create more capacity and empathy for people.” Sarah Ronan, Early Education and Childcare Coalition

Many thanks to all who came. If you attended and want to find out more, or this has prompted further questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch. For those who missed out, we’ve uploaded a recording on YouTube for anyone who’d like to watch (or re-watch):