News
September 3, 2026
When we talk about social care, we often talk about things that can be counted.
Hours of care. Visits. Staffing levels. Assessments. Medication. Funding. Waiting lists.
All of these matter.
But human beings don’t experience life as a spreadsheet.
We experience music. Food. Touch. Humour. Colour. Movement. Memory. Nature. Relationships. Culture. Stories. Belonging.
So why can creativity sometimes become an “activity” in care rather than part of care itself?
Care is more than completing tasks
Supporting somebody to wash, dress or eat can meet an immediate need.
But good care should also ask:
What makes this person feel like themselves?
What gives them pleasure?
What connects them to other people?
What makes today worth participating in?
Those questions take us beyond maintaining existence and towards supporting a life.
Creativity already exists in care
It might be a care worker discovering that somebody who rarely speaks remembers every word of a song.
It might be cooking food connected to someone’s childhood.
It could be painting, gardening, dancing, storytelling, photography, sewing or simply finding a different way to communicate.
These things are not necessarily separate interventions.
They are ways humans connect.
The system question
The challenge is not simply encouraging people to “be more creative”.
Workers need time.
Services need resources.
Organisations need cultures that recognise relational care.
Commissioning and regulation need to value outcomes that are harder to count.
And people receiving support need the freedom to tell us what actually matters to them.
Who, What, Why, When and Wonder
Who? Everyone who gives, receives, commissions or designs care.
What? Recognising creativity, identity and connection as legitimate parts of wellbeing.
Why? Because care that keeps someone safe but removes everything that makes life meaningful is incomplete.
When? Not when everything else has been done. Throughout care.
Wonder: If we designed social care around what makes life worth living, what would we build differently?
Become part of the solution
Look around your own life.
What is one thing — a song, meal, photograph, place, activity or tradition — that immediately connects you to who you are?
Now imagine needing care.
Would the people supporting you know that?
Take this question into The Exchange:
“What is one thing about you that you would want a future care worker to know?”