Latest from One Social Care

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?”  

The National Care Contract: Revising the Framework If we want a National Care Service, we need to ask a fundamental question: what should the national deal actually be between the people who provide care, the people who commission it, the people who pay for it and the people whose lives depend upon it? For decades, adult social care in England has operated without a single national employment framework equivalent to those found elsewhere in public services. Care is delivered through thousands of organisations, commissioned through different arrangements and funded through a mixture of public and private money. That diversity can create innovation and choice. It can also create fragmentation. Two people doing substantially similar care work can experience different pay, training, progression, travel arrangements, sick pay and employment conditions depending upon who employs them and where they work. In 2026, that framework is beginning to change. The Government has now confirmed the structure for England's first Adult Social Care Fair Pay Agreement, enabled by the Employment Rights Act 2025. A new Adult Social Care Negotiating Body will bring employers and trade unions together to negotiate minimum standards across the sector. The first negotiations are expected to begin in 2027, with the agreement intended to take effect in 2028. (GOV.UK) But One Social Care thinks this creates an opportunity to ask a bigger question. Could this become the foundation for something closer to a National Care Contract? Not simply a contract of employment. A new social contract for care. What is changing? The Fair Pay Agreement represents a significant structural change. Until now, there has been no legislatively mandated sector-wide collective bargaining system for adult social care in England. The Employment Rights Act 2025 creates the framework through which this can now happen. (Legislation.gov.uk) The Government confirmed in July 2026 that the new negotiating body will bring together representatives of employers and workers. Its remit can extend beyond basic pay to include: terms and conditions; training; career progression; people and culture policies; additional employment benefits. The first agreement is backed by £500 million for 2028–29. (GOV.UK) Read the Government's Fair Pay Agreement consultation response That matters. For the first time, England is creating machinery capable of establishing legally backed minimum employment standards across much of the adult social care workforce. But pay is only one part of the care economy Pay matters enormously. A workforce cannot be valued rhetorically while remaining economically undervalued. But changing an hourly rate without examining the wider system could leave some of the underlying problems untouched. Think about what sits behind a single hour of domiciliary care. Someone has to recruit the worker. Train them. Complete employment and safeguarding checks. Schedule the visit. Travel to the person's home. Record what happened. Supervise the worker. Maintain insurance. Operate the service. Meet regulatory requirements. Commission and fund the care. And ultimately someone — the state, a local authority or an individual and their family — has to pay for it. So the question cannot only be: What should a care worker earn? We also need to ask: What does it actually cost to deliver good care? Commissioning belongs in the conversation This is one of the most important connections. The Government's own consultation found consistent concern across stakeholders about funding sustainability, commissioning reform, clear guidance and effective implementation. (GOV.UK) The Government also acknowledges that commissioners need to be involved if the Fair Pay Agreement is going to work. (GOV.UK) That makes sense. A provider cannot sustainably improve wages and employment conditions if the price paid for care does not reflect the true cost of providing it. Otherwise we risk creating an impossible equation: better pay + inadequate commissioning = greater pressure somewhere else. That pressure may appear as reduced staffing, shorter visits, financial instability, providers leaving markets or increased costs for people funding their own care. A national workforce settlement therefore needs to connect with the economics of commissioning. What could a National Care Contract contain? One Social Care proposes that we start thinking beyond a narrow employment agreement towards a broader framework. Not necessarily one identical employment contract imposed on every organisation. Instead, a national floor beneath which care should not fall. That could eventually connect several things currently being developed separately. 1. A fair minimum for pay Care work should have a nationally understood value. The Fair Pay Agreement creates a mechanism through which that can begin to be negotiated. But the framework should also recognise experience, specialist knowledge and increasing responsibility. 2. Clear terms and conditions Pay is only one component of employment. A stronger framework could consider issues such as: sick pay; travel time; mileage; predictable working arrangements; pensions; leave; wellbeing; supervision; occupational support. The Fair Pay Agreement negotiating body will have statutory scope to consider pay and terms and conditions, alongside wider employment matters. (GOV.UK) 3. A national career structure This is already developing. The Government's Care Workforce Pathway is intended to establish a universal career structure across adult social care, helping people understand roles, skills and progression. The pathway and Fair Pay Agreement are explicitly being developed as complementary reforms. (GOV.UK) Explore the Care Workforce Pathway Imagine being able to enter care and see clearly: where you begin → what you learn → how you progress → what responsibility means → how your pay develops. That begins to look like a profession rather than a collection of jobs. 4. Portable skills and learning People move between employers. Their knowledge moves with them. Our systems should recognise that. A national framework could help make qualifications, competencies and recognised professional development more portable across the care sector. That would benefit workers. But it could also benefit employers and the people receiving support because valuable knowledge would be easier to recognise. 5. Safeguarding and workforce assurance There is another piece that deserves much more attention. If we are building a national workforce framework, we should ask what minimum workforce assurance should travel with the person. Identity. Right to work. Relevant qualifications. Training. Enhanced DBS status where appropriate. Employment history. Professional development. Safeguarding information where it can lawfully be shared. This connects directly with the wider debate about a National Care Registry and with the safeguarding questions being raised through Richard's Law. A national employment framework without corresponding workforce assurance would solve only part of the problem. The missing workforce There is also a significant limitation in the current Fair Pay Agreement proposals. The Government has confirmed that the agreement will apply to the paid adult social care workforce covered by the Employment Rights Act definition, but will not include unpaid carers, self-employed workers or people working through informal care arrangements. (GOV.UK) That distinction deserves public attention. An increasing amount of care can exist outside conventional employment relationships. People using Direct Payments may engage their own support. Self-funding families may employ or contract individuals directly. Workers may operate independently. And millions of unpaid carers provide care entirely outside the paid workforce. So when we talk about a national framework for care, we need to be very clear about: who is inside it — and who remains outside it. The Government says the impact on self-employed workers will be monitored and that employment status and protections for self-employed people will be considered separately. (GOV.UK) For One Social Care, that is an area worth watching closely. Who pays? Eventually every discussion about social care reaches money. A National Care Contract cannot simply establish better standards without answering how those standards are funded. The Government has allocated £500 million for the first Fair Pay Agreement in 2028–29. The Secretary of State's remit letter is expected to tell the negotiating body the maximum funding available to councils to meet increased costs. (GOV.UK) But this creates another question. What happens after the first year? If care becomes more expensive because we finally pay people properly, that is not necessarily a failure. It may reveal something we should have acknowledged long ago: good care has a real cost. The challenge is deciding how that cost should be shared fairly and sustainably. A contract has two sides There is another reason we use the phrase National Care Contract. Contracts describe responsibilities between parties. The workforce has responsibilities. Providers have responsibilities. Commissioners have responsibilities. Government has responsibilities. Regulators have responsibilities. And people drawing on care should have enforceable rights, choices and protections. A genuine national framework could therefore begin connecting: **Workforce rights Provider sustainability Commissioning responsibility Safeguarding Training and professional development Public accountability People's rights and choice.** That is much more powerful than treating each problem separately. From workforce reform to a National Care Service The Government itself describes the Fair Pay Agreement as an important step towards creating a National Care Service. (GOV.UK) That makes the design choices being made now particularly important. Because national systems do not suddenly appear fully formed. They are assembled from frameworks. Standards. Rights. Funding mechanisms. Data. Workforce structures. Accountability. And expectations. The Fair Pay Agreement could therefore be more than a pay reform. It could become one of the foundations upon which something much larger is built. Who. What. Why. When. Wonder. Who? Care workers, people drawing on care, families, providers, commissioners, councils, unions, independent workers, regulators and government. What? A nationally understood minimum framework for what good employment and sustainable care provision should look like. Why? Because national expectations cannot sustainably sit on top of fragmented employment and commissioning arrangements. When? Now. The negotiating body is being established in 2026, negotiations are expected in 2027 and the first Fair Pay Agreement is planned to take effect in 2028. (GOV.UK) Wonder: If we were designing the care system from scratch today, what would we put into the contract between society and the people who provide our care? Take it into The Exchange This is one I would actively invite care workers, providers, people drawing on care and commissioners to answer: What should be guaranteed in a National Care Contract? Choose your five. Pay? Travel time? Training? Sick pay? Career progression? DBS and workforce checks? Minimum commissioning rates? Continuity of care? Portable qualifications? Worker wellbeing? Rights for people receiving care? Something we've missed? And then ask the harder question: Who should pay for those guarantees? Because revising the framework isn't simply about deciding what we want from social care. It's about deciding what we are collectively prepared to put underneath it.

Dementia can change memory. But a person's identity cannot be reduced to what they can recall today. Every person receiving care arrives with a history. Places they have lived. People they have loved. Work they have done. Food they recognise. Music they know. Languages they have spoken. Things they are proud of. Things they regret. Communities they belong to. Knowing some of that history can fundamentally change the way we understand their present. Behaviour or communication? Imagine somebody repeatedly saying that they need to go home. The statement could be treated as a problem to stop. Or we could wonder what “home” means. Safety? A parent? Children? A particular place? A period of life in which the person felt secure? The words may be the beginning of a conversation rather than the end of one. Families and communities hold knowledge too Some of the richest information about a person's life never appears in a care record. It lives with partners, children, neighbours, friends and communities. That knowledge matters. Co-production isn't only about asking people what they think about services. It can also mean recognising that people and communities possess knowledge that professional systems do not. Technology creates another possibility We now have unprecedented tools for recording stories, voices, photographs, music and family histories. That raises a useful question for social care. Could we become better at preserving people's stories before a crisis or diagnosis means somebody else has to reconstruct them? Wonder What would a care record look like if it began not with: “What is wrong with this person?” but: “Who is this person?” Take it into The Exchange Ask somebody you know: “What is one story about your life you would never want to disappear?” Then bring the wider question to One Social Care: How could social care become better at preserving people's identity, history and stories?   Join the conversation

Ending the Cliff Edge for Young People: Growing Up Shouldn't Mean Starting Again Turning 18 should be a milestone. For too many young people who need care and support, it can also become a boundary between two systems. One day, somebody is a child supported through children's services. Then they become an adult. Their disability hasn't suddenly changed. Their learning needs haven't disappeared. Their relationships haven't reset. Their family hasn't stopped caring. But the legislation, eligibility criteria, funding routes, professionals and services around them can change. We call this transition. When it works, it should help a young person build an adult life. When it doesn't, it can feel like a cliff edge. And importantly, the law was specifically designed to prevent that happening. There shouldn't be a cliff edge at 18 The Care Act 2014 contains specific transition provisions for young people likely to need care and support after they turn 18. Where a young person is likely to have needs for care and support after 18, a local authority must carry out a transition assessment where it considers there would be significant benefit in doing so. Young carers and adults caring for children can also be entitled to transition assessments. (GOV.UK) Planning does not have to wait until somebody's 18th birthday. In fact, NHS guidance says transition planning should begin by Year 9 — around age 13 or 14 — at the latest, and should be an ongoing process tailored to the young person rather than a single handover meeting. (nhs.uk) NHS — Moving from children's social care to adult social care GOV.UK — Care Act transition guidance That gives us a useful starting principle: Transition should be a journey, not a birthday. A young person's life doesn't divide into departments One of the problems with transition is that systems can look at different pieces of a young person's life separately. Education. Health. Social care. Mental health. Housing. Employment. Benefits. Family support. Community life. But the young person experiences all of those things as one life. NHS England's new 2026 transition guidance recognises precisely this problem. It calls for transition planning across health, social care, SEND, education, learning disability and autism services, housing, employment, hospices, social prescribing and the voluntary sector. (NHS England) For young people receiving continuing-care support, NHS England recommends early engagement — good practice from age 11–12 and no later than 14 — alongside a transition plan and named keyworker who remains involved until the young person is settled into adult services where applicable. (NHS England) NHS England — Supporting young people to transition into adolescent and adult services This is much closer to the model we should be aiming for: one young person → one journey → organisations working around them. Not: one young person → multiple systems → multiple handovers → family joins the dots. Ask about adulthood, not simply adult services There is another distinction that matters. Preparing somebody for adult services is not the same thing as preparing somebody for adult life. The Care Act guidance talks about aspirations and outcomes such as employment, health, education and independence. (GOV.UK) So transition planning should start with the young person. What do they want their life to look like? Where might they live? What relationships matter? What would they like to learn? Could they work? What support would make employment possible? How will they participate in their community? What makes them happy? What does independence mean to them? For somebody with substantial lifelong needs, independence may not mean doing everything without help. It could mean having greater choice, voice and control over how help is provided. That is still adulthood. The family's transition matters too At 18, parents don't suddenly stop being parents. For some families, they may have spent years coordinating appointments, education, medication, therapies, equipment, transport and support. Then adulthood changes the legal landscape. Decision-making changes. Consent changes. Services change. Benefits may change. The relationship between professionals, the young person and their parents changes. And the needs of the parent or family carer can change too. That is why the Care Act's transition provisions don't only consider the young person. They also provide for assessments of young carers and adults caring for children approaching adulthood. (GOV.UK) A good transition therefore asks two separate questions: What will this young person need to live their adult life? and: What will the people supporting them need as that relationship changes? Continuity is a right worth knowing about This is particularly important for families. The Care Act was explicitly designed to prevent a young person already receiving children's support simply losing that support at 18 while adult-care arrangements are still being decided. Government guidance says existing children's support should continue through the assessment process until adult care and support is in place to take over — or until assessment establishes that adult care and support does not need to be provided. (GOV.UK) That is an important protection. Because families should not be left thinking: “They're 18 now. Children's services have finished. You'll have to wait for adult services.” Where support is already being provided, transition should be planned so that the young person isn't simply dropped into a gap between systems. Eligibility can still change Continuity doesn't mean that children's and adult services are identical. Different legal frameworks and eligibility tests can apply. For example, NHS England explicitly warns families that eligibility for Children and Young People's Continuing Care does not automatically mean someone will qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare after 18. (NHS England) Similarly, educational support and social-care support operate through different frameworks. An Education, Health and Care Plan can continue beyond 18 in appropriate circumstances, and some young people with SEND need longer to complete education and training. Current guidance recognises that young people with complex needs may require children's services, adult social care, housing and health services to work together to achieve a smooth transition. (GOV.UK) GOV.UK — EHC plans for young people aged 19 to 25 This is why early planning matters. The earlier everybody knows what might change, the more time there is to prepare. SEND reform makes this especially important now This conversation is particularly timely. The Government's 2026 SEND reforms are proposing significant changes to the system across England, while retaining Education, Health and Care Plans for young people who need them under the proposed future arrangements. The reforms also place renewed emphasis on preparing young people for employment, independent living, health and active community life. (GOV.UK) The Government says it intends local authorities and Integrated Care Boards to work together more effectively, with multidisciplinary support and greater involvement of children, young people and families in decisions. (GOV.UK) GOV.UK — SEND reform: putting children and young people first The direction matters. But One Social Care should keep asking the same question we ask of every reform: What does the change actually feel like at the other end? A smoother administrative transition is useful. A better life is the outcome. What should a good transition look like? Perhaps we need to stop thinking about transition primarily as transferring a case from one department to another. A good transition would mean that a young person knows: Who is helping me? What will change? What will stay the same? What choices do I have? Where will I live, learn, work and belong? Who do I contact when something goes wrong? What happens to the people who currently support me? And: What does my adult life look like beyond services? Those questions are understandable without professional knowledge. That is important. A transition system that only professionals can understand is not genuinely person-centred. Information families can use If you are approaching this transition now, these are useful starting points: NHS — Moving from children's to adult social care GOV.UK — Care Act transition rights and assessments NHS England — 2026 transition guidance NHS England — SEND information and support GOV.UK — SEND reform and current proposals One Social Care provides general information and signposting rather than individual legal advice. Individual circumstances differ, and this article focuses primarily on arrangements in England. Who. What. Why. When. Wonder. Who? Young people approaching adulthood, their families and carers — alongside children's services, adult social care, health, SEND, education, housing, employment services and community organisations. What? A planned journey into adulthood in which support, information and responsibility move around the young person rather than expecting the young person to navigate disconnected systems. Why? Because turning 18 doesn't change somebody's needs overnight. When? Years before the handover becomes urgent. Transition planning should begin early enough to create choices rather than manage a crisis. (nhs.uk) Wonder: What if we stopped asking whether a young person was ready for adult services and started asking whether our adult systems were ready for the young person? Take it into The Exchange For young people, families, carers and professionals: What is the one thing that should never be lost when somebody moves from children's to adult services? Their relationships? Their support? Their information? Their voice? Their ambitions? Their named worker? Something else? And a second question for the system: If we started planning for adulthood at 14 rather than reacting at 17, what could we do differently? Because the objective shouldn't simply be to get somebody safely across the boundary at 18. It should be to make sure there is no cliff edge there in the first place.

There is a lot of talking about social care. Reports. Reviews. Commissions. Consultations. Policies. Promises. But right now, there is something you can actually do. The Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, has launched The Big Conversation on Care — a national conversation asking people across England what they want and expect from the future of adult social care. And they want to hear from you. Whether you receive care, provide care, work in care, arrange care for somebody you love, run a care organisation — or have never had to think about social care before — this conversation matters. Because one day, social care is likely to touch most of our lives. So, do something. The Big Conversation is asking a deceptively simple question: When we are old or disabled, or have a serious illness, who should support us and how? You can submit your own idea. You can read what other people think. You can agree, disagree or say that you're neutral. You can share your own experience of adult social care. You can encourage somebody else to participate. You don't need to be an expert. Your experience is expertise. 1. Take part in The Big Conversation This is the main place to start. The Big Conversation is exploring some of the biggest questions facing social care: what care should provide, who should receive support, what families can reasonably be expected to do and how we create a system that is fair and sustainable. Take part in The Big Conversation on Care 2. Submit your idea The online conversation allows people to put forward their own proposals beginning with: “We should…” What would you change? What have policymakers missed? What would make life better for somebody receiving care? What would make the system work better for families, unpaid carers or the people working in it? New proposals can currently be submitted until 9 September 2026. Go to The Big Conversation and submit your idea 3. Vote on other people's ideas You don't have to write anything yourself. You can look at proposals made by other people and say whether you agree, disagree or feel neutral. More than 350,000 votes had already been cast by the end of August, alongside more than 6,000 proposals. Voting in this first online phase continues until 23 September 2026. Read the latest Big Conversation update and deadlines 4. Tell the Casey Commission what happened to you There is another important way to participate. The Commission has a dedicated portal where individuals can share their personal experience of adult social care. That experience might be good. It might be bad. It might reveal something that needs fixing. You can write up to 1,000 words or upload a document. Please don't include sensitive personal information such as NHS numbers or copies of health records. Share your personal experience with the Casey Commission 5. Organisations can submit evidence too If you're a care provider, community organisation, campaign, charity, research organisation, university, local group or another organisation working around social care, the Commission also accepts organisational submissions. You can share information, research and evidence through its submission portal. Submit evidence or research to the Casey Commission 6. Understand what the Commission is actually doing Before responding, you may want to understand the Commission's remit. Its work includes developing recommendations for reforming adult social care and considering how a future National Care Service could be implemented. Read the Casey Commission's Terms of Reference 7. Follow what happens next Having your say shouldn't mean pressing submit and forgetting about it. Watch what happens to the conversation. Read the Commission's announcements. Look at the evidence. Ask whether the voices of people who draw on care, families, unpaid carers and the workforce are reflected in what eventually gets recommended. Follow Casey Commission news and announcements Visit the main Casey Commission website And then bring the conversation back here. At One Social Care, we don't want people simply consuming information about a system that affects their lives. We want people participating in it. So once you've visited the Big Conversation, come back and talk to us. Who is social care for? What should we be able to expect from it? Why does the system work the way it does? Where should responsibility sit — with individuals, families, communities, providers or the state? And we wonder… What could social care become if millions of ordinary people genuinely understood it and participated in designing what comes next? You don't need permission to have an opinion about social care. You don't need a job title. You don't need to understand every piece of legislation. You don't need to wait until the system affects your own family. Read something. Question something. Vote on something. Share something. Talk to somebody. Do something. Because social care isn't somebody else's system. It's ours.

Unpaid carers hold up enormous parts of our health and social care system. But knowing that somebody is a carer is not the same as ensuring that their rights work in practice. A daughter organising medication for her mother. A husband supporting his wife through dementia. A parent caring for a disabled child. A neighbour making sure someone is safe. A family member coordinating appointments, meals, finances and personal care. Many people doing these things do not initially describe themselves as carers at all. They are simply looking after somebody they love. That can make an enormous contribution effectively hidden capacity within our health and social care system. But capacity should never be mistaken for unlimited capacity. When caring becomes invisible infrastructure Unpaid caring often happens quietly. It happens before a professional arrives and after they leave. It happens overnight, at weekends and during emergencies. It can involve practical care, emotional support, advocacy, administration, supervision and simply ensuring another person is safe. The NHS explicitly recognises that emotional support and watching over someone who cannot safely be left alone can constitute caring. (nhs.uk) The problem begins when a system starts to depend upon that contribution without adequately recognising what sustaining it requires. Carers UK reports that people may take a considerable time to recognise themselves as carers, potentially delaying their awareness of the support and rights available to them. (Carers UK) So one of our first questions at One Social Care is: How can you exercise a right you don't know you have? Unpaid carers do have rights For adults in England, the Care Act 2014 created an important legal framework around carers. An adult providing regular unpaid care can request a carer's assessment. It is separate from the needs assessment of the person being cared for, and the assessment should examine the effect caring has on the carer's own life. (nhs.uk) This can include: physical and mental wellbeing; whether the person is willing and able to continue caring; work and education; relationships and other responsibilities; opportunities to have a life outside caring; emergency planning; what support might make caring sustainable. And importantly, an assessment is not a test of whether somebody is a “good enough” carer. It is about the carer's needs. (Carers UK) NHS: Ask for a carer's assessment Carers UK: Carer's assessment guidance An assessment should lead somewhere Recognition alone isn't enough. Where a council determines that a carer's needs are eligible, a support plan should be developed setting out how those needs will be addressed. Potential support can include practical assistance, training, equipment, emotional support, opportunities for breaks and advice about benefits. (Carers UK) And if somebody is told they do not qualify for council support, that should not simply be the end of the conversation. Information and advice about other sources of help should still be provided. (nhs.uk) This distinction matters. There is a significant difference between: “We recognise that you're a carer.” and: “Your needs have been assessed, you understand the decision, and you know what happens next.” What happens when a right doesn't happen? This is where the word enforceable becomes important. A right needs a route through which somebody can question a decision or challenge a failure to follow the proper process. If someone disagrees with how their carer's assessment was carried out or its outcome, the NHS guidance explains that they can first use their local council's complaints procedure. If dissatisfied with how the complaint is handled, the matter may subsequently be taken to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. (nhs.uk) That doesn't mean every disagreement means a council has acted unlawfully. It means carers should know that “no” is not necessarily the end of the information available to them. Carers UK: Understand your rights as a carer Rights at work matter too Caring does not happen in isolation from employment. Someone may simultaneously be an employee, parent, partner and carer. Employment protections for carers have been developing, but the question of whether they go far enough remains live. In 2026 the UK Government reviewed employment rights for unpaid carers, including implementation of the Carer's Leave Act 2023 and whether further support is required to enable people to combine employment and caring responsibilities. (GOV.UK) Carers UK has continued to argue for stronger employment protection, including paid Carer's Leave. (Carers UK) That raises a bigger social-care question. If someone reduces their hours, loses income, leaves employment or damages their future pension because the care system relies upon them, where should the cost of caring sit? It shouldn't disappear simply because it isn't appearing on a social-care invoice. Beyond hidden capacity Perhaps we need to stop describing unpaid carers primarily in terms of what they contribute to the system. They are people first. They have their own lives, relationships, ambitions, work, finances, health and futures. Carers UK makes an important distinction: while rights frameworks exist across the UK, underfunding can affect whether those rights are realised in practice, and there remain areas where carers' organisations argue stronger rights are required. (Carers UK) That is the gap One Social Care should keep examining: Rights on paper → awareness → access → assessment → decision → support → lived outcome. A system cannot measure its success merely by whether the legislation exists. We also have to ask whether somebody can actually find, understand and use it. If you are looking after someone You don't need to wait until you are at breaking point before finding out what support may be available. A useful starting point is: NHS — Carer's assessments Carers UK — What are your rights as a carer? Carers UK — Looking After Someone guide Carers UK — Benefits, assessments and practical-support factsheets NHS — Needs assessments for the person you support For individual information and signposting, Carers UK's helpline and support service currently provides guidance on benefits, financial support, workplace rights and other caring issues. (Carers UK) One Social Care is providing general information and signposting here, not individual legal advice. Rights and processes also differ across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so check the guidance relevant to where you live. (Carers UK) Who. What. Why. When. Wonder. Who? Millions of people supporting relatives, partners, friends and neighbours — including many who don't yet call themselves carers. What? Rights that recognise the needs of the person providing unpaid care, not only the person receiving it. Why? Because care cannot be sustainable when the wellbeing of one person depends upon quietly exhausting another. When? Before crisis. Rights are most useful when people know about them early enough to use them. Wonder: What would social care look like if every unpaid carer knew their rights — and could see clearly what to do when those rights were not being realised? Take it into The Exchange Have you ever discovered a right or source of support only after you actually needed it? And: What is the one thing every unpaid carer should be told at the beginning of their caring journey? That is a conversation worth having — because hidden capacity should never mean hidden people.

Everyone wants better social care. That sounds like one of the easiest statements on which we could possibly agree. The difficulty begins with the next question. Better for whom? For the person receiving support? Their family? An unpaid carer? The care worker? The provider? The commissioner? The council? The NHS? The Treasury? Different parts of the system can measure “better” very differently. The microcosm and the macrocosm For one person, better care might mean the same care worker arriving every morning. At system level, that small experience connects to recruitment, retention, pay, commissioning, travel time, workforce planning and funding. For an unpaid carer, better care might mean two dependable hours in which they know somebody they love is safe. Behind those two hours could sit eligibility criteria, assessments, local-authority budgets, provider capacity and national policy. The micro and macro are connected. Outcomes have to reach people's lives A new strategy is not yet an outcome. A new policy is not yet an outcome. A new piece of technology is not yet an outcome. The real test comes later: What changed for a human being? That doesn't mean system measures are unimportant. It means we should be able to trace the line between decisions made at the top and experiences at the other end. Better requires more than one perspective This is why co-production matters. People who draw on care know things policymakers cannot know from a spreadsheet. Care workers know things senior leaders cannot see from a boardroom. Families see the spaces between services. Providers understand operational realities. Researchers can help us understand patterns and evidence. Commissioners understand resources and competing demands. None possesses the whole picture. Wonder Perhaps the question isn't simply: “How do we fix social care?” Perhaps we first need to ask: “What would tell us that social care was actually getting better?” And then listen carefully to whether different people give us different answers. Take it into The Exchange We're asking the One Social Care community: Complete this sentence: “I would know social care was getting better if…” There is no required professional language. Answer from wherever you stand in the system — including outside it. Because understanding what “better” means may be one of the places where better social care actually begins.