With Skills for Care leading on #CelebratingSocialCare again this April, Chief Executive Oonagh Smyth shares how you can get involved and why this celebration is so important.
For the third year running I’m delighted that Skills for Care will be spearheading the celebration of social care again this April.
We first launched our #CelebratingSocialCare campaign in April 2022. This was a pivotal time for the social care sector, where we were starting to move beyond the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic and into new ways of working, which have been forever influenced by the impact of the pandemic.
The two years prior had been a turbulent time for everyone across the world and was felt especially keenly by those working in and drawing on care and support.
When we launched the first #CelebratingSocialCare campaign, we reached out to some of our connections working in frontline care delivery to determine whether they felt it was a good time to launch a celebratory campaign.
We were pleased that feedback on the idea was really positive, with people telling us that it did feel like an appropriate time to reflect back on the incredible work that everyone working in care had achieved over the past two years and to look forward to the opportunities ahead.
When we launched the campaign, we were even more delighted with the engagement and enthusiasm we saw from people across the sector who relished the opportunity to share their successes, thank yous and well dones.
Having seen what a positive impact the #CelebratingSocialCare activity had for the sector we were excited to run it again in 2023, and were once again blown away by how much it took off across the sector.
Seeing care organisations and individuals working in and drawing on care and support sharing their achievements, hard work and celebrations of others really put a smile on all of our faces and spread a feelgood movement across social care. We were inundated with positive messages and stories on a daily basis.
That’s why we are so looking forward to leading the celebrations again this year.
Of course, at Skills for Care we celebrate social care year-round but our #CelebratingSocialCare campaign in April is an opportunity to celebrate that little bit louder and to encourage everyone else to get involved.
You can get involved with the celebrations by sharing your successes and shout-outs on social media.
On the Skills for Care website, you can find suggested social media posts and photos that you can use to show that you’re #CelebratingSocialCare as well as templates that you can tailor to create your own bespoke celebratory messages and images.
This might be a thank you to your team members, a well done to a colleague, or an update on a recent event or activity you’ve run with the people you support.
On our website you can also find suggested activities you can get involved with throughout April to celebrate social care. This could include an awards event for your staff, a special coffee morning for the people you support and their loved ones, or engaging with your local community.
People who work in social care are highly-skilled, passionate and hard-working and it’s important that we all take time to recognise the work that people who work in social care do and the impact this has in supporting people who draw on care to live their lives how they choose.
#CelebratingSocialCare is an opportunity to raise the profile of social care and its important contribution to society; share positive stories from social care and change the narrative of how social care is often portrayed; create a feeling of community, celebration, and pride among the social care workforce, and highlight positive examples of best practice to inspire and support care organisations.
We really hope you can just us in the celebrations.
Find out more about getting involved: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/celebratingsocialcare
@skillsforcare
skillsforcare.org.uk
