Gloriously Ordinary Sundays - 30th November 2025

At Social Care Future, we talk a lot about reframing and thinking differently about this thing we call social care. There’s a reason why our vision talks about living in a place we call home with people and things we love, and not about making sure that we get really well-organised and regulated four visits a day. It’s because social care is about the support we need to live our Gloriously Ordinary Lives. Unfortunately, we know that for many people, both inside and outside the world of social care, that’s not the story of social care they hear.

Over the past year, Social Care Future, Think Local Act Personal, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, and the Local Government Association have been exploring how we communicate about adult social care. We’ve had the expert support of Frameworks UK, and last week the first fruits of that work were published – take a look here, as there is some great stuff.

It made me think about three great stories people have told me over the last week about how putting the Gloriously Ordinary Lives lens on things helps us think differently about what our role is if we're part of the wonderful world of social care.

After our session unpicking Test One, Mandy told me how she questioned her assumption that Margaret, a 72-year-old woman she was working with, would want to spend her week at a day service for people living with dementia. She figured that she wouldn’t want that for herself, so why would she assume that for Margaret? She had a different conversation, and Margaret (who worked in a café for much of her life) is now volunteering doing the tea round at her local hospice, with support from other volunteers.

Charlotte shared how a young man, Jake, who she’s been trying to commission support for and who had been rejected by a range of local care and support organisations as ‘too complex’, now has nine organisations showing an interest in supporting him simply because she changed the information she shared about him to a one-page profile. She shared what people like and admire about Jake, what’s important to him, and what you need to know to support him well. It’s not about minimising the support that Jake needs, but about knowing who he is and starting from there. She’s also going to decide which organisation is going to support Jake by chatting to them, rather than by sharing more paperwork.

Helen, who is a team leader in a day service, talked about the subtle but powerful shift from thinking and talking about ‘planning activities’ for people, to asking people what they might want to do with their time – including thinking about friends, connections, and purpose.

None of this is particularly revolutionary. You might say it’s about being person-centred or strengths-based. But I like the idea that it’s about seeing things differently, and people tell me that the lens of Gloriously Ordinary Lives helps with that. I hope so.

PS. Did you see? The Gloriously Ordinary Sundays Podcast episode 14 is here. You'll hear that I am absolutely thrilled to introduce you all to the lovely ⁠⁠⁠Marianne Selby-Boothroyd⁠⁠⁠, who's joining the Gloriously Ordinary Lives team... that's right, the Gloriously Ordinary Lives team! How exciting is that? Have a listen, and we'd love to hear what you think!