Update - Our pledge supporting full and equal contribution at events from people who draw on social care

Our CEO Oonagh Smyth looks at what we have been doing to make good on our pledge to ask organisers of events to ensure full and equal contribution from people who draw on social care.

It’s now over a year since Skills for Care made a public commitment that when we are asked to speak at an event, we will ask the organisers to make sure there is a full and equal contribution from people who draw on social care services.

We designed a simple form that is available on our website download and complete the 'Speaker Engagement request form'

This matters to me personally as well as professionally. My sister Rita was born with spina bifida and significant life limiting disabilities. When she died, my mother was advised by a nurse not to name or bury her, she was young, and she’d have more children. It was as if she wasn’t worth a name

Rita has and will always be part of our family. It seemed natural to me that as we enter what is a period of significant change for services that the voices of those who draw on them must be heard as much as possible.

Has it made an impact?

Overall we have as most event organisers have been receptive to our requests and have been happy to include people who draw on services. Sometimes we have helped organisers to find people with lived experience.

One organiser was unsure how they could find people with lived experience. We noticed their sessions were full of really progressive employers. We suggested they ask those employers who were then able to find people who drew on their services to take part.

Another organiser thought about our request and came back after adding people who draw on services to their event so we were able to say yes

On occasion we have had to say that a registered manager or senior leader is not a substitute for someone with lived experience. Sadly, we have had to turn some invitations down as the organisers either didn’t understand what we were asking or didn’t want to do it.

That is their choice, and it is also our chance to respectfully decline their invitations. I don’t always decline invitations, there are times when I think that the event is so important for the social care workforce that I accept the invitation but keep making the point that those events are diminished by not including people who draw on their services who are always powerful advocates for how we can make social care more person centred.

To make good on our pledge we have taken a common-sense approach to making sure we can live up our pledge and we will continue to do so. At times it hasn’t been easy, making changes is often difficult, but it has been worth it.

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