Why social care teams need to reflect the communities they support

We spoke with social worker Nawal Taha, who previously ran her own domiciliary care provider, about how important it is for social care teams to reflect the multicultural communities they support.

Nawal is British-born and her background is Arabic. When she set up her own domiciliary care provider her own culture and background helped her to understand the importance of multiculturalism within a team and supported her in attracting a diverse team of people to work with her.

Raising awareness in communities

Nawal spoke to us about how domiciliary care is perceived within many Asian communities, and explained that the concept is something that many people in Asian communities may be unfamiliar with.

She told us that within most Asian communities there’s typically a culture of ‘looking after your own’, meaning that people will tend to care for their own parents or other older relatives. She found that when she started working in domiciliary care many people she knew from Asian communities were unfamiliar with it, but she helped to raise awareness of the value of domiciliary care.

This not only helped people to realise that drawing on care and support could benefit them or a relative, but also helped to raise awareness of domiciliary care as a career option to a community of people who already had much of the relevant skills, experience, and values from their personal experiences of caring for loved ones.

Nawal highlights that this is a key benefit of having a diverse team, as it helps to raise awareness of social care across different communities. This in turn helps to bring more people from different backgrounds into the sector, and the cycle continues.

Understanding cultural needs

Nawal highlighted that another important reason for having diverse cultures working across care is to reflect the multiculturalism of society as a whole and to provide greater understanding of the different cultural expectations and requirements of people who draw on care and support.

For example, Nawal says that in Islamic culture there may be a request for male care workers to support men drawing on care and support, while females would look to be supported by a female care worker. Language barriers can also be a consideration. Nawal says that for example, a person with dementia whose first language isn’t English may forget English words and tend to speak in their native language instead. So having staff who can speak a range of languages that reflect the people you support is advantageous.

She explains that of course, there will always be challenges but the key is in raising cultural awareness across teams so that everyone can understand and respect all the different cultures of the people who draw on care and support. Having diversity among your team can help to raise that comprehensive knowledge and understanding of different cultures.

A grassroots approach

Nawal says that encouraging diversity across the social care sector including at a leadership level needs a grassroots approach.

She explains that the sector needs to be working closely with local communities to raise awareness of social care, because she knows from her own personal experiences and connections that there’s still many people unaware of the support available.

Raising awareness of social care in all communities will attract more people from different backgrounds to join, and progress in the sector. Nawal says:

Black History Month

Skills for Care has been spotlighting our support and information about equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in social care throughout October to support Black History Month. You can find resources to support EDI in the workplace, blogs and articles about equality and race, and information about our programmes such as Moving Up which support people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to progress in their careers on our Black History Month spotlight page.

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