Social Movement

We are very excited to announce that Nacas is part of a programme by Nesta and Dunhill Medical Trust to support and learn how social movements bring about change.

The Social Movements for Health programme will see Nesta and its partner, the Dunhill Medical Trust, work alongside us and six other movements as we shape and frame our campaigns, hoping to understand more clearly how social movements can be supported to reach their full potential.

The programme is driven by a desire to better understand the journey social movements take as they grow and to understand what advice and guidance are needed to ensure they make the biggest impact in the areas they are working in.

Christine Cornwall, Director of Health at Nesta, said:

“At a time when there is increased pressure on the health and social care system, it’s vital that we draw on people’s expertise of their own health and the health of their communities.”

“Social movements are a powerful vehicle for change and through this programme, we hope to understand how organisations like Nesta can better support them to grow and have the biggest impact possible.”

Susan Kay, Executive Director of the Dunhill Medical Trust, said:

“We’re really very excited about this programme and its potential both to make a real positive change for people who need help, but also the potential for learning – for everyone involved.

Karolina Gerlich, Executive Director of the National Association of Care & Support Workers said:

"This is a huge opportunity to make care workers’ issues better known and bring people together to drive the change in the sector and the society. I am looking forward to learning and coming together with more people to make a bigger impact.”

If you would like to get involved in driving change in the care sector around care workers but for the benefit of everybody, please get in touch with Karolina@nacas.org.uk.

Plan commencing May 2019

This plan is flexible, and details may change.

Month	Activity	Description	Narrative
May/June	Social media training	2 people to attend a 2 day social media training with further 4 during the year	New social media channels developed and social media strategy agreed with key activities identified and tasks allocated with aim to increase online engagement with the movement.
May-April	Growing membership	Increasing the number of care workers that are our members	We are looking at different options on how we can best grow our membership. We will be running a ‘3months free’ offer around the Professional Care Workers’ Day and will reduce the membership fee to £1 a month. .
June-April	Media content	Creating new media content, possible a short documentary/video to show care work for what it is and how it contributes to the society	Educating the public about the nature of the work, reframing the understanding of care work, communicating particular skills that care workers have
June-April	Media promotions	Promoting on social media and in print	Reaching new audiences with our mission statements and educating a wider audience about care work. Run social media based campaign ‘Care workers on boards’ encouraging social care stakeholders to have at least one currently working care worker on their boards of directors and trustees as their input will be invaluable. Hopefully finding a legal partner for this that could provide basic governance training or online course for those care workers. Using this campaign to show that care workers share many skills with company directors.
June-December	Research about media representations of care work	1 experienced researcher to create a quantitative and qualitative study	Looking at the media representations and putting numbers and statistics to them so we can then challenge the media over mostly negative media representations of care work that are detrimental to the industry and people using care
June-October	Research about the history of care work in the UK	1 experienced researcher to create a quantitative and qualitative study	Learning about how did we get where we are with care work being so poorly paid and valued. Identifying the reasons and history so we can address very specific issues better in trying to improve the situation.
June-April	Website improvements; database, downloadable materials -	Improving our document management, database of our membership and the register, adding downloadable resources to the website	Improving how we store date and deal with it to save time and comply with regulation, as well as creating more materials for people to be able to download and share to help promote our movement.
4^th Of September	Professional Care Workers Day	A national celebration of care work, this year the focus is on the wellbeing of care workers	Educating the public about care workers and showing care workers respect, recognition and appreciation. Promoting care work as a career. We will be reaching out to care workers, their employers and the public, both at the event and in a media campaign, there will also be at least 6 regional events that organisations have already committed to.
End of September	Round table meeting with stakeholders and government representatives	Furthering the message of the movement with decision makers and stakeholders so the message is clear at the high level as well	Making sure that the message is clear at the high level and getting decision makers on our side. Finding more ambassadors that will promote our mission. Learning from decision makers how we can communicate with them better.
September- March	Petition (topic yet to be decided) and a peaceful march	About care workers pay or training and at the end of the petition time a peaceful march bringing the whole movement and supporter together	Mobilising the workforce as well as the wider society to show that we are united in wanting better pay, working conditions and training standards for care workers who do such a highly skilled work.
November- April	Training workshops for local leaders	Bringing together a group of care workers that will carry the mission in their local areas (at least 10 people)	Teaching local movement leaders what we have learnt and put together to further the message that care worker are highly skilled professionals. Possibly in two stages –pilot with 3 people and then a bigger workshop with a bigger group build on the feedback we had from the pilot.
February 2020	TEDx Social Care	A collection of inspiring speakers with an interest in care work and social care	Speakers that will spark conversations, debate and discussions about the state of social care in England and the UK and promote positive images and representations of care work as well as challenging some views and sharing innovations.