
The Value of Values: Defining Core Principles and Strengthening Workforces in Social Care
The Value of Values: Defining Core Principles and Strengthening Workforces in Social Care
What does good support look like?
We were pleased to see TLAP release their report “Values and the Workforce: The Expectations of People with Lived Experience” (2024). It raises an important and often elusive question: what makes good support? And even more importantly, how do we consistently ensure good support, especially given current recruitment challenges?
A vision for an ordinary life?
In the past year or so, there’s been a push within the disability community to define what good care looks like. From Social Care Future’s “Gloriously Ordinary Lives” to Learning Disability England’s “Good Lives Manifesto,” many are working to establish boundaries and goals for what care can—and should—be. This is essential and impactful work, rooted in optimism and the hope for a better future, something we can get behind. Our own thinking at Stay Up Late has echoed this over the years, encouraging care to consider people’s passions and connection as central human needs (and rights). The challenge lies in communicating this vision clearly and translating it into actionable steps that can be embedded through training, rather than relying on vague directives to “be person-centred.”
Think small, act personally
Working in social care comes with many frustrations, but we must keep striving for better. Giving up isn’t an option, nor will it get us anywhere. Starting with a vision, with a goal, is crucial. Breaking down what people want and identifying the qualities of a good support worker might be key to highlighting the impressive, often unsung, work that carers do. It could also inform the kind of support and training needed, which in turn could revitalise the sector and create a strong environment where these values can thrive.
The Power of Lived Experience
TLAP asked us to facilitate a workshop where adults with learning disabilities and autistic people could share their lived experiences for the report. We met with the Stay Up Late ambassadors and talked through what made a good support worker. What did people like about the people that supported them? What were some of the difficulties? Hearing the ambassadors’ stories it was clear the huge difference having a good support worker in your life can make. For someone living in care, it can be revolutionary. Even if it’s just one individual. Within this day and age, it can be hard to not feel like a drop in the ocean. Care work is a reminder of the impact our lives can have on one another, and the marvellous things we can bring about.
This is about challenging rigid systems, not blaming support workers
Unfortunately, we also heard stories of overworked and disengaged workers who followed a rigid checklist of tasks. To be clear, we’re not here to shame or judge support workers. This is a problem that goes beyond a few “bad apples”. As a former support worker, I know that even with initial enthusiasm, I slipped into a routine, cutting corners and losing spontaneity and innovation. And that was in a “good” house, with people who had worked together for years and cared.
Often this isn’t the case. Support workers receive little support (the irony), are underpaid, and allowed little room for creativity or growth. Change is not given the chance to flourish into an idea because the whole system is rigid. We’re focused on ticking boxes rather than nurturing the skills and judgment needed to offer truly flexible care. We need to create environments where workers feel like they can question things and recognise that within care, it can mean re-inventing the wheel daily.
Breaking It Down: The Importance of Values
Breaking the question of good support down into values helps provide a blueprint for what we should be honing and encouraging within people. It also broadens the role beyond just a list of exhaustive chores. The seven values statements of TLAP’s report provide us with a clear endgame.
“The top three values were respect, reliability, and honesty.”
Reading through the values, they seem unsurprising, and yet they form an impressive list. Could you say you’re consistently kind, compassionate, empathetic, courageous, principled, flexible, open, and proud every day, for eight hours? I think I manage three days a week! That’s not to say this is overly optimistic, rather that it highlights the incredible potential of support work.
Working with integrity
We need to make sure we leave space for people to cultivate these values. And although a day’s training won’t solve everything, it’s seems a good place to start. We need strong foundations and a sector-wide culture where these values are ingrained. The way I see it, it’s an ethos really, a way to approach your life as much as your work.
Sure, values can feel “spongy and intangible,” but they matter because they shape all of our actions and behaviours. It can be hard to break down our behaviour into values, but TLAP has done a great job at translating these values into practical actions, offering a framework that feels like a meaningful job description for aspiring support workers. Hopefully, if we start to shift expectations, we can start to overcome some of the external, systemic barriers. And support workers who are allowed to uphold values and work with integrity can create cultures where they are not only valued but treasured.
The value of values
The report names a long list of values that matter to people, however there’s a healthy amount of overlap and when broken down into themes, they show that “people’s basic expectations are quite modest” (TLAP, 2024).
Modest, but difficult to deliver on a large scale. Modest, fair, and reasonable—but not always easy to implement consistently. However, I believe we can do it. By adopting the report’s recommendations, we can start to encourage a culture that nurtures these values and allows space to grow.
It’s not just managers who are leaders here either. Support workers who live out good values are figureheads too. Their example sets the culture for everyone, it can be infectious. The job of managers is to make sure they allow the conditions for people to flourish and stay open to change when needed.
Support work should be a joy filled job
In care, the stakes are high. Supporting someone with their life is no small feat—it’s a privilege and a joy, and also a mammoth responsibility. There’s no divide between work and life for those in care; it’s all just Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… Hopefully if we start creating these environments, supporting someone with their life can move beyond strict tasks lists, where “Wednesday is laundry day”, to something much richer.
But enough from me—check out the report and let us know what you think in the comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts.