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Through our Voice’s Connect Panel of over 1000 people, we were intrigued to understand your opinions about the future of health and care. 3 in 4 people told us they didn’t think social care would improve in the next 5 years.
This lack of confidence in future provision and service quality has also been recognised by the government who, in July 2026, launched the Big Conversation on Social Care.
“The reality is that adult social care is not working well enough for many people, and change is needed to ensure that those who need support it."
The Big Conversation is part of the work being undertaken by the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, also known as the Casey Commission. This is being led by Baroness Louise Casey, who was asked by the Prime Minister to consider how adult social care should change to meet the needs of current and future generations, and to "make recommendations for reform”. (About | The Casey Commission)
Over the years we’ve heard from hundreds of people about their Social Care experience and their views on what could be improved.
Care Homes
Talking to residents, family members and care home managers has highlighted issues with hospital discharge, the information flow on a resident’s journey and out of hours care. We also heard from residents and family members about what was important to them when receiving care and the impact the pandemic had on what they looked for when choosing care.
Housing with additional support
People have also told us about what they wanted from Extra Care housing with some of the feedback highlighting the desire for easy access to infrastructure, outside space and to be able to personalise their living space.
Home care and support
We’ve also heard from people receiving care in their own homes either for a short time or on a longer-term basis. This has included Live in Care, Home first, Reablement and domiciliary care. Common themes have included the need for clear expectations, continuity where possible and communication between providers, the individual and family.
Equipment
We’ve also seen the impact of services supporting people in their everyday lives. Our work on the community equipment service highlighted different levels of awareness on how to access the service between different ethnicities.
Carers
Earlier this year we shone a light on the unwavering support unpaid carers in Medway contribute to the Health and Care system. This echoed our findings from speaking to “hidden carers” back in 2018 and young carers in 2019 . In between then we’ve looked into how different digital advertisements for support were engaged with to inform Councils’ marketing of help. There was also time to talk to parents with SEND children, understanding what strategies they used to maintain their resilience and wellbeing.
The experiences shared with EK360 over the years demonstrates the important role that social care has on the lives of those that need it, often helping people to maintain independence and dignity. However, our data also shows that sometimes systems, services and individuals don’t support people as well as they could and deliver what residents truly need.
These insights show why involving community voices and lived experience is important and why the Big Conversation Matters.
If you’d like to share your views as part of the big conversation about social care you can do so here: Take part online | The Casey Commission
Or if you’ve got an experience in Kent or Medway that you’d like to tell us about then click here - Have Your Say - Kent | EK360. We’d love to hear it.
