Welcome to the IMPACT Director’s Update. Jon Glasby has been the Director of IMPACT since 2021, when the centre officially launched – he is a qualified social worker and Professor of Health and Social Care.
This month, Jon reflects on the renewed attention being given to social care following the Prime Minister’s recent speech at the Labour Party Conference. Drawing on IMPACT’s work on framing social care, he considers what this moment could mean for future conversations about care reform, highlights IMPACT’s five cross-cutting themes as potential building blocks for change, and encourages readers to support IMPACT in the upcoming European Social Services Awards 2026!
IMPACT works within and across the four nations of the UK (and it still amazes me how unusual this is). Too often we fail to learn from and with each other, or people talk about ‘social care policy’ when they really mean ‘policy in England’. I can’t imagine how irritating this must be, and it’s also incredibly short-sighted and unhelpful.
As a result, we don’t usually respond to stuff in individual nations in our general comms – unless there’s something specific we’re keen to share with everyone. However, the Prime Minister’s speech on social care, at the Labour Party Conference on Tuesday 29 September felt like one of those moments when social care hit the headlines for all the right reasons. It’s unprecedented to see a UK Prime Minister talk about why care matters like this, about the ‘skill, humour and humanity’ with which his Father was supported, and about using his political capital to help champion ‘a person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home.’ He also apologised directly to care workers for their ‘poverty pay’ and for the way in which policy makers (and all of us) have let them down.
People will have lots of different views about what was pledged, about what it might mean in practice, about the timescales and about the extent to which real change is even possible. Often, the same barriers that held previous leaders back remain in place today, no matter how passionate the current leader might be about the issues at stake.
Despite this, I was really moved listening to the speech – and it made me even more proud of the work we do at IMPACT to support practical changes in the realities of local services, local communities and people’s lives. We all know that good care transforms lives – both for people drawing on care and support and for those providing it. IMPACT believes that ‘good care isn’t about “services”, but about having a life’ – and the recent speech made me feel that others across the governments of the UK might believe that too.
For people interested in these issues, the recent speech might be seen as an example of ‘framing’ – and we’ve been doing work in Scotland that explores how we can best talk about social care to policy makers, the media and the public, in a way that helps people understand why it matters and why it deserves greater attention (see also https://reframingcare.stir.ac.uk/). Colleagues and partners in England and elsewhere have also been doing important work on this, including Social Care Future and ADASS, so please have a look at their materials too.
For people thinking about what a future ‘National Care Service’ might look like, we have five cross-cutting themes that we think could be building blocks for a future system – and we’ll continue to play an active part in all the discussions that this week’s speech seems to have turbo-charged.
In other news – vote for us at the European Social Services Awards!
Please don’t forget to vote for IMPACT in the European Social Services Awards (ESSA) 2026.
We are delighted to be nominated in the Research and Evaluation for Social Services Award category.
The nomination recognises our work to strengthen the use of evidence in adult social care across the UK, bringing together researchers, practitioners, people with lived experience and policymakers to improve services and outcomes.
Voting is open and free to do, and we would be grateful for your support. Every vote helps raise the profile of IMPACT’s work and the partnerships that make it possible.
You can vote by clicking the button at the bottom of this page. To lock in your vote, select IMPACT in our nominated category. Once the box turns green, click the red ‘Lock in your vote’ button next to the category.
Keep an eye on our socials and website for further updates and, who knows, next month’s blog might even feature an update from Laura, Louise and Natalie, writing from the ceremony itself!
Thank you for reading,
Jon
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