Why sharing our success stories matters

Why is it important to share our success stories in adult social care?
How do we sell that ‘why’ to our care colleagues – the people who witness these stories every day?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. We know great things happen across Persona day and night, but if no one outside a service hears about it, how can we celebrate and share?

We know the challenges: consent for images, lack of time, and the modest mindset of “it’s just what I do every day; nothing to see here.”  So we’ve worked hard to make sharing simpler.

• We send monthly prompts to services because life is busy and a nudge helps when it feels like one job too many.
• We’ve created one‑pagers on safe, respectful ways to share images because everyone’s success deserves to be celebrated.
• People with stories to share but no idea where to start can fill in a form and ask the comms team to share the load.

We cover this at induction too, but I felt we could sell it even better, so with the agreement of our workforce development officer, Sue, I’ve reframed the 'why' in a way we can all identify with: the Big Decision.

When your car fails its MOT and you need a new one, where do you start?
You ask people you know, you search online, you look at reviews and social media. Car companies and sellers constantly share stories, images and information so when you need it, you can find information you trust, fast.

Adult social care is a lot like that. Many people don’t know they need support until something changes – often at crisis point. We want them to know we’re here before that moment arrives.

If we were selling cars, we’d post glossy shots of leather seats and heated windscreens, but adult social care is different. We’re privileged to be part of people’s lives; we respect their right to privacy. We’re not selling A Thing.

Care is life itself – small steps, big changes, and everything in between, demonstrated by hundreds of support stories every day and night.

Our stories show what care really looks like and sharing them matters because it:

• celebrates people’s achievements and the enabling support our colleagues give every day
• inspires other services to try new approaches
• builds trust with families, communities and people we haven’t met yet – we show, rather than tell, how our support shows up in people’s lives
• provides ongoing evidence for CQC and internal standards, perhaps even lightening people’s workloads long‑term by creating a service portfolio of positive outcomes

So our new induction resources are ready, with the Big Decision angle and some gorgeous real‑life examples from across Persona. I can’t wait to hear how it lands or see how many stories people share.

To be clear, I’m not comparing people to cars: clapped out, failures or otherwise. But it’s difficult to find comparisons for the work my colleagues do every day, so please just go with it.


PS reading this and work at Persona? Got a story to share? Message me here today while it's fresh in your mind!

Fiona

Communications Team