Changing public perceptions of social care in Scotland

Building upon the insights from our 2024/25 evidence review and stakeholder workshop (carried out as an IMPACT demonstrator project funded by UKRI), this 18-month phase will implement and sustain transformative changes in public perceptions of social care in Scotland. This phase will refine emergent narrative strategies, foster deeper engagement with Scottish stakeholders—including individuals with lived experience—and integrate these narrative shifts into Scotland’s policy and practice landscape. The programme will produce evidence-based, practical outputs including a refined public narrative framework, toolkits for organisations to apply narrative shifts, media guidelines for fairer representation of social care, and evaluation reports tracking discourse change among key groups. These deliverables will ensure that insights translate into concrete, scalable actions that shape both policy and frontline practice across Scotland. Continuous evaluation and dissemination of findings, and engaging proactively with programmes based in the rest of the UK, will ensure adaptability and inform future strategies for long-term impact.