"The word “commons”, refers to a community-run and owned resource. What we saw during the Pandemic was the role a care commons could play in sustaining individual and community well-being in a crisis. Social Care is in crisis, and just like the Pandemic, this crisis impacts us all. Since conventional home care services have been designed to address individual needs they often overlook the wider networks of care and belonging that those individuals are nested within; systems made up of friendship groups, families, neighbors, and local community networks. In the day-to-day delivery of services, these networks have been sidelined. Friends, family and community members have been placed at the margins of formal systems of care. Until recently these "informal" carers placed their trust in the professionals and their processes and procedures. However, the devastating impact of over a decade of austerity has almost completely eroded this trust. Lacking confidence in these formal systems of support, more people are placing their trust in informal systems of support.
"Our pilot rejects an either/or choice between professional services and the kinship and community networks we belong to, choosing instead to overcome the disconnection between them. Taking a commons-based approach is about engaging the best of these two vital support systems, developing a hybrid service out of the relationships, systems and processes found in both these domains of care."