It’s not us and them. It’s us together.

When it became a co‑operative in 2016, social care provider Cartrefi Cymru’s CEO said it was by far the most exciting thing they’d done in the last 20 years. Why? Because they were embedding their ideals and values into the organisation to shape care and their community in the long term.  

Becoming a multi‑stakeholder co‑operative enabled them to bring everyone together as co‑op members – care workers, those needing care, their family members and the wider community – to collaborate and share ownership.  

Not new to being pioneers, Cartrefi was originally set up by a group of parents in 1989 as an alternative to the institutionalised care that was then available to their children with learning disabilities. It is now one of the largest providers of learning disability support in Wales.  

The organisation’s values are embedded in its constitution and governance, democratising an environment with power dynamics that have traditionally been split between ‘service provider’ and ‘service user.’ 

This may seem like a familiar idea, with the concept of ‘personalised’ or ‘or person centred’ care having become commonplace in social care over the last 20 years or so. 

But arguably, for all the good this can do, the wider architecture of care remains largely the same – a system where power is not concentrated with the people most involved in it, impacting what care looks like. 

We jointly published a report on financial extraction in the care sector last year with several partner organisations in the RORE programme. It examined how social care has been financialised. In the UK, four of the five largest providers in adult home care are either owned by private equity firms, US hedge funds or billionaires based abroad.  

This is why ownership is key, because those who own the assets hold significant power, directing priorities and ultimately what ‘care’ means in these contexts. For example, private equity firms exist to make profit for their investors, so it’s not surprising that when they own care providers this impacts what care is like.  

For those looking to maximise profit in the short term, the long-term wellbeing of people relying on their services is not necessarily a primary concern. It may not be long before the care home or care provider is sold again, and they leave with a profit. These types of actors create a fragile system that is not built to serve the needs of the people who rely on it.  

This should worry us. We or someone we love will almost inevitably need care at some point, and ownership clearly shapes what that will be like. It may not be as extreme as private equity owned care, but it’s still giving away significant long-term control over your own wellbeing to an organisation which you have little say in.  

Co‑operative approaches to care, where ownership is shared between those who are involved in it, present a different picture. In a care co-op, those involved in care –typically workers, those cared for and friends and family of those cared for – are co‑members. They own and manage it.  

Ownership means they decide what care looks like, what their shared values are and how they can work for mutual benefit. This may be hard to envisage in a society where we are used to outsourcing care to others or taking on the informal care of a friend or family member alone. 

So is owning our own care worth it? Recent research on social care co‑operatives in the UK suggests it is. 

The findings of the research are detailed in new report Social Care Co-operatives in the UK, commissioned by Co‑operatives UK and Cwmpas and produced by the Centre for Care, the Centre for Adult Social Care Research (CARE), and supported by IMPACT. 

Many of us will have experienced good care from individuals or organisations as there are lots of people committed to caring well for others. Co‑operatives can be a tool that ensures this good is safeguarded and evolves as the organisation changes –because those who are involved in care have a say in defining it.  

Currently, significant barriers remain in making this kind of care more common in the UK. Our research outlines many of them, highlighting real steps local and national government can take to bring about change.  

We know care is often messy, complex and painful. But there’s good to be found and created in it still – looking after others, supporting people to live a full life and being treated as a person even when your abilities are different. Caring for each other as a community cultivates this good and multiplies it. As one of our member care co‑ops puts it, “Together, we can live life well.”