The Big Conversation

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The Big Conversation about social care

In Nottinghamshire, lots of people need support to live their best life. Social care is personal, emotional, and practical support for people who need it. It works alongside health care.

We know that everyone’s social care experience is different, and the system can feel complicated. We want every person in the county to live in the place they call home with the people and things that they love, in communities where they look out for one another, doing the things that matter to them. This vision for Adult Social Care has been developed by a national movement called Social Care Future.

Every two years we hold a Big Conversation when we ask people who draw on care & support and family carers to tell us about their experience of social care. Building on this work and the co-production of Local Account, the Adult Social Care Strategy, we want to continue to listen and learn.

For each Big Conversation we get an independent organisation to help us. In 2025 we worked with Think Local Act Personal (TLAP), the National Co-Production Advisory Group and again with the local Our Voice strategic co-production group:

A Big Conversation involves us going out and holding listening events across all the districts of Nottinghamshire and a survey. We ask what is working well, what’s not so good and people’s ideas for the future of Adult Social Care. In 2025 we reached out to more diverse people we don’t hear from often. 

TLAP have captured feedback from all the listening events, survey and conversations into a report. They also included feedback from wider departmental surveys. We will use the information in the report to develop and refresh our Local Account and the priorities we need to focus on for the future.

You can view the report in different formats:

Find out what people said at our district listening events

Alongside the Big Conversation report we have produced a visual illustration of each of the face-to-face listening event we did across Nottinghamshire. The illustrations highlight the themes we heard from local people and carers who draw upon social care services:

The Nottinghamshire visual summary shows the themes we heard from all the listening events:

The Nottinghamshire visual summary shows the themes we heard from all the listening events:

Guy Van Dichele, Executive Director Adult Social Care and Health

With the Big Conversation report we are hoping to give you a sense of what people said at the listening events, the online survey and conversations. It’s important to keep talking to people so we can make meaningful changes and improve our services. This year in particular we approached people that don’t often get the chance to be heard. 
To assist us with these valuable conversations, we partnered with Think Local, Act Personal, the National Co-Production Advisory Group and the local Our Voice group. We heard about what was good in social care, what needed to change, and people’s wishes for the future.
We’ve already started working on improvements and the report highlights what has changed since our last Big Conversation in 2023. We learn a lot from hearing people’s positive and negative experiences so this report will help make things better. Thank you to all who took part in the Big Conversation.

Councillor Barry Answer, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health

We talked to people who draw on care and support and family carers and did an online survey to create a report about social care in Nottinghamshire. For our 2025 Big Conversation we asked more diverse communities what they thought. 
I attended the Mansfield listening event. I was really proud to hear about the good stories of care that we delivered and very grateful to the people who spoke about what we needed to do better. 
The independent organisation we worked with have produced a report which shows what has changed since our last Big Conversation in 2023 and people’s wishes and ideas for the future. We’re already working on some solutions but know we still have a way to go. The report will help us to do that. The Big Conversation is important because it allows local people to have a say in shaping the future of social care. Thank you to everyone who has participated so far.

Dean Thomas – Member of Our Voice and Co-Chair of the Making It Real Forum

I was involved in the design and delivery of the Big Conversation 2025, along with Think Local Act Personal as well as various Nottinghamshire County Council staff members.
The report findings build upon the work we have been doing over the last few years to improve Adult Social Care here in Nottinghamshire.
I was particularly pleased and proud that this time round, we were able to reach out to a more diverse range of groups and individuals to listen to their views as to what is working well, whats working not so well, and different areas that could be improved such as the different areas of transitioning.
This report will help us set the priorities for the Local Account, which the department will focus on over the coming few years.