Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

“Engaging customers in coproduction.”

“Engaging people with services.”

“Engaging with users.”

‘Engagement is often described as a ‘stepping stone’ to co-production, a rung on the ladder. But if we’re thinking in terms of ‘engaging’ people, we’re stepping off on the wrong foot.

The dictionary definition of ‘engagement’ is “an arrangement to meet or be present at a specified time and place”[10].

On other words, when can you – over there in your ‘marginalised group’ or your ‘vulnerable population’ – show up (at a time and place convenient for us) to help us?

Not how can we step in to be most effective? How can we step up to ensure sufficient connections and relationships and resources are in place for you to live the life you choose to lead? How can we step back and get out of the way?

‘Engagement’ is something we do to people, at a fixed time, for a fixed purpose. There’s no sense of an evolving, organic, long-term relationship, where trust is built and where genuine, human connections are made.

And if you choose not to show up when we tell you to, we’re quick to slap on a ‘refuses to engage’ label and move on.

There’s also the association of the term ‘engagement’ with battles – “a hostile encounter between military forces”[11] – which may be apt given the language of war that threads through our practice (frontline, duty, officers…) and the exhausting reality of fighting for support – but is obviously not the intention.

[10] Engagement, Merriam-Webster dictionary

[11] Engagement, Merriam-Webster dictionary