This blog was written by Austen El-Osta Director, Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU), Imperial College London
Personalised care has been firmly embedded in NHS policy for several years. Its principles are already widely endorsed, its language is familiar and its ambition, that care that starts with what matters to people, not just what is the matter with them, is clear. Yet for many professionals working on the frontline of health and care, personalised care still feels unevenly realised. The gap between policy intent and everyday practice remains a defining challenge.
This is unsurprising primarily because personalised care does not happen by default since it is not simply the product of goodwill or professional values. It requires specific skills, confidence and shared ways of working that must be learned, practised and supported over time. This is why high-quality, accessible training is foundational to personalised care praxis.
Personalised care is a capability
Personalised care is sometimes spoken about as though it were a mindset alone, but while values and attitudes matter, they are insufficient on their own. In practice, personalised care relies on a set of concrete capabilities including shared decision-making, personalised care and support planning, health coaching, active listening, agenda-setting and goal-oriented conversations. These are not intuitive skills for everyone, particularly in time-pressured environments shaped by biomedical norms and task-driven workflows.
Without structured training, many professionals are left to “work it out” for themselves. This can lead to variability, uncertainty and, in some cases, reluctance to engage fully with personalised approaches. Training provides the scaffolding that turns aspiration into action and helps practitioners understand why personalised care matters and how to deliver it consistently and safely in real consultations with real people.
What workforce evidence is telling us
Evidence from our recent national evaluation of PCI’s eLearning offer increasingly points in a consistent direction. When health and care professionals engage with structured personalised care education, they demonstrate clear improvements in understanding and confidence. Many also report stronger motivation to change how they practise and greater readiness to apply new skills in their day-to-day roles.
What is particularly important is that these effects are not limited to one profession or setting, but they are observed across primary care, community services, allied health professions and roles such as care coordinators, health and wellbeing coaches and social prescribing link workers. This reinforces the crucial point that personalised care is not owned by any single group but is rather a shared endeavour that depends on a whole-system workforce being equipped with a common language and set of tools.
Equally telling are the reflections professionals offered after training. Many described listening more carefully, asking different questions and feeling more able to support people to make informed choices that align with their priorities. These seemingly small changes in behaviour accumulate into meaningful shifts in how care is experienced by the service user, and in this way directly impacts their lived experience.
Why accessible, flexible learning matters
One of the most persistent barriers to workforce development is time. Health and care professionals are under sustained pressure, and traditional training models often struggle to fit around busy roles. As this reality is unlikely to change, offering on-demand, flexible and quality assured personalised care online learning modules has become increasingly important.
Well-designed online training allows professionals to engage with content at their own pace, return to key concepts and integrate learning into their working lives. When learning is modular, practical and clearly linked to real-world scenarios, it becomes far more likely to translate into practice.
The value of the Personalised Care Institute lies in its ability to provide a consistent national standard while remaining accessible to a diverse workforce. By focusing on practical skills, clear frameworks and applied examples, it helps bridge the gap between theory and practice. This consistency also matters at system level as it enables organisations to align expectations and reduce unwarranted variation in how personalised care is delivered.
Training alone is not enough, but it is essential
It is important to reiterate that training on its own will not transform care. Organisational culture, leadership support, digital systems and service design all shape whether personalised care is sustained over time. However, without a trained and confident workforce, none of these wider enablers can function effectively. Education is the foundation on which system change is built as it equips professionals with shared competencies, legitimises new ways of working and creates a common reference point across teams and sectors. For these reasons, personalised care training should not be viewed as an optional extra or a one-off intervention, but as core infrastructure for workforce development, embedded within induction, continuing professional development and organisational learning strategies.
Looking ahead: sustaining momentum
As the health and care system continues to shift towards prevention, community-based care and long-term condition management, the importance of personalised care is set to increase even further. Demographic change, multimorbidity and rising expectations all demand approaches that recognise people as active partners in their care. Sustaining momentum now requires deliberate choices. First, investment in high-quality training must be maintained, not assumed to be “done”. Learning offers also need to evolve alongside practice, reflecting digital care, multidisciplinary working and the realities of people’s lives. Third, and just as importantly, training must continue to reach beyond traditional clinical audiences, recognising the vital role played by social care, voluntary and community sectors.
The opportunity is clear: by treating personalised care training as a strategic priority rather than a discretionary activity, we can move closer to making personalised care an everyday reality. When professionals are equipped, supported and confident, policy ambition has a far better chance of becoming lived experience, both for those delivering care and for those receiving it.
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