Personalised Care Week 2026 - Your Thoughts, Your Voice

Sarah Egley

For me, personalisation is not an initiative or a programme; it is a fundamental way of thinking and working that ensures care is built around what matters most to each individual. It means recognising people as experts in their own lives, understanding their strengths, preferences, experiences and aspirations, and working in partnership with them to achieve outcomes that are meaningful to them. 

My commitment to personalisation is deeply rooted in both my professional values and personal experiences of care provided to close family members. Those experiences reinforced my belief that people should have genuine choice, control and involvement in decisions that affect their health and wellbeing. 

As a leader, I see personalisation as the foundation for high-quality, compassionate and equitable care. It is central to reducing health inequalities, strengthening shared decision-making, enabling self-management where appropriate, and ensuring services are designed around individuals rather than organisations. I believe that when personalisation becomes everyone's business, it creates a common language across health, social care and voluntary sector partners, breaking down organisational barriers and allowing us to focus collectively on what matters most to the people and communities we serve. 

My ambition is for personalisation to become business as usual across every service, embedded within our culture, leadership and clinical practice, so that every interaction supports people to feel listened to, respected, involved and empowered.  

As I have often said, our workforce should opt out of being a personalisation champion rather than opt in, because personalised, strengths-based care should be at the heart of everything we do.