Last year we asked the world to celebrate National Stay Up Late Day with us – and what a day (or night) it was! People across the country danced, sang, laughed, and reminded the world that everyone has the right to a real social life, whoever they are, wherever they live, and whatever support they need.

But this year… we’re going even bigger.
Because a night out shouldn’t be a luxury.
Because going to bed early when you don’t want to isn’t normal.
Because we know how powerful a night out can be.

So for 2025, we’re turning Stay Up Late Day into Stay Up Late Week!

(Before you worry, you don’t have to party for a whole week to join in. We just want to make it a bit longer, so people have more chance to get involved!)

From Monday the 5th to Sunday the 11th of May, we’re asking everyone to pick a day and stay up late for something that matters.

So what’s happening?

Across the UK, our Gig Buddies partners are planning up a storm – and it’s looking great. Here’s a taste:

• Gig Buddies Bedford have a large meal planned with bandioke to follow (because singing late at night always counts as campaigning).
• Gig Buddies London Central are hitting live music events on the Friday AND Saturday.
• Gig Buddies Gloucester are off to a mini day festival.
• Gig Buddies Croydon, Oxford, Wales – and more – are all planning their own ways to celebrate and speak out.

Whether it’s a live gig, a club night, a trip to the pub, or just staying up watching films with mates – this is about freedom, choice, and having a social life.

Why are we doing this?

1. People with learning disabilities are still being told when to go to bed.
2. Too many support workers are still stuck to rigid rotas.
3. People are being denied the right to do things the rest of us take for granted.

We want to change that – and we want to do it in the best way we know how: celebrating, making noise, and being the change we want to see.

How to get involved:

It’s easy*! Here are 3 ways you can join in:

Plan a late-night or evening outing – a party, a trip, a gathering, a gig – whatever you fancy! Ideally outside of your house, but we’d never exclude anyone!

Shout about it online – share photos, stories, videos and use the hashtag #StayUpLateWeek. Tag @stayuplateuk so we can share your fun!

Tell your story – why does staying up late matter to you? What’s the best night out you’ve ever had? What still needs to change?

Celebrating what’s working and the wonderfully ordinary ways we live our lives is powerful stuff.

*But if you’re worried, give us an email!

Let’s make some noise

Stay Up Late Week is all about choice. It’s about showing what a good life looks like – one where you can go out, have fun, and decide for yourself when it’s bedtime.

So whether you’re a Gig Buddy, a support worker, a mate, a music lover, or someone who just wants to see a fairer world – this is your moment.

Let’s stay up late together. Let’s have some fun. And let’s keep shouting for change.

See you on the dancefloor (or wherever you like to party)!

— Florence

At Stay Up Late, we believe that everyone should have the freedom to live life on their own terms. Our ‘No Bedtimes’ campaign is all about ensuring that people with learning disabilities and autistic people have the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy nightlife, social events, and personal choice.

We recently asked about what you thought of our work, now we want to know how you spend your evenings, and whether you (or the people you support) are able to choose your own bedtimes.

So we’ve put together a short survey – it won’t take longer than five minutes. We’d really appreciate it if you would share it with people living and working in care, as we want to get a good picture of what people’s lives look like.

Every response will help us better understand how we can support people working and living in care to have richer social lives.

Rohan works as a Stay Up Late Assistant. He has also had a Gig Buddy for many years and loves going to see live music.

Stay Up Late went to Glastonbury festival for 10 years. In 2024, we decided to change things up a bit, and attend a number of smaller festivals more local to our HQ in Sussex with the hopes of making it more affordable and more accessible for more adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to attend.

For many, this was their first ever experience of attending a music festival, and for many more it was their first time going without parents or carers. Rohan went to Love Supreme, and gives his thoughts, feelings and suggestions about it here.

What festivals had you been to before this year?

I had actually been to Love Supreme before, in 2023. I went with my parents and I thought it was nice, a relaxed festival that was accessible. I recommended that Stay Up Late should go to Love Supreme as a group in 2024.

How was going to Love Supreme with Stay Up Late a different experience for you?

I went with the other Gig Buddies in a group instead of with my parents. It was much better, it was more fun and I really enjoyed myself. Also, with Gig Buddies we got the train and then a coach together to get to the festival, that was really fun.

“We went to quite a mix of festivals this summer. You get to see different places and artists. Going with Gig Buddies is the best way to go to a festival because you get to see people with disabilities doing things they want to do – it makes me happy to see that.”

What was good about Love Supreme this year?

I can’t remember the names of any bands I saw, but the music was really good. There were lots of different tents and stalls, and I thought the price was OK for what you got. Food and drink were nice, with lots of choice. One stall had a machine that took both cash and card, so that was good for people with disabilities to use but it was a bit strange giving your order to a machine instead of a person!

Were there any negatives?

There was basically no phone signal at the festival, so it was really hard to meet up with friends because you couldn’t message or call them. Leaving at night was also a bit tricky, the bus back to the train station was really packed. It also got very cold, the weather wasn’t very good for July, and so we left earlier than I would have liked.

Did you think Love Supreme was accessible?

It was quite accessible, even though in some places it was very busy. There was an access tent but I didn’t use it. Overall the festival site was laid out well with plenty of space which was good for access.

What do you think Stay Up Late should do next year?

Whatever festivals we go to, we should arrive later and then be able to stay right to the end. We are called Stay Up Late, not Go Home Early! It would be good to try something different – for me it is all about the music so it depends what bands are on. We could wait to buy the tickets until the line up has been announced so we know what we are going to see. Also, we are a Sussex based charity so we should go to something local! That way, more people can go as well.

Using social innovation to create culture shifts in social care

How radical shifts in social care are essential if we’re going to improve lives for people with learning disabilities. Support should cater to individuals’ needs, not the support provider’s systems. We look at the need to embrace curiosity, use our communities, and the need for resourcefulness to overcome barriers like lack of motivation, safety concerns, and accessibility issues.

Heavy Load

The story of Heavy Load is why our charity, Stay Up Late, began. We’ll look back at some of their funny stories.

» Heavy Load’s weird expletive fuelled journey to stardom

And here’s one about a wild night of punk rock at Berlin’s ‘No Limits’ festival. A memorable night of punk mayhem.

» Punk Rock In Berlin – A Night Of Energy And Chaos

Go ahead punks, make our day

We hope you enjoy reading these articles and find them helpful. And feel free to comment on them or drop us a line if you want to pick our brains more on anything we talk about.

We’ll be publishing more in a probably quite random fashion when we next think of something we really think we’d like to share. In other words we’ll be keeping it spontaneous, we’ll be keeping it punk!

Sign-up to our newsletter for regular updates on the work of our charity or also subscribe to Punks In The Community to read the latest posts.

Keep it punk! Take the punk approach to social innovation

Punks In The Community is all about sharing our approach to make things happen, and to make it happen quickly. Read how we did this successfully, and also failed, at the same time here >>> National Stay Up Late day

What does good support look like?

We were pleased to see TLAP release their report “Values and the Workforce: The Expectations of People with Lived Experience” (2024). It raises an important and often elusive question: what makes good support? And even more importantly, how do we consistently ensure good support, especially given current recruitment challenges?

A vision for an ordinary life?

In the past year or so, there’s been a push within the disability community to define what good care looks like. From Social Care Future’s “Gloriously Ordinary Lives” to Learning Disability England’s “Good Lives Manifesto,” many are working to establish boundaries and goals for what care can—and should—be. This is essential and impactful work, rooted in optimism and the hope for a better future, something we can get behind. Our own thinking at Stay Up Late has echoed this over the years, encouraging care to consider people’s passions and connection as central human needs (and rights). The challenge lies in communicating this vision clearly and translating it into actionable steps that can be embedded through training, rather than relying on vague directives to “be person-centred.”

Think small, act personally

Working in social care comes with many frustrations, but we must keep striving for better. Giving up isn’t an option, nor will it get us anywhere. Starting with a vision, with a goal, is crucial. Breaking down what people want and identifying the qualities of a good support worker might be key to highlighting the impressive, often unsung, work that carers do. It could also inform the kind of support and training needed, which in turn could revitalise the sector and create a strong environment where these values can thrive.

The Power of Lived Experience

TLAP asked us to facilitate a workshop where adults with learning disabilities and autistic people could share their lived experiences for the report. We met with the Stay Up Late ambassadors and talked through what made a good support worker. What did people like about the people that supported them? What were some of the difficulties? Hearing the ambassadors’ stories it was clear the huge difference having a good support worker in your life can make. For someone living in care, it can be revolutionary. Even if it’s just one individual. Within this day and age, it can be hard to not feel like a drop in the ocean. Care work is a reminder of the impact our lives can have on one another, and the marvellous things we can bring about.

This is about challenging rigid systems, not blaming support workers

Unfortunately, we also heard stories of overworked and disengaged workers who followed a rigid checklist of tasks. To be clear, we’re not here to shame or judge support workers. This is a problem that goes beyond a few “bad apples”. As a former support worker, I know that even with initial enthusiasm, I slipped into a routine, cutting corners and losing spontaneity and innovation. And that was in a “good” house, with people who had worked together for years and cared.

Often this isn’t the case. Support workers receive little support (the irony), are underpaid, and allowed little room for creativity or growth. Change is not given the chance to flourish into an idea because the whole system is rigid. We’re focused on ticking boxes rather than nurturing the skills and judgment needed to offer truly flexible care. We need to create environments where workers feel like they can question things and recognise that within care, it can mean re-inventing the wheel daily.

Breaking It Down: The Importance of Values

Breaking the question of good support down into values helps provide a blueprint for what we should be honing and encouraging within people. It also broadens the role beyond just a list of exhaustive chores. The seven values statements of TLAP’s report provide us with a clear endgame.

“The top three values were respect, reliability, and honesty.”

Reading through the values, they seem unsurprising, and yet they form an impressive list. Could you say you’re consistently kind, compassionate, empathetic, courageous, principled, flexible, open, and proud every day, for eight hours? I think I manage three days a week! That’s not to say this is overly optimistic, rather that it highlights the incredible potential of support work.

Working with integrity

We need to make sure we leave space for people to cultivate these values. And although a day’s training won’t solve everything, it’s seems a good place to start. We need strong foundations and a sector-wide culture where these values are ingrained. The way I see it, it’s an ethos really, a way to approach your life as much as your work.

Sure, values can feel “spongy and intangible,” but they matter because they shape all of our actions and behaviours. It can be hard to break down our behaviour into values, but TLAP has done a great job at translating these values into practical actions, offering a framework that feels like a meaningful job description for aspiring support workers. Hopefully, if we start to shift expectations, we can start to overcome some of the external, systemic barriers. And support workers who are allowed to uphold values and work with integrity can create cultures where they are not only valued but treasured.

The value of values

The report names a long list of values that matter to people, however there’s a healthy amount of overlap and when broken down into themes, they show that “people’s basic expectations are quite modest” (TLAP, 2024).

Modest, but difficult to deliver on a large scale. Modest, fair, and reasonable—but not always easy to implement consistently. However, I believe we can do it. By adopting the report’s recommendations, we can start to encourage a culture that nurtures these values and allows space to grow.

It’s not just managers who are leaders here either. Support workers who live out good values are figureheads too. Their example sets the culture for everyone, it can be infectious. The job of managers is to make sure they allow the conditions for people to flourish and stay open to change when needed.

Support work should be a joy filled job

In care, the stakes are high. Supporting someone with their life is no small feat—it’s a privilege and a joy, and also a mammoth responsibility. There’s no divide between work and life for those in care; it’s all just Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… Hopefully if we start creating these environments, supporting someone with their life can move beyond strict tasks lists, where “Wednesday is laundry day”, to something much richer.

But enough from me—check out the report and let us know what you think in the comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

We’re reaching out today because we need your help. We’re all about making sure everyone’s voice is heard, and that’s why we’re asking you to take a few minutes to fill out our survey. Whether you work in care, are supported within care or are a family member or friend, we want to hear from you. It’s super important to us that our campaign reflects what you care about most, and there’s no better way to do that than by listening directly to you.

Why Bother?

You might be thinking, “Why should I bother with another survey?” Well, because, your opinion genuinely matters. Our campaign isn’t just about ticking boxes or going through the motions. It’s about real change and making sure we’re focusing on the things that make a difference.

Take the Survey

We have either an online form that you can complete, anonymously if you want or an easy read option that you can download and return to florence@stayuplate.org or send it to: Stay Up Late, Hove Methodist Church, Portland Rd, Hove, BN3 5DR. 

There is also a chance to win a £100 Ticketmaster’s voucher, as a way of showing our thanks.

How Your Feedback Will Be Used

Once the survey is completed, we’ll look at the results and use them to decide what our campaign should look like going forward. This might involve changing our messaging, launching new initiatives, or adjusting who we’re working with…

Thank you in advance!

We know your time is valuable, and we truly appreciate you taking a few moments to help us out. Your feedback helps us to improve, grow, and make a greater impact together.

Thank you for your continued support and dedication. Together, we can achieve amazing things!

The Stay Up Late Team