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Mark Rance explores how the Kirklees Integrated Community Equipment Services model is reducing costs and tackling inequity, while delivering better outcomes for people who draw on care and support, their families and carers.  Building on what we now know  In ‘Innovating to support independence: The Kirklees approach to Community Equipment Services,’ I set out the rationale for redesigning community equipment services (CES) in Kirklees and […]

On June 2, the Supreme Court overruled the Cheshire West ruling on the meaning of deprivation of liberty. Rashpal Bishop is the Executive Director of Adults, Social Care and Health at Sandwell Council and the ADASS Vice President. She is also the ADASS Lead on Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, and responds to the judgement.

Chris Lehmann, ADASS Research Committee Chair, and Professor Catherine Needham, Professor of Public Policy and Public Management at the University of Birmingham, report back from an exciting research workshop at our recent Spring Seminar conference.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) have updated our Joint Working Protocol (JWP) agreement that sets out how we work together to share information and promote quality and safety.  

Our response to the 2025-26 report on the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standards (SC-WRES).

Freshly retired, Mel Lock reflects on the people, partnerships and principles that shaped her career - from championing lived experience and rural communities to navigating funding pressures and reform. As she steps away from full-time leadership, she shares the lessons, humour and humanity that have kept her committed to ensuring people live lives shaped by choice, dignity and connection, not services.

Professor Oonagh Smyth CBE and Sir David Pearson, share insights from the position statement on adult social care’s contribution to the Neighbourhood Health Service from the Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England’s Oversight Executive Group; highlighting the actions required to enable adult social care and its workforce to play a full role in the Neighbourhood Health Service and where they are working successfully in neighbourhoods.

ADASS President Phil Holmes stresses that social justice must sit at the heart of adult social care. In a time of rising division and prejudice, he calls for leadership that moves beyond words and into meaningful action. 

Phil Holmes' powerful first speech as ADASS President at the ADASS Spring Seminar 2026.