Day one from ADASS Spring Seminar 2023: Roadmap for reform

The ADASS Spring Seminar 2023 started with the Association’s Annual General Meeting a policy discussion for social care leaders attending the event.

ADASS members policy discussion

In a private policy discussion ADASS members heard from Sally Warren (Director of Policy, The King’s Fund) and Andrew Harrop (General Secretary, The Fabian Society) about the impact the General Election might have on transforming adult social care in England.

The speakers talked about what reform could be possible and what the key questions and challenges any Government will need to grapple with. They said there would be an emphasis on different areas of reform depending on the political make-up of the next Government.

They asked some key questions which ADASS members responded to in discussion including the structure and make-up of social care in the future, how to improve conditions for social care workers, how to fund reform in the current and future public spending situation, and what reform will mean for people who draw on care and support.

Time to act: a roadmap for reforming care and support in England

ADASS President, Sarah McClinton, opened the Spring Seminar proper on Wednesday afternoon with a call to action. The Roadmap that ADASS commissioned is a powerful action plan, that everyone working social care can use as a tool to drive change. She said not everyone will agree with every proposal, but it passed her “Dad test”, it focuses on the things that are important to people who access care and support to live their lives well.

The Roadmap’s authors Kate Jopling and Dr Anna Dixon MBE said there’s a consensus about the care and support system we need, but there’s not been the political or collective will to make it happen. They said that social care leaders will need to drive change locally in the short term, but bits of change in some places won’t cut it. We’ll need a national drive to improve care across England and that will require change everywhere and radically higher investment from Government in care over the next ten years.

Think Local, Act Personal Chair, Clenton Farquharson MBE agreed it was time to act now, but the one of the biggest barriers we’d need to overcome is inequity in the way we provide care and support. Social justice must be a driving principle of reform and for that social care leaders will need to let go of power and give more control to people over their care.

ADASS Vice-President, Beverley Tarka, who will take on the Presidency tomorrow, said this gives everyone in social care the ability to get off the back foot and show what’s possible if we can get the backing of long-term investment, we have a practical plan now to match our ambitions for social care.

There was a wide-ranging debate amongst the audience with many pointing out how they could use the roadmap as an agenda to drive change with other public services and partners in their area. Many welcomed the challenges it makes to social care leaders as well as to national government.

Co-production and social care reform

The second session of the afternoon saw social care leaders turn to the issue of co-production or involving people who draw on care and support in making decisions about the way care works in their area.

Clenton Farquharson MBE and Ian McCreath from Think Local, Act Personal (TLAP) challenged social care leaders to step up and make co-production a sustained and lasting part of everything we do. They pointed to TLAP’s Making it Real framework as a tool to help.

Rich Amos from the West Midlands co-production network said that to make co-production work takes time, you can force people to respond to deadlines. You need to build trust and share power with people who draw on care and support. He pointed to West Midlands ADASS as a great example of how to do this, but asked why wasn’t it happening everywhere?

Phil Holmes, Director of Adults, Health and Wellbeing at Doncaster City Council, said social care leaders need the set the culture. He said what gets us up in the morning is social justice, making sure no-one is left behind in our communities. So that’s got to translate in how we do things, social care isn’t about transactions, he said, it’s about people, relationships and how people want to live their lives.

There was a lively discussion that followed with delegates share stories of good practice, saying we need to learn more from each other and be confident about the work we are doing to involve people in improving care and support. Others pointed out the language barrier – stop using jargon, silly, complicated words that exclude people. They recommended Bryony Shannon’s blog on rewriting social care on this. While another said co-production becomes just what you do if you take it down to every individual relationship, everyone drawing on care should feel seen and feel in control of their care.

Clenton Farquharson MBE concluded the session memorably by saying that co-production isn’t a one-night stand, it’s along term relationship that social care leaders need to commit to.

16 sonnets for care

James Bullion led a powerful conclusion to the first day of Spring Seminar by talking about the project he’s been part of in Norfolk that involved a poet working with care workers and people drawing on care during some of the most difficult days of the pandemic. The resulting 16 sonnets for care say everything about why social care is about all of us and our lives, you can see excerpts here.