Conferences. And why I love festivals.

By Caroline Speirs, Head of Think Local Act Personal

As I ready myself for NCASC 2019 in beautiful Bournemouth I’ve been thinking a lot about conferences.  I’ve been  wondering whether it’s time to create a different environment for hosting  the most important conversations we need to have - conversations about creating a new social care future. 

How about a festival?  

Festival are pretty ubiquitous these days. There are festivals of ideas, festivals that ‘let in the light’,  festivals with a focus on politics, on science, on comedy, on books ..and of course good old music festivals catering for all manner of tastes. Could the time be right for a Festival for Re-imagining Social Care? 

There is a reason why festivals are so popular.  They are places of celebration; they inspire and excite. They feel genuinely inclusive where, for a little while, notions of hierarchy are vanquished. Good festivals ferment great ideas and propose solutions because they unleash creativity.  They enthuse you, not exhaust you. They put a spring in your step and get you looking ahead not railing against the past.  …. They create alternative futures.  They are alternative futures.  

And whilst it’s a truth universally acknowledged that social care is in crisis and must have more money, it is also acknowledged that more money on its own will not fix this crisis.  We need great ideas, great thinkers, brave and bold colleagues to grasp these ideas and offers of support to make  the great leap forward we are seeking. 

We at TLAP will do our best to create a festival environment.  We’re delighted to be supporting an event at the Cumberland Hotel the night before NCASC where commissioners, citizens, and academics will discuss and debate the need for a radical approach to commissioning.  Alongside our partners, SCIE, we’ll be hosting a sub-plenary on Wednesday, 11.05 in Tregonwell Hall where we will be Re-imagining Social care and doing our damnedest to present an alternative future and inviting you to join that future.   

As is the TLAP way, you will hear from all parts of the sector and the session will be led by citizens. We’ll continue that conversation in our afternoon session, From the margins to the mainstream: learning about growing innovation with a new network session (4.30pm.)

And come along to our stand at A32. We won’t be giving away free pens, water bottles, or chargers.  There won’t be any sweets or chocolate fountains but there will be good ideas, suggestions, conversation and offers of support in abundance.  

So, here’s to a great conference/festival for everybody.  Bournemouth will be packed to the gills with great talent.  Let’s unleash it and harness it.  Let’s make it make a difference. And maybe next time… a festival…?

NCASC 2019 >>>

Working with citizens and partners in Camden

By Stella Smith, Principal Social Worker, Adults, London Borough of Camden 

’Together we want to make Camden a better borough – a place where everyone has a chance to succeed, where nobody gets left behind, and where everybody has a voice’ Camden 2025

This is our Camden vision statement, at the heart of our Supporting People, Connecting Communities strategy and our Adult Social Care transformation. ‘What Matters’ - the Camden Approach to Adult Social Care has evolved from three conversations innovation to culture and practice across the whole of Adult Social Care (ASC). Our ambition is that eventually we won’t use or hear the words ‘strength based practice’ as this concept will become our culture, the way we are, the way we work together, not the way we think we should be.

So how are we doing this?

We’re working with our citizens and partners to understand what does a good life look like, how can we work together and how can we find out if we are making a difference? Communications, newsletters, briefings and telling stories and experiences are bringing to life how we are working differently. We recently celebrated the ‘Small Impact, Big Change’ campaign which includes stories from our Occupational Therapists in Camden This is inspiring us to create our own What Matters story wall.

Our What Matters team champions meet together every week and support their colleagues in day to day practice and with some of the trickier issues in getting our Mosaic recording balanced right. The shift from onerous, prescriptive recording to collaborative conversations, sharing progress and appreciating feedback is happening.

Walk the Mile is an initiative that teams up our practitioners with Age UK’s Community Connectors helping us to get to know local neighbourhoods. Our strength based learning and development programme includes What Matters Coaching Conversations training for all practitioners. Enablers such as the ASC Practice Guide, Assistive Technology, Family Group Conferencing and reviews of Direct Payments, Advocacy and Purchase Cards are all creating opportunities. Even our yellow What Matters laptop stickers, pens and posters are spreading the word. 

Exciting times and so much more to do!

NCASC 2019 >>> 

Creating an all-age integrated disability service

By Richard Pantlin, NHS Integration Programme Manager (Interim) - in a personal capacity

A project in a London Borough has expanded from integrating NHS and social care adult learning disability teams into an all-age co-located service with education teams.

The London Borough has a very diverse population of a quarter of a million. Between the council and the local NHS, £29m per annum is spent specifically supporting local adults with a learning disability. In June 2018, the DASS initiated a project to integrate and co-locate the adult social work and health community teams, convinced that closer working would lead to better outcomes and hence reduce long-term care costs.

The first challenge was to define the scope and agree the governance with the local CCG and the NHS health provider trust. That was settled by January 2019 with a monthly tri-partite project board overseeing the work and rotating the chair between the three organisations.

The next challenge was to find suitable accommodation to co-locate 43 social care and NHS staff from four teams: Children and Young Adults with Disabilities (CYAD), Transitions, Specialist Over 25’s LD Team and the NHS Community LD Team. It also needed to include three rooms for the therapists to see their patients.

Luckily, the council had vacant premises on the civic centre site. These are large enough to accommodate five Education Services teams: Children’s Sensory, SEN, Educational Psychology, Portage and Autistic Spectrum Teachers. This has the added benefit that they can continue to be co-located with the CYAD team with whom they already work closely in an expensive NHS PFI building which will now be vacated.

With the enthusiastic support of the director for People Services, the project doubled in size to relocate 110 staff in a bespoke refurbished building creating a unique all-age disability service from the one central location.

A key part has been the culture change for adults LD staff, which started with two full day “Common Purpose Mapping” workshops in May for all staff. A further experiential team-building event was held in October including a review of a new draft integrated pathway. There has also been co-production with service users and clients facilitated by the local Mencap.

The council Head of Service for the new Community LD Team is confident that an integrated team will enable a more responsive and flexible approach when individuals and their families are approaching a crisis and that this will lead to improved outcomes. Given the high costs for secure accommodation and 24/7 supported living, it would take only 4 individuals to either remain at home or in lower level supported living to avoid additional costs of £500,000 per annum. 

More information will be available when the new service is publicly launched in January. 

NCASC 2019 >>>

Radical Social Work – Realising human potential

Written by Cat Duncan-Rees on behalf of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) 

With less than a week to go until NCASC19 there is much excitement amongst members of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) who will be bringing some sparkle with them. 

NCAG is people who committed to personalised care and support services because they know from experience that it can support them to live the ordinary lives they would like to live.

One of the core principles of The Think Local Act Personal Making it Real framework is:
‘A sense of belonging, positive relationships and contributing to community life is important to people’s health and wellbeing’ 

This is not only relevant to people who need support to live an ordinary life, it is relevant to all of us. SO…

NCAG is inviting people at the conference to share stories, public living room style, (thanks to Maff Potts and Camerados for the inspiration) and explore how we are the answers to each other’s problems. The people we work with and support are at the heart of co-production and hold the key to successful innovation in social care (and beyond).

Over the last 12 months NCAG has been exploring how it feels to co-create the right conditions for innovation to emerge and flourish. We have been developing an offer of support that reminds people that personalisation in health and care is fundamentally about realising human potential; being kind and reconnecting with human purpose. 

Talking to us might give you a few ideas on how NCAG members could support innovation and new approaches where you work. 

Here are a few examples from work we’ve been carrying out over the past few months:
• A finance manager declared his commitment to review their ‘unauthorised’ expenditure policies and re-humanise the letters they are sending out to people. Read his Pirates on bikes Blog

• Principle Social Workers who are committing to challenging the processes and procedures that ‘don’t make sense’; “You have changed the social workers’ thinking and reminded them of why they wanted in first place to become one. I can say that having just read all feedback forms from the event” (Radical Social Work – Getting Back to Human Relationships. Principle Social Workers Network, East of England Region – 5th Nov 2019)

• Nursing and Midwifery Council staff explored what it means to reconnect with human purpose and what being a KIND regulator means

• And a very happy assistant director of social care as part of their ‘game changing’ approach to Direct Payments: “I just wanted to say WOW! There was so much energy and enthusiasm from the workshops today. Thank you NCAG for giving your time, your honesty, vulnerability, passion and challenge over the last few months. We are on a journey in Shropshire and I look forward to us working together to deliver what we have said we will do” Tanya Miles, AD ASC.

Not much left to say other than – ‘look out’ for NCAG and TLAP in the market place (stand A32) – we will be looking out for you! 

NCASC 2019 >>>

‘Twas the night before NCASC

By Sara Zmertych, TLAP Communications Manager
‘Twas the night before NCASC, when all through Bournemouth not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The microphones were assembled at the venue with care,
in hopes that a social care future soon would be there.
The innovators were nestled all snug at a fringe,
with vision of transformation all ready to clinch.

Who are these people – these ‘innovator’ types? Far from being a select group that meet in quiet corners, many will be sitting in the audience at the conference, others hobnobbing by the stands and, reassuringly, quite a few presenting at main stage events.

They form part of a growing movement of people that think in a radically different way about social care. They want to see transformation based on investing in wellbeing and support, and that allows people to lead as good a life as they can, as citizens - and not social casualties. 

You may remember that this was very much the purpose of last year’s Social Care Future event, which ran in parallel to NCASC. If you were not part of this, blogs, heard the podcast with me, and seen their latest report. 

Putting real welly behind the words on innovation and transformation is not easy. Think Local Act Personal has for a long time led work to reimagine social care with partners and friends, and now with Social Care Future it’s encouraging to see that interest is gaining momentum.  

To meet the interest we’ve been supporting the sector with some bold, practical offers, such as the innovation in community-centred support directory; Together with SCIE and Shared Lives Plus, the Social Care Innovation Network is supporting councils and providers to find ways of spreading innovation: that is both personalised and rooted in communities. 

Without being trite about lack of funds, sometimes necessity can be the mother of invention. We want people in the sector to be well versed in spending and designing, commissioning and providing in ways that are innovative and person-centred.. You can also take a look at our Making it Real and resources from our National Co-Production Advisory Group.

My wish for next year’s NCASC is that there are no strangers to this ambition, and they’ll come knocking on the door of change. Why not take a step on the journey and join us this year. TLAP is on Stand A32

Commissioning for a Change on 19th November Bournemouth. 7 - 9pm. Refreshments 
Oceana Suite | The Cumberland Hotel | East Overcliff Drive | Bournemouth BH1 3AF. Chaired by Stephen Chandler, Director of Adult Social Care in Oxfordshire 
Places are limited to 40 and can be booked via admin@in-control.org.uk

Sub-plenary sessions - Re-imagining social care: turning values into practical action, Wednesday 20th November 11.05 – 12.05 in Tregonwell Hall, Bournemouth International Centre. Come along to hear the President of ADASS, Julie Ogley, Clenton Farquharson and others, talk about how we can turn values about social care, into practical action.

Workshop session: From the margins to the mainstream: learning about growing innovation with a new network on Wednesday November 4.30 – 5.30. Come to SCIE, Shared Lives and TLAPs session on the Social Care Innovation Network and Sarah McClinton, Director of Adult Social Care at Greenwich, will tell you more.

NCASC 2019



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The important role technology plays in our wellbeing

By Karen Dolva, CEO and Co-Founder of No Isolation 

This was originally hosted on the SCIE website in December 2018

In November 2018 the Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock, spoke at length about the important role that technology can play in improving the healthcare system. In particular, he said the following, which really struck a chord with me: ‘if there is any one overriding theme of the digital revolution it’s increased choice’. The reason this particular phrase stayed with me? Because it’s something that those like my team and I are hoping to change - we want to give those with seemingly no options, a choice.

• SCIE: Prevention Practice Example KOMP
• TLAP, ADASS and TSA: TEC stories: how technology enabled care has transformed people's lives
• SCIE: Technology supporting people living with dementia and their carers

Moving against ‘tech-lash’

The Health and Social Care Secretary focused his speech on the technological innovations and how these can be adapted to alleviate the pressures on the NHS. Companies like ours welcome this rhetoric, as we believe that endorsements like these is what makes people see beyond ‘tech lash’, the backlash against the amount of technology we use, and towards technological solutions that can result in more choice, more good. As a society, we are evolving past wanting the next new gadget and beginning to look towards those who might benefit from technology, those for whom technology might change everything.

The emergence of warm technology

At No Isolation, we are harnessing technology to achieve one specific aim - eradicate loneliness and isolation. Our research shows that the elderly and young children affected by long-term illness are the two groups that are extremely vulnerable to loneliness. This made it clear to us that the technologies currently available to these two groups do not address their specific needs. A mobile phone doesn’t allow a child to participate in classes, or visit sleepovers with their friends. A tablet doesn’t help a senior stay more connected to their family, if they can’t use it. We designed the AV1 telepresence robot and the KOMP communication screen, with the aim of addressing this.

Us and companies like ours are forming a much-needed new type of technological innovation - warm technology. Technology that is designed to help, improve society and make life for those who are struggling, a little bit easier. Technology that provides a choice, and that has the potential to make a true difference.

• No Isolation
• Karen Tweets @kdolva 
• NCASC 2019 

Impactful and satisfying social care roles

By Alex Fox, the CEO of Shared Lives Plus, Vice Chair of Think Local, Act Personal and author of A new health and care system: escaping the invisible asylum (Policy Press) - and SCIE trustee.

A Unison survey of 1000 social workers, found that more than half are considering leaving the profession for a less stressful position. The reasons for this are unsurprising: cuts, workloads, form-filling, low pay. There are also Brexit and ‘hostile environment’ worries for a workforce of which 17% are migrant workers: around 250,000 people, according to Skills for Care estimates.

Lots has been written and said about the need to make social care roles more attractive. This usually focuses on pay (many roles are minimum wage) and the professionalisation of social care: most roles are unqualified and their low status is a factor in job satisfaction. I am sceptical of both these areas of focus, not because it would not be a good thing if social care workers were paid and respected more, but because they are symptoms of the problem, rather than causes. 

The most impactful and satisfying social care roles are those which take most time and are therefore too often seen as contingent on time and resources: forming meaningful relationships with people; enabling them to take part in activities which they enjoy or find meaningful; supporting people to get out of the house and connect with others; helping people to (re)build their skills and confidence to live well at home. During a time of staff shortages, cuts to care packages and increasingly high eligibility thresholds for support, there is an increasing gap between what many services aspire to offer, and what they are actually able to offer consistently and sustainably. The drive for professionalisation of social care can increase that gap rather than bridge it.

So the task facing us is not to tweak pay or conditions, but to reinvent social care as a public service that matters to people as much as the NHS does. There is a ‘chicken and egg’ challenge in this: it’s hard to reinvent a sector on no money, but it’s hard to win the public backing which leads to investment, without that reinvention.

So social care is in a difficult place, and at recent national conferences, I have felt a growing sense of a sector which cannot see a clear route to a future which is viable, let alone inspirational. But we also have some key strengths going for us, which offer a narrow but achievable route to that future.

Firstly, we are endlessly inventive. I’ve lost count of the number of social entrepreneurs I’ve been connected with in recent years, and Think Local, Act Personal’s ‘rainbow’ of community approaches is now a growing catalogue of groups and organisations who are changing how we think about what’s possible in support, inclusion and community development.

Secondly, people who use services and their families are a powerful resource and driver of change. We have seen how tens of thousands of people and families can reinvent social care themselves, using direct payments, creativity and love. The user-led movement has made huge strides and has co-designed practice, effective models of coproduction that are freely available to everyone. If every area committed to removing barriers to coproduction, and using existing approaches across their decision-making, the potential is huge.

Thirdly, our current systems are not just under-resourced, they in many cases actively prevent the kinds of change we most need to see, with dysfunctions which some councils have already demonstrated we could dismantle. For instance, we pilot new initiatives on short term funding, with no plan to transfer core resources into them from what doesn’t work as well: an approach that could have been designed to stymy innovation. Our failure to recognise, train, connect and back-up family carers could have been designed to reduce the capacity of a workforce which nevertheless creates more value than the NHS. Approaches to assessing disabled people could and in some areas have been replaced with help to plan. Punitive resource allocation and review systems which actively discourage people from demonstrating greater independence, could be replaced with asset-based approaches which share risk and responsibility more fairly and productively.

The Social Care Innovation Network, hosted by SCIE, TLAP and Skills for Care brings together 17 areas which have all achieved some kinds of change, and a similar number of innovative organisations which offer a human, connected and inspiring vision of what great support can look like. Together we are exploring how we could build a new idea of social care from the localised and small-scale successes which have already been achieved. As is so often the case in our sector, the level of ambition is huge, and the level of resourcing comparatively small. 

But every day, people who work in under-resourced social care roles, and disabled and older people with very limited means, together achieve goals that others have told them are impossible. They do that using the resources which matter most: creativity, determination and the drive to care for and about others. We owe it to them to build from their inspiration an achievable future for social care, in which people will always be able to bring, use and share those most human and precious capacities.

Alex Fox OBE is the CEO of Shared Lives Plus, Vice Chair of Think Local, Act Personal and author of A new health and care system: escaping the invisible asylum (Policy Press).

NCASC sessions >>>

Sharing power: Co-production and children's services

By Ryan Wise, SCIE Practice Development Manager 

"Co-production isn’t a fun term even though it sounds like a you’re on a film set". 




The words from Tia, who attended a recent workshop at SCIE thinking about what co-production currently looks like and could look like in children’s services. 

Language is important and perhaps the term co-production is something that doesn’t come up because of what Tia has shared. I have often come across voice, participation, engagement when thinking about co-production in the children's and families world. For me, co-production in a nutshell is about sharing power. Co-production is breaking down barriers and enabling equality through children and families being an active part of the design and delivery of services. This for me is the crux. 

Register for free online webinar on co-production and children / families. Thursday 7 November 1pm.

We often share power in practice in how we work with families but how do we do it organisationally? We may know of children in council care or act on the feedback we receive from children and families but does this go far enough? How does the community and its citizens help change and develop the service?  

SCIE are interested in supporting organisations to develop and embed ways of sharing power with its citizens. SCIE believe that the time is right; developing co-production compliments positive moves towards being more relationship-based and collaborative in practice. As professionals let's talk to our citizens: What do children and families in your area think about ‘co-production’? Perhaps it doesn’t have to have a name? The key question SCIE are interested in is: “What steps can you take or are you taking to include children and families in the design and delivery of your service?

Read Ryan's SCIE blog about the work Camden Council are doing with relationship-based social work.

NCASC 2019 >>>

Why we are all talking about strength based practice?

By Fran Leddra, Principal Social Worker and Strategic Lead, Safeguarding and Adult Social Care, Adults, Housing and Health, Thurrock Council - and Chief Social Worker England. 

Fran joins SCIE at NCASC on Friday 22 November - 9.30 - 10.30 in FW26 for a session on strengths-based approaches

It’s interesting how strength based practice is seen as the new ‘buzz’ topic in adult social care, everyone is talking about it, our plans are changing to accommodate it and we are embracing a new language to accompany it.  But of course it’s not new, and people have been writing about it for many years ; Weick (1989) and Saleebey,(1992) articulating what we are trying to achieve today in our practice along with many others.

The difference now is that social work is getting back to its roots of good human relationship focused practice where we empower the person and disempower the problem.  This has always been at the heart of our profession but somehow we lost our way with systems and processes that restricted our creativity, reduced our skills to tick box assessments  and focused on all that was wrong so we could help ‘fix’ the problems.  The difficulty with trying to ‘fix’ is that it assumes we know best, that we can solve the issue and that the individual is a passive recipient.  

When we move away from problem-solving to listening, understanding, walking alongside people and focusing on what is strong and what a good life looks like, we have a totally different conversation.  We have also listened and learned from experts by experience and have been influenced by Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).  This is helping us introduce innovative new community based support and a different offer to traditional services.  We may still have a way to go, but it really does feel we are moving in the right direction. 

I’m inspired by the many stories I have heard in how the resurgence of strength and human relationship based practice is really making a difference to people’s lives, not just in the short term, but building resilience for the longer term.  Social work is leading this transformation, resulting in a recognition of the important space we fill across health and wellbeing partnerships.   Lets keep the buzz going! 

Fran tweets @franlc>>>

NCASC 2019>>> 

Changing the story: An NCASC blog

By Neil Crowther for Social Care Future #socialcarefuture

Don’t we all aspire to live in the place we call home, with the people and things that we love, doing what matters to us in communities where we all look out for one another?  

Isn’t that what great care and support helps us to achieve? By combining greater investment with reforms to unlock the already abundant resources and power to make change in communities across our country we can look forward to this future.

New report: Talking about a Brighter Social Care Future

That’s the vision our growing movement aspires to, but it faces a major hurdle. In new research, to be published next week, we find that our vision isn’t the story of social care presently being told to, heard by and understood by the public.

Where we see care and support as offering a springboard, the dominant narrative paints it as a safety net.  While we seek to generate ecosystems of reciprocal community support, care is talked about as a one-way street, with ‘vulnerable people’ ‘looked after’ by regulated personal care services. We have great stories of how great support transforms people’s lives, but the story told and heard is of a broken system in crisis, dangerous to those who use it.   We point to the huge value to society of what comes of great support, yet the story out there is of a spiralling financial burden that needs to be contained.  

Why is framing important? As Professor George Lakoff has explained: ‘Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world. In politics our frames shape our social policies and the institutions we form to carry out policies.  To change our frames is to change all of this.  Framing is social change.’

Our new report is the first stage of a project to reframe the narrative around great care and support.  Next we will be commissioning more research to understand the current landscape of discourse and opinion, to get into the mindsets of target audiences and to work out the most persuasive ways to enlist support for our goals. 

To change social care we need to change the story about social care.

Neil Tweets @neilmcrowther

Social Care Future >>>

All session at NCASC 2019 >>>

At NCASC let's resist entering a council of despair

By Ewan King, SCIE Chief Operating Officer 

We should avoid a council of despair, and focus on the positives. At this year’s NCASC we will be talking about the positives in social care. 



This week the government was yet again criticised for dragging its feet on social care reform. To be fair, this headline could have written at the same time last year, and the two previous years: it’s not news! But it doesn’t help with the mood surrounding the sector, and the sense of despair. But despair we mustn’t.

For we are seeing some positive changes in the sector, and a positive story emerging of what social care be if we all work together? We need to grasp these opportunities while we can, and build on fragile areas of success.

In the face of great odds, some local areas are developing and spreading innovation, based on the principles of asset-based, or strengths-based thinking, and person centred care. In Camden for instance, this has meant that all decisions care and support are made in collaboration with people who use services, building on their strengths and local networks rather than the ‘problems’ they are perceived to have. In cases where people’s lives have become stuck, Family Group Conferences, a real innovation in adults social care, are used to help families find solutions to the barriers they face.

Come to SCIE, Shared Lives and TLAPs session on the Social Care Innovation Network and Sarah McClinton, Director of Adult Social Care at Camden, will tell you more. Later that week, our session - Towers of Strengths - will provide a platform for lively debate about the strengths-based practice, with presentations from Bradford, Nottingham and the Chief Social Worker. 

The positive story I refer to is embodied by Social Care Future, a social movement committed to the positive reform of social care. For the last two years, it has been galvanising people around a new commitment to build a better, more ‘human-shaped’, care system. Much of its work to date, including a new narrative - based on the ‘reframing’ of debate about social care away from the language of crisis, to one based on its positive potential - will be presented at the Social Care Future on Wednesday morning, which SCIE is pleased to support. Come along to hear the President of ADASS, Julie Ogley, Clenton Farquharson and others, talk about how we can turn values about social care, into practical action.

The challenges facing social care may be considerable, but we should resist entering a counsel of despair. Do make time to attend these sessions, and we promise you will leave with a lift in your step.

Ewan tweets @ewandking >>>

All sessions at NCASC 2019 >>>