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 >>>