I loved that one

"sector" 🤢

I'd begin here: socialcarefuture.org.uk and then I'd start to mobilise from wherever I was

I didn't hear this but you just had to share it happened so that's me vicariously ruined too

Brilliant that your first article is on adult social care - thanks. There's an economic point I was trying to make, too much care is mass produced & not designed against demand. More personalised (devolved) support is the ying to the improved terms and conditions yang.

Hi Heather, interesting insights into government thinking. The adult social care workforce is of course essential but I think it's too regressive to say that adult social care is its workforce. Place to start is with adults who need care and support & what they say they need to live a good life.

All the effectiveness and energy that I see in Adult Social Care comes when it works relationally to hand power back to local people, communities and ethical care and support organisations. If government doesn't see this as foundational and unifying, all we have ahead is more managed decline (9/9).

BBC describe troika of Prime Minister, Chancellor and DHSC, but huge partnership opportunities also with MHCLG. Also with DWP in spite of or perhaps because of the current scandal about Carers Allowance "overpayments". Yet another reason for moving beyond lip service to Simon's ninth Persona (8/9).

Wonder if this government will continue to over-conflate adult social care with the NHS when actually its impact lives or dies by the sustainability of local government and its effectiveness (or not) in thinking locally & acting personally across so many aspects of family & neighbourhood life (7/9).

I wonder if the government will start like the BBC article at the top of this thread with images of wrinkly hands and narratives of "elderly" and "vulnerable". If people receiving support from adult social care are still framed as zombies then zombie policies will likely continue (6/9).

But, although literally the starting point of the 2014 Care Act, nothing from recent governments to incentivise thinking locally (P3) and acting personally (P7) to provide grip on prevention (P11). This is about moving away from top-down managerialism to relational methods that actually work (5/9).

Additionally the new government has been very vocal about decent pay & working conditions for people providing direct care & support (P10). Very welcome although there's clearly more to do to provide the right incentives for care organisations (P8) both in terms of sustainability and ethics (4/9).

Which of Simon's 12 Social Care Personas will be most important to this government? The BBC article blends narratives about not enough money (Persona 12), worsening demography (P6), affordability for families (P1), burden on NHS (P2). All valid issues but stuck in the same old groove (3/9).

"Fixing" adult social care first of all requires a definition of the problem(s) you're trying to solve. This article from the estimable Simon Bottery of @thekingsfund.bsky.social did a great job of that four years ago (2/9). www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...