SSRG Newsletter - January 2005

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Our future in our hands: putting people at the centre of social care

In response to the government’s announcement that it is to publish a new vision for adult social care, the LGA, ADSS and NHS Confederation have produced a paper that outlines their recommendations for a radical overhaul of the current care system.

In April 2004, community care minister Stephen Ladyman announced that the Department of Health would publish 'a new vision for social care', saying he wanted radical thinking to achieve services that would be 'person-centred, proactive and seamless', and reinforcing the importance of commissioning to achieve this.

The initiative has been welcomed by the Local Government Association (LGA), the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) and the NHS Confederation. They feel that Social care is well placed to lead and coordinate the transition to ‘person-centred and community-based’ adult care.

They share a vision for adult care that ‘recognises and builds upon the skills of the workforce, rejects divisive service-structured approaches; and which considers well-being, independence and choice as the means to a holistic combination of prevention, support and care’.

The three associations have put together a paper entitled ‘Our future in our hands – putting people at the centre of social care’ that contains 17 recommendations. These are:

1. A long-term shift in resources from acute to community-based and prevention services, built around a combination of community-based health, social care, housing and other services.

2. Objectives for partner organisations should be developed and agreed locally.

3. Resources delivered to local government for investment in creating and developing social capital.

4. Service users given greater freedom to pool income from different streams and provision, delivering greater choice.

5. A Local Strategic Commissioning Unit to co-ordinate needs assessment, strategic planning, consultation and engagement, partnership development, resource and market management, and strategies.

6. More flexible direct payments that allow access and delivery to all publicly-funded services, especially longterm conditions, whilst recognising that direct payments may not be the answer in all cases.

7. Review the legal basis of social care to deliver a framework focused on rights and entitlement.

8. A Wanless-style review of social care funding to clarify and simplify the system.

9. Genuine investment in social care IT and alignment of the NHS National Programme for IT with support options.

10. Resources must be allowed to shift between the NHS and local government where responsibility also shifts.

11. As set out in Releasing the Potential for the public’s health, the role of poverty in poor health and social exclusion needs addressing urgently.

12. Integrated social care and health commissioning, taking advantage of new funding mechanisms in the NHS and of practicebased commissioning, should build on initiatives such as Intermediate Care to release funding from the acute and into community settings, and reduce use of hospital or other long-term care settings.

13. Mainstream the Preventive Technology Grant, making it available beyond the initial two years.

14. Independent living as practiced in adult social care to be the model for developing public service coalitions to deliver well-being.

15. A fundamental shift to structures, systems and processes that promote well-being, social inclusion and regeneration should be at the heart of local governance arrangements, including local strategic partnerships.

16. That local authorities arrange management and member structures as they see fit, deciding how they address responsibilities on the basis of local needs and existing arrangements.

17. Significant investment is needed in the social care workforce whether employed in public, independent or voluntary sectors. Without it, policy will not have the means to realise its aspirations.

The full paper which was published on 1st December can be found at:

www.lga.gov.uk/Documents/Publication/adult social careWEB.pdf