APPG on Adult Social Care host event- ‘Adult Social Care: Making Sure People Have More Control in their Lives’ - 24th February 2020
Overview
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Adult Social Care held an event on Monday 24th February 2020 in Parliament to discuss co-production in social care services with key stakeholders and Parliamentarians. The event showcased the value and importance of co-production in the delivery of care and support for people who use social care as an enabler to live good lives.
The Event
Introductory speeches
Lord Low, Vice Chair of the APPG on Adult Social Care welcomed attendees to the APPGs event. The first guest speaker was Sally Percival, member of the organisation Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) and Co-Chair of the National Coproduction Advisory Group. Sally shared her personal experience of creating a care team around her son and how co-production meant that he was able to have control in his life. The co-produced support plan meant that her son’s self-esteem and skills improved to the extent that he has now moved out of her home.
Panel Discussion 1: Who decides what my care and support looks like?
Panel: Vic Rayner (Executive Director at the National Care Forum), Kathy Roberts (Chief Executive of the Association of Mental Health Providers), Christine Eade (Manager at The Pod, Coventry City Council), Rachel Mason (Family Carer and Associate Consultant, Self-Directed Futures) and Steve Scown (Chief Executive at Dimensions).
During the introductory portion, each panellist had five minutes to introduce his or herself and their views of co-production in social care services. Vic Rayner (VR) pointed out that the social care system for accessing care and support is frustratingly complication, she proceeded to suggest that care should not just be person-centred but person-led. Christine Eade (CE) requested that the sector focuses more on implementing the Care Act 2014. Rachel Mason (RM) described the importance of community support and the provision of personalised care.
The question and answer session then began.
One of the first questions concerned a person who knew someone who’d had their bank account emptied by a personal carer and suggested that a one size fits all for personal budgets doesn’t work. RM agreed that personal budgets, whilst conceptually sound, put a huge responsibility on the person if managing themselves. During the Q&A, the need to properly implement the Care Act was raised a number of times, as was the need to inform social care leaders about what Independent Living really means.
Another audience member spoke about his frustration at the continual medicalisation of people with disabilities. He felt that professionals carry out assessments which put people into boxes, rather than focusing on what they say they need.
Steve Scown (SS) sad that the uptake of personal budgets in his experience is lower than it should be and that it’s difficult to speak about personal budgets without getting completely stuck in a conversation about money. There was agreement amongst the panellists that people need to be taught how to manage their personal budgets in order for them to be effective.
VR ended the panel discussion by pointing out that the 22nd March 2020 marks the end of the government’s first 100 days in office – this is the date by which the Prime Minister promised cross-party talks for social care.
Panel Discussion 2: How do we make best practice common practice?
Panel: Helen Hayes MP (Co-Chair of the APPG on Adult Social Care), Andy Tilden (interim CEO of Skills for Care), Issac Samuels (Member of National Co-Production Advisory Group at TLAP), James Bullion (Vice-President of ADASS), Danielle Conway (Health and Care Worker at Manchester Community Central) and Mario Ambrosi (Director of Communications and Marketing at Anchor Hanover).
During the introductory portion, each panellist had five minutes to introduce his or herself and their views on how best practice around co-production could be replicated to the point of being common practice. Isaac Samuels (IS) spoke about a rights based approach to social care and the real meaning of ‘independent living’ has effectively been lost. He called for more transparency in local authority funding decisions, asking: who’s overseeing the ‘funding panels’ and how do they work?
James Bullion (JB) stated that “good funding breeds good practice”, suggesting that the sector needs to be better funded in order to create the room for good practice to flourish. He praised the work done by TLAP and highlighted some great tools available on the organisation’s website which local authorities should take note of.
Helen Hayes (HH) said that she subscribed to the ‘nothing about us without us’ philosophy and agreed that the system needs to involve people with lived experience at every stage of engagement. She also felt that there needs to be a renewed focus on the pay for care workers and the value of relationships – something she felt should be represented on the balance sheet of all organisations.
The question and answer session then began.
One of the first questions was how the social care sector can influence politicians to make change. HH said that in her experience social care is in crisis and a narrative is needed that highlights the urgency of the situation. She said that councils of all persuasions are under substantial pressure from lack of funding and this needs to change. HH encouraged the stakeholders present to get involved with the APPG, stating that it is a great vehicle to engage with MPs.
A lady from Shared Lives Plus said that we need to be careful around language because research carried out by Lancaster University suggested that the word crisis to describe care effectively shuts down the conversation. That people effectively feel that nothing else can be done to solve the problems in social care.
An audience member expressed the view that care is used as a political football and asked how the APPG is going to move away from the taxation debate. JB suggested that nitty gritty dialogue is what is required both at a national and local level.
IS described that in his experience the people who should the loudest about needing funding and support will get it. He suggested that every person should have a right to this and that the system doesn’t currently work for everyone. The session ended with the words: ‘find the people that will break the rules with you and crack on’.
Closing speech
Helen Hayes MP thanked attendees for coming to the event and encouraged everyone to continue talking about social care and raising the issues as they see them with MPs.
Contact
If you require any further information about this event, please contact Emma Turnbull at emma@mailpbconsulting.com.