The National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCAS) 2013 draws near and here at the Social Care news blog we’re gearing up to deliver you coverage of this milestone three day event (16 – 18 October) - before, during and after.
In addition to speeches and addresses from Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Minister for Care and Support Norman Lamb and Director General for Social Care Jon Rouse, Department of Health (DH) policy colleagues will also be present. Alongside local government partners LGA and ADASS, they’ll be engaging directly with local authorities – and individual delegates – on the burning policy issues. Breakfast sessions, pop up workshops and ‘meet and greets’ are just some of the ways they’ll be doing this.
This year, the Care Bill will be a talking point for many as the White Paper edges closer to reality for care and support commissioners, service providers and users. Meanwhile, more detail is emerging on the major cornerstones of the reforms, including personalisation, funding reform and integrated care.
Local authorities are accountable for delivering these reforms, which will involve significant changes to how they currently operate. Our policy teams will be using NCAS to talk to you about this vision for care and support - and to understand the successes and challenges you face locally. They want to make sure they support you in the most effective ways possible.
Comprehensive engagement across the sector has guided – and continues to guide – the development of plans for care and support reform, as vision and planning lead into delivering change. NCAS provides an invaluable opportunity to talk to a wide range of key stakeholders and our policy teams and partners are looking forward to making the most of this platform.
Integration is the theme of our first dedicated breakfast session on Thursday 17 October. In May 2013, a collaboration of national partners set out the vision for joined up care, outlining what we will do nationally to remove barriers to greater integration. The national partners also invited the most ambitious areas to apply to become ‘integration pioneers’.
The first cohort will be announced later this month. Departmental officials and partner representatives will provide an update on the work to select the pioneer projects, and to pave the way for the £3.8billion integration transformation fund, announced as part of the spending review on 26 June.
Also on Thursday, DH personalisation colleagues will be joining forces with partners from ADASS and Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) for a workshop session inspired by a personalisation summit held earlier this year. The summit brought together central and local government colleagues with representatives of key social care sector organisations to review progress within the personalisation agenda. The next steps will involve developing a framework for action to carry work through to the Bill’s implementation and beyond. The workshop will be an opportunity for colleagues and partners to outline and discuss the content of the framework with delegates.
On Friday 18 October, it’s the turn of DH implementation colleagues to hold a breakfast session on care and support funding reform. Back in July, the Department launched a consultation to gather views on how changes to the funding system should be made and delivered locally. Our policy colleagues and LGA and ADASS partners will use this session to outline the proposals and encourage delegates’ questions.
Meanwhile, coverage of the main speeches, breakfast and plenary sessions will continue throughout the three days. A mini timetable of DH attended events will be posted here shortly, but in the meantime, be sure to join the conversation on twitter and right here at the Social Care news blog. There’s a lot to talk about and this year’s NCAS is sure to galvanise debate!