For the first time, there will be a national social care career structure, the Care Workforce Pathway, with clearly defined roles and opportunities to discover the rewarding reality of the care sector first hand. Find out more...
It’s not even autumn (although you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise, given the changeable weather) but already, thoughts turn to winter and our readiness, as care and health professionals, to deliver the support our communities need as service pressures mount.
It’s Carers Week (5-11 June), an opportunity to not only ‘recognise and support unpaid carers in the community’ (this year’s theme), but also reflect on our personal and professional relationships to caring.
"‘Joining up care for people, places and populations’ is not just the title of the Government’s Integration White Paper, but an aspiration for us all" says Paul Najsarek of Solace, the membership network for public sector and local government professionals. He believes local expertise can deliver local solutions, as he explains in his debut blog for this site...
"I believe social care exists to support people to live healthy, meaningful lives. This requires government commitment for the long term and sustained investment in the future we are wanting to build.", explains Think Local Act Personal's Clenton Farquharson MBE in his latest blog on social care reform.
Social care is vital for people with dementia. Alzheimer’s Society has been calling for social care reform for a long time and welcomed the opportunity to participate in two South West roundtable events, arranged by the Department of Health and Social Care, to discuss what they and other care sector organisations want to see from this process.
Kathy Roberts is CEO of The Association of Mental Health Providers, the only national organisation with over 280 members representing voluntary and community sector providers of mental health and wellbeing services. In her debut DHSC blog, Kathy goes back to basics, describing why mental health social care and support services are essential, the impact they have on people’s lives, and how the sector can inform the social care reform strategy.
Involving people with lived experience will be an essential element of social care reform, as will the wise counsel of the many organisations supporting them. Jackie O'Sullivan, Mencap’s Executive Director of Communications, Advocacy and Activism, reflects on a positive meeting with Department of Health and Social Care colleagues, as sector engagement gets fully underway.
"As part of the record 36 billion investment to reform the NHS and social care, the Prime Minister’s announcement of at least £500 million funding for the care workforce across three years is very welcome", says Deborah Sturdy, Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care in her new blog marking the Prime Minister's recent announcement on social care reform.
"If we want to reform the social care system it has to start with a wholesale shift in the way all of us, at every level of the system, view the very people who draw on services." TLAP's Clenton Farquharson returns to the Social Care blog with some positive musings on the future of social care in this country.