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While it is admirable to live in hope that a new year will bring brand new promise, the likelihood that this would include all of the answers to solve the social care problem was unlikely. And yet the response to the government’s announcement on the 3rd January regarding social care reform appears in almost all public domains to have been received entirely negatively.

At its simplest the announcements can be broken down in two:

  1. Some immediate promises to accelerate areas of existing change and opportunity: including additional funding to support those with disabilities, a promise to cut tape to support digital innovation, and a platform to share data and workforce development to enable our staff to do more.
  2. A commission to look at the long term reform required for social care: split into two phases with the first providing recommendations in 2026 and the second in 2028.

Given the size of the current challenge in social care it would be fair to criticise part one of the announcement for being too light. Instead, most criticism is aimed at part two simply taking too long. This assumes the magical answer is out there and we simply need a commission to work as fast as possible to find it. Our experience working with councils across the country is that the best answers are found in social care; among the leaders, managers, social workers and commissioners, social care providers, and communities and people who social care support.

Bringing this together with the immediate promises made at the turn of the new year, there are exciting opportunities for positive change and a huge amount of practical work that can be done right now:

  1. Innovating and embedding strength based practice, co-produced with communities and families, helping people to live healthier, happier and more independent lives.
  2. Using greater and deeper integration between the NHS, local authorities and the voluntary and community sector to move to a more preventative and person centred approach to care and support.
  3. Supported by digital innovation, focussed less on multi million pound system implementation and more on the truly innovative applications of emerging technologies that help staff to be even more effective and support people to be more independent in their every day lives.

These three things will feel familiar to those who have been involved in practical and tangible social care change over the last decade. But the last decade has seen a dramatically shifting context which has brought ever increasing challenges, but also increasing opportunities to continue to do things differently though innovation and improvement.

At PPL we won’t be waiting until 2028 to support our clients and partners to reform social care. We’ll be working with clients on projects to transform social care practice, implement service models, and developing collaborative spaces and places that maximise the people and resources available now to deliver better outcomes for all.

If anyone out there feels like they have maximised the opportunities across all three areas, we would love to hear more. Or if you think there are some opportunities in your local system to work in these spaces, please get in touch so we can share some of the ideas we have.

For more information on our previous work in this space visit: https://ppl.org.uk/what-we-do/adult-social-care/