Social Care Future has warmly welcomed the new report, “Time to Act – A Roadmap for Reforming Care and Support in England” published by ADASS, which they believe “offers the right starting point for a practical and achievable plan to transform social care for future and current generations”.

Authored by Dr. Anna Dixon and Kate Jopling, and based on engagement with people and organisations from across the social care field, the plans and proposals in the report are animated by Social Care Future’s vision of a future where “we are all able to live in the place we call home with the people and things that we love, in communities where we look out for one another, doing what matters to us”.  

While the report outlines opportunities for immediate term change, it recognises that for the “Gloriously Ordinary Lives”  everyone deserves, social care must be re-imagined and re-designed in full coproduction with the people who draw upon it.

“Crucially though,” says Martin Routledge of Social Care Future, “while the report acknowledges the need for a big increase in the resources committed to social care, it also calls for focused action by local leaders to start making progress now, noting there is much that can already be done now in coproduction with people and communities. 

“We strongly share the report’s conclusion that shifting practice and culture in the direction of a much more expansive idea of the role of social care is everyone’s business.

“Vitally, as Social Care Future has strongly advocated, the report also calls for long-term focused effort to shift public attitudes in the direction of the vision as a crucial step towards winning the public support and political investment required for change. It points to Social Care Future playing a leading role in this. We have learnt lessons from successful movements across the world and now is the time to bring investment and action behind the aspiration.

“Will this be a report that helps light the blue touch paper? That depends on local government leaders and partners taking the next steps to action and building a more effective influencing strategy.

“If not now, when?”

Proposed changes for care system in the ADASS report

• Reimagine care and support with people who draw upon it.

• Improve assessment and care planning to put people in the lead.

• Build community capacity for wellbeing and prevention.

• Enable more people to live at home or in a place they call home.

• Improve support for carers.

• Join up care and support to enable people to live fulfilled lives.

• Make care and support accessible and affordable for all.

• Foster diverse and sustainable providers, focused on outcomes.

• Harness the potential of digital technology.

• Redesign and reward the workforce.