At the first full day of the 5th International Carers Conference it was fascinating to explore how the challenges for adult social care and caring can be approached both in the UK under our new Coalition Government and by countries across the world. With presentations from - amongst others - HRH The Princess Royal and the Health Secretary, alongside debate with professionals and carers from 22 countries, the event gave much food for thought.
It was positive to hear Andrew Lansley state that - whilst reducing the deficit remains the Government’s foremost concern - social care is one of his five priorities at the Department of Health. This statement has been backed up by the timetable set out for the next 18 months, with key points as follows:
July 2010: Establish Commission on social care
Autumn 2010: Publish new vision for social care, including a renewed concordant with the sector and a refreshed carers strategy
Spring 2011: Report by Law Commission
Summer 2011: Report by Commission on social care funding
Autumn 2011: Publish new Social Care White Papter, to be followed by legislation and funding agreements
Alongside the political agenda however, a few themes in particular emerged for me during the day:
- The need to make the economic as well as the social case for investing in care, potentially drawing on research such as that set out by Carers UK, which estimates additional income to the state of £750m - £1.5 billion if carers could be enabled to work
- How to make technology work for people who are not very IT literate, with a need to start by looking at individuals. As Simon Roberts from Intel brought out, the problem is one of imagination not technology
- The potential benefits of recognising the skills and contributions that carers and those needing services can offer, rather than seeing the process as one-way delivery. Reports such as that by NESTA /nef on co-production provide some interesting starting points in this area
- International similarities in issues and approach, with the potential to share learning between countries. Of particular interest for Opportunity Links’ work is that information and advice is consistently recognised as key, although less focus is given to how to develop this into effective practice.
In turn, there was interest in Opportunity Links practical experience in developing access to high quality information and advice. In particular, our emerging work to help develop an online peer support network for people with dementia and our involvement in creating BeGrand.net to provide online information and advice for grandparents led to some interesting conversations.
The ideas generated by the conference will help us to keep building and exploring new ways to help individuals effectively access information and advice as the Government’s agenda continues to unfold.
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