Our 2024-25 highlights

People with lived experience often face barriers to taking part in events – especially when organisers are unsure how to pay fairly. This project explored challenges and found practical solutions to ensure inclusive, rewarding participation for everyone.

Together with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), we co-produced a new vision for how co-production should work across the organisation. The result is a practical and values-led plan to embed co-production into everyday ways of working – not just in principle, but in practice.

Throughout the year, we’ve championed co-production at major sector events. At the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC), TLAP and the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) helped put lived experience at the heart of the conversation. We also brought a strong focus on co-production to the Commissioners’ Conference.

Hosted by SCIE, Co-production Week 2024 brought organisations and individuals together to explore how to deepen, diversify and strengthen co-production. We helped spotlight the importance of equity and diversity, as well as training and development, and the difference real co-production can make.

This year, members of TLAP’s National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) brought lived experience to the heart of political conversations – from joining the Minister of State for Care at his first stakeholder roundtable to giving evidence at the Health and Social Care Select Committee. Across both spaces, NCAG shared powerful insights on inequality, co-production and the need for genuine involvement in shaping the future of care.

What do people want from the social care workforce? We worked with people who draw on care and support to co-produce seven core value statements – and recommendations for how the workforce can be supported to live them. It’s about putting humanity and purpose at the heart of social care.

What does good data look like when you start from people’s real lives, not just system needs? This project brought together people who draw on care and support, along with carers, to co-produce 15 principles and six actions for the ethical use of care data in England.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already shaping care and support, but how do we ensure it reflects people’s rights, dignity, and choices? This co-produced report sets out key principles to guide the ethical use of generative AI in social care and calls for urgent action from regulators and government.

We’ve co-produced a research project with people with lived experience and the Centre for Care at the University of Sheffield to explore how everyday tech – like smart speakers – supports independent living. From setting research questions to analysing findings, people with lived experience have led the work throughout. The report, due later this year, will share insights, highlight good practice, and offer recommendations for how tech can be better commissioned to support a good life.

We contributed to the development of the new NHS Long Term Plan, with our Associate Director taking part in the working group on fair and inclusive care. The group’s vision – “I am treated in a fair and inclusive way irrespective of who I am” – helped shape design principles for equity and inclusion, grounded in lived experience. TLAP also co-hosted a roundtable on race and health, emphasising voice, values and what matters most.

We’ve been part of a collaborative project with Frameworks UK to change how social care is understood and talked about – by the public, professionals, and policymakers alike. The aim is to move beyond a narrative of crisis and vulnerability, and instead highlight social care as something that helps all of us live connected, purposeful lives.

Hosted by TLAP, the Dementia Change Action Network has brought together people living with dementia and family carers to explore what really supports wellbeing. Our new report shares what people told us matters most, and recommends ways that place-based community development and social innovation can help create the conditions for more people to live well with dementia.

Our Preparing for Adulthood project explored how to better support young people and their families to plan for the future, stay in control, and live a good life beyond systems and processes – helping to build a more person-centred, rights-based approach to preparing for adulthood.

Direct Payments can offer life-changing choice and control, but social care teams often face challenges in making them work well. Our new set of bite-sized learning resources is designed for social workers and practitioners, helping to build confidence, spark reflection, and embed good Direct Payments practice.

We provided direct support to councils, regional networks, and national initiatives to strengthen Direct Payments and self-directed support. From shaping thinking around the role of Personal Assistants for the DHSC Care Workforce Pathway, to supporting events in the South West and Yorkshire promoting better practice, we’ve worked alongside partners to champion choice, flexibility, and control at every level.

This year, we’ve facilitated the Time to Act Reform Board – a new collaboration bringing together leaders across health and social care with people who draw on support. Meeting throughout the year, the Board has focused on coordinating real change today, while shaping and influencing a future where personalised and inclusive care is for everyone.

We’ve been working with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to ensure its new assurance approach is grounded in Making It Real – our co-produced statements on what good care and support looks like. This included co-producing a vision of good leadership to inform how CQC assesses the ‘well-led’ key question, and contributing to guidance for home care providers on how to deliver quality that truly reflects what matters to people.

Working with Social Care Future, the Plumbing and Wiring project responds to frustrations shared by people drawing on and working in care – the sense of swimming against a tide of rules, systems and red tape. The project brings partners together to identify what’s getting in the way and to co-produce local and national solutions. We have been actively involved throughout the year, including in national workshops and conversations focused on assessment and planning, Direct Payments, information systems, finance, and commissioning.

The words we use in care and support matter – they can include, exclude, empower or confuse. This year, we updated the Jargon Buster and launched a new Language Hub to encourage the use of clear, respectful and human-centred language across health and social care.

Following feedback this year we co-designed a vibrant new look and feel – one that’s human, accessible and rooted in our values. With clearer navigation, new topic hubs, and an updated Resource Library, the new site makes it easier for people to find what matters most to them.

Led by Skills for Care, the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard is designed to tackle inequalities and support a more inclusive and equitable workforce. TLAP contributed to this work through the independent advisory group, with our Associate Director, Clenton, helping to interpret findings, lead workshops, and support change across the sector.

We took part in the Global Leadership Exchange Match, an international event exploring the future of disability leadership. Held in London and Utrecht, the Match focused on authentic representation, collaboration, and the systemic change needed to ensure disabled leaders are shaping policy and practice. By joining global peers in these conversations, we helped champion a more inclusive and impactful vision of leadership across social care and support.

We joined almost 700 delegates at the European Social Services Conference in Antwerp – the largest forum for public social welfare policy and practice in Europe. TLAP and the National Co-production Advisory Group shared learning on co-production and co-creation, helping to build connections and exchange ideas across borders. Later this year, NCAG Co-Chair Isaac Samuels will join the event’s advisory committee, continuing our commitment to international dialogue and inclusive leadership.