Think Local Act Personal is delighted with continuing emphasis upon personalisation, choice, control, and wellbeing set out in the White Paper on adult social care reform. Much of it isn’t new. We welcome the acknowledgement that the implementation of the Care Act has been patchy and the willingness to name and address some of the underlying issues that have limited progress.
We want to close the gap between the commitment to personalisation and people’s lived experience. Crucial to this will be working closely alongside people who draw on care and support to understand the challenge and co-produce the solutions . We recognise and welcome government’s acknowledgment of this within the White Paper and the ambition to do more and work better with an increasingly diverse range of voices and experience. We have seen some evidence of a positive shift in this direction and a willingness to move things forward to create new and inclusive spaces for co-production: TLAP is ready to support this.
By viewing the White Paper as the start of a 10-year process of reform of social care, there is timely acknowledgment of the scale of the challenges ahead and that the future of social care is something to build and grow in partnership. If the ambition is to be delivered social care will need some urgent funding to stabilise the sector, coupled with significant longer-term investment and fixed as a government priority, to support the heavy lifting still needed to implement change.
TLAP, with the National Co-Production Advisory Group and partners, looks forward to bringing our knowledge, learning and expertise to this work, to build a system of care and support that can genuinely claim to support all to live meaningful and equal lives.
