Today we launched the Dartington review on the future of adult social care. It was produced in response to a challenge from our Partnership Board who asked us to produce an independent review on the future of adult social care.
What’s the aim of the review?
The aim of the review is to offer an authoritative and evidence-based assessment of the development of adult social care between now and 2020. Wherever possible it seeks to draw on existing evidence and to consider likely future scenarios. The intention was twofold, to assess the current position and to assess the prospects for change.
What is the focus of the review?
The review is in four parts, an introductory overview report and three supplementary evidence reviews that examine international experiences; the social care workforce; and climate change and sustainability.
Why the timeframe?
The window of a decade was chosen to allow for an element of ‘futures thinking’, while also ensuring that the review is firmly rooted in the ways in which policy and practice may evolve within a tangible timescale. The 2010 General Election was the first in which adult social care had the potential to be a key campaign issue. The hung parliament that emerged from the election has seen the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats working together to set out a programme for partnership government over the next five years, details of which can be seen in The Coalition: our programme for government. This programme promises reform of the social care system to provide more control to those requiring support and their carers, unsurprisingly with funding arrangements as the main priority for now.
What future scenarios are suggested?
Four possible future scenarios are offered which pose a range of possible trajectories: residual service; incremental betterment; care crunch; and transformed wellbeing.
Who wrote the report?
The overview report Dartington review on the future of adult social care was written by Richard Humphries who is currently Senior Fellow for Social Care at the King’s Fund.
The first evidence review What can England learn from the experiences of other countries? was written by Caroline Glendinning who is Professor of Social Policy and the Research Director for the Adults, Older People and Carers Team at the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of York.
The second evidence review The future adult social care workforce was written jointly by Jennifer Bernard and Daphne Statham.
The third evidence review Personalisation, sustainability and adult social care: strengthening resilient communities was written by Jon Rae, who is Head of Vocations and Enterprise at Schumacher College.
How can I find out more?
The report will soon be available in full on our website; limited numbers of hard copies are available for non-Partner agencies – please contact us for further information. If you work in one of our Partner agencies then please contact your Link Officer in the first instance, you can see who they are here or get in touch with us directly via blog@ripfa.org.uk.
Over the next few weeks each section of the review will be profiled on this blog. We very much hope that the review will be a useful starting point to provoke wide-ranging debate and reflection, both within and beyond our Partnership. To that end we really welcome your thoughts and comments.
Tags: community, debate, evidence, evidence-informed practice, future, policy, research, social care, sustainability, workforce
