Tough times, good decisions

The title for my October blog comes from the title of the ADASS/ADCS conference which I attended in London last week as the fraternal delegate from Scotland alongside Parry Davies, DSW in Ceredigion and President of ADSS Cymru.

We formed a kind of 'celtic connection' and interestingly took similar positions on a lot of issues. One group I attended - not to gloat, honestly - was entitled 'Moving on from the Riots'. The  workshop was led by Director of Children's Services from Lambeth and the Children's Commissioner for England Maggie Atkinson together with the Leader of Salford Council.

There was clearly a tension between officers who sought not to demonise the participants and in so doing appearing to justify their actions and another group, largely Members, who wanted to continually bring the focus to the people who were victims of the disorder (and by the way, I learned that they were not riots but incidents civil disorder)

I met up with our sponsors, OLM, who kindly invited me to dinner last Wednesday evening (better declare it Sophie!) along with a selection of Directors of Adults and Children's Services from Southampton to Sunderland. We had a useful exchange of ideas.

The best moment for me was the session with Andrew Dilnot on The Reform of Funding for Adult Care. Andrew was of course the chair of the Commission who reported on this topic last summer. To refresh memories the essential proposal coming out of the report was that the current threshold move up from £23,500 to £100,000 and that the maximum contribution  (which is currently unlimited) should be set at £35,000 of individual liability for care costs. In this way he hopes and expects that the market will create financial products - insurance to you and me - to enable people to insure against a predictable risk.
Dilnot proved to be a witty and engaging speaker. He opened by saying he was 'fed up' with all the talk of the 'burden of ageing' and went on to celebrate the contribution of older people and their value to wider society. He then put a perspective on the cost of social care as a part of the cost of funding old age. Something like £85bn cost of Benefits, £50bn of Healthcare and 'only' £8bn is the cost of social care. He set the cost of his reforms at 1/400th of public spending and described the current means test in old age as the worst and unfairest that could be devised.

I asked him a question: There has been a lot of interest in your report in Scotland, have you had any discussions with Scottish civil servants and do you think it would be possible to adapt your findings to our Scottish context. He was clearly interested in the Scottish dimension, said that he had visited Scotland for the commission, that he had had no discussions with the SG but that 'Yes, it would be possible to do the analysis for Scotland'. Given the questions surrounding the sustainability of FPC, I wonder if you would think it worth pursuing this further?

Another highlight for me was the presentation by service user Ellen Goodey who addressed the 2,000 delegates in a plenary session saying "Caring is not another thing you have to do - it is THE thing!" Brilliant!

Finally this month, I was privileged to represent you at the Annual SACRO lecture on 4th October in the Playfair Library at Edinburgh University. The lecture was on  Compassion and Justice was given by Terry Waite. Apart from his long incarceration as a hostage in the Middle East, Terry Waite has long experience of the criminal justice system in the United Kingdom. He was a founder Trustee of the Butler Trust, an organisation that acknowledges outstanding work done by those who work in UK prisons and is a Patron and supporter of many other bodies associated with the criminal justice system. As one who, with my son, campaigned for his release together with John McCarthy and Brian Keenan, I was very pleased to meet him and shake his hand. For his part, Terry showed real interest in Scottish social work and its uniquely comprehensive service to offenders, their children, parents and grandparents.

On Wednesday, 26 October Peter and I had an audience with Cabinet Secretary Nicola Sturgeon and I learned that it will not be long before we have some news on the integration proposals so stay tuned in.