How to be optimistic about social care

Having worked in social care for 15 years, I know it has not always been plain sailing for the sector; the waves are particularly choppy these days. As we welcome in the New Year, I have been reflecting upon the challenges we all face and how we can continue to ignite optimism across our sector.

In late November, a staggering 87% of local authority CEOs and senior staff consulted told researchers from the public sector membership body Solace (opens new window) they believed the recent Autumn Statement would affect residents negatively. The messaging to me is clear, we will be navigating through choppy waters for quite some time to come.

I by no means intend to downplay the serious challenges that social care faces. The need for resources, staff and funding is dire, and while I will – like my colleagues – continue to ‘fight the good fight’ as we strive for a fair cost of care, I do still believe there is plenty to feel optimistic about going forward.

Our sector can change a person’s life for the better immeasurably, even in these difficult times. In my role as Head of Growth and Service Development for Look Ahead’s learning disability and autism specialism, I focus on delivering support services for customers with complex needs who live in out of area long-term secure hospital settings.

My job is to improve their quality of life, by making sure they can return to their communities and enjoy a home they can call their own. Seeing customers make that leap and start a new life is amazing, it’s why I get out of bed in the morning.

Bearing that in mind, as we see budgets decreased throughout public services, it is important that commissioners and government stay guided by three key principles:

• Firstly, never lose sight of why we are all in our day-to-day roles, think about what you wanted to achieve when you started out in your career. Whilst we grapple with the current state of the economy and fight for change, I make time in my diary to visit our learning disability services. I do this because it shows me in very real terms how we are responding to the significant strains on resources.  There are undertakings within services that issues of finance simply cannot touch: fun, aspiration, creativity, resilience, trust, partnership, and excellence to name just a few. I visit our services because they never fail to remind me that we should all hold these ideas and values at the very centre of what we do. We have a passion for empowering the people we support, and a responsibility to ensure they can lead meaningful lives.
   
• Despite lower budgets we can make services continue to work effectively by being creative and working in partnership, look at the pandemic. It had the positive impact of removing competition and bringing services closer together. It will be tempting for politicians to rip up any previous commitments and policy because we can’t afford it, but I urge them to act with caution as we are impacting real lives. Ask third sector partners for ideas, we are keen to work with you on realigning and designing integrated services.
   
• Perceptions around social care have changed for the better in recent years. Great strides have been made, and the sector is now more often recognised by policy makers and many in the public at large as being of equal value to healthcare and the NHS. This is an encouraging step forward, perhaps most notably shown by the fact that the term “National Care Service” has entered the public debate.  All of these developments are to be commended, but we must not lose momentum. Social care must be given the same status as the NHS, that is to say, a national treasure, deserving of adequate investment in terms of support, engagement and focus. Failure to do this could see social care once again simply being dismissed as the poorer cousin of the NHS.

So, whilst finance remains a continuing challenge, I choose to take a moment to celebrate the resilience of our service teams and the incredible outcomes they are supporting people to achieve. For me, this resilience stands up in defiance of the tough conditions we face. It is the very essence of who we are, and why we do what we do.

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Look Ahead are proud to sponsor the Housing LIN. For more about how commissioners and partners can work with Look Ahead, visit their website here (opens new window).

Look Ahead is also a member of the Learning Disability and Autism Housing Network (opens new window), a coalition of housing associations calling for action to address and tackle the country’s shortage of housing for people with a learning disability and autism.

And, if you found this of interest, also check out the dedicated learning disability and autism pages, including a section on Transforming Care, on the Housing LIN website here.