WANTED – an independent guardian for social care
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Despite the billions of pounds spent on social care and the increasing number of organizations charged with responsibility for improving standards in care you may be surprised to know that we do not have an independent think tank dedicated to promoting and guarding the values of social care.
The Prime Minister launched the nationwide government consultation on how adult social care should be funded at the King’s Fund, an independent charitable foundation working for better health, especially in London. www.kingsfund.org.uk
Concern has often been expressed about the lack of leadership in social care. Just imagine how powerful and inspiring an independent voice for social care could be with a remit similar to the Kings Fund. The problem at the moment is a lack of joined up thinking across the care sector which leads to considerable duplication of resources, research and policy initiatives. This is compounded by the, what some may suggest, is the artificial division into adults and children’s services. Add in the quangos, sector skills councils, education sector, private companies, charities, social enterprises and philanthropy capital and there are a large number of potentially competing and conflicting interest’s to be addressed along with an interesting power dynamic.
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An independently funded social care foundation which is not subject to political whim or favour would be a powerful unifying voice for social care. With the capacity to undertake and publish original research, provide objective analysis and foster innovation this really could start to build a world class workforce. Building understanding, capacity and leadership is essential and we could make a start by amalgamating the proliferating National Centres for Leadership.
With thanks to the Kings Fund for what I believe should be the underlying values for the Social Care Foundation : independence, integrity, relevance, quality, partnership and promoting social justice. The Social Care Foundation could be a major and significant resource for social care available to people working in and receiving care services.
Who would like to endow the first one million pounds to make this vision a reality?
In the meantime I commend closer examination of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA) who are working to remove barriers to social progress. www.rsa.org.uk
For more than 200 years, the RSA has provided a platform for leading public thinkers. thought-leaders and practitioners to explore some of the biggest challenges facing society. That tradition lives on in their diverse and challenging free events programme. The distinguished and diverse roll call of speakers has recently featured, amongst others, Kofi Annan, Wangari Maathai, Al Gore, Simon Duffy and Jeffrey Sachs.
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Despite the billions of pounds spent on social care and the increasing number of organizations charged with responsibility for improving standards in care you may be surprised to know that we do not have an independent think tank dedicated to promoting and guarding the values of social care.
The Prime Minister launched the nationwide government consultation on how adult social care should be funded at the King’s Fund, an independent charitable foundation working for better health, especially in London. www.kingsfund.org.uk
Concern has often been expressed about the lack of leadership in social care.
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