TLAP and SCIE to Explore Care Equity at National Children and Adult Services Conference

Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) will join the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) at this year’s National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) for a panel discussion exploring what it will take to build a fairer and more equitable social care system.

The session, ‘Beyond the postcode lottery: what does a fair social care system really look like?’, will bring together leaders from across adult social care and people with lived experience to consider how inequalities in access, experience and outcomes can be better understood and addressed.

Chaired by Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE, Associate Director TLAP, the panel will feature Chris Badger, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at CQC; Gerard Crofton-Martin, Interim Chief Executive of SCIE; Phil Holmes, President of ADASS; and Jacqui Darlington of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG).

At a pivotal moment for social care reform, with the Government committed to establishing a National Care Service and the Casey Commission examining the future of adult social care, the discussion will explore how equity can be placed at the heart of efforts to improve care and support.

Evidence from CQC continues to highlight significant variation in access, experience and outcomes across England, particularly for people living in more deprived areas, with findings on safeguarding, assessments and reviews, and transitions from children’s to adult services highlighting areas where people can be exposed to significant challenges.

Meanwhile, insights from SCIE’s Care Equity Evidence Hub and its research with people drawing on care and support and unpaid carers demonstrate how inequalities can accumulate throughout people’s care journeys, with different forms of disadvantage and exclusion interacting to create barriers that are not always visible.

The panel will consider how the sector can move beyond identifying where inequalities exist to understanding how they are experienced, and what this means for the design, commissioning and delivery of care and support.

It will also examine the opportunities for local authorities to translate evidence into meaningful improvements, the importance of co-production and lived experience, and how national reform can tackle unjustified variation while preserving the local knowledge and flexibility that good social care depends on.

Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE, Associate Director for TLAP, said:

“We have an important opportunity to move the conversation on care equity beyond simply recognising that inequalities exist, towards understanding what it will actually take to change people’s experiences and outcomes.

“The postcode lottery is only part of the picture. People living in the same communities can face very different barriers to accessing the care and support they need, and too often those experiences remain invisible to the systems designed to support them.

“With so much attention rightly focused on the future of social care, we need to ensure that the voices of people drawing on care and support are central to the decisions being made. This discussion is an opportunity to challenge ourselves as sector leaders, share what works and identify the practical action needed to build a system that gives everyone the choice, control and opportunity to live a gloriously ordinary life.”

Gerard Crofton-Martin, Interim Chief Executive of SCIE, said:

“Social care reform presents a significant opportunity to address the longstanding inequalities that shape people’s access to care and support. But if we are serious about building a fairer system, we need to look beyond differences between places and better understand how disadvantage can build throughout someone’s experience of care.

“Our research shows that inequity is not simply about whether someone receives support. It can be shaped by how easily they can find information, navigate assessments, coordinate services and sustain the care they need. These barriers can be particularly pronounced for people who have fewer resources to draw on, and they are not always captured by the data we traditionally rely upon.

“Local authorities have a critical role to play in turning this evidence into better care, through the way services are designed, commissioned and delivered. As the next phase of reform takes shape, we have an opportunity to ensure equity is embedded from the outset, with progress judged not simply by changes to structures or processes, but by whether people experience greater choice, control and better outcomes in their everyday lives.”

The session will take place on Friday 13 November, from 9:15am to 10:15am, in Room 2F at the National Children and Adult Services Conference.