Exploring options for local, regional and national care systems

As you’ll know, ADCS have been engaged with the Care Review throughout – via Charlotte, our president, through colleagues’ individual and group submissions and also via a series of meetings that regional leads and committee chairs have had with Josh and the review team.

At our last meeting Josh encouraged us to air some thoughts publicly so I am going to look at one of the ‘three dilemmas’ that Josh published recently, specifically the dilemma around ‘local, regional or national’ service delivery.

My own view on this (and I stress that this particular blog is a personal view) is shaped by my views and understanding of the development of the welfare state in England and Wales. Recently, I happened to be reading one of Peter Hennessy’s brilliant histories of post war Britain which reminded me that the construction of the ‘personal social services’ was part of the post-war deal between the state and the citizen. Now, whilst many parts of the state have been rolled back, that construct remains in place – the state is there to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. That ‘deal’ is important when we think about the delivery of children’s services.