Care experience central to England review

Anyone could be forgiven for trying to make the scope manageable, but it must be wide and far reaching. After all, so much is at stake: an acknowledged problem with funding increased demand; real difficulties with the availability and choice of appropriate care settings; under-developed skills in the workforce; variable quality and a lack of humanity in some care; and parts of the current system seemingly at breaking point.

At the same time, there is a veritable cacophony of voices expressing views about what the review should look like. Many see the current system as deeply flawed and are passionate about making it better.

The brave thing to do when faced with such complexity is to walk towards it. And the wise thing to do when faced with such vocal views is to embrace them and harness the passion, experience and wisdom of those who care so much about the system, to understand, shape and oversee what is needed.

We are not starting from scratch. There is no need to halt implementing what needs to be done following the reviews of fostering and residential care and the Care Crisis Review, or wait to address the known shortfall in funding.

A stronger cross-government approach to some of the intractable issues is, however, needed. For example, the specialist commissioning of complex care for young people across the secure welfare, secure youth justice and mental health systems; and developing the wider social care workforce – skilled family support and residential care workers are part of the solution.

There is a rightful clamour for the review to be independent and led by people with care experience themselves. The recently published Scottish review has set the bar high, not only on co-production but also ambition, setting out a delivery plan which shifts investment to earlier help over 10 years. That review emphasises care, compassion and love, mirroring the messages from the Care Experienced Conference last year.

The style of our review must be to listen and give real value and purpose to the engagement of care-experienced people of all ages, along with an authentic voice from the frontline of practice. How this is done is as important as what is done. Leadership will need to come from the highest level and it will need to be clear that the individuals involved really care.

We have a government with a large majority and the power to bring about bold changes across the five-year parliamentary term and beyond. Let it be their legacy to have shown the clear principled leadership and meaningful engagement with those with direct experience which created a better system, underpinned by a renaissance of good practice.

• Alison O’Sullivan is chair of NCB and a former ADCS president