The Future of Social Care.....

I’ve been absent from my Blog for a while but now I am back and raring to write! It has been quite a hectic year for learning disabilities as ARC’s member organisations will know:

• In January Valuing People Now came out which was a new and improved Valuing People, there was a lot of comment on this in the press but I think the best part of it was the promise to focus on PMLD, minority communities and try to promote more employment.
  

• This was further explored in Valuing Employment Now which was published at the end of June.
  

• Then in July the Government published ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’ the long-awaited green paper on the future of adult social care. The consultation: The Big Care Debate is currently running and will finish on 13 November 2009.
  

There has been a lot of speculation about whether the suggestions in the paper are practical, the most vocal argument, coming from the social care sector, is the discounted suggestion of taxation to pay for the proposed National Care Service. The reason given is that it wouldn’t be fair for the smaller ‘young’ population to be paying for the care of the older, larger population. It was also disappointing that learning disabilities were hardly mentioned. But, wouldn’t you be willing to pay extra tax knowing that your relative would be able to stay at home (where research has proved that people stay healthier for longer in their own surroundings) instead of being put in a home. We have great assistive technology, a varied workforce willing to provide support on your terms (See Personal Assistants Net website for info) and networks already in place to share information. I personally think that I’d rather spend my working life paying into a system that provides social care when it’s needed rather than see someone I love have to sell their home just to pay for a room in a nursing home. But that’s just me.

On a completely different note the ARC website is changing. We want to find out exactly what you, our members, need from the website and what kind of service we can provide to make your jobs (and lives) easier. I’ll be attending this year's ARC Annual Conference in November, which is in association with the LDC, to find out how we can improve our website. It’s very exciting. I can’t wait to start hammering away on my Mac, culling old pages left right and centre, and adding new pages and images. I’m told we might even be able to have podcasting and there are plans to add a shopping basket (making booking events and buying publications much easier) and a photo album for the FOCUS photography competition entries.

So it’s a time of high change at ARC and I know we should be great at change since we are the association for real CHANGE. But the daunting part is heading off in the right direction, one that benefits our members, providing them with an excellent service that gives value for money in a time when we’re all struggling. I’m going to be trying out the new web software we will be using for the NEW ARC site at home. I’ve been threatening to create a website about my dogs Murphy and Bailey for ages, so this is the perfect opportunity to show off my doggies and get skilled up at the same time!

I’m off to Disneyland Paris this weekend, my new hubby and I are having a Mini-honeymoon and you’ll all have to get used to my new name. Hello Mickey and bye bye Chesterfield (for now) I’m going to really miss the dogs though…