People Powered Policy in Action: Social Care Future - Moving the Dial

Social Care Future convenors took a risk, announcing they were changing the format of a tried, tested and much loved event. The new format reflected the urgency required for radical change in social care, and was designed for real collaboration - working together on the day and taking action beyond it. And it paid off brilliantly!

We arrived early to set up for our lunchtime launch. While the team prepared our room, I had time to catch up with my network, track people down and fill in details ahead of our slot.

Music is always threaded into Social Care Future events and with good reason - it uplifts. The Support & Action for Womens' Network choir projected love, kindness, friendship and happiness. That was such a positive way to start the day, particularly when there were thorny and prickly topics to be discussed and teased out throughout the various sessions in the day.

Anna Severwright articulated the Social Care Future vision as she always does, with such sincerity and authenticity that it gave me goosebumps. And I've heard it and read it myself so many times. She emphasised the need to change the conditions to enable better futures. She spoke of radical not incremental change and the event's focus on national policy.

Credit to The Casey Commission. Firstly, they were in the room! They acknowledged that they aren't the first commission and won't be the last but committed to immediate change on things they can identify now. They aren't going to wait until their work is complete. And off they went to listen to the "unvarnished truth" - exactly what they wanted to hear. They were represented in every single session of the day. What an excellent approach.

Andy McCabe chaired the 'Suggestion Time' section brilliantly. There were lots of suggestions: we collectively have answers in the room to most challenges facing social care; social care commissioning should be co-produced with people; language matters - especially "stop calling us service users"; tackle systemic and structural racism; invest in self-advocacy and legal outreach; formally bring people with lived experience on to work alongside the Casey Commission team.

We had a great launch and afternoon breakouts. I ended up in a different room than planned, but it turned out to be exactly where I needed to be.

I'm always curious about and admiring of how a collective with shared vision can punch above its weight and move the dial forward.