About us

What is Think Local Act Personal?

We are a national partnership of more than 50 organisations committed to transforming health and care through personalisation and community-based support.

The partnership spans central and local government,  social care providers, the NHS, and the voluntary and community sector as well as people with lived experience, through the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG).

The work is coordinated by a small core team. Policy advisors are responsible for producing resources from different partnership members around the themes of commissioning, self-directed support, and community-centred approaches. This puts us in the unique position of bringing together people who use services and carers with national organisations.

TLAP is hosted by partner organisation Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)..

 

What we do

Personalisation is fundamentally about better lives, not services. It means working with people, carers and families to deliver better outcomes for all. It is not simply about changing systems and processes or individualising funding through personal budgets and direct payments, but includes all the changes needed to ensure people have greater independence and enhanced wellbeing within stronger, more resilient communities. That includes all the work we do in the work streams set out below.

Drive improvement

We secure specific agreements from partners on implementing and improving the delivery of personalisation and community based support and we work to shape and influence national policy based on our collective insights on what works and challenges that need to be addressed.

Enable improvement

We produce practical tools and guidance.

Exchange knowledge

We create opportunities nationally and regionally for leaders of all types to share learning about what works and the challenges that need to be overcome and use partners' extended networks to disseminate this more widely.

Model co-production in action

We set an example for the social care and public sector on how to engage people with care and support needs, carers and family members in leading and shaping our work.

 

How does Think Local Act Personal work?

We deliver a work programme, agreed with our partners and funded annually by the Department of Health, with a number of specific commissions from other agencies.

The TLAP work programme is managed through a programme board, co-chaired by the President of ADASS and Chair of the Care Provider Alliance, alongside representatives drawn from the wider partnership. The programme is agreed by the full partnership. 

Click here to see details of our 2023-2025 work programme.

TLAP Partnership Chairs and Programme Board

TLAP Programme Board Chair

  • Clenton Farquharson MBE, National Co-production Advisory Group

NCAG Chair

  • Isaac Samuels, National Co-production Advisory Group

Programme Board Members

ADASS

  • Dawn Wakeling
  • Current ADASS President

Carers UK

  • Philippa Russell

Care Providers Alliance 

Care Providers Alliance (Association of Mental Health Providers)

  • Duncan Tree

Care Quality Commission

  • Steve Holmes

Local Government Association

  • Simon Williams 

National Co-production Advisory Group

  • Clenton Farquharson (*Chair of the Programme Board) 
  • Isaac Samuels (Chair of National Co-Production Advisory Group)

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

  • Gillian Leng

Nominated from the wider TLAP Partnership 

  • Martin Routledge, In Control

Skills for Care

  • Jim Thomas

Social Care Institute of Excellence

  • Kathryn Smith

Core Team

The work is co-ordinated by a small core team (several of whom work part time):

  • Ian McCreath (Director of TLAP)
  • Tim Parkin (Head of Policy)
  • Kate Pieroudis (Senior Co-production Advisor)
  • Martin Walker (Policy Advisor)

National Co-production Advisory Group

We have a National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG). A team of people who use services, carers, families, experts by experience, patients and citizens who are committed to ensuring that personalised services and support based in the community become a reality for all.

Support for our work on co-production is provided by people with lived experience. 

Background to how the Partnership was formed

TLAP emerged from Putting People First, a Department of Health programme run between 2007-10, aimed at local authorities. A prime motivator for establishing the TLAP partnership in 2011 was a conviction that, in addition to local authorities, people who use services, carers and social care providers also have a critical role to play in changing social care for the better. TLAP engages with as wide a range of people and organisations as possible in order to provide strategic sector-wide leadership for personalisation.

The original partner organisations voluntarily came together to develop and endorse Think Local Act Personal and additional organisations were approached to ensure good representation from across the sector. The criteria for becoming a partner are organisations or associations with national coverage, that fully endorse the principles of TLAP as set out in the partnership agreement and that are not covered by one of the existing umbrella group partners.

How can new organisations who provide practical innovative solutions, and support services to address the challenges of implementing self-directed support apply for membership?

Organisations that meet the criteria above can become partners by writing to the partnership chairs. Any organisation can get involved by signing up to Making it Real, accessing tools and resources from the website, signing up for e-newsletters, attending relevant events and following us on Twitter @tlap1.