About us

Added: 10/04/2011
Updated: 25/04/2013

Who we are

Think Local, Act Personal is a national, cross sector leadership partnership focused on driving forward work with personalisation, community-based social care. Our unique strength is bringing together people who use services and family carers with central and local government, major providers from the private, third and voluntary sector and other key groups.

Read the partnership agreement published in January 2011 and other support materials launched at the same time.

To better understand who we are and what we do, read our progress report or work programme.

Full partnership meetings are held three to four times per year. These meetings set and review the direction of our work programme and a board meets monthly to oversee delivery.

Our chairs

The Partnership is co-chaired by:

  • Marjory Broughton, South East England Forum on Ageing (SEEFA), The Age Action Alliance

  • Clenton Farquharson, freelance Consultant Farquharson Training and Consultancy, Healthwatch Birmingham, Community Navigator Service

They work with the Partnership Board to oversee the Think Local, Act Personal work programme.

The Partnership took over from the Putting People First programme, which ended on 31 March 2011.

Our Board

The work of the Partnership is coordinated by a smaller "executive" and meets monthly to agree work programmes and monitor progress. It reports to the wider Partnership which will meet quarterly. The executive group consists of five representatives from across the range of provider organisations (including a representative of small-scale or user led enterprises). There is also one representative from each of the following organisations: the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services; the Local Government Group; Department of Health; the Social Care Institute for Excellence; NHS; a person who represents people using services; a carers representative.

Board members:

  • Sarah Pickup, ADASS (co-chair)
  • Martin Farran, ADASS
  • Glen Mason, Department of Health
  • Sandie Dunn, Local Government Group
  • Alex Fox, Shared Lives Plus (co-chair)
  • Miranda Wixon, Ceretas / Care Providers Alliance
  • Des Kelly, National Care Forum
  • Bill Davidson, National Co-production Group
  • Sue Bott, Disability Rights UK/National Co-production Group
  • Frank Ursell, Registered Nursing Homes Association
  • Sharon Allen, Skills for Care
  • Andrea Sutcliffe, Social Care Institute for Excellence
  • Philippa Russell, Standing Commission on Carers
  • Bridget Warr, UK Home Care Association
  • Bill Mumford, Voluntary Organisations Disability Group
  • Oliver Mills, Towards Excellence in Adult Social Care Programme

Core Team

The work of the partnership is supported by a small core team:

  • Chelsea Beckford (Project Support Co-ordinator)
  • Sam Bennett (Programme Director)
  • Laura Boyd (Communications Officer)
  • Linda Doherty (Senior Business and Project Manager)
  • Jaimee Lewis (Senior Communications Adviser)
  • Corinne Moutou (Project Support Officer)
  • Shahana Ramsden (Senior Equalities and Co-production Advisor)
  • Martin Routledge (Programme Manager)

To get in touch please email the relevant person firstname.lastname@scie.org.uk

What we do

The Think Local, Act Personal Partnership funds a limited number of projects and a small central delivery team; and is hosted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

At its first formal meeting in early April 2011, Partnership members agreed priority areas for action including self-directed support; developing the provider market and workforce; building community capacity; improving information to the public and highlighting the importance of co-production.

During 2011-12, the Partnership developed a work programme based on these areas and delivered a set of benchmarks (Making it Real: Marking Progress towards Personalised, Community-based Support) for the sector as a whole to assess progress in delivering the vision of the Think Local, Act Personal partnership agreement.

A review of our work to date (opens new window) has now been published, along with our work programme for 2012/13 (opens new window).

Terms of Reference

The Think Local, Act Personal Partnership meets four times a year and hosted an annual event open to all interested from the sector in November 2011. A similar event is planned for late 2012. The work programme is supported by a small central delivery team, accountable to a Partnership Programme Board comprised of representatives from the Partnership organisations.

Think Local Act Personal Work Programme 2012/13

The Think Local Act Personal work programme sets out the three key themes that will drive TLAP's strategic approach for 2012-13, and the Partnership will operate seven priority work streams.

Contact us

Contact us on thinklocalactpersonal@scie.org.uk