Latest news and blogs

Bryony Shannon on the importance of changing the language used in care and support.

Head of Adult Social Care Policy for the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Dave James, tells us about how Making It Real was used to shape quality oversight in their single assessment framework.

In this blog we caught up with National Co-production Advisory Group member Jennifer Pearl while she balanced a particularly busy week.

In a recent report, the Archbishops’ Commission on Reimagining Care launched its findings on what different people thought care services should be like. TLAP Chair Clenton Farquharson speaks about his involvement in the Commission, and his hopes for collective action.

In this blog Jennifer Pearl, member of Think Local Act Personal’s (TLAP) National Co-production Advisory Group and Expert by Experience for Care Quality Commission shares her thoughts on how co-production can support improvement in equipment provision.

Jennifer Pearl, member of TLAP’s National Co-production Advisory Group and Expert by Experience for Care Quality Commission reflects on her attendance at the recent State of Care event.

Paula Fairweather and Rich Amos, people with lived experience of social care, reflect on co-production at the Care Innovation Challenge

Highlighting solutions for registered services that will help accelerate personalisation - what can Community Circles contribute?

Choice Support has committed to Making it Real. Dan Johnson and Sherri Hope, from Choice Support, and Elizabeth Deeves, from Bexley Council, discuss how this approach is supporting changes in social care commissioning.

How Leicester City Council is changing its practice using Making it Real

Ian Kennard, Commissioning Manager at Thurrock Council, de-mystifies the mechanics of co-production in commissioning a service designed to help people choose and utilise a direct payment.

Clenton Farquharson MBE, TLAP Chair, opens a conversation about equality, and equity, and asks if we need to treat people differently to provide equality of opportunity?

Co-production - what's in it for councils

Acute Need CIC is one of many care providers who’ve made a commitment to offering personalised care and support by adopting the Making it Real framework

Clenton Farquharson, TLAP Chair and member of the Social Care Future Inquiry ‘Whose Social Care is it Anyway?’ talks about building a unified vision for social care and the influence of Stevie Wonder.

According to the American political scientist Christopher Kukk the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ is often incorrectly attributed to Darwin when in fact the term was coined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer.

There's young man living in the community. He has ambition and humour. He also has autism and epilepsy. Sam can say with confidence and certainty , ‘I have a place I can call home and I can live the life I want’. It’s an enviable position. How many of us can say this with as much pride? The young man's name is Sam Ward and this is his story. 

Head of TLAP Caroline Speirs gives a blunt reminder on the 'value' of personalisation.

What does it feel like to move from supported living into your own home? What are the things we take for granted like buying a lawnmower.

In this strange new world, what can Making it Real offer? Charlie Crabtree and Richard O'Malley from KeyRing offer some ideas.

Kate Sibthorp, a member of the National Co-production Advisory Group writes about how Making it Real is more relevant than ever as we cope with Coronavirus

In today’s confrontational environment, Sanchi Murison asks if adopting the principles of Making of Real and co-production might be a better way to work.

I’m Rob Price, I work for Shropshire Council’s Adult Social Care Financial Assessment Team, and it’s my job to determine what citizens pay towards the cost of their care packages. Yes, it usually goes down well when I say that in front of the recipients of our direct payments.

Shropshire Council invited TLAP colleagues to look at how they can improve the take up and use of direct payments. Caroline Lewis, speaks from the heart about her own struggles with using her Direct Payment to find personal assistants and what she got out of the session that urged an injection of creativity when it comes to DPs.

An important debate is taking place about how to ensure that people who need care and support get that help in a way that enables them to stay safe and well and live the life they want.

You may or may not know that Shropshire Council have had a Making it Real board for quite a number of years, and have signed up wholeheartedly to using the updated version of Making it Real.

Bexley Council have triumphed in getting an Individual Service Fund offer in place for people living in Supported Living.

Kate Sibthorp is a mum to a daughter with learning disabilities and autism. She is also a member of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG).

Katie, a member of Shropshire Council’s Making it Real board and someone accessing services locally, discusses a life changing day in her life shadowing the Director of Adult Services and Making it Real in Shropshire.

Does anyone love Valentine’s Day? Apart from the shops selling cards, flowers, chocolates and romantic dinners?

Caroline Speirs, Head of Think Local Act Personal, blogs about shifting power and unlocking traditional mind sets with Making it Real.

Former Care Minister Norman Lamb MP, supporter of TLAP and advocate for Making it Real discusses his frustrations with the social care system and why the Making it Real framework can support meaningful change.

As mum to a young woman with learning disabilities and autism, Kate’s been thinking about how Making it Real could inspire personal assistants and support staff to help people like her daughter achieve their New Year’s resolutions.

The Making it Real I statement, “I know what my rights are and can get information and advice on all the options for my health, care and housing” applies to carers and also to the people we care for. It is matched by the We statement, “We make sure people know their legal rights and responsibilities”.

Personalised care is an increasing priority for the delivery of NHS services, to ensure people have more choice and control over the way their care is planned and delivered.

Do you worry about who’s going to love your children when you’re gone? I do. And so do other parents who have sons and daughters who need support.