“Everyone should have the care and support they need to live life their way.”  

This drives everything that we do. It is the foundation of our Making It Real I and We Statements. Learn more about what our new Making It Real, Making It Happen, Making It Stick workplan ambitions for 2023-25 mean for TLAP, our mission and for you.

We believe the best ideas come from diverse groups of people, working together equally to find effective solutions. In our focus on social care and health, it's crucial to involve those who rely on care and support in creating solutions. Discover how we are living our values by investing more in co-production, enhancing the role of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) in our decision-making, and increasing the inclusion of individuals with lived experience in our work.

“Making It Real offers the golden thread, the call to action, the unifying principles that can steer the health and social care system on the right course, ensuring that care delivery and oversight are bound together around the principles of personalisation. Its power lies in its authenticity, wrought from true and genuine co-production, and from its simplicity.” 

Read more from Dave James, Head of Social Care Policy at Care Quality Commission, on why they are working with us and using the Making It Real Statements as the foundation of the new Single Assessment Framework. 

We’re working with Bryony Shannon, NCAG and partners to evolve the narrative around language. Through a series of blogs, new resources, and improved current resources, including the Jargon Buster, we are stimulating debate and encourage thinking about more person-centred language. 

We are fortunate, we get to see how brilliant Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE is to work with every week. It's extra special when his contribution is recognised by others, so we were thrilled when Clenton was awarded a CBE. Then he received an honorary doctorate from University of Birmingham. Good news comes in threes, and now Clenton has been nominated in the Social Care Top 30 leadership awards, along with TLAP Board Member Kathy Roberts of Association of Mental Health Providers. 

Clenton’s unique insights and empathy continue to drive positive change, and these accolades highlight the impact of his work and the importance of supporting more people who can bring experience of drawing on care and support into leadership roles. 

With Making It Real being built into the new Assurance Framework with CQC, it’s time to revamp how people connect, learn and use the statements in their own work and organisations. We’re creating a new Making It Real online hub. Engaging, accessible and informative, the hub will showcase real life experiences and best practices in using Making It Real to improve care and support, as well as introducing new resources to inspire change.

"We haven't articulated who owns the data and where it goes, and so therefore how we deal with privacy issues and understand human rights in relation to data. So there are a lot of unanswered questions for me." TLAP Board Member

In October we kick start three months of work to co-produce fresh positions on a range of issues related to social care data with people who draw on care and support. Facilitated by TLAP associate Kate Jopling (co-author of ADASS Roadmap), with TLAP and NCAG’s Digital, Data and Technology Working Group.

Over the summer we have been running co-production workshops and conducting a desktop review to gain insights into the values people who draw on care and support prize most highly when applied to the care workforce. We are currently processing everything we heard and learned with our project team that includes Skills for Care, NCAG and other partners. Outputs will include a new TLAP publication on workforce values, and key findings will be shared with DHSC for use within the Care Workforce Pathway.

In November we’re hosting a Direct Payments Summit with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and partners. The key aim is to achieve a shared commitment to direct payments as a fundamental and primary mechanism for delivering authentic choice and control for people drawing upon care and support. People at the event will shape a post event action plan. This will underpin coordinated efforts to see more people offered this option, and to improve the experience of many people who have already taken it up.

Together with Ageing Without Children and Community Catalysts we will explore how people’s experience of ageing without children intersects with other key issues in later life and discuss ways to raise awareness and develop much-needed support. 

Our well known Rainbow Innovations Directory is coming to life as a brand new Rainbow Network. In consultation and co-production with the rainbow organisations and NCAG members, our new Rainbow Network will be launching later this year with an interactive kick-off event. Be inspired, as we get people together with experience of doing things differently. The network will help us to unpick some of the greatest challenges holding back investment and progress towards more diverse and inclusive care and support for all. The Network will also benefit from a new TLAP Innovation Hub, currently under construction as part of our website redevelopment.

Join TLAP and NCAG with a mix of movement movers in Manchester, as Social Care Future celebrates its birthday with the launch of a new campaign to change the public story of social care and much more besides.

It’s back to Bournemouth for NCASC 2023 and we are working with organisers at Local Government Association (LGA) to allocate up to 20 funded places for people who draw on care and support to attend. We will be hosting our annual sub-plenary on day one, then facilitating discussions on co-production at the Big Chat zone with NCAG, IMPOWER Consulting, Social Care Future and others.

In December we are taking part in the National Commissioning and Contracting Conference, running sessions on how to integrate co-production into commissioning and showcasing organisations in the Rainbow Innovation Network.

At the King's Fund’s Digital Congress on 11th October members of NCAG are running a workshop on co-producing approaches to digital technology that support choice and control and move us away from a limited menu approach to digital technology.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is seeking your view on our work. We provide a range of offers and resources encouraging personalisation and community-based support, including those used by local authorities, people who draw on care and support, providers and the social work profession.    

Your feedback will provide insight on topics including take-up of offers and the impact you feel it has on your work in adult care settings.

Help us be our best at helping you, take the survey now and share the link with your colleagues.