I am pleased to take advantage of my guest blogger status this week, to say thank you to all those who have been involved in the Contributions consultation. You may know that over the coming decades there will be a huge increase in the numbers of elderly and vulnerable adults who will need care, and the consultation has been asking how we fund social care for these people.
Many people were drafted in at short notice to work on the consultation and still had your ‘day jobs’ to do, which makes the commitment shown even more commendable. Last week the Contributions consultation was presented to and approved by Cabinet and was very positively received. The positive customer interaction that has taken place at all steps of the process, and in particular the telephone helpline, was acknowledged.
Elsewhere, the pace of change is moving very quickly. Within People we have a series of major projects to transform and improve front line services. Families First is about delivering the right help at the right time so that children, young people and families have the best possible outcomes in life. It represents a real change to the way we work to support children and families. At the same time we are creating a single integrated county wide Community NHS Trust called the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust which will integrate adult social care services with community health.
These are exciting changes which will help us achieve our vision of Staffordshire being a place where vulnerable people are able to live independent and safe lives and where children and young people can get the best start in life. They are also very innovative and will help put Staffordshire on the map as a place which focuses very clearly on meeting the needs of residents. Making these changes happen is a big challenge, but I know you are as committed to these aims as I am.
Eric Robinson, Director for People and Deputy Chief Executive is this week’s guest blogger while Nick Bell is on annual leave.