Social care sector delegates will be gathering in Bournemouth this week to take their first serious stock of the future since last May's General Election. They could be forgiven for thinking that the only issues dominating the various landscapes we operate within are those which involve money.

This is not surprising really. We have a Spending Review due to publish in six weeks' time that will profoundly influence the development of care – social and health – for the next five years and beyond. Whoever won that election, we knew they would face difficult decisions in the review, and perhaps inevitably that has been one of the dominant themes of recent months.