SOCIAL CARE

Working together for a better future

Sean Hanson, chief executive of IMPOWER, reflects on this week’s NCASC conference and the power of co-production.

Sean Hanson, chief executive of IMPOWER, reflects on this week's NCASC conference and the power of co-production.

It's been a great week so far at this week's National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC). The largest gathering of social care leaders for over three years, and a great opportunity to raise the profile of important issues and compare notes on what's working locally.

As headline sponsor, IMPOWER's focus for this conference is encouraging and amplifying lived experience within child and adult services. IMPOWER believes that the provision of effective health, education and social care services must put adults, children, young people and their families at the heart of public service delivery.

IMPOWER already focuses on co-production and lived experience through its unique EDGEWORK and strengths-based approaches.

For NCASC, IMPOWER has been working in collaboration with Inclusion Unlimited, TLAP and Social Care Future facilitating activities within the ‘Let's Chat Co-production' space. Several ‘Chat' sessions are taking place over the three days including timetabled talks and discussions about the successes and challenges of co-production, led by experts. The co-production space is split into three zones: the Experience Zone, where you can step into the shoes of someone who uses our services the Collaboration Zone, where you will have an opportunity to talk to hosts with lived and professional experience, ready to answer your co-production questions, and the Feedback Zone, where attendees can share their experiences of co-production.

IMPOWER's dedication to the importance of co-production is demonstrated by its newly launched free High Needs Co-production Toolkit. The toolkit shares practical learning from IMPOWER's High Needs programme, aiming to improve the experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in alternative provision or excluded from education.

We know that harnessing lived experience to co-produce public services will make citizens' lives noticeably better, while also leaving services more resilient to manage future challenges.

www.impower.co.uk

SOCIAL CARE

Bridging the gap

By Louise Gittins | 01 April 2025

Cllr Louise Gittins says that with the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas at almost 20 years, one of her priorities as chai...

SOCIAL CARE

Taking the lead on AI in Bucks

By Sarah Murphy-Brookman | 01 April 2025

Sarah Murphy-Brookman says Buckinghamshire Council is shaping the future of public service with intelligent AI, with governance as a top priority.

SOCIAL CARE

Herts is increasing children's placements locally despite the challenges

By Miranda Gittos | 26 March 2025

Amid increasing budget pressures, Hertfordshire is committed to continuing its investment to transform the children’s residential care landscape in Hertfords...

SOCIAL CARE

Future Forum: Robots in two years

By Dan Peters | 20 March 2025

Robots with artificial intelligence (AI) will be here in two years, a tech guru has told The MJ’s Future Forum.

Popular articles by Sean Hanson