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‘Change has got to come from everywhere. The whole sector’s got to be involved in this’

Zoe, a member of the Social Care Change group, shares her reflections after the second set of sessions.

“Hi, my name is Zoe Richardson. I’m just doing a bit of reflection on what we talked about today.

Pretty overwhelming, if I’m honest. It kind of highlighted to me just how much there is that needs to change.

Some amazing ideas actually came through about system change, which I think is really important. Not just about on the ground. About the fact that so much of this is about making it better for the people that deliver their care on the ground. And how organisations and the system itself can do that.

How the wider government and the NHS can even be a part of that. And I suppose that conversation about ‘What is social care?’ and ‘Who are carers?’….yeah, that’s pretty mammoth for a session.

I think we got some good ideas out there as well, from the group that I was in. Some really good, strong ideas that are achievable.

But one of the things for me as a take-away is that this has got to come from everywhere. It can’t come from just part of the sector. The whole sector’s got to be involved in this.

And then once that whole sector is consolidated and is involved in the same mission, then who else needs to be involved?

Do the NHS needs to be our partner in that? Does the government need to be championing that? So this is not a short term fix. This is a long term solution to a huge national problem.

But it’s exciting. It’s exciting to be a part of something like this. And it’s exciting to say things from my perspective. And to be be able to represent the people that work for me who do such an amazing job. So I’m grateful. I’m grateful to be a part of it.”