Leading social care conference begins in Manchester today

After three years, the biggest gathering of social care leaders has started in Manchester today and leaders are set to discuss how best they can help the sector through these difficult times.

The National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) has returned to in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. It features sponsors from leading public service organisations including IMPOWER, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Local Government Association (LGA).

Today, Sarah McClinton, president of ADASS, has kicked off the conference by recognising care and social workers as well as unpaid carers who are sustaining care and support for older and disabled people through these times of ‘unprecedented anxiety.’

A major discussion point for social care representatives over the next two days is acknowledging the ways in which people can help the sector through the current financial pressures.

Cllr Jamie Jamieson, Executive Director of Adult Social Services in Norfolk, is attending the conference and has said: ‘The costs of adults and children’s social care is no longer sustainable for councils’ and that ‘short term savings are long term costs.’

NCASC 2022 marks five years since ADCS published their policy paper which outlines fundamental risks children are facing including poverty, lack of education funding and mental health issues.

The paper, published in 2017, discovered three in 10 children were living in Poverty in England and that by 2020 schools should receive £3bn to help support children’s academic development. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession, the social care sector is arguably worse off.

NCASC is due to run from 2-4 November and is taking place in Manchester’s Central Exhibition Centre.

Photo by Headway