Welcome to the State of Our Nation podcast. We recorded this episode in the run up to Christmas 2024 with Anna Severwright, Kari Gerstheimer and guest, James Bullion, former director of Adult Services at Norfolk and president of ADASS, also DHSC lead for social care discharges and recently, interim Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at CQC.

This omnibus edition of the podcast looks backwards over the past year as well as taking a look forward into 2025. The team also discuss Access Social Care's ongoing legal case surrounding freedom of information requests for transparency in social care funding. James lends his support by saying: "I'd certainly recognise as a regulator, this issue of transparency, being really clear about what the evidence is, has got to be your starting base for how you make a case. And then for us as a regulator pointing out once a year to Parliament what the deficit is, and we'll certainly do that as we go through the next year."

The episode begins with Anna asking James to reflect on the legacy of the last administration and ends with his 3 wishes for social care; "money for prevention, sort the workforce out, give a bit more local control".

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Anna Severwright and Kari Gerstheimer talk about the why language matters with Bryony Shannon.

They explore how the language we use within and about social care exposes and perpetuates our attitudes and behaviours, and consider how we can create safe spaces for people to challenge language together so we can co-produce more inclusive expressions to describe social care terms.

Find out more about Bryony’s work here:

https://rewritingsocialcare.blog/

Legal Tips: There is no such thing as a magic wand but there are magic words.

Listen from 25 minutes for this section.

There is no such thing as a magic wand but there are magic words. Listen to this section to help you spot when you need to use a phrase to transform your social care outcomes.

• Watch out for blanket statements in conversations like "we don't do that here". This may be unlawful as they suggest the local authority is not addressing the needs of the individual which is a requirement under the Care Act. If you hear a problematic statement like this ask for it in writing to create a paper trail.
• "Willing and able" - if a carer is not ‘willing or able’ to continue to provide care or a level of care they do not have to and the local authority has to step in.

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Anna Severwright and Kari Gerstheimer discuss the importance of 'people power' in social care and how lived experiences can and should shape decision-making.

They share insights on co-production and the need for genuine involvement of individuals in service design, highlighting positive examples from councils like Hammersmith and Fulham. Anna reflects on the challenges faced in advocating for change and emphasises the value of peer support and preparation in navigating social care assessments.

Top Tips: Local Authority Assessments

Vicky Hughes is a legal case worker at Access Social Care with a background in social work, having worked on a community learning disability team.

She brings her knowledge and experience working in this area to offer some great tips on how to prepare for assessments to present a strong case for consideration.

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In the first part of the episode, Anna and Kari discuss the findings from the latest edition of the ASC State of the Nation report which looks into adult social care advice seeking.

Anna and Kari are joined by the authors of the report, Amit Kohli, Head of Data at Access Social Care and Hannah Hewish, Legal Manager and Data Lead at Access Social Care. The report is based on data gathered from enquiries into a range of partners; Carers UK, Ealing Independence Age, RNIB, SCOPE, Age UK Mencap, Citizens Advice as well as Access Social Care's online helpline tool AccessAva as well as their case work.

It shows a staggering 222% increase in the number of people calling national help lines to seek social care information and an increase of 206% increase In the number of people requiring specialist social care Legal advice.

The second part of this episode is Care Act Legal Tips and this episodes shines a light on Advocacy and the care act. What it is, Who is entitled to it and tips to help people get an advocate when they need one.

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Featuring: Dr Anna Severwright OBE and Kari Gerstheimer, CEO Access Social Care

In this episode Access Social Care Founder and CEO Kari Gerstheimer is joined by her new co-host Dr Anna Severwright from #SocialCareFuture. They begin by exploring how they both came to be so passionate about social care rights and talk about the organisations they convened. Kari also updates Anna on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that ASC have made over the last 2 years to better understand how the government decides how much budget to allocate to adult social care funding. The requests have been denied by 2 government departments in spite of the Information Commissioner supporting their disclosure in the public interest. Kari outlines why this case is so important and outlines ASC's plan to begin a.sector wide campaign for greater transparency.

Click here to visit Access Social Care website

Click here ot find out more about #SocialCareFuture

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Episode 10: The State of the Nation Report - Behind the Numbers

Featuring: Hannah Hewish (Legal Strategy Manager at Access Social Care) and Sarah O'Grady (Social Affairs Correspondent at the Daily Express).

This month, Access Social Care Founder and CEO Kari Gerstheimer is joined by Hannah Hewish and Sarah O'Grady for a special episode discussing the findings of our latest State of the Nation report.

The report is the result of an innovative data collaboration project working with nine different helpline organisations. It allows us to produce a comprehensive assessment of the complex issues facing our sector, and spotlights the emerging themes in social care advice provision.

In this episode, Hannah provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making of the report and takes us through some of its key findings. We then hear from Sarah about some of the issues behind the numbers, based on her extensive experience reporting on social affairs.

Click here to read the State of The Nation Report

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Episode 9: Overseas recruitment in social care

Featuring: Dr Cecilia Anim CBE, Clinical Nurse and former President of the Royal College of Nursing

This month Kari is joined by Cecilia Anim for a special mini episode discussing overseas recruitment in the social care sector - a hot topic in the news right now.

They talk about government proposals to reduce immigration, staff shortages and the exploitation of international workers, as well as how to improve staff retention and why we must properly appreciate the vital work of those in the sector.

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Featuring: Alan Bird (Chief Technology Officer at Access Social Care), Victoria Albrecht (Founder and CEO at Springbok AI), Miriam Valencia (Head of Digital Content at Access Social Care) and Finbar Mulholland (Product Manager at Access Social Care).

This month, our CEO Kari Gerstheimer is joined by Alan, Miriam and Finbar from Access Social Care and Victoria from Springbok AI to discuss our award-winning social care legal advice chatbot.

They talk about why we decided to build a chatbot, the technology behind it, the journey so far, the challenges and potential of using AI, and what’s next for this exciting project. You can also hear about our new pilot programme, and how we’re working with other organisations to support more people and drive meaningful change. This episode is an illuminating insight into how digital innovation can be a powerful force for good.

Want to find out more?

• Learn more about our Chatbot
• Read about our recent award win
• Express your interest in joining our pilot programme

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