Having completed the scoping and initial convening phases, Jericho Chambers is now looking for funding for the next phase in the Caring Society Programme: an innovation and change network dedicated to exploring emerging new and transformative practice in adult social care…

What we have learned from the Caring Society Programme so far. It will take more than money to create an excellent social care system for the elderly in the UK. Thinking at root level about how we define good care and good lives would be a good place to start when building a system in which we could take pride. Why not begin with humanity and kindness?

A project about all the complexities of an adult social care system in crisis started with a simple but profound question – “how can we build a caring society?” – from that the project has since flourished into a growing national movement with a “wise crowd” community of over 500+ experts and voices from across the spectrum, including those with lived experience.

In the third roundtable of our Caring Society programme people from across the public and private sectors came together to try to understand what needs to change to enable innovation to flourish and create new models for how we care for each other as a society.

The theme of Grant Thornton’s latest roundtable debate – led by Donna Hall (Chief Executive of Wigan Council) and Andrew Haldenby (Director of Reform) – in our caring society programme, was to consider what is the new role for the state?

To meet the challenges faced by the adult social care system and grasp the opportunities ahead we need to understand what we mean by “care” and its application – from individual relationships, state provision and markets through to policy. This topic formed the basis for the latest round table debate in our A caring society programme

This roundtable was the first step in our creating a caring society programme which aims to provide the space and support to develop and share the ideas and energy needed to transform adult social care.

This article on "reclaiming the meaning of social care" comes from Alex Khaldi, Partner and Head of Social Care Insights at Grant Thornton. It captures the purpose and direction of Jericho's most recent coalition and collaborative programme with Grant Thornton - to re-think and re-design adult social care for the 21st century. The initiative is based on the organisaing thought "how can we build a Caring Society?".