Stuart Anderson, South Shropshire’s Conservatives Parliamentary Candidate, is supporting Shropshire Council to pioneer reform and innovation in adult social care. Shropshire is eligible for £300,000 with extra top-up funding of £131,252 from the Government’s Accelerating Reform Fund.
The Fund is providing a total of £42.6 million to support innovation and scaling up in adult social care across the country, and to kick-start a change in services provided to support unpaid carers. Shropshire's allocation can be used to boost the growth of services that make person-centred care a reality for those who draw upon it. It can also support unpaid carers to live healthy and fulfilling lives alongside their caring role as well as respond to rising demand and the changing needs of local populations.
As mentioned in ‘Next Steps to put People at the Heart of Care’, “there is a tendency for impactful innovations to remain on the margins, rather than becoming the mainstream way of delivering care and support.” To address this issue, the Fund aims to support local systems to trial and scale innovative approaches that can transform the quality of care for the better. This will increase access to high quality, personalised care that empowers people to lead independent and fulfilled lives.
The Government wants people who draw upon care and support as well as unpaid carers to have real choice and control over the things that matter to them. This means ensuring that they can access a range of personalised support that reflects their choices and circumstances – including finding new approaches to improve on the ways care and support is being delivered.
The Accelerating Reform Fund is designed to promote partnership working across local areas - as well as sharing of learning and best practice nationally. Local authorities are asked to form consortia with other local authorities in their integrated care system geography. Then, working together with the NHS and other partners, consortia should select 2 or more projects to take forward, with one project focused on unpaid carers. It is expected that funding amounts for local authorities will be confirmed in February.
Stuart Anderson said:
“As South Shropshire’s Conservatives Parliamentary Candidate, improving public services is a top priority. That’s why I am supporting Shropshire Council to pioneer new innovations in adult social care. The allocation of funding from the Government’s Accelerating Reform Fund will enable us to transform the quality and safety of care for the better. It will equip those who draw upon care and unpaid carers with choice and control over what matters most to them.”
Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health commented:
“We are very grateful to Stuart Anderson for his enthusiastic support for this extra funding for Shropshire through the Accelerated Reform Fund to enable further access to personalised care in the county”.
