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Resist, Protect, Coproduce

A Vision for the Future

/o   Resist

 Act 4 Inclusion (A4I) is a network of individual members and affiliated organisations campaigning in the first instance for all social support, independent living, and care services to be:

• Free at the point of use
• Fully funded through progressive taxation
• Subject to national standards based on article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, addressing people’s aspirations and choices and with robust Protecting procedures.
• Publicly and democratically run, designed, and delivered locally and co-produced involving service users, disabled people, care sector workers, communities, local authorities and the NHS.
• Underpinned by a workforce who have appropriate  training, qualifications, career structure, pay and conditions.
• Committed to giving informal carers the rights and support they need.

To realise this first step towards transforming the system known as Social Care, it is necessary to work alongside others to resist further cuts to existing services, further inroads into the privatisation of the NHS and the managerial integration of the NHS and Social Care which would reduce the nature of service provision, choice and control.

The Coronavirus pandemic deepened the crisis within social care, and it is unlikely that any rapid steps will be taken to change the dire situation facing this sector. Given this, A4I believes there is a need to develop an approach which seeks to:

o   Resist further erosion of budgets, service provision, and standards

 o   Employ a strategy of resistance which lays the foundations for a radically new service where all people requiring social and personal support would have equal rights to:

• live in the community, with choices equal to others, and be fully included and able to participate in the community
• the opportunity to choose their place of residence; in terms of where and with whom  
• they live on an equal basis with others, without being obliged to live in a particular living  arrangement
• have access to a range of in-home, residential, and other community support services, including personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation or segregation from their communities 

• the availability of community services and facilities as provided to the general population and which are responsive to their needs
• Our strategy of resistance for laying the foundations for a radically new service needs to include seeking ways to intervene in the work and thinking of the newly established Commission on Social Care. This requires A4I to convince others of the validity of our vision and to encourage them to employ it within their own submissions. We will also seek to influence the Roadmap Coalition when writing their contribution.

o   Protect

The crisis within Social Care and the Covid-19 pandemic compounded a whole series of issues around the need to protect the interests of service users, staff members, family, and friends. People’s well-being, rights, pay and working conditions have all been damaged and eroded by national and local policies and practice. The reliance on market forces within this sector also raise serious issues in terms of protecting people’s physical and mental well-being. Institutionalised living often results in isolation, detachment from family and friends.  Advocating for deinstitutionalisation has to be a central part of any strategy to protect people and improve lifestyles. Showing solidarity is often a practical way to protect interests.

Among the immediate and short term issues that A4I believes needs raising are:

• Access to contact with family and friends as part of the well-being of residents of homes
• Access to advocates and other forms of support to ensure user/resident voices are heard
• The pay and working conditions of care, personal assistants, and support workers
• The impact of leaving the European Union on the recruitment and retention of staff in the existing social care sector

 o   Coproduce

 At the heart of coproducing a vision for the future must be the development of a national framework capable of fostering a culture of support delivered through community based services. This framework has to be through partnership working via what is often referred to as ‘coproduction’. It is a way of realizing what lies behind the Disabled People’s Movement’s slogan, ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us’.

It is necessary to acknowledge existing services often contain inequalities in power relations, knowledge, and practices, including a lack of inclusivity. In order to foster a culture of support delivered through community based services these types of inequalities will need to be addressed. Coproduction should involve all areas and decision making processes. We would subscribe to how Boyle and Harris define coproduction:

Coproduction means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families, and their neighbours.

In order to develop a national framework, time will need to be set aside to:

o   critique the failures of the present system

o   co-produce definitions of health care, personal, and social support

o   consider the relationship between professionals, people using services, their families, and their neighbours in terms of developing and delivering services via a national framework

 A4I is not a disabled people’s led organisation, but it is working in that direction by disabled members working in coproduction with non-disabled allies to campaign for the development of a new national service. Our vision is to see community based services via an eco–social system that would work for all disabled people, of all ages, with all types of impairment, as well as for everyone in society. This eco-social approach towards a new system of support would have its foundations rooted in the social model of disability and the disabled people’s independent/integrated living movement, but also with the added responsibility to understand and incorporate natural and built ecosystems into our way forward for social support. Any new system would need to be sustainable and be working towards building an inclusive society.

These are the short-term aims of our vision and strategy – protect what we have and promote an alternative to social care. The later involves making the case for developing an eco-social approach which would create a new publicly own national service providing community based services designed, managed and delivered through coproduction. 

NB Most of this document was agreed in May 2022. There are two places which appear in bold in the attached where updates are proposed by the existing committee in advance of the January 2025 meeting

We believe Act 4 Inclusion’s vision for the future is bold and transformative; it is one that puts people’s choice, control and lifestyles first. Our new vision and strategy grew out of difficult and uncertain times for disabled and older people and emerged from discussion, lived experience, and the opportunity to work together in coproduction. We realised that our vision and all we do, requires us to go beyond reclaiming, fixing or integrating the failing current system we call “Adult Social Care”. We truly need to build a better future for all people and our natural environment.

To achieve this, we need to develop an eco-social approach towards a new system of support which has its foundations rooted in the social model of disability and the disabled people’s independent living movement, but also with the added responsibility to understand and incorporate natural ecosystems into our way forward for social support. Read more About Us