Adult Social Care Strategy

Consultation has concluded

Image of group of people on front cover of strategyUpdate: 20 July 2022

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in this consultation.

From 2020-2022, we worked with people that draw on care and support, carers and other stakeholders to co-produce our adult social care strategy and vision for Kent for the next five years. 

We have conducted public engagement and consultation to widen out the discussions and gain different views and perspectives. The strategy was created to be clear, concise, and person-centred to encourage people to read it and contribute to its development.

Our shared vision for social care in Kent is: “Making a positive difference every day, supporting you to live as full and safe a life as possible and make informed choices.”

Summary of what you have told us

Through this engagement and the public consultation, most of you agreed with the vision and core principles and said that the strategy was easy to understand and highlighted themes such as: 

  • working closer with people that draw on social care
  • involving people in decisions about the support they need
  • listening to the person and carers
  • enabling people to tell their story once and avoiding passing people between different teams where possible
  • making use of technology and digital solutions whilst continuing to offer face to face support.

You also told us that we should be putting these ideas into action by having a clear plan of practical delivery for the strategy, ensuring consistent, high-quality support at the right time and having clearer information about social care available to them. 

You challenged social care and partner/provider organisations to ensure that the improvements that were proposed are actioned throughout the life of the strategy. It was recommended that we track and monitor our progress regularly whilst working towards these aims. 

We have updated our internal plans to align with our strategy and we will look to continually develop and improve what we do.

The consultation report and record of decision are available in the Documents section. 

The new Strategy is now available on Kent.gov.uk.

Image of group of people on front cover of strategyUpdate: 20 July 2022

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in this consultation.

From 2020-2022, we worked with people that draw on care and support, carers and other stakeholders to co-produce our adult social care strategy and vision for Kent for the next five years. 

We have conducted public engagement and consultation to widen out the discussions and gain different views and perspectives. The strategy was created to be clear, concise, and person-centred to encourage people to read it and contribute to its development.

Our shared vision for social care in Kent is: “Making a positive difference every day, supporting you to live as full and safe a life as possible and make informed choices.”

Summary of what you have told us

Through this engagement and the public consultation, most of you agreed with the vision and core principles and said that the strategy was easy to understand and highlighted themes such as: 

  • working closer with people that draw on social care
  • involving people in decisions about the support they need
  • listening to the person and carers
  • enabling people to tell their story once and avoiding passing people between different teams where possible
  • making use of technology and digital solutions whilst continuing to offer face to face support.

You also told us that we should be putting these ideas into action by having a clear plan of practical delivery for the strategy, ensuring consistent, high-quality support at the right time and having clearer information about social care available to them. 

You challenged social care and partner/provider organisations to ensure that the improvements that were proposed are actioned throughout the life of the strategy. It was recommended that we track and monitor our progress regularly whilst working towards these aims. 

We have updated our internal plans to align with our strategy and we will look to continually develop and improve what we do.

The consultation report and record of decision are available in the Documents section. 

The new Strategy is now available on Kent.gov.uk.

Consultation has concluded

  • 13 September 2021

    After successful early public engagement and co-production workshops in Spring and Summer, we are now running a public consultation on our draft Adult Social Care Strategy.

    Our person-focused vision and strategy summarise how we plan to make changes over the coming years to put the person first, improve all the time and measure what matters. The aim is to work with people in Kent and all our partners to turn our ambitions into reality.

    Social care and health have never been more prominent in our daily lives. Our dedicated workforce has pulled together with our partner organisations, providers and communities to respond to some of the most challenging times in recent history.

    We need your views on the draft strategy, which sets out what will be different, and outlines the principles we will follow to achieve our five-year vision of: “Making a positive difference every day, supporting you to live as full and safe a life as possible and make informed choices.”

    Please read the draft strategy and answer the questions to let us know what you think.

    How was the draft strategy put together?

    Over the past year, we have been learning from our experiences of the pandemic - checking what is working well and what areas need to be improved. We are now resetting our approach to make sure that what we’ve learned will help us shape the future and deliver better quality social care.

    Our draft strategy was based on the diagnostic work we have done with our teams, and developed with the invaluable help of the people we support, carers, providers and other stakeholders who told us how things are now and what is important to them.

    The strategy is intended as a snapshot of our key principles for the next five years and an outline of what social care might look and feel like for people in Kent in the future.

    What will be different?

    We have heard feedback from people we support and carers that want to build a social care model in Kent that keeps the person at the heart of what we do, meets our duties under the law and promotes inclusive and innovative ways of working. This is just the beginning of our conversation over the next five years.

    To receive regular updates about how you can continue to shape adult social care in Kent, please visit kent.gov.uk/yourvoice.