A unique partnership between local and central government and directors of adult social services is creating an opportunity for an ambitious professional to achieve national exposure. A new role – assistant director, adult social care reform – has been created to ensure that the programme of change sparked by the care bill is workable, and has the support of local adult social care leaders.
"If you are an ambitious assistant director of adult social services and want to get your name known, this is the way to do it," admits Jonathan Gardam, policy officer at the Association of Director of Adult Social Services (Adass).
The post is being offered as a secondment to the Local Government Association (LGA) or as a time-limited contract, and runs until March 2016. It comes with a maximum salary just shy of £100,000 funded by the Department of Health (DoH), which created the role jointly with the LGA and Adass.
Adass president Sandie Keene says the initiative is the first of its kind. Keene, who is also director of adult care services at Leeds city council, says: "We have had examples in the past of where we have worked with the DoH, and plenty of examples where we have worked with the LGA and the department looking at specific initiatives. But this is new and unique, because it's about implementing legislation which we have never done before. I would like to think that what we are doing is groundbreaking."
The intention, according to Andrew Hughes, head of implementation at the LGA, is that the three organisations will work together to "co-produce the implementation of the bill".
"The changes will be very significant, but what we don't want to do is see it as just administrative processes. What we want to do is introduce it in a way which is customer-centric, keeping the focus on providing the right type of care at the right point of time," he says.
The job is expected to appeal to existing assistant directors of adult services or a recently retired director. The assistant director's critical role will be to represent the interests of all directors of adult care services and local authorities, and to negotiate on their behalf with the government to make sure that the care reforms can be brought into practice. But, says Keene, "it's not a lobbying role at all. It's a professional role, to professionally lead and support adult social care service departments."
High levels of political awareness and sensitivity are also needed as well as evidence of a "strong and varied record of achievement at a senior level in complex political environments," according to the job specification. The role requires the ability to "create a culture of innovation and enterprise" and to be able to translate ideas into policy and practice.
The assistant director must also be media-savvy, able to work with journalists and politicians in order to put across "credible public positions".
The care bill, which is now at the report stage in the House of Lords, will completely transform the way that adult social care is commissioned, delivered and funded. It pulls together elements of more than 12 different existing acts into a single legal framework, and places a financial cap on the amount that people will have to pay for their care and support during their lifetime. And the reforms are broadly supported by Adass and the care community, with some reservations.
"There are lots of administrative changes to the way that the funding formula will work and [we will need] additional capacity to assess people whom local authorities have not assessed in the past," Keene says. "Our main concern is that we have the right capacity in the system and the right system changes."
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