Holiday read. EP Thompson was absolutely core to my economics and history degree with his Making of the English Working Class etc, but also his modern politics and nuclear disarmament writing in the 1980s. This book distils and delights.

Holiday read, Greuze; a moralist with a passion for lovely shoulders, and a self obsessed, impertinent, shoe kissing adorer, and hapless husband of an apparently embezzling wife, savings swiped by the revolution and died penniless, appropriately enough, in the Louvre.

Possibly the greatest album launch in history, and a brilliant album. 40 today.

Two iconic German cars in Bristol this morning.

Holiday read. A dip in sort of book, with many good essays. As a lad I'd buy these sort of books as primers. This short Franklin essay on Tryants is still relevant. 'Trust not a single person with the government of your state'

Welcome the boldness of the health plan. Not a plan about social care but it cannot work without social care. Welcome strengthening of @CQCProf - the regulator for health and for social care. Alignment & partnership between NHS , LAs, LGA is crucial.

What an extraordinary sound live the Still House Plants bring, echoes of sonic youth, and mbv or low but really they are pretty unique.

Apollo the tortoise in latest bid to escape....

We are working with @adass.bsky.social @socialcarefuture.bsky.social & LGA on recommendations for a new way to measure outcomes in adult social care. At Session on outcomes at @adass.bsky.social Pete Sidgwick says current surveys of people using support can be 25 pages long, so rarely completed.

Gonna get lost under the news avalanche that is the local election results, but here are the 'Term of Reference' for Baroness Louise Casey's commission on adult social care. Bit of a cloudy soup I thought www.gov.uk/government/p...

Read this! Right that people drawing on care are core. Should be visionary, gather distinct models for teenagers, adults, & older people, be clear on quality, & what's local. On the fiscal constraint perhaps look at the balance/remix of current NHS & LA funds. @CQCProf @1adass

Great evening with @cafewriters.bsky.social listening to Cat Woodward, Daryl Fraser and @leahpoet.bsky.social Such good readings and books to buy, and did open mic which I rarely do too.

"The security of the world is at stake." Well worth watching President Zelenskyy's interview on 60 Minutes www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine...

Worth seeing the Colin Self exhibition at @norwichcastle.bsky.social which I really connected to in the early 80s thinking about the potential for nuclear war and nuclear disarmament both of which were in the air it seemed. Great book by Georgia Bottinelli

After 6 months wandering wild Apollo has turned up in the garden again. Luckily we have left the weeds for him.

Holiday read 4; have seen some criticism that this was an arrogant account, but it's reflective and quite human, about obsession, and maths, and formative friendships. Well worth it.

Holiday read; 3. For guitar geeks there is little better. They were truly great live at the Town and Country Club in the mid 80s. He comes across as difficult which is no surprise, and in the end saw ghosts. Like we all do. @nowjazznow

2nd Holiday read (re-read really). How prayerful he was, in those times between the wars or when the bombs were falling in London. I particularly love 'what the thunder said' from the wasteland. All that dry rock seeking water, comfort. Poetry for these doubtful times no doubt.

Shoved into an old charity shop book - the flu strategy in the December 1963 Daily Mirror was aspro, and go to bed. Note the archbish's advice that universities build not sophisticates but people whose knowledge goes with character and reverence for persons and the mind.

On the day the employer’s NI rises kick in, on top of last week’s minimum pay increase, thoughts and prayers for fellow social care providers facing 10% higher costs and getting fee rises of less than half that from most councils

I have a new short story, titled 'Jenny and the Viking', coming in the summer issue @stingingfly.bsky.social, which is out in May. Excellent cover design by Eimear Gavin, with photography by Ronan McCall.

Think of how powerful it could be if integrated with social care, and worth reflecting why the idea started with council funding which the NHS then picked up. Big clue on how prevention needs to work!

Think of how powerful it could be if integrated with social care, and worth reflecting why the idea started with council funding which the NHS then picked up. Big clue on how prevention needs to work!

First holiday read, found in Holt. The speeches of Harold Wilson in the first year of his government in 1964/5. Urgent economic steps to impose temporary tariffs and reduce the balance of trade deficit on goods 'we ought to be able to make for ourselves..' sound familiar?

What does the abolition of NHS England mean for #socialcare? Some brief thoughts from me….and @brindled.bsky.social

I think a thought through reform of bcf, including some new bcfs which tie together some continuing health support would be a positive, might extend free care, be preventative and give LAs more purchase. Bcf currently 20% of LA funds but just 5% of NHS.

Much angst about abolishing NHSE. Yet in truth from the outset its alleged independence was more imagined than real. Absorption into DHSC is surely a more honest position. Though huge distraction (& other) costs.

📢NEW REPORT: DESIGNING A NEIGHBOURHOOD HEALTH SYSTEM Delivering on government's ambition of proactive, neighbourhood-centred care will require serious devolution of power and resources to local leaders. Our report offers a roadmap to help policymakers turn vision into reality.

For a more measured & independent assessment of the trend see this www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Actually Knight Frank there is not a ’critical’ need for more care home beds but for more support in people’s own homes & communities.

Stunning pub the brew society in #Leeds. In town for the Skills for Care board meeting. @skillsforcare.bsky.social

They were giving these away at work. Obvs I have views about eating animals I shant proselytize about, but if we are now providing powdered protein bone broth for humans as a flavoured drink, it feels a bit livestock to me. This is a thing now is it?

Lively and robust conversations at UK Care Show. if anyone feels that the care sector is not self sustaining, inventive and innovative they should come to one of these.

Age discrimination is widespread. Our ageing population is most often presented as 'a burden', widespread use of 'the elderly' or 'frailty' and cliched pictures. Has real consequences. BBC News - MPs criticise 'wealth-hoarding' boomers stereotype BBC News - www.bbc.com/news/article...

The clearest explanation I’ve read of why council tax is such an offence to social justice

That’s more like it.

Credit to @BBCNewsnight @nadraahmed5 and @NationalCareAsc making the case for social care funding in its own right as @wesstreeting acknowledges. NHS capacity probs would be solved by more integrated #intermediatecare & reablement available beyond current '6 weeks' offer...

Nature turning, walk in Trowse woods at Imbolc this morning.

On the moon's shoulder

1/ Congratulations to Bradford, a worthy 2025 UK City of Culture. Described by its proud son, JB Priestley, as the 'most progressive place in the United Kingdom' before WW1, boasting a symphony orchestra, choral societies, two theatres, three daily newspapers.

Lovely mooch around Whitlingham Lake this morning.

"I am afraid, Baroness Casey, that you will not be able to sort out social care without getting deep into the bowels of local government finance."

The central question for the government is whether it wants to learn from the history of #socialcare reform or repeat it. Reserving judgement until I’ve seen the detail 1/2

Can’t help but conclude that whatever the merits of these plans their aspirations will be thwarted without reform of local government funding (much harder than structural change).

Headlines are warning of a 'quad-demic' about the hit the NHS, but data show that a 'quad-demic' is v unlikely. The worry is not that the NHS is about to be hit by unprecedented demand, but that it is unable to cope with normal demand. I've written about it here open.substack.com/pub/christin...

We've caught our breath after #NCASC24. Thanks to all who joined our sessions, stopped for a chat, and shared ideas with us. Getting together with likeminded passionate people is a reminder of why we're all here: to create social care that enables people to live life their way. Some highlights:

Reassuring that @jamesbullion.bsky.social is overseeing this, a lot at stake for councils & the people who depend on them for #socialcare #ncasc24

Our improvement director @pete62jackson.bsky.social would usually be at #NCASC today but is currently undergoing treatment for #tonguecancer. Colleagues have put together this fundraising drive for the charity Young Tongues. Donate at justgiving.com/page/helen-coombes-1730739013697

Sense of foreboding (providers crumbling) from @vicrayner. she asks for social care to be central to policy, for pay & conditions to be improved (most workforce strategy items r modest costs except the fair pay settlement), an industrial plan for care & fairness #ncasc24