New ADASS President sets out his vision for adult social care during a critical period for the sector
Phil Holmes has taken over as President Elect of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care (ADASS) during a critical period for the sector. He is the Executive Director of Adults, Wellbeing and Culture at City of Doncaster Council.
In his inaugural address at the ADASS Spring Seminar on Tuesday Phil set out his priorities for the year ahead, including representing members’ views to Government, leading with an EEDI lens during times of turbulence, and coproduction.
He said: “Baroness Casey has described the need for a national conversation about adult social care. It is essential that we keep everybody who draws on care and support, and everybody who gives care and support, in the tent. Adult social care reform is not about health conditions, it’s about human rights.
“As ADASS President I’ll continue to promote equity, diversity and inclusion. To recognise that it is impossible for adult social care to be effective if it is not being inclusive, to make sure that everybody working in and benefitting from adult social care knows we have their back because our communities and our economy utterly depend on them.”
Holmes says that he will continue to focus on raising awareness about the importance of care and support among the public and political leaders via the ‘Care Can’t Wait’ campaign and will put renewed emphasis on co-production as part of his tenure.
He added: “Co-production is about starting somewhere different, about designing out poor experience and wasteful use of resources and creating the right conditions alongside our residents and our workforce that will help them flourish. We’ve won the rhetorical argument that co-production is important, now it is time to win the practical argument that co-production is fundamental to the impact and sustainability not just of adult social care but of public service.”
Holmes has been a director for the past 10 years in two councils. He practiced in London after qualifying as a social worker and later worked in the East Midlands across commissioning and senior management roles.
Delegates were also addressed by Sally Warren, Director General for Adult Social Care at DHSC, who chaired a panel discussion on learning from pilot sites for the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, and Sir Geoff Mulgan, Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at UCL, who discussed innovating for sustainable adult social care.
