A huge congratulations to all of those on His Majesty The King’s New Year Honours List, in particular the councillors and officers recognised for going above and beyond in local government and championing their communities.

Jane Townson calling for consolidation of LA home care purchasing and commissioning with fewer provider for more hours, and that it is not headline pay but shift patterns that will have more impact on fair pay. #ncasc25 @LGAcomms @1adass

At the #ncasc25 today. Fair Pay Agreement - very clear principles and very technical in nature. DG Sally Warren asking the room to take a long term view of fairness. @clentonF reminding us the fairness has to reach across to self funders. @LGAcomms @1adass

At the @NHSConfed ICS conference this morning discussing how LG Devolution & NHS reform fit together. Generous acknowledgement from Glen Burley on the dependencies between the two and the role of @LGAcomms in facilitating co production.

www.adass.org.uk/leading-in-t... proud of @adass.bsky.social for taking this approach.

@skinnock.bsky.social interesting from the msc today on a fourth shift desire of 'from fragmentation to integration'. For that we will need some attention to the infrastructure for social care, housing & health, with agreement on what is local, what is national, and what needs a Casey consensus.

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...

Independent commission into adult social care: terms of reference

gov.uk

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

Simon Bottery@blimeysimon.bsky.social · last yr.

The terms of reference for the Casey #socialcare commission are published today (though staff have been working for a while). There are concerns, particularly timing, but they should offer the scope Baroness Casey needs to do a thorough job. Thread below ⬇️ www.gov.uk/government/p...

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...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: The 2025 60 Minutes Interview transcript

As Russia's war with Ukraine continues, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sits down with Scott Pelley to discuss U.S. support for Ukraine, the war, the Oval Office meeting, and the latest attacks on civil...

cbsnews.com

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!

Jacob Lant@jacoblant.bsky.social · last yr.

Front page of Telegraph this AM trailing one of the potential ideas for the NHS 10 year plan - with community health workers proactively reaching out to people with high levels of need by doing regular house visits. It’s an idea borrowed from Brazil and has real potential to make a difference.

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!

Thea Stein@theasrstein.bsky.social · last yr.

Forgetting the sensationalist headline - this is not how these roles work (could be a by product) - this is good news. These roles can make a fantastic difference. Already having some impact in #Westminster - and a larger body of evidence from across the world. www.thetimes.com/article/0254...

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?