Neighbourhoods of Care Strategy Launched

On Wednesday 24th September Citizen Network and People Focused Group published Neighbourhoods of Care, a strategy setting out how to radically reorganise our systems of health and social care in order to advance citizenship for all and create truly inclusive flourishing neighbourhoods.

This strategy is the culmination of several years of work and will be a central strategic focus for Citizen Network in the years ahead. The strategy is a multilayered approach to the reorganisation of care. It combines grassroots, citizen-led change with an ecological understanding of the conditions that will support these changes. It sets out some of the policy and funding changes required to speed up and strengthen this change.

Some of the key assumptions built into the strategy could be crystallised as follows:

1. Personalisation for real - Human rights demand a real shift of power and funding flexibility that enables citizens to craft support solution that support people to contribute and connect in their own neighbourhood. This is critical for investing in people and relationships and generating creative solutions.
2. Care about care - Care is an essential and beautiful part of being a human being, but we neither respect not support those who do it, whether carers are paid or unpaid. We need to reorganise our communities so that we can honour and share the work of care. This will require new economic priorities and changes in who is involved in making decisions about care.
3. Mutual aid and peer support come first - We underestimate the power of citizens, particularly people with disabilities, people facing disadvantage or people from diverse communities to make a difference. There is nothing like the power of people helping people. We need to organise to support this and this should be at the forefront of any new approach.
4. Neighbourhoods are vital - We need to respect the small, human-sized, places where we live, where we can connect with neighbours, make decisions together, get to grip with local problems and really make a difference. We need to establish neighbourhoods as a fundamental part of our democratic infrastructure, with real powers and the ability to involve all citizens in decision-making rather than merely representative democracy.
5. Public services need to serve neighbourhoods - Good professional supports are important, public spending is vital, but these things need to be embedded and invested within the local neighbourhood fabric and be accountable to local people. We need to end the current extractive system that strips neighbourhoods bare of resources.
6. A new settlement for citizenship - These changes are fundamentally simple and affordable, but can feel impossible because we’ve become so used to decades of centralisation, regulation and increased control over citizens. We will need to reverse the policies of privatisation, procurement and paternalism that run through our current political and economic systems. We need to create a sustainable approach that supports people to be citizens. We, the common people are the only true resource for a system of care.

The report was launched by Dr Simon Duffy, Director of Citizen Network, at the Cheltenham Summer Institute, hosted by Lives Through Friends. Simon said:

“For decades I’ve focused on the importance of citizen power. But I’ve learned that citizen power is at its most effective when it is focused on the small communities, neighbourhoods and villages where diverse people come together to take care of themselves, each other and the planet. We need to stop being embarrassed by the idea of caring. Only caring can save us from ourselves today.”

Kelly Hicks, Director People Focused Group, co-publisher of the report said:

“In Doncaster we’ve seen the power of people helping people - not as volunteers, not as service users, but as citizens. This is an approach that can do things services can never do. We are committed to working with Citizen Network and all our local partners to make Neighbourhoods of Care a reality.”

From the strategy:

1. We face urgent and severe challenges that we must address. Human wellbeing and environmental sustainability are under threat and growing inequality and insecurity is undermining the integrity of the current system.
2. We rely on each other for mutual care and support, but we do nothing to support citizenship or develop Neighbourhoods of Care. The relationship between people and the public services has become too distant and transactional. We need structures that help people to connect and to have more power.
3. We can unlock citizen capacity so people can take better care of themselves, each other and the planet. We can redistribute money and services fairly, prevent crises and improve lives. This is the only sustainable way forward.
4. South Yorkshire is in a good place to start this work. The problems created by deindustrialisation, centralisation and growing cynicism mean the need for change is urgent. The values, energy and skills of local people and the resilience of community organisations and businesses give us a good foundation to build upon. We already have enough in our communities and across the care system to start, if we are willing to change. This work also naturally aligns with other reforms in finance, democracy and the environment.
5. There is no one actor or system that can achieve all the necessary changes. The strategy outlined below is multilayered and will require many new partnerships; but it can be achieved and South Yorkshire can lead the way.

To read the paper in full, click the link below.