Innovation Exchange

“Transforming social care is a complex challenge and no one person or organisation has all the answers. Addressing it requires innovative thinking and action to help us build excellent joined-up services. We need to work together with passion and commitment to help everyone lead fulfilling, independent lives”.
Mick Connell, Chair of the East Midlands Joint Improvement Partnership and Director of Adult Social Care and Health at Leicestershire County Council

Personalisation depends upon our ability to innovate in social care. Innovation in social care can take a number of forms:

• New tools and technologies (e.g. telecare and web technology)
• New approaches to organising and providing care (e.g. user-led approaches and personal budgets)
• New models of service and support (for example, cognitive behaviour therapy and service brokerage for personal budget holders)

Innovation Exchange is working with the East Midlands Joint Improvement Partnership to seek out and support some of the innovation projects that can help to drive further progress within this region. We are staging a Festival of Ideas on Wednesday, 17th March, drawing together commissioners, investors and supporters around the best innovations in this field. This event will look at all these types of innovations, showcasing high-potential third sector innovations that seek to achieve at least one of the following objectives:

• Support people to live independently in their own homes, rather than in residential care
• Support people with learning disabilities and mental ill-health into employment
• Support personal budget-holders, for example, thorugh advice, guidance, brokerage and advocacy
• Improve quality of life for carers or people with dementia or with long-term conditions

The event is your chance to:

• Meet key investors and commissioners working in this area and tell them about your work
• Learn about other innovation projects in this field
• Get the benefit of participants’ networks, expertise and advice
• Build the relationships that can help to develop and strengthen your work

So, if you have a fledgling proposal or an innovative project in this space, we want to hear from you, and the very best ideas will receive a Festival invitation. Let us know your solution to the challenge of personalising social care.

To respond to this Call for Ideas, simply fill in this short template to explain your innovation. As an example, here is a presentation describing Festivals of Ideas. Please send your completed in an email to Raj Cheema, including ‘Call for Ideas, 17 March 2010′ in the subject of the email. Please note that the submission deadline is Thursday, 25th February at 5.00pm.