We recently worked with the National Care Forum to contribute an article for Care Talk Magazine exploring the importance of shared responsibility when supporting people with complex needs.
The article reflects on our experience of balancing positive risk taking with safety, particularly when supporting people who have experienced acute trauma through long stays in inpatient settings or repeated service breakdowns.
Fifteen years on from the Winterbourne View scandal, around 1,500 people remain in hospital settings. While continued investment in community support is essential, investment alone is not enough. Lasting change requires health and social care services, commissioners and providers to work together to create personalised solutions that enable people to thrive.
At Active Prospects, we know that people are still too often excluded by rigid service models and approaches that focus on managing risk rather than understanding the whole person. Funding arrangements and organisational boundaries can also create unintended barriers to the support people need.
However, there is a genuine desire across the sector to do better. The challenge is moving beyond established ways of working and having the confidence to develop new approaches alongside the people most affected by them. If we are serious about improving outcomes, we need to be bolder, more collaborative and ensure that people with lived experience are at the heart of shaping change.
Read the full article on pages 8–9 of Care Talk Magazine, Issue 152
