1. I'm fascinated by the disconnect in understanding & communication between care experienced people, speaking on here of the real issues they have faced through life, & professionals in the care industry >
2. I have followed the thread by care experienced colleagues started by @CareExpUK & read of people feeling abandoned, unwanted, abused, ignored, etc, so many issues, many very familiar to me in my own life & experience & from @careexpconf>
3. I meet & share views with so many care experienced people of all ages, including family, & hear of the lack of support, consultation & access to support for higher education, mental health support, access to their own information & of being moved around without consultation >
4. I read the disadvantage statistics & see how the care experienced community, my care experienced peers, are so massively over represented. I have advocated directly for kids in care appallingly treated by providers, LA's & social workers alike >
5. I have spent about half a long career in social work in regulation & observed first hand how poorly the regulatory model fits the reality of the care experience I knew & so many others have shared with me over the years. Seems clear to me>
6. Then I read professionals & provider representatives saying I have got it wrong. Inspections show clearly how the care provided is good, or even excellent. Only 2% of care provision is poor, I'm told. If I challenge that, I risk being called 'negative' or 'overtly pernicious'.
7. I don't think most of the difference of opinion is intended to be hostile. To me, it is more a communication disconnect between professionals in their world & care experienced people in ours. We are all talking about "care" but we are somehow divided by the same language >
8. Many professionals across the care sector know & interact with each frequently. They move in the same professional circles, they sit on the same committees, working groups, etc. Their opinions can reinforce each other by repetition & in doing so solidify into accepted fact >
9. Similarly many in the care experienced community grew distrusting professionals, often for good reason as they've let us down so often. We believe professionals & "experts" have screwed up the care system in successive generations & have no reason on earth to trust them now>
10. Our distrust for care sector professionals & social workers make us suspicious of everything they say & do. After all, it was care professionals who caused us such pain - why is this latest batch any different? >
11. There you have it. A care sector that feels wronged & under attack, unloved for all the caring work it believes it does, defensive to any challenge to what it wants to see as evidence of its success>
12. On the other hand, a care experienced community that has struggled in the face of what it perceives as inadequate even uncaring care, being told by professionals that they think care is actually pretty good - & resenting it. >
13. That for me is the "Care Communication Disconnect" - two sides close together but far apart, on opposite sides of an opinion, defensiveness versus distrust. The challenge for any Chair of a Care Review is to do a "Cadbury's Snack' - bridge that gap. Good luck with that
