This review couldn’t be clearer: we need a national strategy for quality in social care, one that both assures quality and enables improvement. Too often, excellence is localised and fleeting. What we need is a sustainable, system-wide commitment to safe, high-quality care that everyone can rely on.
SCIE stands ready to support the government’s reform ambitions, including the proposed National Care Service and the work of the Casey Commission. We know what good looks like. We’ve seen it. Our job now is to help the sector build on it, scale it, and make it stick.
We also welcome the review’s recognition of the central role culture plays in supporting safety, especially in safeguarding. A positive, values-driven culture isn’t a ‘nice to have’. It’s the foundation of effective, dignified care.
If we want better outcomes, we need better data, clearer standards, and a shared language for quality. But most of all, we need the will and the leadership to make that vision real. This review is a timely reminder of what’s at stake, and what’s possible.
Kathryn Marsden OBE (formerly Kathryn Smith)
Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)