Baroness Louise Casey's Independent Commission on Adult Social Care arrives at a pivotal moment for local government. Councils have been navigating rising complexity, tightening budgets and ever-greater public scrutiny, all while striving to uphold our values of dignity, independence and community. A recent evidence session for the Commission, where I represented ADASS members, was focused on stories of real people. People whose experience of our care systems were not good enough. This crystallised something many of us already know: the current system is held together by committed people and pragmatic workarounds, not by coherent design.
What struck me most in the session was Baroness Casey's unmistakable clarity of purpose. Her reputation for cutting through institutional defensiveness is well earned, but what dominated the room was not criticism — it was a relentless focus on people.
