government asking what we think

[memevector]

I've been invited to join the Department of Health "External Reference Group on Sexual Orientation". Go me!

(How come I got invited? you may be wondering. I'm fairly sure it's a spin-off from my presence at the Age Concern "Opening Doors" conference in April. I made an announcement there in the "newsround" section, about BiCon and BCN and bi stuff generally, and someone came up to me afterwards and asked if I might want to be on some governmenty thing. And I was like "well, it depends, but tell me about it when it happens". And I think this is that.)

I am greatly entertained by the idea that I am now an "Advisor to the government".

I think it'll be interesting. I'm also thinking that I want some input please.

This is what they're asking at the moment:

<quote>
Please note that discussion will not be limited purely to employment matters - we want to think broadly about all issues of sexuality which may impact on the functions of the Department of Health. The aims of the meeting are to identify these issues and to discuss how best the Department can deal with them. It would be helpful if you would consider the following questions in advance of the meeting which I hope will stimulate discussion:

1. Please think of at least one example of the time when you have felt that DH/NHS/Social Care have handled an issue of sexual orientation well
   
   
2. How well do you think DH/NHS/Social Care handled issues of sexual orientation overall and why?
   
   
3. Please think of one thing which would make a big difference to your opinion about DH/NHS/Social Care.

<snip>
We have invited a number of colleagues from the Department of Health to the meeting, from our Human Resources Directorate, internal personnel section and relevant policy teams. We have also invited a member of the sexuality team at the Department of Trade and Industry's Women and Equality Unit, which co-ordinates activity across government.
</quote>

Incidentally, I know that they've also invited someone from Press for Change, so if that shows how they're thinking, I suspect we may end up discussing gender/transgender as well as "sexual orientation".

I know there'll be people reading this who've had more dealings with the health system than I have. So if you've got answers to those three questions, please send them my way. I'm also interested in more general opinions and advice about what I ought to be saying and asking for. The first meeting is on Friday 22 November so I've got a couple of weeks to accumulate information and "briefings" :-) If you're emailing me, it would help if you put [DH] at the start of the subject line (including the square brackets).

Oh and could somebody tell me what "Social Care" is?

Thanks people

Comments

[lovingboth]

Social care is 'looking after people in a non-medical way', eg home help. Whether or not the state should pay for it has been a big issue, first in Scotland and then in the rest of the UK.

The sexual orientation stuff later...

[(Anonymous)]

There's an awful lot to social care beyond home help! Social care is a big field, and includes all sorts of residential care, respite care, loads of projects and schemes and day centres - as well as all sorts of care in people's own homes. Some estimates reckon over a million people in the UK are formally involved in delivering social care, with about half employees and half organised voluntary carers. The big client groups are older people, people with disabilities, and young people, but there are many others.

The distinction between social work and social care varies a bit depending on who you're talking to. Broadly, social care includes (almost all) of social work. Some of the legal protection parts of social work aren't always included in social care.

The dividing line between health care and social care can be hard to draw. This is politically important at the moment for two reasons. One is as part of the debate Ian mentioned above about who should pay for care, and how much. Part of this is about getting people (or relatives) to pay for their own care, but part of it can end up as turf wars between NHS Trusts and Social Services Departments about who should pay for a particular care package. This brings me on to the other reason - increasingly it doesn't make sense to organise the two separately. The so-called "bed-blocking problem" is a classic example. So there's a push generally - from the Government and from many in the sector - to work in a more integrated way.

Hope this helps. Congratulations on the position, and thank you for taking on the responsibility. I'm pleased that someone as articulate and informed about issues important to me as you are is advising the government!

-Doug.