I was at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse last Friday, at an event organised by Dyllis Faife for the Joint Improvement Partnership/ADASS/Improvement East. It was aimed at providers working in a number of local authorities in the east of the country, and featured a number of speakers and workshops. There were policy overviews and perspectives from Mike Hay, Head of Transformation at Cambridgeshire CC; Dr Sam Bennett from the DH looked at commissioning and contracting issues; and Les Billingham, Interim Head of Transformation and Independence from Thurrock Council, looked at a regional initiative on contracting. There was a presentation from the father of a young man who was receiving a personal budget and making good use of it; and David Wolverson, Executive Director of Dimensions, gave a view on the challenges faced by providers – not least in moving from having a £50kpa contract to provide support to an individual, to having a much smaller sum of money coming from that individual under the new regime.

Workshops sessions gave the opportunity for more interactivity, and I opted in to one to hear about Cambridgeshire’s Provider Champions Group. The day closed with sessions on adult safeguarding, marketing for providers, and the help that Business Link can give to providers. The event was perhaps a little top-heavy in terms of presentations from government (central and local), and could have done with losing a couple of presentations in favour of another workshop session, but was still a good day at the races!