A response to the Feeley Report by Ian Brooke (EVOC Deputy Chief Executive).
People often talk about circles ‘coming back around’.
Or maybe sometimes we see patterns where it’s simply random.
What I do know is that there are a lot of well-meaning official think tank (Scottish or UK Government) infrastructure bodies reports cascading out of pdf formatting software at any one time – but so many of them talk a good game but offer few practical steps to getting to grips with the issues at hand. Then, last week another one appeared:
Only commissioned in the autumn, we knew that the review would report quickly. And we all hoped that it would focus on real people, organisations on the frontline and present practical actions. Well, to cut to the chase, it does.
‘We in the carers and independent living movement are pleased that our
intensive advocacy work has paid off so well’ Sebastian Fischer VOCAL CEO
All 109 pages burst with an ambition and phraseology many in the voluntary sector live and breathe every day. ‘Rights-based’, ‘People Powered’, ‘Fairness’ – to name but a few.
Ten years on from Christie’s ground-breaking commission and through the birth of the Frankenstein IJB restructuring, is this the breakthrough into puberty as the system had settled-down into its infancy?
The danger inherent in the ambition is that the system’s apparatchiks could easily get caught up redesigning process or structural niceties. Furthermore, the sensible reforms proposed might not even survive exposure to the real world – what would unions, CoSLA, IJB Chief Officers think? Are politicians brave enough to pull it off? We already know, disappointingly, that there is a split along constitutional lines amongst parties. And of course there’s the question of investment money. Keeping people well and safe and achieving everything they have the right to achieve isn’t cheap…
Breadth of ambition with practical steps – tick.
Difficult teenage years to come?
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