Baroness Casey told the LGA Conference in Bournemouth that England doesn't have a functioning system of adult social care. And she's right. What we have is a patchwork, built up over decades without anyone deciding what it was for or how it should work.

In our 35 years working alongside councils, we've seen that fragmentation for ourselves. But we've also seen glimmers of best practice, and real creativity in how councils are solving the same problems differently. Across the country, right now, there are councils running genuinely strong practice. Strengths-based conversations that focus on what matters to people, not just their needs. Funding decisions that hold up to scrutiny because they're grounded in consistent, defensible judgement. Early intervention that actually reduces demand rather than just deferring it.

The problem isn't that good practice doesn't exist. It's that it's localised. One council's learning rarely reaches another's. A team doing something well in the North East has no reliable way of knowing that a team in the South West is solving the same problem, or has already solved it. Too often, councils are forced to reinvent approaches that already exist elsewhere in the sector rather than building on shared learning.

Casey's Commission is right to call for an honest national conversation before attempting major reform. That conversation will take time, and it should. Phase one of her report isn't due until later this year, and real reform will take years beyond that.

Councils don't have years to wait before improving what they can control now. The Care Act still applies. People still need assessments, funding decisions, and support today, not once a national settlement is agreed. Waiting for the system to be rebuilt isn't a plan.

Casey's Commission is also launching a national Big Conversation this summer, asking the public what they want from social care, what the state should provide, and what we're all willing to contribute. That's exactly the kind of honest conversation the sector needs, and it only works if people actually take part. We'd encourage anyone reading this, councils, practitioners, people who draw on care and support, to get involved when it launches.

So while that bigger conversation happens, we think there's real value in doing something more immediate: making good practice visible so it can be adapted and reused across the sector.  

That's what we're setting out to do. We'll be publishing a series of pieces looking at what makes a high-quality Care Act assessment, what makes a high-quality funding decision, and ultimately what makes a high-performing adult social care council, using real practice from councils already doing this well, formed from case studies, benchmarking data, and first-hand insights from our growing Community Practice Network.

Working with one-in-four local authorities across adult social care and SEND means we see both the fragmentation Casey describes, and the pockets of excellent practice that already exist. We believe one of the sector's biggest opportunities is not simply creating more good practice, but helping existing good practice become visible, shared, and repeatable across councils.

By sharing that practice honestly, and being clear about what we want to carry forward, we're contributing to the national conversation in a way that can drive action. That means learning from each other now, not waiting for reform to force the connection.