Join Kari and Anna as they welcome Svetlana Kotova from Inclusion London to discuss the complexities of charging for social care. Svetlana Kotova. Director of Campaigns and Justice is a lifelong advocate for disability rights, and shares her journey from her early years in Russia to her impactful work in the UK. When she first arrived in the West she was surprised to discover that disability rights had not been "solved" and became involved with the ongoing struggle for equality in the UK. She initially focused on legal cases to support disabled people using the Equality Act to challenge discrimination and social care decisions and has now shifted her focus to broader legal and policy work. In this episode she shares Inclusion London's campaign to highlight the impact of social care charges with the significant increase in the cost of living.

Find out more about Inclusion London here

Read about the Charging campaign here.

Find out more about what the law says about charging by going to AccessAva on the Access Social Care website.

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In this episode, Kari and Anna ask a critical question: are they actually doing more harm than good?

Anna shares a frustrating personal experience where a strengths-based review felt rigid, unhelpful, and ultimately left her feeling confused and boxed in, rather than empowered. This leads to a deeper exploration of the potential downsides of these assessments. Do they truly unlock our potential, or more often lead to reduced support? Join us as we delve into this important topic.

This episode's legal tips section highlights the valuable resources available on Access Ava to help you navigate these complex processes.

Learn how to confidently prepare for assessments, understand your entitlements, and ensure your voice is heard. Access Ava offers informative videos, easy-to-read guides, and specialised toolkits for both individuals and professionals, making it your go-to resource for navigating the social care assessments.

We're developing a new assessment tool kit for Access Ava and we need your input! If you're interested in helping us develop it we'd love to hear from you.

Contact us at enquiries@accesscharity.org.uk to get involved.

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Welcome to the State of Our Nation podcast. We recorded this episode in the run up to Christmas 2024 with Anna Severwright, Kari Gerstheimer and guest, James Bullion, former director of Adult Services at Norfolk and president of ADASS, also DHSC lead for social care discharges and recently, interim Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at CQC.

This omnibus edition of the podcast looks backwards over the past year as well as taking a look forward into 2025. The team also discuss Access Social Care's ongoing legal case surrounding freedom of information requests for transparency in social care funding. James lends his support by saying: "I'd certainly recognise as a regulator, this issue of transparency, being really clear about what the evidence is, has got to be your starting base for how you make a case. And then for us as a regulator pointing out once a year to Parliament what the deficit is, and we'll certainly do that as we go through the next year."

The episode begins with Anna asking James to reflect on the legacy of the last administration and ends with his 3 wishes for social care; "money for prevention, sort the workforce out, give a bit more local control".

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