The Next Wave Conference took place on Tuesday 20 May 2008 and was widely hailed as a great success. The event, which took place at Taunton Racecourse, sold out all 175 places two months ago.
The conference was planned when ARC South West became aware that Learning Disability services are on the verge of the next big wave of changes, which are due to hit the sector in the next two years:
- A shake up in regulation and inspection (with a revised set of National Minimum Standards to follow).
- Funding arrangements for students with learning disabilities (and the ending of the LSC).
- Changes to the Valuing People Support Team (with the revised Valuing People NOW and a change of Director).
- The introduction of the Mental Capacity Act (with the serious implications of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards)
- The revised Mansell Report
- The personalisation agenda
- The costings tools and brokerage
Which is where the conference came in. The purpose of the event was to give people a crucial overview and insight into all of these changes, and to enable them to prepare their services for the coming years.
It was a chance to meet the people involved in those changes and learn directly from them, attracting speakers from the Valuing People Team, the Learning & Skills Council, CSCI, the Devon Transition Research Project, Skills for Care, the Getting a Life Team, CSIP, and the MCA team.
Comments from the conference evaluation included:
- “The workshops were great”
- “Brilliant conference – Thank you”
- “Enjoyed the day – it was well organised and informative”
- “Very interesting and useful to network with other companies and professionals”
- “The lunchtime networking session was very valuable”
- “It has been very enjoyable and well engineered”
Some of the presentations are available to download: CLICK HERE to link to the conference page.
The conference could not have taken place without the generous sponsorship and support of the South West Learning & Skills Council, Valuing People Team and Skills for Care.
