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Rob Grieg, director of the Institute for Applied Health and Social Policy, and new head of the government's valuing people implementation team, warned that local authorities will have to take a more even-handed approach to service-user involvement under the new Valuing People white paper.

He told delegates that while local authorities were often good at working in partnership with service users, it was "very rarely a partnership of equals".

"Yes, local authorities are in the lead role," he said. "But they are not in control - they should be offering a skilful leadership that enables everyone to contribute. It is a challenge."

He also warned against "getting hung up on structures". "If you look at all our experiences of partnership working, what it shows is that you can make almost any structure work if everyone wants it to. But if the will isn't there no amount of structural change will make it work."

Bill Robbins, director of social services for Gloucestershire also told delegates that, while the implications of Valuing People were extremely welcome, there were significant resource implications.

Day centres would, he said, no longer be catering for large groups of people - they would be tailoring their service to individual needs. Services would also no longer be located in large, segregated settings, but in small settings. "There are obvious implications for the number of staff." And, he added, staff would have to have NVQ 2 as a minimum qualification.