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Social care leaders have met Department of Health heads in the first meeting of a forum designed to give the sector a voice in government, writes Mithran Samuel.

Representatives from the Association of Social Services Directors, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, the General Social Care Council and the Local Government Association attended the first meeting of the social care forum.

Sector leaders are hoping that the forum, the brainchild of DH permanent secretary Nigel Crisp, will give them greater input into government thinking and raise social care’s profile within the department.

Items discussed included the forthcoming joint health and social care white paper and plans to restructure primary care trusts, and the next meeting is in October.

West Sussex Council director of social services John Dixon, who attended on behalf of the ADSS, said: “It’s one of our guarantees about how we can have our say on how the white paper is developing.”