Let me begin by apologising for failing to blog for the last couple of weeks. I have been somewhat tied up with the relaunch of Community Care, which now has a new design incorporating standalone children's and adults' services sections.
I have also been out and about, soaking up the atmosphere in Warwickshire at the last ever spring seminar of the Association of Directors of Social Services - which also doubled up as the first ever spring seminar of the Association of Directors of Adults Social Services.
But in this brave new world of splits and restructures, there are many who are concerned that the result will be new gaps for service-users to fall through, particularly young people approaching adulthood and the children of adult service-users.
It was therefore refreshing to find that, despite the adult-dominated agenda at the spring seminar, children were by no means forgotten. There were numerous references made throughout the two-and-a-half days about seeing service-users in the context of their family as a whole. And I discovered several interesting arrangements that have been set up to try and bridge the divide, such as adults directors sitting on children's trust boards, and at least one even chairing their local safeguarding children board.
The concern now though is maintaining this momentum. The current commitment from some adults services directors towards staying on top of the children's services agenda inevitably stems from their immediate past experience as generic social service directors.
The trick in the future, then, will be to make sure this commitment does not disappear once this generation of adults services directors moves on, and a new generation arrives.