New ADSS head looks to build alliances

The incoming president of the ADSS will make it a priority to build “strong new alliances” with a wide range of sectors.

Julie Jones, who takes over as president from Tony Hunter at next week’s national social services conference, said the ADSS had to strengthen relationships with government departments, including the Home Office and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Jones said another priority for her would be to “inspire the workforce to meet new challenges”.

Meanwhile, outgoing ADSS president Tony Hunter has said the decline in government social care expertise has increased the ADSS’s influence on policy.

He told Community Care that the DH and the Department for Education and Skills had looked to the ADSS to fill the gaps in their own knowledge.

He said the number of people with social care expertise in the DH had fallen, while there was an “inevitably small” number of them in the DfES.