Care 21 identified a number of workstreams which demand immediate attention. These formed the basis of its recent work, as follows:

1. Futures Exercise ? 'Role of unpaid carers in Scotland'

The purpose of this exercise was to examine the future role of informal care in the delivery of health and social care services. It considered the main factors influencing the development of services to support informal carers over the next 10 years. A report on the findings of this extensive research was recently published (September 2005).

Formerly launched by Lewis Macdonald, Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care, this Care 21 report, The Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland, proposes a bold new vision for carers and contains a series of recommendations which, if fully implemented, would give carers a positive future.

Find out more about the 'Unpaid Carers' report

2. 'Making services personal'

This exercise investigated the philosophy of personalisation, in which service users are considered partners in the provision of social care rather than mere recipients. In particular, this research considered what this would mean in practice for the future of social care in Scotland. Findings from this research were fed into the 21st Century Social Work Review. A report on these findings was recently published by Demos (November 2005).

Find out more about the 'Personalisation through participation' report

3. 'Commissioning and Contracting'

The purpose of this exercise is to examine the commissioning and contracting culture within the social care sector. There has been a proliferation of different practice in recent years. In view of this, Care 21 will take on the role of enabler, providing an overview of current commissioing practice across the board and scoping the main issues involved.

It is anticipated that the results of such examination will identify ways in which capacity issues within the social care sector can be explored and addressed with the use of 'smart' commissioning strategies.

Find out more about the 'Commissioning and Contracting' project