I think that's what Theresa May is calling her snap election, the rest of us are calling it a Mugwump. I felt a bit Theresa May at the beginning of the week, happy and secure in work, thoroughly enjoying myself, and feeling like the week ahead was an obstacle free one with some perfectly laid plans.
This week was my first road trip, down to Southern California to attend a training conference on the new CCR reforms, to experience in practice how professionals were being trained to deliver bespoke mental health services, in the new short term residential therapeutic placements (STRTP's). I was really looking forward to getting out to meet the frontline professionals charged with making policy ideals a reality, and to spend time with them talking about their work, the challenges ahead and their thoughts on the reforms.
I am almost fluent now in California policy speak, even if I do it through the medium of my British accent, so the conference was the first external meeting where I felt confident enough to be able to have a meaningful conversation without the help of one of my lovely colleagues to translate for me after the meeting. In a couple of months I have gone native, it must be the sun, because I no longer look aghast when people mention the 34 Bills progressing in this legislative cycle, or faint when people mention the $7 Billion dollar budget for a federal foster care programme in California and I am all over the acronyms on which we operate.
The 3 hour drive down to Visalia was lovely, I had great company with the CCR bureau chief, who is brilliant and who I would happily kidnap for the benefit of the Welsh public services, the scenery was spectacular and of course the sun shone throughout. We had a lovely dinner, and I managed the dual triumphs of finding weak English style beer, and avoiding the Taco special, in favour of plain and simple fish.
Twenty four hours later, I was back on the road, heading north and home to Sacramento. I'd managed only to see the inside of a hotel room, where it was determined the fish and I had not got on. The customer services in the hotel were great bringing me anti sickness medication to the hotel room and a little discount on the room, all lovely I thought until the general manager was dispatched to butter me up to check I wasn't about to sue them for compensation, I fear he remains unconvinced as I lay my head on the table of his posh desk and said I'd really like to be sick please can I leave.
So I missed my conference, I missed the chance to meet practitioners and chat freely about CCR and I can honestly say I was sad to have missed it, but the amount I have learnt in my time here has been immense, the amount of exposure I have been afforded has been great, and above all the people have been super amazing.
As my time here in Sac begins to draw to a close, I have the beginnings of a great report that will be of real interest to policy makers back home in wales, and a lot of questions for us to consider. It's also given me a renewed vigour about what we can achieve together in Wales, particularly about the ACEs agenda and greater collaboration in how we redesign and deliver our services for those with a care and support need.
Whilst our problems are broadly the same as California, such as funding, capacity and effectiveness of our services, our space to solve them is much smaller, much more aligned, and much more streamlined. It's easier, and it is a trump free zone. Yet what they are hoping to achieve is seminal, all services are now under pinned by a trauma informed approach, and the development of a core practice model across public services such as probation, education and social services is under development., and they have fundamentally re designed the care system to provide an effective continuum of care, based around the individual needs of the child. There is a shared language around improving the experience for those who need care and support, and a lot of specific legislation to underpin and advance policy and practice change and an agreement that in home and wraparound services are critical.
So I'm hoping that much like my sun tan, the new treasures I have unearthed here in California will make it across the pond, and that as leaders in public services we begin to challenge our traditional approaches to service design, delivery and practice, and use some of this new learning to inform change, to make some new perfect plans.
