Gillian Currie
Independent Sector Lead – Glasgow, Partners for Integration, Scottish Care

Dr Alastair Cole
Senior Lecturer in Film Practice, Newcastle University,

Join us for a screening of CARE– a documentary film focusing on the day-to-day lives of care home residents and workers. Filmed entirely by the staff at a care home in the northeast of England as it emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, CARE gives a glimpse into the dedication and compassion of the workers that look after some of the most vulnerable and often overlooked people in society.

As well as giving a unique and emotional insight into the lives of care home residents and workers, CARE also raises important questions about how society values older people and those who care for them, and whether there is adequate support for those who bring such commitment and heart to residential care.

Dr Alastair Cole, Senior Lecturer in Film Practice from Newcastle University will discuss how the film developed and has been screened around the UK. This tour and outreach work is culminating in November 2025 with a screening at Westminster. The film has also been entered as evidence towards the UK COVID Enquiry.

Dr Cole, who directed CARE commented: “CARE began as a response to the pandemic, and out of frustration at the overwhelmingly negative representation in the media of residential care in the UK. “

“We knew as soon as the remote camera workshops started, we were incredibly fortunate to have found such a brilliant and enthusiastic team to work with in the home. Then when their footage started coming in, it was clear they had a very important story to tell.”

Claire Pierce
Service Manager (Adults) – Care Inspectorate

Sheri Kerr
Team Manager, Meaningful Connection, Visiting and Anne’s Law Project – Care Inspectorate

Stephanie Thom
Programme Lead, Safe Staffing Programme – Care Inspectorate

The Care Inspectorate published the above guidance for our staff. This session outlines the ways in which this informs our scrutiny of care services for adults across Scotland. This includes the professional impact of inspectors and other Care Inspectorate staff and sharing information about how we induct, train and quality assure the work of inspectors in the Care Inspectorate. We will also outline how we manage complaints against the Care Inspectorate and other routes to raising concerns about our approach or conduct.
We will share insights into our inspection priorities for 2026/27 and the ways in which we prioritise our scrutiny and improvement work. This session will also highlight potential adaptations to our approach to the scrutiny of adult care services in 2026/27.

Nicola Cooper
Head of Digital Futures – Scottish Care

Fraser Smith
Policy Lead (Ethical Commissioning)
– Scottish Care

How can the adult social care sector upscale its use of technological and digital innovation?

Scottish Care’s workstream leads for Ethical Commissioning and Care Technology present a joint session, detailing how ethical commissioning and procurement can be utilised to further embed care tech and its delivery of person-led human rights-based care. Learn more about the care tech market, the legislation that underpins such models’ commissioning and procurement, and the available mechanisms for the care home sector to drive sustainable innovation.

The session will also detail the latest findings from Scottish Care’s ongoing evaluation into route to market for care tech across the UK, in efforts to provide the latest guidance to care home sector.

Karen Hedge
Deputy CEO
Scottish Care

April Lochhead
National Improvement Advisor, Unscheduled Care, Centre for Sustainable Delivery, Directorate for Health Performance and Delivery – Scottish Government

This interactive session will adopt a systems-approach to explore your experiences of care home residents’ access to unscheduled care. The outputs of this session will be used to inform and influence policy-making to make social care work for Scotland.

Carrie Taylor
Clinical Safety Officer – Nourish Care

Paul Skuse
Product Manager – Nourish Care

For years, traditional dependency models have shaped how care and support is planned and funded, but they often miss the mark. Built around broad categories and static scores, they struggle to reflect what people actually need day to day, making it harder for services to plan, adapt, and deliver care and support whilst maintaining operational sustainably.

In this session, we’ll explore why it’s time to move beyond existing models, and how to leverage a needs-led approach to better support teams, services, and the people they care for. Simply put, we need to rethink the way support is assessed and planned, so services can stay aligned with real needs, not assumptions, and ensure business sustainability throughout their service.

Understanding dependency means understanding people. Join us for a conversation where we explore how we can link real support needs to staffing, time, and cost – from  the point of assessment, through daily delivery, and as those needs evolve.

As the health and care systems in the UK aim to move toward more financially sustainable, community-centred care and support, we’ll explore how co-produced dependency solutions can give us the clarity to plan smarter, the evidence to fund fairly, and the insight to deliver better outcomes for everyone.

Dave Henderson
Independent Sector Lead – Perth & Kinross, Partners for Integration, Scottish Care

Samantha Cassels
Care Home Trusted Assessor – Perth & Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership

Discover how the Trusted Assessor role is reshaping hospital discharge across the care home sector in Perth & Kinross. In a sector marked by rising demand, staffing shortages, and increased complexity, care home managers face significant challenges. This session introduces a collaborative solution co-designed by the local care home sector, Scottish Care Independent Sector Lead, and Perth & Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP).

Learn how the Trusted Assessor:

• Reduces administrative burden
• Enhances communication and relationships with hospital teams
• Saves managers valuable time to focus on compassionate care

Working alongside discharge teams, hospital wards, and care home managers, the Trusted Assessor conducts independent assessments on behalf of care home managers for individuals transitioning from hospital to care home settings.

We’ll share the development journey of this innovative role—from initial collaboration to the creation of a generic assessment form and ongoing engagement throughout the Test of Change. Hear how care homes participating in the programme have benefited from streamlined processes and improved outcomes for residents.

Caroline Deane
Workforce Policy & Practice Lead – Scottish Care

Alyson Vale
Business and Operations Director – Abbotsford Care

Creating Inclusive Workplaces: Supporting Neurodivergence in Social Care

Do you find yourself constantly juggling a hundred browser tabs in your brain? Lose track of time because you were hyper-focused on something no one else noticed? Reread an email six times before hitting send? Or maybe you’re the one in the room asking the question that flips the whole conversation on its head (and secretly saves the day).

If any of this sounds familiar? Welcome!! You might just be neurospicy. And guess what? So are a lot of us.

This workshop is for anyone who wants to move past the token “awareness day” approach and actually get real about what it’s like to live and work with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and all the other gloriously different ways our brains are wired. We’ll talk about the toll it can take, the everyday coping strategies (hello, colour-coded everything), and the brilliant strengths neurodivergent people bring to social care.

What to Expect (aka: not another boring training session)

• Spot the sneaky stuff – how everyday workplace norms quietly exclude neurodivergent people (and what to do about it).
• Rip up the rulebook – recruitment, onboarding, and career progression that don’t feel like an obstacle course.
• Make it spicy, not overwhelming – simple tweaks to communication, environment, and expectations that make a huge difference.
• Psychological safety = actual safety – building cultures where people can say “this isn’t working for me” without fear.
• Co-create, don’t dictate – because nothing about us without us, right?

Why Come Along?

Because social care should practice what it preaches. We can’t champion diversity and inclusion for the people we support if our own workplaces leave neurodivergent colleagues masking, exhausted, or unheard.

This is your invitation to laugh, reflect, and maybe cringe a little as we swap stories, bust myths, and share practical ways to make social care more human, for all kinds of humans.

Gillian Counsell
Alzheimer Scotland

Joanna Crispell
Alzheimer Scotland

‘Never too early Never too Late’ this is coming under the auspices of Brain Health Scotland.   An initiative developed in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government to promote brain health and reduce the risk of dementia. While developed in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, it functions as a distinct entity with its own programs and goals