LYN Romeo, England’s chief social worker for adults, is confirmed as key note speaker at the county’s first adult social care conference next week.

The conference, at the Three Counties Hotel on Monday (December 1) will outline Herefordshire Council’s overview of changes to its adult social care over the past year and “challenging”  plans for the future.

As speaker, Lyn Romeo will set out the national context for changes to adult social care and the challenges facing councils is balancing growing demand against reduced budgets.

Social care clients will also speak about their experiences of receiving “personalised” services to stimulate debate on how such services  experiences can be improved in the future.

New approaches will be outlined by adult social care director Helen Coombes, and cabinet member for health and wellbeing, Cllr Graham Powell.

Staff will also have the opportunity to question the directorate’s senior management team about what support will be available to help them work with service users, carers and communities.

The launch of the new approach heralds the start of a “conversation” with staff , clients and communities that is likely to continue for the next year.

Cllr Powell warned of a "a big shift” coming that the council could not make on its own.

 “It’s really important that we talk to members of the public, our staff and the people who need our services to see how we can achieve this.  This is just the beginning of what promises to be a long and challenging conversation.”