On Wednesday 28 February 2018, Alex Fox, the CEO of Shared Lives Plus, shared key highlights from his new book in conversation with Halima Khan, Executive Director of Nesta's Health Lab. Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, also spoke briefly.

In A New Health and Care System: Escaping the Invisible Asylum, Alex Fox proposes a new model of care for people needing long-term support. This groundbreaking book highlights the ways in which the 'invisible asylum' of the current public service model squanders the potential of people with long-term support needs and the creativity and caring capacity of families and front-line workers.

It recommends an approach to public service based on new relationships between citizens, families, communities and the state, of which the Nesta-backed model, Shared Lives, now used by thousands of people across the UK, is an exemplar. It argues that such ‘asset-based’ practices could be applied across all long-term support services to create a system with new practices, economics, outcomes and front line roles.

The event was aimed at policy makers, commissioners, practitioners and anyone interested in the future of health and social care.