Steven Broomhead is chief executive of Warrington Borough Council and writes a regular column for the Warrington Guardian

The words 'transformation' and 'crisis' are probably the most over used and annoying terms in management.

The first too often produces results with few solutions and the second often only describes but doesn’t resolve a situation. However, in the current national crisis of social care provision, crisis is accurately used.

Results of years of rising pressures and demands, increased numbers of elderly in our population and dwindling budgets have left all social care services, including our own, virtually on its knees. Add to this the difficulty of recruiting and retaining staff to work in social care settings with lower wages than elsewhere in the health sector. It creates a perfect storm.

The recent shifts to treating the NHS and social care in an equal partnership and the policies to create more integrated working and are to be welcomed. However, there is still a tendency to support the NHS with more and more resources without recognising that prevention and taking people away from hospitals and GPs and into safe and secure community settings is the priority that actually need the support.

We need to shift from national illness service to a health prevention service.

Money doesn’t always make a difference as the recent expenditure of the £750million national investment in extra care beds to the ease the delayed discharge log jam from hospital. Only 176 nationally additional beds were created from the cash injection occurred - £4.3million per bed. What is needed is to ensure there is a focus on developing and properly rewarding the workforce and plans are made to focus on prevention. The 'community response team' developed by out outstanding director of adult social care, Cath Jones, is making great progress alongside a system-based approach, rather than individual health and care organisations concentrating on their own solutions.

Everybody needs to be focussed on the safe needs of individuals wherever they are on their care journey.

There is a real recognition of the complex issues in our town, and I am grateful that we are bucking the trend in the national care crisis. Other than money we need to focus on greater collaboration between organisations, allow local leaders the space to determine local problems and balance freedom with accountability.