I have rarely found social workers and advocates to have a difficult relationship (Letters, 17 January).
Of course there is bad social work, but advocates' efforts are more often directed towards the lack of social work or the limitations of service provision than bad practice.
Social workers are obliged to work in the best interests of children and young people, but they know only too well that this obligation is compromised by the limitations of the service that they are able to offer. Advocates have no such restriction and can therefore concentrate on drawing attention to young people's wishes, feelings and rights. The two roles should therefore be seen as complementary, not in opposition.
Good social workers know that the empowerment of children and young people contributes to their rehabilitation, improves practice, and safeguards their welfare.
Merlin Turville-Petre
Regional manager,
Voice for the Child in Care,
Wolverhampton
No need for foisted hoist
A person employing their own personal assistants to work in their own home, (Practice Panel, 17 January), is not bound by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and has no duty to apply the manual handling regulations (which in any case do not ban manual lifting).
So Marcus could legally refuse to use the hoist that was foisted on him. The National Centre for Independent Living has been working with the Health and Safety Executive and others to look at how health and safety issues impact on independent living.
Concerns over the liability of service providers should never take precedence over the comfort, safety and dignity of service users.
Frances Hasler
Director,
National Centre for Independent Living
Codes are necessary
Ross Sutton (Letters, 24 January) thinks the General Social Care Council's draft codes of conduct and practice are "another example, like mission statements and protocols, of stating the obvious".
To an extent that may be true. But what some people think is obvious might not even cross the mind of someone else.
Social care values have been the subject of assumption, vagueness and debate for too long. It is an exciting development to attempt to get them agreed for the first time. And the General Social Care Council has some very "proper" jobs to be getting on with - not least being able to deal with allegations of misconduct where people have failed to adhere to the codes.
The only way to do that fairly is by testing conduct against a transparent set of principles.
Lynne Berry
Chief executive, General Social Care Council
Mental health gap
Children must not be ignored in the proposed mental health legislation reforms (News Analysis, 17 January).
Currently there is no requirement that the psychiatrists and social workers who are specialists in working with children should be those who assess children under the Mental Health Act 1983. At YoungMinds we hope this will change. We would also like to see a requirement for conferencing all young people whose mental ill-health is of enough concern for use of the act to be considered.
These are among our most vulnerable young people. They frequently fall down the gap between health and social care, and desperately need a structure around them to ensure that services are provided.
Dinah Morley
Deputy director,
YoungMinds
Violence is a key factor
I agree with many of the points made by Christine Doorly, ("Children's services in disarray", 10 January) especially about the importance of domestic violence in planning services for families. The current lack of planning is staggering given the amount of research, media coverage and public awareness campaigns over the years, including those in Community Care.
My own research in 1990 indicated that 20 per cent of family cases had elements of domestic violence and 30 per cent of children on the child protection register had mothers who reported violence.
More recently, in 1997, I was part of a research team led by Dr Betsey Stanko who attempted to cost domestic violence in Hackney. Not only were the costs great, but they were highest for social services who had to deal with the long-term effects.
We will not begin to solve the current crisis in child care until we have a centrally led and financed strategy with regard to violence in families. This must not only deal with current service needs but look to long-term effects and a viable approach to prevention.
Bonnie Miller
London
Shropshire's bold move
In our experience, the picture Phil Brough paints of "utter contempt of power brokers" in Shropshire and years of involvement in joint planning achieving nothing (This Life, 24 January) could not be further from the truth.
Involvement in joint planning has enabled us, as an organisation run and controlled by disabled people, to grow and develop services in partnership with health and social services. For example, we are now able to run our sensory impairment community development project focusing on combating exclusion and increasing employment and training opportunities.
We do feel Shropshire social services listen to us. We were involved with their recent Best Value review of disability services and, as a result, a number of services are transferring to us.
This is a bold move by Shropshire social services and is being carried out in the belief that transferring services to disabled people will improve the outcome for service users. It is a time for celebration not denigration.
Phil Cookson
Chairperson,
Shropshire Disability Consortium