Care home staff 'feel untrusted' by adult safeguarding system
Care home staff feel "under pressure" and "not trusted" because of the number of adult safeguarding alerts providers feel they have to make, sometimes for trivial issues.
19 October 2011
Gove urges social workers to act earlier to protect children
Social workers are failing to intervene in the lives of troubled children because they fear intense criticism from the public and the media, education secretary Michael Gove (left) has claimed.
21 October 2011
Lansley: NHS cash has stabilised care eligibility thresholds
Councils have stabilised eligibility thresholds and put in place services to cut hospital admissions with money transferred from the NHS this year, health secretary Andrew Lansley said today.
21 October 2011
Personal budgets emphasis 'risks excluding complex needs'
The emphasis on providing personal budgets for all risks failing to deliver personalised care for people with the most complex needs, a report from Demos warns today.
19 October 2011
Social workers 'are central to children's personalisation'
Social workers should have a key role in the personalisation agenda for disabled children to ensure the needs of families do not eclipse the needs of children, according to the Council for Disabled Children.
20 October 2011
Councils don't know how to identify carers, says charity chief
Many councils are failing to support carers effectively because they do not know how to find them, outgoing Carers UK chief executive Imelda Redmond has warmed.
20 October 2011
Call to curb scrutiny powers of family court judges
Family court judges should have their powers of scrutiny limited to core decisions, such as whether to take a child into care, kinship arrangements and permanency planning, according to a major report on the family justice system due out soon.
18 October 2011
'Adoption template will highlight best practice locally'
The government is about to publish an "adoption template" highlighting good practice around the country, the children's minister has revealed.
Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services conference, Tim Loughton said he had become frustrated by varying practice around the country and wanted to encourage authorities to "learn from each other".
"Everything we need for a perfect adoption system is happening already, but in different parts of the country," Loughton said. "It's not rocket science. I want everyone to take the initiative and learn from each other to deliver better services."
He said he was concerned about the "lack of sharing" among authorities. "Often I'll find an excellent initiative happening in one local authority and discover the neighbouring authority has no idea about it. Why is that happening?" he asked.
The document, which Loughton said he would publish shortly, will highlight best practice, based on information gathered by
20 October 2011
LSCB's to be reminded of duty to publish SCRs in full
Children's minister Tim Loughton is to write to local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) reminding them of their duty to publish serious case reviews in full in the near future.
20 October 2011
Burstow: Government still committed to care funding reform
The government has not gone cold on reforming adult social care funding because of the £2bn-a-year cost of implementing Andrew Dilnot's reforms, care services minister Paul Burstow (left) has insisted.
20 October 2011
Government still undecided on early intervention duty
The government is still undecided on whether to create a legal duty on councils to provide earlier intervention to families in need, as recommended by Professor Eileen Munro in her review of the child protection system in England.
20 October 2011
Adass chief urges ministers to close care funding gap
Ministers were urged today to close the resource gap for adult social care today in order to secure financial security and dignity for current and future service users.
20 October 2011
Make clients Apple of your eye, public services urged
Public services should think more like technology giant Apple and make client needs the top priority, Sir Michael Bichard, told the National Children and Adult Services Conference in London.
19 October 2011
Councils on track for 2013 target of personal budgets for all
Councils are on track to meet the government's target of having all service users on personal budgets by 2013, a survey has found.
19 October 2011
'Cut social workers' planning role to empower users'
Social workers' role in support planning should be radically reduced to enable service users to take control of deciding how to spend their personal budgets, an influential paper said this week.
19 October 2011
Councils urged to sign up to new personalisation indicators
Councils and providers have been urged to sign up to a new suite of indicators on personalisation and publish details of their progress against them.
19 October 2011
Cut bureaucracy for service users, councils told
Restrictions on how service users spend personal budgets should be lifted, say sector leaders.
19 October 2011
Social work supply and demand model to be unveiled at NCAS
A model for monitoring the supply and demand of social workers in England will be made public at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCAS) this week.
17 October 2011
Adass urges ministers to justify 'no need for care cuts' claim
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services is seeking an urgent meeting with government over its claim that councils have no excuse to cut adult care services over the coming years.
07 November 2010
Letters to Community Care, 25 November 2010
We are glad Karen Reeve (Letters, 18 November) enjoyed this year's NCAS Conference in Manchester. The social care sector has had its fill, in the past, of set piece head-to-head arguments between ministers and audiences publicly at our annual conferences. Whenever it has happened it is incontrovertibly true that nobody - citizens who use services, ministers, politicians or professionals - has benefited a single jot from the confrontation.
23 November 2010
