The good people of Britain have been happily contributing to the government's spending cuts challenge, posting 44,000 suggestions so far, which we can now all vote on.But are there any suggestions which relate to social care? There certainly are. For starters I searched for "social work" and it returned 57 results.
Interesting suggestions include:
- reducing the amount of annual leave that teachers get to the same amount as other public servants. They can then use all those spare days volunteering in other public services to help tackle backlogs and stress. Genius
- banning agency social work staff in local authorities and introducing a national pay scale. The lack of an agency option would commit social workers to permanent roles and save money on expensive agency fees. National pay scale would stop authorities competing against each other on pay for the existing pool of workers. Not sure about that - if bankers get paid their market value why shouldn't social workers?
- Spend more money on early intervention with families and re-name social workers to avoid the suspicion associated with the term
- Even more radical is the suggestion to get rid of social workers altogether and replace them with direct payments
- Perhaps we should end the prohibition of drugs? It never worked with alcohol in 1930s America after all
- How about scrapping all those pesky awards and targets that local authorities strive towards?
- Here's a good one: get Queen of Shops Mary Portas to sort out the voluntary sector
- Finally, why not manage social work nationally, rather than locally? This means social workers could move between areas without having to resign and get a new job and you wouldn't have all those recruitment costs.
The whole project seems to have generated a predictably varied selection of ideas and general rants. I suspect it might lead to a handful of short-lived initiatives which shave a little bit of money off the edges of the budget deficit but not a lot more.
(Photo courtesy of HowardLake on Flickr)
Here is an idea. Close up the jobcentres. 750 offices in the uk. Each staffed with between 30-100 civil servants. Thats approx 20,000 that could be moved to more vital work (not sacked). the jobcentre consoles can be left in place, for jobsearches - with two security guards/engineers to maintain them. phone centres can be bolstered with extra staff (say 100 workers)for enquiries.
My experience at the jobcentre was one of frustration as i never got a straight answer to any query I made at the jobcentre. Invariably I had to make a phone call or check the internet for answers. In some cases the staff hindered my jobsearch. I also witnessed occasions when other 'clients' were rebuffed or fed wrong information. But this seemed to be due to bad systems rather than willful advisors. I signed fortnightly and each time it was beyond stupid. You either got work or you didn't. I never was referred to a job through the jobcentre. Either a friend or a job agency was involved. Close these monolithic establishments. Automate the system. Provide free callcentres for mobiles, all networks. The current staff could be taken into other civil servant posts or call centres.