January 2011 Archives

Former social worker and 2008 Booker longlister Gaynor Arnold is interviewed in The Independent about her new book, Lying Together. 

The Girl in a Blue Dress author gave up social work in 2009 to focus on her writing career and her comments about the profession offer an interesting insight into how she believes it has changed since she first started in 1969:

"It was very well thought of back then. You worked with people who wanted to be helped. You could stop a situation getting so bad it went to the courts." By contrast, the status and nature of the profession today has left her disillusioned. "If social work in 1969 was like the profession I left in 2009, I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole."

There have been lots of words written about social work's two competing national college bids, quite a lot of them by us here at Community Care.

But sometimes a picture (or cartoon) is worth a thousand words. From the pen of the excellent cartoonist Fran Orford:

My colleagues on the Adult Care Blog have covered two mental health stories in recent days:

• Apparently sleep disorders are on the rise in the UK
• And mental health discrimination is still rife, says a new report

Meanwhile consumption of trans-fats, often to be found in junk and processsed food, is linked with depression in a new study. As ever, the question of whether those liable to depression are less likely to cook fresh food or have less money to spend on food needs to be borne in mind. But there does seem to be something in the link between food and the brain.

And finally, NICE has updated its recommendations on the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder.

(Pic: Mykl Roventine on Flickr)

It's early days yet and we've only had 100 votes or so, but our poll on the disputed college of social work shows the most popular option so far (Thurs 27th Jan) is for the official college, followed by "neither" and then BASW's college.

You can add your vote using the poll below and quickly make this blog post completely innacurate! But that was the position at 11.20am.

The debate is also developing on CareSpace, with some non-aligned commentators starting to question why BASW has chosen not to accept the offer of mediated talks.

Meanwhile, if you haven't read it, check out my colleague Mike's post on the college Twitter wars.

Yesterday I covered BASW's opening shots in the tussle over who should run the first national college of social work in England.

The official college interim board has now responded and is looking to position itself as the reasonable party. An open letter to BASW members aims to respond to some of their concerns and a press statement offers BASW third party mediation in talks over convergence.

I have been contacted independently in recent days by two local mental health projects campaigning against cuts and closure.

Leeds Crisis Centre, which bills itself "the country's only council-run instant-access counselling service", is facing the axe and and a campaign website has been set up to help save it. Campaigners want a full consultation with service users and GPs and consideration of cost-cutting measures rather than full closure.

Campaigners have also set up an online petition to fight plans to cut funding to Hounslow Youth Counselling Service.

Are these cuts the first of many? Are there other mental health projects out there facing similar fates? Is this the reality of the Big Society?

Find out more about social care cuts around the country on our cuts map.

The official launch today of BASW's own version of a national social work college is starting to look to me like the beginning of a civil war in social work in England.

On one side the existing National College of Social Work backed by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, Unison, social services directors and social work educators.

On the other side the British Association of Social Workers seemingly stands alone. But BASW's leaders would argue that the battle is for the hearts and minds of ordinary social workers rather than the various representative bodies.

So who will prove victorious?

Both BASW and Unison will hope to mobilise the many thousands of frontline members they already have in the UK - although some will be members of both organisations.

What will be crucial is how well the two college bids reach out to the majority who are currently non-aligned - the floating social workers, if you will.

BASW has gone after this constituency straight away, launching a social media offensive across several platforms.

It has already launched a new website for its college, which it has been promoting heavily on twitter, using its @BASW_UK account.

There is a video, accompanied by stirring music and a Facebook page and a BASW representative has been trying to win the war of ideas on CareSpace (check out the end of the thread).

We wait now for a response from the official college - so far war has not been joined in the social media sphere but the early exchanges could set the scene. Will the the official college choose to remain aloof or get stuck in - we shall wait and see.

And can BASW enlist any allies in its fight? That too could be crucial. 

Needless to say, here at Community Care we'll be following every development with keen interest.

(Pic: dclay on flickr)