Recently in Social work Category

One of the major talking points in episode 2 of social work documentary Protecting Our Children was the use of security guards on a home visit.

We put together a light-hearted poll to find out just how widespread the practice is:

We had a great response to the live chat we organised during BBC social work documentary Protecting Our Children. Just click on the chat box on the page and you can review the 500+ comments made by our panel of experts and the social work contributors.

Most people felt the programme had been worthwhile and were full of praise for Bristol's decision to open their doors to the cameras. But we'll be pulling together some of the best comments soon.

Also, expect news shortly about episode two of the series, which broadcasts next Monday.

Meanwhile, check out the review of the programme in the Telegraph - it's positive but then you only need to look at the 'related articles' to see the wider context. There's also a positive review in the Independent.

I'm sure you will have all heard about the BBC social work documentary, Protecting Our Children, which starts tonight (Monday).

Don't forget that tonight you will be able to join a live discussion, directly before, during and after the programme with social work experts. Just go to our special Protecting Our Children page and post your comments in the chat box in the middle of the page.

(Pic: bon bon/photosindia/Getty Images)

by Mithran Samuel and Simeon Brody

Good year

Kaliya Franklin

Franklin has emerged as one of the foremost service user bloggers and campaigners against cuts to disability benefits and care. Blogging at Benefit Scrounging Scum and The Broken of Britain and very active on Twitter, she has relentlessly shone a light on the impact of the government's cuts on disabled people's lives. Highlights included One Month Before Heartbreak, a three-day campaign to raise awareness of cuts to disability living allowance online, and a public encounter with Ed Miliband at the Labour Party conference, in which she asked the party leader why it was failing to oppose cuts to disability benefits. Miliband's failure to get her name right - he called her Harriet several times - made it an instant You Tube hit but Franklin also successfully exposed Labour's reluctance to stand up for disabled people lest it be accused of being soft on the allegedly workshy.

Irwin Mitchell

The law firm took up several cases on behalf of disabled and older people affected by cuts to adult social care, and managed to reverse Birmingham and Isle of Wight councils' decisions to increase thresholds for care on judicial review.

Eileen Munro

Eileen Munro's review of child protection, published in 2010, received strong backing from the government this year, which pledged to introduce most of its recommendations.

And Munro's recommendations are receiving strong interest from social workers themselves - our guide to the Munro report was our most popular story of the year.

Bad year

The Care Quality Commission

2011 was an annus horribilis for the Care Quality Commission. It was slammed for failing to intervene to stop abuse at Winterbourne View hospital for people with learning disabilities after it did not respond to three reports from whistleblower Terry Bryan. It was criticised by MPs for having "distorted priorities" after cutting inspection levels for adult social care by 70% to switch resources into its programme of re-registering all providers last year. And the year ended with one of its own board members, Kay Sheldon, calling for a change of leadership at the regulator, including the departure of Cynthia Bower, the chief executive. There could be worse to come in 2012, with the Department of Health due to report on reviews of the CQC's capability and into Sheldon's criticisms of its leadership.

NHS acute hospitals

A string of reports in 2011 slammed the quality of care for older people, particularly those with dementia, on acute hospital wards.

• Inadequate staff training and an impersonal approach to care are blighting the experiences of dementia patients in hospital, found a national audit of dementia care, published in December.
• A Care Quality Commission study of 100 hospitals in England, published in October, found one in five was failing to meet essential standards on dignity or nutrition. 
• The health ombudsman concluded that the NHS was failing to treat older people with dignity, respect, care or compassion, in a report in February based on 10 cases.
• The Older People's Commissioner for Wales found that Welsh hospitals were failing patients with dementia in a report in March this year, including because of inadequate staff training.
• In the same month, the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland said that hospitals were treating patients with dementia unlawfully by failing to apply safeguards for those who lack capacity to consent to treatment.

Eric Pickles

The communities secretary did not make himself popular with the social care sector when in March he announced that the government was examining all council social care duties as part of a wide ranging review. Sector leaders told him unequivocally that the idea was a very bad one and in June the idea was shelved. The government said it had never meant to get rid of the duties in the first place.

To make matters worse, Pickles' seeming obsession with bins over other council duties, such as social care, rankled with some commentators. In January a keynote speech on local government suggested waste collection was his highest priority. And in September he found an extra £250m to spend on more bin collections while social care budgets were being slashed. The announcement was made while the National Children and Adult Services conference was running and the attendant social care Twitterati were not amused:

 

@joefd: "A lot of anger at #ncasc that Pickles's bin money could have made real change if spent on care and support."

We wrote hundreds of social care news stories, analysis pieces, features and good practice guides in 2011. But which stories proved most popular, in terms of hits, on our website? Here is the top 10, in reverse order:

10. Councils withdrawing social workers from mental health teams

Councils across the country were reviewing partnership agreements with mental health trusts, we reported in August. Financial difficulties were the driver, said Steve Shrubb (left) director of the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network.

9. Take pay cut or face the sack, council tells staff

Staff at Shropshire Council were told in July they must accept a 5.4% salary cut and changes to sick pay or face the sack.

8. Actor Corden's sister investigated over TV social work role

Back in January, a Channel 4 documentary decided to stop describing the sister of Gavin and Stacey star James Corden as a social worker as it emerged her name was not at the time on the GSCC's social work register. The social work graduate was giving advice to teenagers about sex.

7. Social workers failed to monitor direct payment user murdered by son 

A serious case review in November found that social workers had failed to monitor the circumstances of a direct payments user who was murdered by his son. Mark Alexander was convicted of his father Samuel's murder in September 2010.

6. Social workers 'collapsing' under workplace stress

Three in five social workers to contact the British Association of Social Workers' advice and representation team were suffering from work-related stress, we reported in August.

5. The state of personalisation in 2011

Our guide to the year's key developments in personalisation, including our exclusive research conducted in association with Unison, proved a big hit with readers.

4. Biggest shake-up in adult care law in 60 years proposed

In May, the government signalled the biggest reform of adult care law in 60 years after a three-year review proposed sweeping changes to adult safeguarding and carers' rights, and the extension of direct payments to residential care.
 

3. Adult social care in crisis?

The Winterbourne View scandal, the collapse of Southern Cross, falling support for personalisation among professionals and uncertainty over future funding brought concerns about social care to a head last summer.

2. Mother who killed son with bleach intimidated social workers

Social workers were repeatedly intimidated by a mother who killed her 12-year-old learning-disabled son by forcing him to drink bleach. However, they could not have predicted his death, a serious case review concluded in July.

1. Special report on the Munro Report into child protection

In summer 2011, the government published its formal response to Eileen Munro's review of child protection, commissioned the previous year. The popularity of our special report shows how important social workers believe Munro's review will be to the future of the profession.

David Cameron's plan to tackle 'problem families' is early intervention work by another name, according to a College of Social Work representative.

"And a lot of early intervention services have been cut," pointed out Laura Eden, a social worker and operational manager in a children's social care department and College spokesperson.

Eden said she supported any scheme to help troubled families and suggested Cameron's plan differed from the existing family intervention projects in that tackling barriers to employment will be its primary aim.

While that may be a useful way to tackle poverty and self-esteem issues in some families, it won't be so effective for others with more complex problems, she suggested.

Eden does not expect the troubleshooters to be qualified social workers and said she expected their role to be primarily a signposting one, working with families who did not meet social services thresholds. 

The Department for Communities and Local Government said the £450m being invested in the scheme would be paid on a payment-by-results basis, with the following criteria:

It said the role of the troubleshooters would include making sure the right families are getting the right type of help, "that sanctions are in place when needed", and that positive results are being achieved with the troubled families in their area. 

The GSCC has produced a really snazzy looking interactive tool which social workers and students can use to test their knowledge of professional boundaries.

I had a go at it and particularly enjoyed the sound effects.

The tool involves a number of different scenarios and gives you a choice how to respond. Instead of telling you whether you made the right choice the quiz just highlights the relevant code of practice and shows how many other people chose each particular option.

There may be a lot of sense in that but if even the regulator can't come up with the definitive right answer it illustrates what a difficult position social workers must be in.

Thousands of social workers, social care staff and students gathered at the Business Design Centre in London for Community Care Live Children and Families yesterday.

There were lots of highlights and some incredibly popular sessions. Delegates queued almost round the building to hear Professor Eileen Munro speak about raising the standards in child protection. About 700 people were eventually packed into the auditorium.

The regular Risk Factor Live session, in which Perdeep Gill walked the audience through the timeline of a recent serious case review also prompted lots of audience interaction.

We also had our first Tweet Up - a real life meeting of Twitter users - with a small but select group!

We covered the conference as it happened using Twitter and on our live coverage page but lots of people also got involved via Twitter. Here are some of my highlights:

@ComCareWork: When social workers avoid talking to media about bad news it can make the story worse says College of Social Work's Mark Ivory

@McMagnusson: Interesting workshop on social work and the media. Definitely a long way to go in terms of our public image. The only way is up!

@ComCareRuth: can't get into hostile parents and #socialwork session at #cclive Standing room only and queue at door

@actingasawave: Keynote starting soon in the auditorium. It's really starting to fill up! Get your seats people, should be a full house

@judithcoops: jeanette pugh dfe: we will strip down Working Together to bare minimum which means no practice guidance

@actingasawave: Few people would disagree with stripping down of Working Together. Even if just to save trees

@ComCareRuth: John Hemming: my criticism is not of #socialwork but family court system re adoption/ permanency orders

@Jenna_Lou102: Munro talk is uber busy - am sat on floor at front. Feel like I'm in a school assembly!

@judithcoops: munro: any attempt to reform adoption without also reforming the rest of the system will always be limited

@jonbolton: Prof Munro is a hugely entertaining speaker! Wish she'd been one of my professors when I was at uni!

@ListerNick:  Munro tells us that chopping and changing teams is madness for families

@actingasawave: good presentation from Tower Hamlets / Essex on adapted assessment frameworks. Good ideas to take back to my LA

@ComCareWork: Laughter and sucking of air greets the news that HPC annual registration fee is £76 compared to GSCC's £30

@FullCareOrder: @ComCareWork HPC annual registration fee is £76 is nothing compared to €300 to register with Irish equivalent Coru

@NickBerbiers: @ComCareWork Well it will be very good to see HPC offer double+ the level of service to social workers.

@lizslinn: learning about compassion fatigue risks to social workers and foster carers

@HPC_Mark: Good day at #CClive, more than 300 visits to joint @HPC_news & @TheGSCC stand. Our presentation was well attended, lots of q's about the fee

There was a time when people wrote poems about daffodils, or tigers or the night mail crossing the border. How times have changed. Here is a rather splendid poem about hot desking by an anonymous social worker:

Hotdesking's fine if you're all the same size,
With identical leg-lengths, identical eyes,
Fit, young and supple, with delicate thighs,
But hotdesking's really the pits otherwise.

First a free desk you must find - oh what fun!
Then, is the computer a "Social Care" one?
If the base unit's massive, an obsolete mess,
With a high screen on top, indeed that's a yes.

If your chair won't adjust, that's the norm, and so be it.
Crane your neck at your monitor, hope you can see it.
All the Health monitors' stems will adjust,
But at least my neck swivels, so it's chin up, and thrust!

So I've now found a chair where my feet touch the floor.
Like a kid watching fireworks, my craned neck is sore.
We're all in the same boat. I mustn't complain,
But my posture is awful, and causing me pain.

I wear varifocals, which give me sharp sight
Only with screen, desk and chair the right height.
Sick of the blur, a solution's in hand:
I'm going to make my own monitor stand!

A morning of frantic endeavours it took:
A Tupperware biscuit tub and Argos book.
A precarious structure, of that I've no doubt,
And now that it's finished... it's time to go out!

My hotdesk survival kit's almost complete,
And I've even been given a rest for my feet,
But I don't have a desk where my kit can be stored...
So tomorrow - it's back to the old drawing board!

Just finished editing Community Care's latest podcast in which we discuss the idea of housing homeless people before dealing with associated substance misuse problems, charing parents who put their children into care and news that social work assistant are taking on the responsibilities of qualified social workers.

You can listen to the programme using the player below, or you can subscribe via RSS on the new Community Care podcast page or via our FeedBurner page.