August 2008 Archives

 by Allan Norman

I took part in an opinion poll recently, where I was asked questions about who I would trust with my data. Banks? The Health Service? The local authority? Education institutions? The government? My answer was, "none". My answer to the follow up question was that I was most likely to trust a small local business or organisation. To put it another way, it seems that my levels of trust are inversely related to the chances of the organisation in question having a detailed Data Protection Policy.

It is, of course, the loss of a data stick containing details of the prison population that prompted these reflections. I have commented on data protection before, how willing we are to understand that it encompasses and regulates whether we tell people things they need to know. How did we come to lose sight of the fact that Data Protection also encompasses protecting data on data sticks?

Service users and their families need access to independent information and advice if personalisation is to work, says Stephen Burke

by Helen Bonnick

Strict parenting is seen by many as outdated but have we gone too far in giving children the right to dictate terms at home?  

by Joe Levenson

While there is wide acknowledgement that preventive services are the way forward, health and youth justice are lagging behind

by Simon Stevens

A visit to the Gay Pride celebrations can inspire people with disabilities to feel comfortable about who they are 

 by Allan Norman

Somebody Else's Problem, according to Douglas Adams, can easily be run off a single torch battery for over a hundred years. Hardly surprising, if the judgement of the House of Lords in M, R (On The Application of) v Slough Borough Council [2008] UKHL 52 (30 July 2008) is anything to go by. The Problem itself generates its own friction, heat and dissipated energy.

This is the judgement I said was on the way. It's not the judgement I predicted, or hoped for.

Self-reflection provided useful lessons for Jane Naik when she wanted to review her approach to anonymity in a case

It was the call a social worker dreads - an older man, with dementia, alleging that his wife was abusing him. The referrer was the man's daughter from his first marriage. I agreed that she could remain anonymous.