by David Kane
There are more third sector staff in social care but some charities will struggle in the recession, the 2009 NCVO almanac shows.
Continue reading Charity outlook mixed.
February 2009 Archives
by David Kane
by Simon Stevens
Social and health care providers categorise people in order to provide set services to them; but is such labelling redundant?
Users' experiences of the social care system is based on the label which has been placed on them. For example, people with visual impairments will have access to a completely different set of services and cultural norms to people with learning difficulties. Once a label has been imposed it will be difficult to remove even if it is inappropriate and can affect people for the rest of their lives. As a young, physically impaired person entering the system in the early 1990s I was labelled "independent".
Continue reading Beware the label.
by Peter Corser
Both social workers and bankers deal with their clients' money. But it appears social workers may use the funds more wisely
Well it's nice to be in a new year and not be public enemy number one. I don't know about you but I think it's great to see bankers with six-figure salaries being vilified rather than overworked and underpaid social workers, even if the public vitriol aimed at them misses the point as much as it did with us.
Continue reading Better than the bankers?.
by Andrew HolmanI've had complaints! I know, I'm sorry, I haven't blogged on Valuing People Now yet, due to lack of time. But time for a brief update now.
Continue reading Valuing People Now: time to start planning.
by Peter Beresford
Although many have welcomed plans for NHS personal budgets, they raise some wider questions about universal entitlement.
The extension of personal budgets to the NHS has been welcomed as good news by many. Bureaucratic divisions between health and social care have created serious difficulties for long term service users. Their needs don't divide neatly between the two sets of services and systems of support. They have also often been restricted to a limited menu of NHS services.
Continue reading NHS principles in conflict.
by Steve Rogowski
Personalisation does not have its roots in social work, but in the reforms of the Thatcher era which New Labour has embraced
The Social Care Institute for Excellence has recently argued that personalisation originates from social work values such as respect for the individual and self-determination. It also argued that direct payments had their roots in the service user movement and the social model of disability with notions of participation, control, choice and empowerment being to the fore.
Continue reading Illusion of Indepence.
by Simon Heng
Bad weather and illness can test the best of PAs who work for disabled people. Fortunately, most of them passed the test.
Now is not a good time to ask me about my carers - or, to distinguish them from those of you who do it more for love and duty than for the money - personal assistants.
Continue reading Winter brings out the best.
by Peter Beresford
As we watch the shops shutting and the jobs going, we are as never before being confronted by the most enormous contradictions in UK PLC. Bank chiefs receive enormous bonuses, after driving us and their businesses into the ground. A government that can't offer a helping hand to 27,000 Woolworth's employees or earlier save Rover, the sole large British car producer, hands over multi-billions, to the same banks, almost unconditionally. It appoints as key advisers to get us out of this mess, some of the very people whose greed and incompetence first got us into it, people like ex-HBOS supremo, Sir James Crosby.
writes Ray Jones
In his second column on the state of child protection services, Ray Jones offers pointers to how they could be improved.
Last week I looked at why there are major problems in child protection services in some places. So what should we do?
Continue reading Nothing that can't be fixed.
writes Helen Bonnick
Supervision and mentoring help make good practitioners, so be creative about the venue to bring out the best in the process
The notion of supervision to those working in education is somewhat alien, rather indulgent, and certainly not written into the timetable.
Continue reading Wherever I lay my hat.
by Peter BeresfordWell, I guess it had to happen. Personalisation has got an unsurprising accolade. It has made it into Private Eye's Pseuds Corner, with this entry:
We believe effective commissioning is the key to the delivery of personalisation and to making a very different offer to the citizens of Lancashire.
Continue reading Personalisation: Time for some jargon busting.
Hopes for the UN convention in the UK are suffering a setback as the government appears to backtracking on its commitments, writes disability campaigner Simon HengIn September 2006, our government ratified the United Nations Convention on Human Rights for Disabled People. At the time, this seemed to be a positive thing - Britain was going to be one of the first nations to legally affirm its belief in equality for disabled people - even though it wouldn't be accountable for this until 2025.
Continue reading UN Convention on Human Rights for Disabled People: beware backtracking.
by John HemmingIt may sound odd coming from me, but society needs to offer more support for social workers dealing with child protection.
Continue reading Society must give greater support to social workers.
by Simon Stevens
The benefits the computer brings to some disabled people are impossible to quantify; there are just too many
As I was recently pondering the successes of 2008, including writing this column, a friend of mine reminded me of what may be the single thing that has got me where I am today. It is not personalisation or direct payments, nor having a good business or great staff. It is just what we now take for granted, the computer.
Continue reading Take my PC, take my life.
By Jennifer Harvey
Good riddance to January. It is a depressing period when so many people, who are old and sick, simply lose the will to live
Blue Monday was the day of my mum's funeral. It was 19 January, supposedly the unhappiest day of the year, when nearly a quarter of workers phone in sick, Christmas bills are coming in, pay day is still some way off, new year's resolutions are already broken, and winter is dragging on. Add to that this winter's spate of job losses, and boarded-up shops on every high street, and you have one depressing month. Good riddance to it.
Continue reading An unforgiving month.
by Allan Norman
I have been known to remark on what I see as an irony: when I qualified as a social worker, we were advocates for our service users; now our service users apparently need advocates in their dealings with their social workers.
A more sinister extension of this has hit me forcefully over the last few days. Now, it appears, we must not advocate for our service users.
Continue reading Got a social worker? You'll need an advocate then!.
