The Social Care Experts Blog

Another child at risk, another scapegoat?

2008-10-15T16:03:17Z

by Allan Norman

I had a sense of déjà vu as I read the decision of the Care Standards Tribunal in the appeal of Tricia Forbes published last week, see Forbes v General Social Care Council [2008] EWCST 1267(SW) (03 October 2008). I have previously commented on the tribunal's decision earlier this year in respect of Lisa Arthurworrey.

I might have called it indicative of a trend: certainly, these are not the only social workers who have been flailing at the deep end with insufficient experience to manage allocated child protection cases; sadly, they are not the only ones to have been let down by systems of management and supervision that should have been there to support them; tragically, they are not the only ones left to take the rap for child protection tragedies.

]]> Although the Care Standards Tribunal was careful and correct to note that the test of conduct in respect of a registration case is different from that in a conduct case (though why this should be is a different matter), the fact is that the GSCC wanted both excluded from practice on conduct grounds.

The déjà vu arises beuase in both cases the Care Standards Tribunal looked beyond the individual failings to the wider institutional context in which they occurred; were damningly critical of what they found; and found in it sufficient of excuse for the individual failings to lift the bar on practice in both cases.

I commented when reviewing the Lisa Arthurworrey decision that local authorities may want to think twice about throwing the book at their most junior and inexperienced staff. But if there is a common thread in these cases, it must also be that the GSCC might want to think twice before throwing the book at the most inexperienced and unsupported registrants.

We need a regulator willing to routinely have regard to the context of practice in which human failings occur, and not just the failings themselves.

Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), an independent law firm and social work practice.

Suddenly it makes sense

2008-10-15T15:37:01Z

By Helen Bonnick

Sometimes the full picture only emerges when we share different observations and skills with colleagues

Ask anyone about misheard song lyrics and the conversation could go on for ever. Whether it's something treasured from a school assembly hymn or the incomprehensible lyrics of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, everyone has a story to tell of trying to make sense of something half-heard. It is in our nature as human beings to try to find order and meaning in the world.

]]> re-read and somehow everything slots into place. Others scan the text with little interest but are drawn to the models. Some folk wander backwards and forwards
between the models, the explanations and the photography with a puzzled look until light finally dawns and it all makes sense.

Preconceptions
Trouble starts when we do not have enough information or skills to make the connections, when we come with preconceptions, or when we simply do not make enough
effort. It's then we start to "make" things mean something which can be far from the truth.
Children do this all the time, but they surely learn the skill from us adults. "He looked the other way when I came in" becomes "he hates me". "My teacher was crying" so "she can't cope with us". It's not a great distance between "Dad shouted and slammed the door" and "my parents are splitting up".

The full picture
But the second lesson of the holiday museum trips was how much we all need each other to ascertain the full picture.
Someone absorbs the numbers, another the individual testimonies, another person sees the general sweep of the story. It is so easy to be critical. "They didn't fully understand. Why are they so obsessed with one part only?"
Different perhaps, but none of them is wrong in his or herself; yet none tells the whole story. It is when we come together - whether in class, as a family or in a conference - and pool our knowledge and observations that we can start to properly understand what we see and make sense of the whole picture. We truly need each other's training, background and skills before we can make a full and proper assessment of a situation - before we can start to make sense and meaning of the world.

Helen Bonnick is a supervisor of school-home support workers and a social worker

Extra care services and end of life care

2008-10-15T15:30:31Z

By Melinda Phillips

Extra care services should help prepare tenants for death and ensure that their last days are comfortable as possible

It's time to talk about dying. Choice over where we die and the support we receive is fundamental to dignity and truly personalised services.

]]> Recognising the steady increase in the numbers of people living in extra care housing, Housing 21 joined forces with the NHS End of Life Care Programme in a project to improve services and support for those nearing death.
The project showed that with the right training and support, staff can play a vital role putting in place end-of-life care and helping tenants prepare for death.
Inevitably, the feelings of awkwardness that still affect many of us when dealing with other people's death were carried over into the professional lives of staff.
That said we found that tenants were pleased to have the chance to get some key details recorded. As one older person living in an extra care scheme said: "We think about this more than people realise."
Staff then have a responsibility to help older people have their wishes met. Sometimes this can be hampered by health and social care staff's lack of understanding about how extra care housing can support tenants to die at home. But this isn't just an NHS responsibility.
Our project highlighted the difficulty in continuing to care for someone at home after a rapid deterioration. It cited examples of how this had been tackled, including a social worker agreeing over the telephone to increase the care package for a woman who developed pneumonia during a holiday weekend.
The flexibility to swiftly and pragmatically change care packages in response to changing needs will grow out of partnerships at local level. Those partnerships should flow from an understanding of a good working knowledge of how extra care housing can support a tenant through a terminal illness or at the very end of their life.
So responsive commissioning is key, and we hope we are pushing against an open door with our social care colleagues. One local authority commissioner told us: "The extra care housing environment puts together the components needed for tenants and their families at the end of life - like not being alone, not being frightened or lonely, and having care flexibility."
Our project suggests we just need to talk a bit more - to tenants about their wishes, and to care services and commissioners about meeting them.
Melinda Phillips is chief executive of housing and care provider Housing 21.

➔ Copies of Is it that Time Already? are available from Housing 21 at
www.housing21.org.uk. See story p9

Social Worker - an unwanted job title?

2008-10-15T08:37:13Z

by Allan Norman

In an idle moment, I reviewed the job titles offered by the nearly 300 delegates to BASW England's conference last week. It's less than scientific, but I reckon to have found 131 different job titles, or one for every 2.3 delegates.

Startlingly, just 29 of those titles appeared to be protected titles. To put it another way, that's 78% of the job titles that fall outside of the scope of the protection of title provisions in section 61(1)(a) of the Care Standards Act 2000.

]]> The position is admittedly different if we count attendees rather than job titles: it's still a minority, but nearly 44% of attendees appear to have protected titles.

Is it that people who are social workers prefer titles that disguise the fact? That would be a truly sad finding that rendered our protection of title meaningless - what is the point in stopping people use a title that we don't want to use anyway?

Or is it, perhaps, as has been suggested before, that local authorities are happy to keep to a minimum the number of posts and functions that require a qualified and registered social worker?

I went back to review the list to see what it might tell me about managers. There were 21% more job titles that included "manager" than included "social work" (35 compared to 29)! At a BASW Conference one might reasonably assume that a significant number of those managers were in fact social workers. But the job title emphasises the management function rather than the professional role. Again raising the question why? It would be possible to rise through the profession to become a Principal SW, Lead SW, Head SW, Managing SW, Consultant SW, and probably other titles that emphasise the continuing relevance of the professional role.

Reflecting that solicitors' practices are required to "ensure that the client is given, in writing, the name and status of the person dealing with the matter", I wondered where it would get us as a profession if we were to reverse the emphasis of protection of title, by requiring anyone who is a social worker to reveal that fact? It would certainly show up employers who keep social workers out of management, or front-line delivery, or both...

In fairness, I should reveal one more fact. By far the single most common job title, offered by over 20% of delegates, was the simple, unadorned title... Social Worker.

Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), an independent law firm and social work practice.

Will adult care green paper turn to gold?

2008-10-10T11:16:42Z

By Simon Heng

A fair, simple, coherent and enabling adult care system is
what disabled people need. But will the green paper deliver?

The more I think about adult social care, the more I'm reminded of the fable of the elephant and the blind men.

It goes like this: six blind men argued about what an elephant was, so they went to find one. They surrounded the elephant, and each touched the part nearest to them. The first said that it was like a huge snake; the second, like a massive spear; the third, like a wall; the fourth, like a huge fan; the fifth, like the trunk of a tree; and the sixth, like a piece of rope. Each having touched the elephant, they went away and carried on arguing about what an elephant was.
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Piecemeal
Social care has grown, piecemeal, to meet needs as and when they have been identified, and always with the hidden agenda of, first, how little can we budget for to meet this need and, second, whether we can find a way of taking some of the costs out of another budget.
That's the only way I can understand how my care comes to be paid for from so many different sources. Although I think I - eventually - receive enough money to pay for adequate care for myself, most of my colleagues, particularly those who fall short of the current eligibility criteria, feel short-changed.

Although I don't claim to have some big overview of adult social care, I think I speak for most people who depend on it when I say that we'd like a system that is more straightforward and transparent, easier to challenge, provides help earlier and doesn't leave us trapped in poverty.

Complexity
Social care is so complex that it's difficult to understand even if you're an administrator or an academic. So just when we need the green paper to give us a unified vision of our responsibilities as individuals and as organisations, what I fear is that we will end up with a document that just fobs off responsibility to individuals and families as much as it can, and attempts to save money by privatising as much as possible.
Here's hoping the real thing exceeds my expectations.

Simon Heng is a wheelchair user and is involved in service user-led groups

27 club: No romance in dying young

2008-10-10T11:10:42Z

By Nigel Leaney

The mystique and romance surrounding the premature death of music and film icons is an illusion that we need to banish

The only famous five that I got excited about as a kid was the wholesome creation of Enid Blyton. We now live in an age of greater nihilism and since Kurt Cobain decided to blow his head off in 1994 he became the fifth member of the 27 Club, a tribute to five rock legends (the others being Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix) who all died aged 27, largely through taking a surfeit of drugs and alcohol.
]]> It has often been said that in the music industry to die young and leave a good-looking corpse is an excellent career move (in Kurt Cobain's case just dying young would have to suffice). Certainly the continuing mystic surrounding The Doors, Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix seems to support this view. Maybe sheer, blinding talent, as was unarguably the case for these five, isn't always quite enough.

Time of dramatic change
"Saturn return" is the term used by astrologers, who believe that the period approaching thirty years of age is highly auspicious and a time of dramatic change. This, of course, feeds into the mythology of the 27 Club.
It would be ridiculous to suppose that drugs fuelled their genius and foolishly romantic to surmise that their talent and sensitivity destined them for a short life. However, that's not to deny that drugs have had a huge influence in launching and nurturing a variety of cultural and music genres. But a life cut short due to suicide or over-indulgence is a stupid waste, plain and simple.

Rock star fetish
Art has to recognise the dark side of life without glorifying its misery or making a fetish of rock stars who succumb to their saturnine nature. We have a duty to children to promote role models who have lived long and well.
It's easy enough to die. We're all born to it. Living takes guts and is where the romantic narratives lie. We may not "live forever" as Noel Gallagher once urged but it remains our responsibility to make the longest and biggest song of our lives for all our kids to hear.

Nigel Leaney manages a mental health residential service
➔ See www.communitycare.co.uk/leanblog for more of his unique take on issues revolving around mental health, culture and society

Foster children should know about their birth families

2008-10-10T10:44:30Z

By David Holmes

Who do you think you are? It has become a popular question. Knowing our family background and history helps to provide us with our identity.

However, such information is not always available to children separated from their birth families. Many don't know basic details about themselves and their family history, or even where to find such information.

]]>
Frustrating
For many post-care adults, finding out information about their family background and time in care can be a frustrating experience. Requests for information from local authority records fall under the Data Protection Act 1998. But the act restricts the sharing of third-party information: for example, a person may not receive identifying information about a brother or sister they are trying to trace. As a result, people who grew up in care may receive little information from their records. Some people have found information erased when they received their files.
A survey of councils in 2005 showed that the practices and policies under the Data Protection Act vary enormously, and some post-care adults were receiving a second rate service.

Information bill
This week the Children and Young Person's Bill reaches its Commons report stage. We are calling for better support and access to those seeking information from their childhood care records and better guidance for those considering requests for information. Adopted people have rights to access information about their origins, family background and circumstances of their adoption; the same opportunities should be extended to post-care adults.
Information can help post-care adults to resolve issues about their past, provide a sense of personal history, and have a positive impact on their own children and family life. It is important therefore that the lifelong needs of post-care adults are not overlooked during the current debate about the reforms to the care system.

David Holmes is chief executive, British Association for Adoption & Fostering
➔ See www.communitycare.co.uk/104578 for more on children in the care system

Esther takes on the PC Brigade

2008-10-07T18:08:26Z

by Allan Norman

Last week, l watched Esther Rantzen take on what the programme writers decided to label "the PC brigade".

Now I know I am writing for a social work audience, and I have seen the controversy generated by her documentary elsewhere. Nonetheless, I am going to take as my starting point that we can agree that her central thesis is correct. That is, that our society is developing in a direction where we fear interacting with children, and where we are suspicious of those who do interact with children. And that this direction is harmful to children, including to effective protection of children from real harm.

]]> The question that troubled me, as someone who is both a solicitor and a social worker, was who is to blame? I was troubled not for the traditional lawyer's reason - are they insured and can we sue them? - but to reflect on the best approach to trying to reverse the trend. And I was troubled because it seemed to me that the law and social work must both bear some responsibility.

Certainly, the programme focussed on child protection practice, and how risk-averse that has become. But I couldn't help reflecting that the perceived risk would not trouble us so much if we all knew it to be a chimera. And since the actual risk of stranger danger is not noticeably increased, the perceived risk we all fear is rather how the law will view us.

To put it another way, we are not frightened of children, we are frightened of the law on child protection.

So, which is feeding off which? Has the law developed in response to counter-productive pressures from child protection agencies? Or have child protection agencies developed practice that reflects a counter-intuitive willingness to invoke the law?

Or are my two professions feeding off each other? Had I better sue myself?

Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), an independent law firm and social work practice.

Heavy Load: one of the most exciting music events I've been to

2008-10-03T08:05:08Z

by Andrew Holman

I have been keeping track of the punk band Heavy Load, not because I like punk particularly, I was a previous generation, but because they seemed to be making a bit of a name for themselves and they included a majority of musicians with learning difficulties. Last night I got to go and see them, and they are great!
]]>

The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London hosted the premiere of a documentary film about the band. Directed by Jerry Rothwell, the film, Heavy Load, covers the last 2 years of their history, all based around a notion of trying to find happiness. Yet the egos of those involved, musical differences, the tensions between supporting things to happen and fellow band members, and changes in the bands own families, all brought about difficult times that started to make it a chore rather than the fun it had been.

It all may have finished as abruptly as it started when band member Mick Williams, Guitar and Vocals, moved to France. They found stand in musicians as a temporary measure but couldn't play some songs as only Mick knew the chords! But despite such trying times they stuck at it, not least because of the dedication of bass player Paul Richards. He got few thanks from other members, not least drummer Michael White who often felt he could do it all by himself, somewhere else, playing other music with other people who didn't have such horrid beards! He may be right, no one would have given him much chance of playing in a successful punk band 11 years ago, but in truth the band works because of the individuals who are in it and when it comes to it, their dedication.

The band started their Stay Up Late Campaign, after getting fed up seeing members of their audience with a learning disability taken home at 9, I was saddened by the need but again impressed they wanted to do something about it and the campaign is certainly one we are very pleased to support . It has grown and also gained support from Mencap, an interesting move considering Mencap homes will almost undoubtedly be a major perpetrator. I am, however saddened by the need. I suppose I would have hoped things had changed after all the campaigning done it the 80s and 90s on such freedoms, changes to support arrangements since then, more personalised plans, Direct Payments and so on are all meant to be about ensuring such freedoms, yet again for most it is apparently an unobtainable goal.

But I digress, the gig afterwards was one of the most exciting and exhilarating music events I have been to in recent years. Even though they notably quipped in the film, "they were no better musicians now than when they started 11 years ago, at least they were no worse". Jimmy Nichols on rhythm Guitar and Vocals was the embodiment of cool, strumming away in his huge sun glasses. Lead singer Simon Barker led the audience in participation, and was a great front man, even though he couldn't always remember the words, that didn't matter, he was backed up superbly by the others in a completely unobtrusive way. But for me, it was White playing his solid rhythms that held it all together in a way that defied anyone not to put on their dancing shoes. I can only agree with Kylie Minogue, when she gave permission to cover "Can't get you out of my head" said "I love what you have done". Their cover versions are superbly different from the originals, listen to Wild Thing whilst their originals such as We love George Michael with the strap line Gay at Weekends clearly come from fun conversations about current events on journeys to gigs. Pure genius, see the film and after make sure you see them live.

Click here for more details.

Believe in me! ...The Tide is Turning

2008-10-02T17:49:14Z

by Allan Norman

The event, Believe in me!, at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre last week, lived up to its promise.

Which is quite something, because what it promised - and delivered - was a somewhat eclectic event about the portrayal of social work in the media.

Among those there rubbing shoulders were social work practitioners, and social work's detractors. Journalists, politicians and a budding actress. School pupils and professors. Children with experience of the care system, and grandparents aggrieved at losing their grandchildren to the same system. Would-be social workers, and would-be journalists.

]]> We explored whether - and how - social work had lost its way; but more positively we explored models of social work and engagement that had proved their worth; and of course, how social work might be positively portrayed in the media.

Here, with kind permission, is the final curtain call of some of the more active contributors rendering Abba's "I have a dream"! (I might have preferred Pink Floyd's "Outside the Wall" myself, but that just goes to prove my point about the eclectic mix. It was a moving rendition nonetheless!)

And two days later, last Saturday, The Guardian ran a good news social work story, highlighting the thousands of untold and unsung interventions to protect and promote children's wellbeing.

Who knows but perhaps - in the words of Pink Floyd's Live Aid alternative lyrics -

I'm not saying that the battle is won
But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun
Wrested technology's sword from the hand of the war lords
...The Tide is Turning.

Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), an independent law firm and social work practice.

'I feel embarrassed when I pay my personal assistants'

2008-10-02T15:16:37Z

Direct payment users treasure their relationships with their personal assistants, but can feel uncomfortable on pay day

By Simon Heng

One of the great things about being trained as a cognitive behavioural therapist is that I can now lead a guilt-free existence, which, as I was brought up in the faith which relies on guilt for its ongoing membership, I take as a personal achievement.

]]> There is one time in my life, every month, when I not only feel slightly guilty, but embarrassed as well. That's when I pay my personal assistants.
They literally keep me alive, feeding me, and keeping me hydrated. Helping me to avoid developing pressure sores, to maintain my medication routine and to stay healthy generally.
Not just that: my PAs help to maintain the quality of my life: they help me to interact with my children, to keep my home clean, to drive me and my children around so that we can have some kind of social life. They help me cook the kind of food I like. They try to cover for each other when sick, and when they need holidays. And they do it all with a sense of professionalism, friendliness and an air that there is little that is too much trouble.

Happy staff
They make my life at least bearable, and at best like everybody else's. I have had problems with staff turnover, but this particular bunch seem happy to stick with me.
So I get a pang of guilt when I calculate their pay every month, given that the value of the work they do for me bears no relationship to how much they're paid. And how much they are paid isn't even really my decision.
In its analysis of recruitment and retention, the Social Care Employers Consortium (Scec), which represents 41 organisations, employing 65,000 workers, concludes that little has changed since a similar study in 2004. There are fewer recruitment problems, probably because of initiatives by employers, rather than to any government action.

Shelf filling
Pay levels are still comparable with shelf-filling in supermarkets. Although the government claims to be spending £800m more on adult social care than in 2004, and £290m in training and development, this, arguably, has been spent on tackling the shortfalls in care, rather than increasing wages.
So maybe I shouldn't feel guilty, nor employers represented by organisations like Scec - it is the politicians who set the budgets who should. But being a politician is one of the other ways of leading a guilt-free existence.

Simon Heng is a wheelchair user and is involved in service user-led groups

Published in the 2 October edition of Community Care under the headline 'My guilt's final refuge'

The trickle down effects of recession: school social workers spot the difference

2008-10-02T15:05:20Z

by Helen Bonnick

As the economy worsens, social workers will be busier dealing with rising levels of poverty and debt. Can we cope?

As the new term starts, school-based family workers are set to be faced with more debt - and poverty - related work in the months ahead. Although the focus may be on raising levels of attendance and achievement, many issues centre on the family's financial situation. Whether it is an inability to afford a school uniform, a new pair of shoes, dinner money or outing expenses, poverty impacts on a child's readiness to learn in many direct ways.

]]> The wider issues outlined in the home secretary's leaked draft letter - the acknowledgement of serious social consequences of recession - manifest themselves in schools as a microcosm of society at large.

Insularity
Hostility to other groups is quickly learned at home and transferred to the classroom. Religious or minority groups are easily identified. Acquisitive crime may well increase, and, alongside this, the bullying of children unable to afford or flaunt the latest gizmo or trainer. Alcoholism and drug use may or may not decrease, but the frustration and desperation driven by the inability to fund an addiction will inevitably lead to an increase in family tensions and violence. A rise in the sale of cheap, less healthy foods has been reported. Will we see a commensurate increase in tiredness, irritability, concentration problems and behaviour disorders?
These are all predictable. Each individual situation may be tragic for the family concerned but we know what to do, and which agencies to contact. The wheels will grind into motion and we may be more stretched with an increase in applications to make and less resources to go round, but at the end of the day this work is not new.

Over the edge
What will be new now will be the workers who find themselves pushed over the edge. Social care and education have always attracted wages at the lower end, and for some of these workers the crunch will necessitate a tightening of belts beyond a level that can be sustained. Increased travel costs on top of food price rises, heating bills and potential housing arrears will be the final straw. We need to be ready to deal with it.

Helen Bonnick is a supervisor of school-home support workers and a social worker

Published in the 2 October edition of Community Care under the headline 'Recession-proof jobs'

Time for men to join the carer workforce

2008-10-02T14:47:56Z

As more women enter the jobs market, the burden of care upon them can be reduced by helping more men become carers, write academics Hilary Land (far left) and Susan Himmelweit

Most care is still provided by family members, usually women, which may seem to the government to be a free source of care. In practice it is paid for by carers who have reduced opportunities to do other things with their lives.

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Demand rising
This means an increasing demand for paid care. But the paid care sector is having difficulties with recruitment and retention, because of its poor pay and insufficient career opportunities. This does not attract men to care work - 80% of care workers are women - and, as the alternative employment opportunities available to women improve, they will leave the sector. This is a bleak prospect for those needing care now and in the future. Already many people, mainly women, are not receiving the care they need.

One for all, all for one
Our alternative vision is of a society of worker/carer citizens, in which everyone is expected to care and work during their life. This requires changes in men's lives and a change in how care is seen: as a public good, rather than a burden whose costs are to be minimised and shifted onto families wherever possible.
This will require that the costs of care be shared more equally between families and the taxpayer. The level of spending on social care is a political choice. It is not fully recognised that women's entry into employment has brought greater prosperity and increased the costs of the care that has to be met collectively. The gains of increasing productivity should be shared with those needing care.
The current situation is unfair and unsustainable. Policy needs to change so that men can show that they too can care in the way that only women have had to in the past.

This opinion piece was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and is available free at www.jrf.org.uk

Susan Himmelweit is professor of economics, The Open University.
Hilary Land is emeritus professor of family policy, school for policy studies, University of Bristol

Happy Retirement, and Thank You

2008-10-01T09:41:59Z

by Allan Norman

A colleague of mine recently decided to retire from social work after more than 40 years of service. She wrote to the General Social Care Council, to advise them of her decision, and took the opportunity to thank them for their role in developing the profession of social work - recalling while doing so that she was one of the last tranche of members of what was then the Institute of Almoners.

In return, she received a letter which confirmed her "request to be removed" from the register, and told her that her last known employer would be informed. The letter went on - citing chapter and verse - to explain that she would be committing a criminal offence if she held herself out as a social worker once she was no longer registered.

]]> The letter was signed on behalf of the "Business Manager, Payments and Changes". ("I suppose the Business Manager of the Payment and Changes Team was the one to reply because it was about the loss of money", my colleague quipped!)

It falls to me to say the obvious things that appear not to have occurred to our regulator, not even when receiving a thank you letter from a social worker:

Thank you for your four decades of service to social work, and may I wish you the very best in your retirement!

Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), an independent law firm and social work practice.

Every Child - without any Reservation - Matters

2008-09-27T13:17:25Z

by Allan Norman

This week, the UK Government finally announced it is to begin the process of lifting the Reservations it put in place when signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This is a move that has been widely welcomed and commended, not least by UNICEF, and rightly so since it is a positive and beneficial step. Somewhat ungraciously, therefore, let me explain my reaction, that this is too little, too late.

]]> Background

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international human rights standard, complementing and supplementing the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The UK signed up to the Convention, but recorded a number of Reservations, effectively a public statement that its commitment to the principles were limited in certain areas, notably relating to children subject to immigration control and children in the penal system.

Widespread concerns, in particular about children in immigration detention have fuelled calls for the Reservations to be lifted. The British Association of Social Workers is among those that have made such calls.

The announcement came as a one-liner in the final minute of this conference speech:

Too little

We know the mantra that Every Child Matters. We may even be lulled into believing that this agenda, alongside the Childen Act 2004, places children's rights at the heart of children's policies. But it doesn't. In essence Every Child Matters is a programme for intervention in children's lives that does not have children's rights at its heart. This is apparent in the parliamentary debates on the Children Act 2004, such as that on 13th September 2004.

The government could have made the Convention the basis for Every Child Matters, but it chose not to do so. More generally, the government passed up the opportunity to make Convention Rights directly enforceable in the UK.

The limitations of the Every Child Matters agenda are apparent from reading the critiques that have been spawned: not only Child First, Migrant Second: Ensuring that Every Child Matters, published by ILPA, but also the likes of Every Disabled Child Matters.

Too late...

In the intervening period since the Convention was ratified, we have continued to detain children. Not only those subject to immigration control, or those in the criminal justice system, but also British Citizen children caught up in the tumult of the government's immigration policy. The government's justification for this particular anomaly can only be described as one of the most jaw-dropping examples of New Labour Doublethink (Hansard, 21 July 2008):

"...where a foreign national subject to enforced removal is parent to a child with British citizenship, it is possible for that child to accompany the parent through the enforcement process on a voluntary basis... The child's status in the removal centre would effectively be that of a guest..."

...or not a moment too soon!

Social Work, in particular, must not miss a trick here. UNICEF's applause came for "the decision by the British government to grant children seeking asylum, migrant children, and those who have been trafficked into the UK the same rights as British children, including their right to education, health care and social services." It is imperative we remember this commitment when any attempt is made to progress a separate and different system for unaccompanied asylum seeking children in particular.

Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), an independent law firm and social work practice.