The Social Work Blog

The College of Social Work was launched last week and there are probably lots of social workers out there pondering whether to join it.

If you are one of those social workers and need a bit of help, Mithran Samuel has written an analysis of some of the relevant issues.

And he has put together a handy table comparing the benefits and costs of the College, BASW and Unison.

Unions have denied rumours that a decision has already been made over the amount social workers and other council staff will have to pay into their pensions in the future.

Rather, Unison, GMB, Unite and the Local Government Association have reached a possible agreement on the principles and timetable of negotiations in January. This has yet to be signed off by Eric Pickles (pictured looking rather jolly - not necessarily a reflection of how he feels about reforming the local government pension scheme).

The dispute between care staff and senior management at Family Mosaic looks set to continue after Unison's members at the housing association voted in favour of a formal ballot for strike action.

Unison said the "drastic proposals" to cut staff pay and increase working hours "should worry Family Mosaic's services users".

"Imposing harsh changes demoralises a workforce and cannot but affect the quality of service delivery," said London Unison regional organiser, Colin Inniss.

Family Mosaic said: "Only two weeks after requesting staff accept new terms and conditions, more than 1000 employees have confirmed their acceptance. This is more than 75% of our workforce. This still leaves a group of our colleagues considering their future and we completely understand and respect their desire to do so.

"We are not going to get into a war of words with Unison, but only a small proportion of our workforce are Unison members. Our fundamental aim remains to ensure that high quality services can be maintained and we offer the best deal possible to staff."

Stressing out about getting everything cleared off your desk before Christmas? Or about Christmas itself? Let me propose two things (admittedly, one more serious than the other):

1. Manage your stress levels using one of Community Care's guides:

One of the first steps to helping deal with stress is to recognise that it is a problem and find out how you can address it. Community Care Inform subscribers can read its guide to managing stress.

Similar advice is available on www.communitycare.co.uk:

• Managing stress in social work (by Unison; details your rights as an employee)
• Reducing workplace stress (by Ray Braithwaite, freelance trainer)

2. Take your mind off it completely by watching The Muppet Christmas Carol: 

Trade union leaders will hold back from announcing public sector strike dates on Thursday as they consider their next step after mass walkouts on 30 November, the Guardian reports.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, told the newspaper: "Both in local government and the NHS we are making significant progress in the talks. We are calling all our key activists together in early January to look at what progress has been made in the talks and to decide on the next steps in our campaign for a fair pension deal."

Photo by Stephen Simpson/Rex Features 

For all those of you who receive our daily or weekly e-newsletters, here is our Christmas schedule:

The last email of 2011 will go out on Friday, 16 December.

The first email of 2012 will go out on Wednesday, 4 January.

So, don't panic if you don't get any emails from us over Christmas - they will be back! In the meantime, you can catch all the latest news on our website.

(And for those who don't receive our e-newsletters... why not?! They're free and keep you up to date with all the latest social care news and practice.)

I was appalled to read this headline in the Sunday Express at the weekend: "Social workers 'sex up abuse claims to snatch children for adoption'." Have we gone back in time? Have tabloid newspapers learned nothing?

In 2009, Community Care launched a campaign to promote more balanced, accurate media coverage of social work. This was prompted by news coverage of the Baby P case, including the Sun newspaper's campaign calling for the sacking of the professionals involved in the case. But it sounds like this fell on deaf ears in some tabloid newsrooms.

The Express story rests on the account of one whistleblower, who claims social workers "sex up" dossiers on parents in order to justify putting their children in care. The claims, in relation to that particular local authority, may be entirely accurate - I'm not trying to discredit them - and if that is the case, of course it needs to be investigated.

But the Sunday Express takes the experience of this one social worker and infers that this must, therefore, be happening across the board. A suggestion I think a lot of social workers and councils would dispute.

Granted, you could argue that the article highlights the increasing pressure on social workers. But it also falls back on the 2009 approach to reporting about those working in children's services - describing them as "child snatchers". 

Last week, Moira Gibb, chair of the Social Work Reform Board, told me that improving the public image of social work was still a top priority for her and the board. She sees this becoming one of the College of Social Work's main duties when it formally launches in January. The Sunday Express's coverage makes you realise how much still needs to be done.