June 2009 Archives

by Clare Jerrom

I'd like to say I'm shocked by the appalling figures produced by the Prison Reform Trust  that three quarters of young people who are placed on remand in a custodial setting are then acquitted of any crime or handed out a community sentence, but sadly these figures are of no great surprise.

By Emma Maier

Ed Balls has been quoted several times in the media recently saying that the social work profession doesn't bang on his door like other professions. But I was in a room of social workers yesterday, and the consensus was that they are banging - the problem is that he isn't letting them in.

 By Maria Ahmed, Deputy News Editor

Yesterday there were qualms over the future of key children's social work reforms due to the resignation of children's minister Beverley Hughes. Today, similar qualms could be felt in the adult's sector - with the move of health secretary Alan Johnson to the post of home secretary.

by Andrew Mickel

Following Community Care's article last week about what social work practices from the past should be revived, there's another interesting blast from the past by novelist Hilary Mantel in the London Review of Books about her time as a social work assistant in the post-Maria Colwell years. The article nicely captures how little the pressures on staff have changed in the last three decades. 

 By Maria Ahmed, Deputy News Editor

Can the social care sector trust Gordon Brown with making the right moves in the current reshuffle?

The resignation of children's minister Beverley Hughes could leave all the post-Baby P reforms hanging in the ether, according to Ray Jones, professor of social work at Kingston University. And this could further be compounded by the possible appointment of children's secretary Ed Balls to chancellor.

 by Daniel Lombard

The forthcoming cabinet reshuffle could see us bidding farewell to the children's secretary if he fulfils his ambition of becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer.

As the first ever secretary of state to oversee children's well-being, Ed Balls has led a series of schools reforms over the last two years.

But how many children's social workers will remember him fondly?