November 2010 Archives

Two snapshot surveys out this week show the  growing impact of the economic climate on working conditions for social workers.

Three quarters of social workers are spending less time with service users now compared to this time last year, according to Liquid Personnel.

The recruitment consultancy surveyed around 200 social workers and found two thirds have experienced an increase in their caseload in the last year.

As a result, 40% said they consider their workload to be unmanageable, reflecting findings from our own survey in September.

Meanwhile a survey by the British Association of Social Workers has revealed that nearly a quarter (23%) of its members receive supervision only once every three months or less, with 10% of these respondents rarely or never receiving such support.

The Social Work Reform Board is due to launch a consultation on some of its work, including development of a national standard for employers, on 6 December.

In the meantime, as Moira Gibb (pictured) said yesterday, councils could and should be making use of the workload "health check" to assess whether they are providing enough supervision and balanced caseloads.

The icy relationship between employers of social workers and the press was brought into focus last week when I began gathering reaction for a Community Care article on the profession's first ever national college.

I rang several contacts asking them for their views on the priorities of the college, which is being developed to provide a stronger national voice for social workers across the country.

Most of them were happy to be quoted but the level of bureaucracy was quite astounding.

Sixty per cent of employers have still not completed a workload "health check" eight months after it was recommended by the Social Work Task Force, according to a snapshot survey of 30 local authorities carried out by the British Association of Social Workers.

In those local authorities that have made use of the taskforce's health check framework, 16% restricted its use to children's services.

The check advises councils across England to look at areas including workload, training, management and supervision and the health of the workplace for all their social workers. Community Care understands that the Social Work Reform Board will do a larger-scale survey of employers soon.

Pic: heipei on flickr

The Care Council for Wales' new blog on the codes of conduct for social care workers is in full swing.

The latest case study asks whether a support worker, who has failed on three occasions to arrive on time to take a man with learning disabilities to his work placement, has breached Code 2.

Sadly you don't get a prize for guessing the correct answer.

Pic: david nikonvscanon on flickr

We sometimes struggle to find pictures to illustrate our blogs, particularly in the workforce team (how would YOU illustrate disguised compliance?). But today, one fell into my lap: the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It's not as mad as it sounds. Yesterday, at Community Care's Children and Families conference, a social worker was quoted as saying that entering information into the Integrated Children's System (ICS) was like "feeding the Hungry Caterpillar". And it just so happened our editor had bought a toy version of the caterpillar for her niece. So here you go: the new way to illustrate the frustrations of ICS.

We reported yesterday that Jackie Rafferty, Hilary Tompsett and Sue White have written to ministers warning that any removal of bursaries for social work students could result in significant personal debts and a shortage of applicants.

The story focussed on bursaries, but, as Rafferty later pointed out, universities receive a certain amount of funding per student from the Higher Education Funding Council for England as well.

Rafferty said it was the potential loss of both that would be the double whammy. If bursaries are used differently but HEFCE funding remains, students might be able to weather the storm.

But if both go, social work may no longer be able to sustain its status as a degree-level profession.

Council workers from local Unison and GMB union branches have been protesting against the Barnet Council's decision to become an "easyCouncil", the Socialist Worker reports.

Under the plans residents would pay more for a higher level of provision, with only a basic service offered for those paying the minimum. It's known as the "easyCouncil" after budget airline easyJet, which applies surcharges to non-essential items.

Another protest is planned on 14 December, followed by a march in January. 

Is Barnet Council the testing ground for a Cameron government?

Nobody was particularly surprised when Hilton Dawson, chief exec of the British Association of Social Workers, picked a rather public bone with education secretary Michael Gove (pictured) at the National Children and Adult Services Conference yesterday. Like the profusion of calorific freebies and embarrassing after-hours dancing, Dawon's run-ins with ministers are becoming an annual NCAS tradition.

Last year in Harrogate, children's secretary Ed Balls was in the firing line for claiming social workers were "barking up the wrong tree" when they blamed child protection failures on too much bureaucracy.

Dawson angrily shouted across the auditorium that most social workers spend 80% of their time in front of the computer. And, to be fair, while some people had their doubts about Dawson's method of getting the point across, it did lead to an interesting debate about how and what information should be recorded.

This year, he criticised Gove for mentioning social work just once during a 25-minute speech to directors of children's services.

"You have made very plain in your speech and since coming into office that you do not see social work as a central priority for the work of the Department for Education," said Dawson when Gove took questions after the speech. Again, his approach may have raised a few eyebrows, but I suspect Dawson has said out loud what many others were thinking.

Finally, because you truly couldn't make this stuff up, here is what Gove said in response to Dawson's call for the establishment of a chief social worker:

"I think the guy who's chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers is doing a fantastic job speaking up for the profession... there's no need for duplication."

More social workers could leave local authorities in future and migrate to the private and voluntary sectors, according to Skills for Care's chief executive.

Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services Conference 2010, Sharon Allen said "who employs [social workers] is going to change rapidly over the years".

"We've heard a lot of talk about social workers setting up social enterprises and cooperatives," she said.

"Perhaps adult social care will follow the route of children's social work and start placing more workers in the private and voluntary sectors."

But Allen, a registered social worker who took up her post earlier this year, said: "The critical thing is not where they're employed, however, but the value they bring to the local community."

Allen was responding to concerns raised by a delegate from a local authority about the ongoing social work reform programme being hampered by the complex nature of the sector.

"The problems surrounding social work are largely because they're seen as local government employees and not as a professional body," she said.

Last month Swindon Council announced it was moving its adult services social workers to a social enterprise alongside community health colleagues from the local NHS trust.

• Read our live coverage of the National Children and Adult Services Conference 2010 in Manchester
  

It turns out that the eleven newly-appointed interim board members of the College of Social Work are not all registered social workers, as Community Care was originally informed.

Rather, the board comprises nine registered social workers (eight registered with the General Social Care Council and one with the Scottish Social Services Council), one qualified social worker and a service user.

The College development team said: "We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise for this discrepancy, resulting from an oversight by our communications team.

"It was never the intention of the interim board members nor of the development team to mislead the public and our stakeholders."

To clarify:

• Kate Arnett is a service user with experience of the social work sector as a teacher and trainer.
• Graham Brittain has a background in social work and social care management and is the director of education and social care for the Royal National Institute of Blind People. However, he is not currently a registered social worker.

It is, perhaps, not the most auspicious start for an organisation charged with communicating with the public, media and policy makers about the social work profession.

However, the board members have a breadth of experience across different specialisms and hopefully it is this, not the question of whether they are registered, that will have the most relevance when it comes to establishing the College of Social Work. 

Co-chairs pledge a flying start for national college 

Enjoying The Telegraph's headline on this story about local authority sickness rates: "Council staff given cash, M&S vouchers and fruit baskets to turn up to work"

Also, a blog has popped up about Suffolk's move towards outsourcing the majority of its services.

Picture by miss pupik