Professor Eileen Munro has agreed to join the judging panel for the 2011 Social Worker of the Year Awards.
She will join a panel of leading industry figures who will be rewarding the achievements of social workers and social work departments across England.
Munro, who led the recent review of child protection in England, said: "It is great to draw the public's attention to good social work and I am pleased to be involved with the awards."
Last year, councils across England received £23m to help reduce the pressure on frontline children's social work teams. The Children's Workforce Development Council has just published an analysis of what the money was spent on.
Well, I say that, but actually the report is more of a look at the challenges facing councils at the moment, including vacancy rates and caseloads. It only mentions "Use of the Social Work Improvement Fund" at the very end. This is how councils have used or plan to use the money:
SWIF used or will be used for/Number of councils*:
| Social work staff | 110 |
| IT solutions | 10 |
| Other staff | 14 |
| Restructuring | 13 |
| Capital expenditure or equipment | 2 |
It's a relief to learn most councils spent the money on "social work staff". But it's disappointing that there's no further break down, e.g. how much was spent on training for frontline staff, training for managers, appointment of staff into short term posts or other activities to support the authority to reduce pressure on frontline social workers.
What the report does say is that 45% of local authorities in England to take part in the CWDC's programme for newly qualified social workers found it had had a "high impact", which presumably means it led to better support for newly qualified staff.
Worryingly, 46% said it had only had "some impact", despite an extra £16m in government funding for the scheme in 2008-10.
*Two councils did not respond
David Cameron: call off pensions strike
Local government employers have welcomed the government's indication that reform of pension schemes will not be uniform across all parts of the public sector. Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: "The Local Government Pension Scheme is unique in the public sector due to its £140bn worth of assets and investments which make it much more like a private pension scheme; we are pleased the government has recognised that difference."
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that talks between unions and ministers yesterday were constructive, and Unison is thought to be considering delaying its strike ballot until later in the summer while it continues to negotiate over local government pensions. However, the talks failed to persuade teachers and civil servants not to walkout this week as planned, and David Cameron is expected to appeal to unions to call off the strike during a speech to the LGA later today.
Photo by KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features
Monmouthshire Council celebrates winning a 2011 Social Care Accolade for its work to improve support and guidance for disabled young people moving into adulthood.
Care Council for Wales also presented an accolade to Wrexham Council for its project to train a group of people with learning disabilities to help others with learning disabilities receive the best support. Five other organisations were recognised at the ceremony in Cardiff yesterday.
There is a "serious" risk of mass exodus from the local government pension scheme if contributions are raised too high, the government's advisor on pension reforms has warned.
Lord Hutton, the Former Labour business secretary commissioned to review public sector pensions (pictured), has advised ministers to tread carefully around the local government scheme, which differs from other public sector schemes because it is funded.
In a speech to think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research this afternoon, Hutton urged ministers to consider alternatives to increasing employee contributions by an average of 3.2 percentage points for all but the lowest paid council staff.
He also warned that raising the minimum contribution level could drive people out of the scheme, and urged ministers and unions to continue to negotiate over the proposals. Negotiations almost broke down last week after Treasury minister Danny Alexander revealed details of the proposals before the talks had concluded.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls (pictured) has warned trade unions not to call a general strike over pensions, claiming the government would blame any dips in the economic recovery on mass walkouts.
His comments were echoed to some extend by former Labour business secretary Lord Hutton, who led the independent review of public sector pensions. Hutton urged Labour party leader Ed Miliband to endorse his proposals and condemn any strike action.
It follows the row last Friday over Treasury minister Danny Alexander's decision to reveal fresh details of proposed reforms to pensions, before discussions with unions had concluded.
Photo by Ray Tang/Rex Features
Over the next few weeks, Community Care will look in detail at local government pensions - what the proposed reforms mean for social workers, and what the implications would be if you opted out of the scheme altogether.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this, e.g. have you considered opting out of the Local Government Pension Scheme? Also for non-local authority social workers, how does your pension compare? Comment below or on our forum
Liverpool-based social worker Pam Stopforth is one of 11 people experiencing social isolation as if she were an isolated older person in a social experiment called Isolation Week.
Organised by the charity Friends of the Elderly, the event takes place from today (Monday) through to Sunday with the aim of raising awareness of the effects of social isolation.
Southampton Council workers were out in force on Monday, marching through the city centre: these photos are from the local Unison branch. The latest news (if you can call it that) on the dispute over pay cuts is that Unison officials met with Acas and representatives from the council yesterday - but little progress was made. They are due to meet again next week, but in the meantime more groups of workers could move to all-out strike action.
Most adult social care professionals support vetting and barring schemes and believe they increase safety, a study has found.
Care workers and managers also said initiatives such as the Vetting and Barring Scheme and Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) list had raised awareness about safeguarding generally and about the consequences for staff of misconduct.
The interim report into vetting and barring schemes was produced by King's College London's Social Care Workforce Research Unit on behalf of the Department of Health.
Six in ten workers across the UK have been bullied, or witnessed bullying, over the past six months, according to Unison, and the levels are highest in local authorities.
One in four workers say that staff cutbacks have led to workplace bullying, which is double the number from two years ago. And around half say they would be too scared to raise concerns during the period of cuts.
Have you seen/experienced more bullying since the cuts began to bite? Comment below or join in the debate on CareSpace
Photo by Rex Features
Three-quarters of working people do not know there is a law that protects whistleblowers, a survey commissioned by charity Public Concern at Work (PCaW) has found.
Just over half of respondents said their employers either did not have or they did not know if they had a whistleblowing policy.
PCaW 's chief exec, Cathy James, said: "The UK is unusual as it provides comprehensive whistleblowing protection (the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998) to individuals who raise concerns internally, externally with regulators and even in some cases where individuals go to the media."
Meanwhile Great Ormond Street Hospital has formally apologised to Kim Holt, the senior doctor suspended after she blew the whistle on the clinic's failings before baby Peter's death.
Photo by Martin Poole/Mood Board/Rex Features
Hundreds of workers will march through Southampton city centre today in protest at council plans to force the majority of staff to accept wage cuts.
The march coincides with ongoing industrial action: around 150 of the council's social workers are working to rule and refusing to use their own cars for home visits. Unite claims this is costing the city £30,000 per month in taxi fares.
Meanwhile Unison has branded as "madness" the authority's decision to recruit eight agency child protection social workers on £230 a day while slashing pay for permanent staff.
Council redundancies will lead to key talent quitting the public sector leaving councils unable to provide frontline services, a Guardian survey has found.
Almost three quarters (73%) of local government network members told the paper that redundancies would lead to key talent leaving the sector. More than half (54%) said councils would be unable to provide frontline services as a result.
But roughly the same amount again said the cuts may provide an opportunity to change local government for the better.
What do you think? Join the debate on CareSpace
Photo by Isifa Image Service sro/Rex Features
By Rachel Salmon, trainee journalist
Social workers in Surrey are to trial a BlackBerry app which will give them mobile access to records and enable them to complete assessments and update information while on home visits.
Caroline Farrar, a senior manager in Surrey's adult social care department, said the BlackBerry Playbook app enables practitioners to work on cases offline, and the database is updated whenever they have connectivity.
"You don't have to go back to the office and type it up," she said. "It gives workers more flexibility in this day and age, it gives them more choices on how to manage their workload. They are not tied to their desks."
Business secretary Vince Cable (pictured) is going to warn unions today that the government may be forced to legislate against mass strike action in the public sector. Cable is set to argue that, if strike levels rise "and should strikes impose serious damage to our economic and social fabric", the pressure would be on government to change the law.
Unions are in discussions with ministers over planned cuts and changes to the public sector, including proposals to bump up employee contributions to pensions by three percentage points. Cable's comments signal that the government is growing concerned about the strength of feeling in the sector.
The FT reported last week that tens of thousands of public sector workers are likely to opt out of their pension scheme when the government hikes up employee contributions. Baroness Eaton, the Conservative chair of the Local Government Association, warned back in February that this would leave the local government pension scheme in "crisis".
Unison has been campaigning against the changes, but hasn't yet committed to strike action. That could change if negotiations falter. Either way, unions aren't going to take it lightly if the government changes the strike law.
Photo by Richard Gardner/Rex Features
Unison has torn into Eric Pickles over his claims that it costs every household more than £300 a year to keep the local government pension scheme afloat. In reality, the union says, it costs the average household £67 a year, or 5p in every £1 paid in council tax.
The minister's claims were based on figures published in Waste Watch, a Sky News blog, which Unison says was full of mistakes, including the assumption that council tax is the only source of local government funding.
Unison's general secretary, Dave Prentis, said: "What a pickle the communities and local government secretary has got himself into over pensions." (See what he did there? Hilarious)
"You would think he would have grasped the basics of local government finance by now," Prentis continued. "He desperately needs to get his facts straight: council tax is only a small part of local government funding."
Where Waste Watch and Eric Pickles got it wrong (according to Unison):
Photo by Richard Gardner/Rex Features
Panorama's shocking investigation into the treatment of adults with learning disabilities at a care home in Bristol highlights the increasing overreliance on unqualified, often poorly trained staff to look after the most vulnerable members of society.
Support workers are an essential part of the workforce, but only when properly trained and supervised. Apparently many of the employees at this home had only received around a week of on-the-job training, even if they had no previous social care experience. Why weren't they being more closely supervised? Worryingly, the most serious abuse was apparently carried out by a senior member of staff.
This kind of practice needs to be stamped out now, because social care employers are increasingly reliant on unqualified staff to keep things going at a time of cuts.
The Social Work blog covers the challenges facing Britain’s 2m-strong social care workforce: everything from pay and working conditions to stress and the latest social work conduct cases. |
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