The Social Work Blog

Recruitment campaign: 'Help people get more out of their lives'

2010-02-09T11:31:55Z

The Department of Health has launched its annual recruitment campaign in adult social care with a series of TV and print adverts.

Potential care workers in England are being urged to "help people get more out of their lives - and get more out of your own".

]]> Last year the campaign prompted more than 32,000 people to contact the information line to ask about careers in social care.

The TV adverts, which feature a personal assistant caring for a man with learning disabilities, are available on the Social Care Careers website.

Conduct round up: social worker accused of sex with service user

2010-02-08T14:40:50Z

A social worker who allegedly had sex with a service user and took her and her family on holiday faces misconduct charges.

Leslie Healey is accused of forming a relationship with the woman in 1998, making a personal loan to her and/or her family of around £5,000 and acting as her child's godparent - therefore breaching professional boundaries.

]]> He is also charged with sexually harassing another service user when he visited her at her home despite no longer being her social worker in 2006.

The General Social Care Council conduct hearing begins today and is due to conclude on 17 February.

In another GSCC conduct hearing, starting today and due to finish on 12 February, a social worker stands accused of behaving in an appropriate manner, including touching himself in the groin area, towards his step-granddaughters.

Social worker admonished for taking work documents from office

2010-02-02T15:26:03Z

A social worker who took confidential work documents away from her office on a USB memory stick has been admonished by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.

Mary Nash admitted to taking the documents and failing to keep them secure. A NISCC conduct committee decided a five-year admonishment on her record was an appropriate sanction, as she does not pose a risk to the public.

Daily Mail slams anti-doctor witch hunt - pots and kettles?

2010-02-02T11:10:54Z

The Daily Mail is pretty choosy when it comes to deciding which members of the caring professions to support.

Doctors, and especially paediatricians, are revered by the middle England tabloid.

Britain's social workers, on the other hand, find themselves on the wrong end of two (equally negative) conflicting stereotypes. They are either portrayed as woolly-minded incompetents or members of an SS-style militia intent on destroying families' lives.

]]> Mail rushed to the defence of the doctor at the centre of a media storm about the now discredited link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

I was hardly surprised to read the defence of Dr Andrew Wakefield's conduct contained in the newspaper's editorial on Friday morning, which questioned the General Medical Council's judgement that he was "dishonest and irresponsible" in the way he went about his research.

Experts were right to treat his findings seriously, it said.

But I almost spat out my coffee at this killer line: "Is this paper alone in feeling that there has been something of a witch hunt in the determination to crush this man and his colleagues?"

Probably not, but then "this newspaper" knows a thing or two about witch hunts itself.

The Daily Mail added to its trophy cabinet with a special award from Community Care last year for 'worst coverage of social workers' for a string of extremely one-sided reports about an adoption case in Edinburgh, which freely allowed the family to vent their fury against an individual social worker who had worked on the case.

And let's not forget its unpleasant coverage of the Peter Connolly case where the social workers were portrayed as almost as culpable as the child's killers themselves.

Of course, unlike doctors, social workers don't have children's best interests at heart - they only want to split families up.

The Social Work Reform Programme is committed to improving the status and public understanding of social work through raising awareness of the positive contributions made by social work to communities across England.

With biased editorial coverage like this, sounds like they have a way to go.

Social worker stalked for more than six years by service user

2010-02-01T09:57:55Z

A social worker was stalked for more than six years by a man she visited as part of a mental health assessment team.

The service user, Richard Jan, made numerous silent phone calls to social worker Shauna Bailey, attempted to torch her car and twice assaulted her, once beating her face repeatedly with a brick. Read more

This is an extreme case, but it raises interesting questions about whether stalking and prolonged abuse is a widespread problem. If so, what is being done to support social workers? Is abuse like this being properly recorded?

Have you ever been stalked by a service user? Have your say on CareSpace

Memorial day for people killed or seriously injured at work

2010-01-29T15:55:01Z

by Daniel Lombard

The UK government has agreed to formally recognise Workers Memorial Day, an international day of commemoration for people who have been killed or injured at work, on 28 April.

The decision follows a campaign by Unison to improve safety for social care workers on behalf of its 350,000 members in the sector.

]]> Following two fatal attacks on support workers by service users in the last four years - Phillip Ellison in Lancashire and Ashleigh Ewing in Sunderland - Unison are keen to ensure that the government's support for the memorial day is backed up with action to increase protection for frontline workers.

A spokesperson for the union, which represents 350,000 social care workers in the UK, said: "Our network of health and safety reps have campaigned long and hard for a day to commemorate people who have been injured, disabled, made ill or lost their lives as a result of carrying out their work. Too many workers are suffering from injuries gained in the workplace. By marking Workers Memorial Day nationally, will act as a reminder for all employers that they they need have a legal duty to protect their staff.

"Time and again we have called on employers to provide proper risk assessments for their employees. Our members have a right to be made as safe as possible at work. We are urging the local government employers to keep a central register of all attacks so that we can assess the extent of the problem and deal with it appropriately."

Should care staff be exempt from additional ISA vetting fees?

2010-01-25T11:35:16Z

Social care workers will have to pay £64 to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority after the new vetting and barring system is launched in the autumn.

Anyone who works with children and vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on a "frequent or intensive" basis must register in order to comply with the law.

]]> Although many employers are expected to cover the cost of registering, they are not required to, and the ultimate responsibility for paying lies with the individual.

The fees will cover the cost of sifting through police and employment records for nine million adults, including thousands of social care workers and volunteers. The initiative was borne out of the public inquiry into the 2002 murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by Ian Huntley, a school caretaker who was reported to police on numerous occasions over alleged sexual assaults but never charged.

But should social care workers be exempt from the £64 fee?

Consultants at de Poel, which manage the supply of temporary workers, think they should.

The company believes that the additional fees will act as a deterrent to people considering entering the sector in frontline support roles, which are among the lowest paid jobs in the economy.

Matthew Sanders, chief executive of de Poel, said the sector could become "wholly reliant" on temporary workers when the changes come into effect as a result.

However, a Home Office spokesperson said registration with the ISA could even result in some financial savings as employees only need to register once and the scheme would reduce the need for routine Criminal Record Bureau checks.

This is because that while CRB checks will present a complete picture of a person's criminal history, the ISA scheme is much more proactive, and any information relating to a person's suitability to work with children or vulnerable adults will be passed to employers as soon as it arises.

The impact of charges on the workforce is the latest in a long line of controversies to emerge from the radical scheme. Will your employer be paying your ISA fee? And do you agree that care workers should be made exempt from the charges?

Hilton Dawson steps into CareSpace debate on national college

2010-01-25T09:49:23Z

Hilton Dawson, the chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, has mounted a typically robust response to a debate on our CareSpace forum about BASW's involvement in the national college of social work.

]]> In a thread entitled "When will BASW make up their mind over the national college of cocial work?", Dawson says: "This isn't about BASW. It's about ensuring that we have a UK (not national) College which can drive the fundamental transformation that the profession of social work needs."

Dawson originally raised concerns over potential government interference in the national college, which ministers are committed to supporting following the recommendation by the Social Work Task Force. He added that it could "become another quango".

Then BASW's council voted to go ahead with supporting the project, before Dawson posted a statement on the association's website suggesting they could even launch their own "independent" college after becoming disillusioned by the way the negotiations were going.

Dawson added that the college "must be independent and strong", and finished his post with an unexpected apology: "Sorry if we're boring Community Care but however we do it BASW are going to get this right."

Don't worry Hilton, you're not boring us. On the contrary, your steadfast commitment towards an independent college is what's keeping the reform story alive!

Social worker stole £33,000 from a mentally ill service user

2010-01-22T12:43:21Z

A social worker stole £33,000 over a year from a mentally ill man she was supposed to be looking after.

Jeanette Breedon, 50, was jailed for 15 months at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester having admitted four counts of theft at a previous hearing.

CareSpace users 'meekly' accept pay freeze for council staff

2010-01-22T12:26:15Z

I was surprised by the muted reaction on CareSpace to the latest decision to freeze pay for all council staff, including the lowest-paid workers.

Comments ranged from "I'm just glad to be in a secure job" to "I suppose we don't have much choice". Only one CareSpace user was up in arms.

]]> nigel reigate wrote: "I'm flabbergasted and disgusted that so many respondents to this thread seem to be meekly accepting this proposal to freeze [i.e. cut] our pay. The employers' use of the excuse that this is because of the recession is disingenuous and to say that it's to protect jobs is nothing less than scare tactics."

Of course, we are in a recession and pay cuts can prevent or put off the need for job cuts. But teachers, nurses and police look set to get a pay rise of 2.3% or more from April - so why not council staff?

Trade unions Unite, Unison and GMB are holding an emergency meeting to determine a plan of action. GMB's national secretary Brian Strutton said: "I guarantee the mood will be very angry."

He might be surprised.

In other news, it sounds like Jan Parkinson, managing director of Local Government Employers, may have taken a creative writing course over Christmas. Explaining the decision to freeze council workers' pay, she said:

"Councils are facing a perfect storm of falling revenues and increasing demand for services. [...] Town halls have been swept by the cold winds of recession for more than a year and that means difficult choices have to be made."

Personal data sold in second hand shop and other workforce news

2010-01-20T16:59:15Z

Lancashire Council has been rapped by the information commissioner after confidential documents were left in furniture sold in a second hand shop.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed the blunder last year when the customer who bought the county council filing cabinet from a Blackburn second-hand shop came forward. Read more

]]> Skills Academy invites carers to enter National Caring Competition

The National Skills Academy for Social Care has put out a call to all social care employers and training bodies to nominate potential competitors for the first in a series of national caring competitions.

Competitors will be given various scenarios and asked to respond. For example, in the scenario "activities of daily living", a competitor would have to demonstrate how they would help a service user to deal with day-to-day issues such as getting dressed. Read more about this on the Skills Academy's website

Aspect acts on workers' rights for foster carers

A specialist foster carer who was denied basic rights at work is to take Norfolk County Council to an employment tribunal. Backed by Aspect Sandra Bullock is seeking to establish her legal status as ' a worker'. Read more about this on Aspect's website

Nationals only half-cover the Douglas Adams "Miss Whiplash" case

2010-01-20T12:39:40Z

Journalists from the Daily Mail and the Telegraph turned up at the Douglas Adams conduct hearing at the General Social Care Council on Monday.

Both papers subsequently carried a news story focusing on the most shocking aspects of the case, such as the "Miss Whiplash" comment (as did Community Care).

]]> But on Tuesday, as the case continued, nobody from the national newspapers appeared in the tiny, brightly lit waiting area next to the hearing rooms. Instead it was just me and a freelancer who was covering the case for a local Yorkshire paper (Adams worked for Barnsley Council, south Yorks, at the time of the misconduct).

After hearing from a final witness, the committee decided to strike Adams off the social care register. But it makes you wonder; if he had been exonerated, would the nationals have reported the outcome? Would it matter if they did?

Read why the GSCC conduct committee decided to strike Adams off

Support for stressed-out social workers and other training news

2010-01-19T11:16:29Z

A Yorkshire training company has launched a new stress management workshop for people in social work and other stressful jobs. Positive Days has developed the wellbeing workshop in line with guidelines on the mental wellbeing of employees from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. ]]>

With a Community Care survey last year showing nearly three-quarters of social workers feeling they faced burnout due to making difficult decisions under stress, and more recent reports that many social workers are taking anti-depressants, it seems initiatives like these are badly needed.

Allan Sutherland, a disabled poet, has taken up a post as artist-in-residence at the Centre for Citizen Participation, Brunel University.

Sutherland, who has grand mal epilepsy and is also a scriptwriter and performance poet, is currently working on transcription poetry based on interviews with disabled people.

The core aim of his work, he says, and "all my life", has been about finding a voice for disabled people. He hopes to continue this at the London university's highly regarded research centre for user participation.

Voluntary organisations across Scotland are set to receive £900,000 to help meet the cost of staff training.

The Scottish Government said the grant from the Voluntary Sector Development Fund will go to 67 providers including housing associations and care organisations.

Skills for Care launches workforce development survey

2010-01-13T14:35:53Z

Skills for Care has launched an online survey for employers on best practice guidelines for workforce development.

The Care Quality Commission asked them to develop the guidelines to underpin the workforce elements of their guidance about compliance, published last month. The survey, which closes on 10 February 2010, will give employers a chance to have their say.

Social worker who assaulted boy faces removal from register

2010-01-13T10:17:23Z

A social worker who was found guilty of assaulting a 12-year-old boy he was helping to return to school is facing removal from the register today.

Stephen Dent, 54, who works for Croydon Council, became "pink with aggression" when the child refused to go, Croydon Magistrates' Court was told last year.

]]> He had been assigned to help the boy, who had been off school for more than 15 weeks after a meningitis scare.

But on one occasion Dent became aggressive and grabbed the boy by the arms, dragged him across the floor and "intimidated" him, causing him to become hysterical.

He also threatened to call in "stronger men" to deal with the boy and that he warned the child would be put into care and bullied if he did not comply.

Keep an eye on Community Care for the outcome of the General Social Care Council's conduct hearing.