The Social Work Blog

Are we asking too much of The College of Social Work?

2012-02-01T10:43:35Z

Yesterday's launch of The College of Social Work was high on enthusiasm and morale-boosting comments - for the profession and the college - and low on doubts and scepticism (as I blogged earlier, there was just one mention of BASW). That's perhaps as it should have been. But I came away thinking that we have a lot of expectations vested in the College and it will be a juggling act for it to fulfil each and every one of these.

Children's minister Tim Loughton set out the key aims of the College as driving up standards, improving public confidence in social work and providing a strong voice for the profession.

With a non-social work specific body - the Health Professions Council - taking over professional regulation of social work this year - General Social Care Council chair Rosie Varley said it was important for the College to step into the space vacated by the GSCC.

Many speakers said the College needed to be inclusive of all parts of the wider social care sector, particularly service users. In a passionate speech, social work lecturer and service user leader Peter Beresford said service user involvement had to run like a "stick of rock" through the organisation.

Unison's Helga Pile said she saw the College as a potential bridge between employers and employed social workers by being guardians of standards that both sides of the industrial divide could rally round.

Others wanted the College to lead a revival of what they saw as the social work values of the 1970s and 1980s - creativity, innovation - that they felt had been stifled by public service bureaucracy and targets.

All of these goals are valid in their own right. But this is quite a list for an organisation that has as yet no paying members, no chief executive and no permanent board.

It was left to Social Work Reform Board chair Moira Gibb to inject some caution into the proceedings by stressing that we must not load too much onto the College and that reviving the standing of social work was not solely the College's responsibility.

Hopefully, such common sense will prevail over the coming months as the College begins work. Given how long social work has waited for this moment, setting the organisation up to fail would be a big mistake.

(Image on Flickr from ElvertBarnes)

BASW elephant in the room at College of Social Work launch

2012-02-01T10:25:01Z

Yesterday was the official launch event for The College of Social Work, held in the rather grand surroundings of the Institute of Directors offices on Pall Mall (here's the room if you're interested), where pinstripes and low taxes, not cardigans and social justice, are the orders of the day.

Besides the incongruous settings, one name was conspicuous by its absence: the British Association of Social Workers. Not that there weren't any BASW representatives there - there were three - but in three hours of speeches and questions, its name was mentioned just once, at the end, and that was in a question from the floor from ex-BASW chair Judith Timms.

Timms issued a call for the two organisations to "move forward together", putting aside their past disputes (and there is room for optimism on this front).

However, while other speakers called on the College to unify the profession and referred to the "troubled journey" the college had been on to get to this stage, not one mentioned BASW. It really was the elephant in the room. I'll be doing another blog later on my thoughts on the launch and the College so watch this space.

(Image on Flickr from Wrote)

Are you thinking of joining the College of Social Work?

2012-01-12T16:33:12Z

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.

Helpline won't be enough to protect social care whistleblowers

2012-01-06T15:07:34Z

As the government launches a national social care whistleblowing helpline, Roger Kline argues that it needs to do much more to ensure social care staff can safely raise concerns about problems at work.

The repeated scandals in health and social care demonstrate the need for staff to be able to raise concerns effectively without fear of victimisation. So, on the face of it, the launch of the new health and social care whistleblowing helpline ought to be welcomed.

Although launched with a flurry of publicity by an excited Andrew Lansley, this may not be the great step forward he claims it will be. Whistleblowing helplines can be very useful as the one previously run for the NHS alone showed.

In the wake of repeated scandals in the care of the elderly and ahead of the publication of the report of the public inquiry into the Mid-Staffordshire Hospital catastrophe, Lansley will need to demonstrate that this expanded helpline is just one part of a larger sustained effort to change the culture of both health and social care.

The effort needs to start by acknowledging the scale of the problem. Many staff still do not raise concerns because of a fear of the consequences of doing so. Despite whistleblowing policies galore, the history of social care whistleblowers is largely one of their victimisation. If social worker Nevres Kemal had been listened to (instead of being harassed out of her job) in Haringey then Baby Peter's death might have been prevented. Liz Davies (Islington care homes), Susan Machin (social worker at Ashworth secure hospital), Deborah Rees (Swindon Council) Simon Bellwood (Jersey) - a roll call of honour for the profession but a shameful indictment of the risks involved in some, possibly many, employers.

Public Concern at Work, the independent whistle-blowing experts, showed nearly two years ago the "systemic deficiencies that prevent care workers from speaking up effectively to protect vulnerable adults". They found that in half of all cases where other staff knew about a risk, they were too scared to speak up while 40% of whistleblowers in social care said their concerns were initially dismissed by managers.

General Social Care Council research in 2009 showed that almost half of frontline social workers who had attempted to blow the whistle about poor practice by colleagues or workplace problems said their employer failed to address their concerns. Yet all social workers are required by their code of practice to: use "established processes and procedures to challenge and report dangerous, abusive, discriminatory or exploitative behaviour and practice"; to bring "to the attention of your employer or the appropriate authority resource or operational difficulties that might get in the way of the delivery of safe care"; and to "[inform] your employer or an appropriate authority where the practice of colleagues may be unsafe or adversely affecting standards of care".

If Lansley and his cabinet colleagues are serious about changing the culture in social work, they could start by ensuring every social care employer implements the Social Work Reform Board employment standards. They could regulate social care assistants, who provide much frontline care, and ensure they are fairly managed and treated. They could strengthen the Public Interest Disclosure Act, which is supposed to protect whistle-blowers and ensure that employers who victimise whistleblowers are held to account. They could stop the haemorrhaging of resources which makes whistleblowing both more necessary and more dangerous for staff.

Above all we need to move to a presumption that staff are expected to, and supported to, raise concerns without there ever being a need to whistleblow. Good employers welcome and promote whistleblowers instead of shooting the messenger.

The new helpline is welcome if it assists in that work, is sufficiently resourced and has the right expertise. Time will tell.

Roger Kline is social care spokesperson for Aspect, the children's services union, and has written extensively on whistleblowing

Unions: No decision made on local gov pensions

2011-12-19T11:35:11Z

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).

Family Mosaic's care staff back formal strike ballot

2011-12-19T10:32:10Z

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."

How to deal with pre-Christmas stress

2011-12-14T11:18:15Z

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:

Unions delay announcement on pension strike dates

2011-12-14T10:34:06Z

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

E-newsletters: last email of year on 16 December

2011-12-13T11:49:00Z

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.)

Return of the 'child snatchers'

2011-12-12T20:43:06Z

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.

SWSCmedia live Twitter debates go weekly

2011-12-12T12:01:36Z

by Claudia Megele, a social worker and service director of A Sense Of Self, which offers support groups, psychotherapy and counselling services in London.

SWSCmedia's Twitter debate on "Early Intervention: Concept, Context, Realities and Prospects" was rich and exciting. In fact, in the last two debates we have had many international participants. In particular, on 29 November, Prof Gary Holden (@Info4Practice) and many students and graduates joined us from New York University's Silver School of Social Work joined our debate. While on 6 December, Dr. Nancy Smyth (@njsmyth) and students and faculty from University at Buffalo, State University of New York joined our debate. You can find a summary of the debate on 29 November here and the summary for 6 December is here.

We have changed gear and our debates are now weekly debates (Every Tuesday 8:00 PM). So our next debate will be on Tuesday 13 December. We have also extended our debate time to accommodate the increasing number of participants and to enable sufficient time for discussion especially in view of our new series of debates.

We have also announced several important and exciting new debates, initiatives, projects and events including:

Case study debates - These focus on serious case reviews and case studies. The objective of these debates is to shed light on a given case study, its dynamics, challenges, lessons learnt, etc. and to offer an opportunity for reflection and further learning.

Research and analysis debates - These debates will focus on different research papers and will discuss, analyse and evaluate its research question, hypothesis, methodology, findings, conclusions, and implications for practice; all discussed in a lively Twitter debate. The objective of these debates is to demystify research and make it accessible to all concerned without losing its substance, validity and relevance.

Students, practitioners and academics support groups - We are launching a number of online support groups and will announce further details for these groups next week. So, stay tuned.

Specialist and/or focus groups - We are also launching a number of specialist focus groups in various areas and for several topics. We'll announce further details next week.

To help us with our projects and initiatives we have selected some brilliant Twitteratis and Twitter ambassadors and are looking out for some more outstanding talents to join our existing Twitteratis and Twitter ambassadors.

To help us with all of the above, we are also organising our expert panels and in the past two debates gave everyone a peep at the list of our distinguished expert panel members. The initial members include: Dr. Karen Adshead, Nick Berbier, Dr. Claudia Bernard, Dr. Harry Ferguson, George Julian, Dr. David Lawlor, Dr. Malcolm Payne, Jackie Rafferty, Dr. Nancy Smyth, Dr. Matin Webber, and Prof. Sue White.

If you're interested in working closer with us and to become a SWSCmedia Twitterati and Twitter ambassador, Tweet us why you love @SWSCmedia and we'll select the best to join our fantastic Twitteratis and Twitter ambassadors.

To receive the latest news and info on our activities and to keep up-to-date join us @SWSCmedia and stay tuned...

Hutton: Public sector pensions 'heading for the rocks'

2011-12-05T15:46:57Z

Last week's downgraded growth forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility makes the case for public sector pensions reform more urgent, according to Lord Hutton - which may feel like a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of public sector workers who took part in a general strike over the government's proposals on Wednesday.

The OBR now expects growth of 0.9% this year, down from the 1.7% predicted in March (the Beeb has more background on this, plus a handy wee audio clip of Hutton explaining the case for reform in his own words).

Hutton said: "The events of the last couple of weeks have confirmed that change is going to be the order of the day now, if we're going to remain competitive, successful as an economy... we could be heading for the rocks unless we make adjustments now."

Photo by Chad Ehlers/Rex Features

Jeremy Clarkson's anti-strike rant on The One Show angers public sector unions

2011-12-01T11:49:46Z

Unison has called on the BBC to sack Jeremy Clarkson following his comments about striking public sector workers on The One Show yesterday. For those who missed it:

Pension strikes: Dealing with 'betrayal at dawn'

2011-12-01T09:26:20Z

Simon Cardy, a Unison steward and children's social worker in a local authority in the west midlands, shares his experiences from yesterday's strike over public sector pension reforms.

"At 7am yesterday morning two trade union members turned up to unlock the building at my workplace and the struggle to get all union members out on strike began. We have to 'think of the children' they claimed.

"Dealing with betrayal at dawn is not easy but, by 9am, we had 10 pickets, the majority of members on strike including a whole admin team who could least afford to lose a day's pay whose loyalty to the union was second to none.

"By 11am we had over two thousand strikers at our city march around town and by 2.30pm at the regional rally central Birmingham there were 5,000. By the end of the day there were over 23,000 on strike in our region.

"In order to look after the children in our service both now and in the future, we need social care workers who not be worn out or exhausted and with a carrot of a reasonable pension at the end of our working life. By taking this action now and protecting the value our pension, we are thinking of generations of children in the future."

Read more posts like this on the Social Work Steward

Social worker @ermintrude2 has also written about her experiences on The Not So Big Society

Unison: The public service 'pension pinch' #N30

2011-11-30T11:46:56Z

Scroll down to find out how Unison predicts a 54-year-old social worker will be affected by the government's proposals to reform public sector pensions.