The Social Work Blog

World Social Work Day 2010

2010-03-16T17:31:46Z

Social workers across the world have joined in a celebration of the positive impact of their work on the lives of people and communities in World Social Work Day 2010, held today on 16 March.]]>
The British Association of Social Workers has organised events in Cardiff and Edinburgh. The Scottish celebration will see social workers honoured for outstanding practice in a major awards evening in Edinburgh Castle, while in Cardiff BASW members and social services leaders are gathering for a conference titled Opportunities and Challenges for Social Work in Wales.

Further afield, Singapore's minister for community development, youth and sports will be hosting a dinner for social workers, while conferences are planned to coincide with the day in Nepal, the Philippines, the Bahamas, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and the US.

Check out the International Federation of Social Workers website for more details.

Other Community Care articles to mark World Social Work Day 2010:

Social worker Asuncion Oabel-Sael describes her journey from the Philippines to South Wales

Social worker Jane Royes, who swapped Brisbane for London

A rough guide to international social work opportunities for practitioners

Which college of social work? The battle commences online

2010-03-12T12:19:02Z

The official National College of Social Work launched its shiny new website last week. Information about the college development group and consultation process is available to download.

Hot on its heels, the British Association of Social Workers has launched a shiny new section on its website detailing the association's proposals for an alternative college of social work across the UK. Interestingly, this includes the ballot paper being sent out to BASW members, which sets out the options and arguments for a UK-wide college.

Has social work lost its political edge?

2010-03-11T11:46:47Z

Has social work lost its political edge? Participants in a roles and tasks project in Northern Ireland think so.

A report published by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council found that social work is less political and needs to reaffirm its role as an influencer of societal change.

Not that I can draw from memory, but I gather that the profession, and particularly the British Association of Social Workers, commanded a much stronger influence in social work's heyday of the 1970s.

]]> The minister for social services was a regular speaker at BASW conferences, and many more professionals took part in social and political debates, in the pages of Community Care and elsewhere.

Contrast that to the sorry state of public relations and the profession's national voice now. For example, despite sending an invitation, BASW failed to secure an appearance from care services minister Phil Hope at its annual conference in 2009, while two-thirds of council press officers described their social work colleagues as "reluctant" or "extremely unwilling" to engage with journalists for a Community Care survey last year.

The NISCC, like the Social Work Task Force in England, identified a need for a stronger voice for social workers and for practitioners to "become more politically, strategically aware and have a higher profile where policy and funding decisions are being made".

In conclusion, it also reached a widely-held view: that the bureaucracy created by an emphasis on policies and procedures had led to a dilution of the relationship with service users.

The view was summed up by a pithy comment that lent the report its name: that social work had become more about paperwork than people work.

Recession takes its toll on stressed-out workers

2010-03-10T11:44:54Z

Around 100 union activists turned out to highlight the negative impact of cuts in the voluntary sector.

The union Unite said the pressure on staff to deliver services with limited resources during the recession was leading to high levels of stress among staff and negative outcomes for service users.

]]> In a Unite survey, 85% of respondents felt current funding arrangements were leading to negative impact on services, and 91% felt it was damaging morale in the workplace.

The demonstration near the Houses of Parliament, supported by 15 MPs, aimed to Kick Stress into Touch:

Lisa Arthurworrey: an apology

2010-03-10T11:43:05Z

In this week's Community Care magazine (11 March 2010) an unfortunate error has occurred. In the headline for the story about Lisa Arthurworrey joining the social work register the words "Haringey social worker" were inadvertently replaced with the words "Baby P social worker".
The Community Care team apologises unreservedly for any distress this error may have caused.

Should BASW further reduce the size of its governing council?

2010-03-10T09:16:41Z

Ken Terry's decision to resign as a council member of the British Association of Social Workers highlights an important question about the setup of the organisation.

Terry criticised BASW for deciding to put proposals for a UK college of social work to a referendum without first obtaining the majority support of the council.

But it's important to note that the vote was held in accordance with BASW's constitution.

]]> Chief exec Hilton Dawson told me: "All of our council meetings are conducted in accordance with our well-established constitution and legal advisors were present throughout the debate on the 24 February 2010."

A simple majority (in other words, half plus one) of BASW's council members have to be present in order to take a vote in the absence of the others.

This quorum rule is used to give the council authority to take decisions without having to rely on 20 or more members being available at the same time.

BASW's council voted nine-four in favour of the referendum, one member abstained from the vote and another had to leave before it was held - therefore the vote was quorate because more than half of the council attended and a majority of those were in favour of the referendum.

However, council members have told Community Care that there is rarely, if ever, full attendance at council meetings. It begs the question, and not for the first time: why have a 21 or 22-strong council in the first place?

Indeed, if there wasn't a full turn out to such a "historic" vote as this, will there ever be?

At the annual meeting of BASW's council last November, members gave the go-ahead to reduce the number of members on the council from 24 to 16. There may now be an argument for reducing this number further still.

The ongoing mystery of the roles and tasks of adult social workers

2010-03-04T13:50:26Z

Care minister Phil Hope launched the long-awaited joint statement on the future roles and tasks of adult social workers at Skills for Care's annual conference last Thursday.

But, try as we might, Community Care has not been able to get a copy from the Department of Health.

Last night, at the launch of the General Social Care Council's annual education report, Hope once again referred to the statement, which he said was published last week.

The DH's response today? "We'll get back to you."

BASW asked to rethink place on college development group

2010-03-04T13:11:27Z

The British Association of Social Workers has been asked to reconsider its position on the development group for a national college of social work while it ballots its 12,500 members on forming its own UK-wide college.

Allan Bowman, chair of the National College of Social Work Development Group, said BASW had been an important part of discussions to date but there was a "clear conflict of interest".

News story to follow.

Social worker cautioned for failing to alert police to missing child

2010-03-03T12:55:17Z

A residential social worker who failed to inform police an eight-year-old child in her care had run away has been cautioned by the General Social Care Council.

Jillian Outterside was due to collect the child from Paignton Community College, Devon, on 22 February 2008, but left without alerting the local authority, police or college staff to the child's disappearance.

]]> Outterside told a conduct committee at the GSCC that there was a lack of structured supervision and appropriate training at Broadhaven Residential Children's Home, Devon, where she was employed at the time. Many of the young people accommodated in Broadhaven have significant behavioural and other difficulties.

The committee also took into account the fact Outterside had worked for up to 30 years without incident, and had referred herself to the GSCC in this case.

It concluded the misconduct was serious but that suspension or removal from the social care register was unnecessary, and placed an admonishment beside her name for a period of one year.

Almost a third of social workers being bullied by current manager

2010-03-02T17:23:53Z

One in three social workers is being bullied by his or her current manager, according to a straw poll by Community Care. We asked more than 780 readers, "Is your current manager a bully?" and around 250 answered, "Yes".

Also this week, a Unison workplace survey found two thirds of staff at Rotherham Council were being bullied or had been in the past, according to the Rotherham Advertiser.

]]> Three-quarters of workers said that bullying in the workplace was either a "serious or very serious problem."

Unison told the Rotherham Ad that social workers and support staff had pointed towards a "culture of bullying and intimidation in both [adult and children and young people's] services."

Are you being bullied? Have your say on CareSpace or email me anonymously at kirsty.mcgregor@rbi.co.uk

Unison activists step out to campaign against cuts in Bolton

2010-03-02T17:15:32Z

Activists at Bolton's Unison branch have taken to the streets to campaign against proposed cuts to education social work at Bolton Council.

The union lobbied Bolton councillors over proposals for a combined total of £7.7m in cuts, with other affected areas including libraries and Connexions.

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How to deal with drug and alcohol problems among service users

2010-02-24T17:27:07Z

The British Association of Social Workers is calling for better pre- and post-qualifying training on how to deal with drug and alcohol problems among service users.

Last year, a Home Office-funded study found more than half of newly-qualified social workers felt inadequately prepared to work with people with drug and alcohol problems. Since then, little has changed.

]]> While some universities choose to put drug and alcohol misuse in their curriculum, it is still not a requirement. Working in this field is considered by the Department of Health to be a specialist role, which requires specialist training.

But the General Social Care Council, and BASW, argue that all social workers need to have a basic understanding of drug and alcohol misuse. The social work reform board is looking into this as part of a wider overhaul of education and training.

The Social Policy and Social Work centre (Swap) has also commissioned research in this area. Keep an eye on Community Care for more information.

So far, CareSpace users are in unanimous agreement that there needs to be better training on working with people with drug and alcohol problems. Join in the debate

Gloucestershire Council to recruit 30 extra children's social workers

2010-02-24T15:49:21Z

Gloucestershire Council has announced plans to recruit 30 extra children's social workers after an unannounced Ofsted inspection found caseloads were too high.

Ofsted's report, published today, said social work capacity varied across the teams, and that in some circumstances high caseloads had resulted in delays to initial assessments.

]]> It identified risk assessments as an "area for priority action", because some children and young people were being left vulnerable to significant harm.

In response, Gloucestershire is considering investing an extra £1.1m in the recruitment of frontline social workers. The proposal has already been agreed by the cabinet, and is being considered today by the full council.

Is your council investing in (or cutting) services? Go to our interactive map to find out

Community Care is investigating reports that Sandwell Council has suspended up to 10 social workers after its own unannounced Ofsted inspection. Read more

Interim deputy director of children's services accused of bullying

2010-02-22T11:33:34Z

Gordon Brown is not the only person accused of bullying this week. Isle of Wight Council has refused to confirm or deny rumours that its former interim deputy director of children's services, Deborah Cameron, subjected staff to shouting and threats during the six months she worked there.

According to Private Eye magazine, six formal and an unknown quantity of informal complaints have been made about Cameron's behaviour towards her colleagues.

]]> The council sent over this statement from the director for children and young people, Colin Peak, in response: "Like all other local authorities, the council has a number of policies that are capable of addressing concerns presented by staff and it is very much in our interests that any such concerns are fully aired and dealt with.

"One of my key priorities is to ensure the safeguarding service operates as effectively as possible, and that includes treating staff issues as a matter between this department and the employees concerned."

The council would not comment further, as the allegations relate to internal staffing matters. A spokesperson confirmed that Deborah Cameron was hired on a six month contract in June 2009, and that she left at the end of this contract.

Private Eye's article can be found in the "Rotten Boroughs" section of this week's magazine (19 Feb - 4 March)

The future of social work? It's in the hands of students, apparently

2010-02-19T15:30:04Z

Should unions and professional associations do more to engage social work students? This was one of the central questions raised at the first ever student-organised social work conference, which took place at London South Bank University this week.

"When I became a student, I expected BASW or Unison to come to me," said Dan Morton, a second year undergrad and one of the conference organisers. "But it never happened."

]]> John MacDonough, one of the lecturers at LSBU and a member of BASW, admitted part of the problem was that universities did not do enough to teach students about unions and professional associations.

Later, at one of the workshops, students were given the chance to challenge David Barnes, professional officer at BASW, and Chris Taylor, assistant branch secretary of Unison Haringey, on their views about working with universities.

Both said they were keen to engage more students, and discussed the possibility of joint approaches between BASW and Unison at a local level.

At the end of the day, Gurnam Singh, principal lecturer in social work at Coventry University, announced to the entire conference that he intended to begin teaching about the history of social work trade unions on his course. A small but not insignificant victory for the students.

The unions debate was just one of those to come up at the conference - others included the Social Work Task Force, caseloads, dealing with bureaucracy and the importance of social justice over neoliberalism (don't ask) - but it exemplified why students should be encouraged to hold more conferences on the future of social work.