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Social workers in Southampton are striking today over the council's pay cuts.

Here Vern Pitt reports live from the picket line, including interviews with those striking and senior officials, pictures of the protests and breaking developments. (Audio player may not appear in some browsers)

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12:05am:

Our reporter Vern Pitt has just interviewed Royston Smith, leader of Southampton Council. News story to follow this afternoon.

12:04am

Vern Pitt: Unison's social worker members have gone into a meeting to discuss future strike action.

11:33am

Southampton social worker: "It's not a 5% pay cut, it's more like 9% and I'm struggling"

http://audioboo.fm/boos/428963-southampton-social-worker-it-s-not-a-5-pay-cut-it-s-more-like-9-and-i-m-struggling

11:31am

Vern Pitt: Unions are calling for the leader of Southampton council to resign over pay cuts. Meanwhile Southampton foster carers pledge their support for the striking social workers.

11:13am

Past strikes at Southampton

This is the first time that social workers have gone on strike following the coalition governments austerity measures, but it's not the first time staff in Southampton have walked out.

In 2007 care staff went on strike over at protest over cuts to unsocial hours payments.

After that dispute the staff concerned got an uplift in their salaries to compensate for the loss of the payments. Plus, the plans were phased in over two years.

"Care workers have proved that low-paid part-time workers can fight back and defend their pay and conditions," said Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker, at the time.

So there's real hope that today's strikes could make a difference.

10:58am

Situation elsewhere

Southampton social workers are from the only ones feeling the pinch in the current tough financial climate.

Shropshire - The Tory led council has told staff they must take a 5.4% pay cut or face the sack as it plans mass changes to staff's terms and conditions.

Nottinghamshire - Social workers have begrudgingly accepted a cut in annual leave and the scrapping of their car allowances.

Derby Council - Cuts to care allowances were eventually forced through last year after unions accepted the establishment of a car pooling scheme and a one-off payment for members.

10:57am

Vern is off to get the council's perspective on the strike. Meanwhile the rally is about to begin.

Click below to read more...

Children's minister Tim Loughton used a speech at the Conservative Party Conference tonight to champion the importance of social workers.

"I have enormous respect for social workers," he said at a fringe event called the Family Room reception hosted by a coalition of charities.

"My job is to free up the time of social workers to enable them to spend more time with families, rather than sitting in front of computers filling in forms," said Loughton.

"It is one of the most supportive speeches of social workers that I've heard from a minister in a long time," said Corinne May-Chahal, interim co-chair of the College of Social Work.

"Tim Loughton came to a fringe event organised by a coalition of children and family voluntary organisations, sponsored by Mothercare, where the focus could have been, as it was at the Labour and Liberal Democrats conference, on the voluntary sector and the Big Society. But Tim Loughton acknowledged the importance of, and spent most of his time talking about, social work."

"He was balanced and knowledgeable and stressed the importance of focusing on evidence-based practice," she added.

Loughton spoke about his week on the frontline with social workers in Stockport.

He described visting a family of four children living in "the worst squalor I have ever seen, with no food, no furniture, four mattresses on the floor and clothes and rubbish everywhere". Loughton told how one of the children had been repeatedly sent home from school with toothache over the last three weeks but the mother had done nothing. Yet, when she got toothache she phoned the emergency dentist on the same day, but didn't think to ask about her son, he explained.

"I told the social worker afterwards that I would have no hestitation taking the children into care, but the problem is the mum dotes on the children and the kids dote on the mum. Social workers really are making the judgements of Solomon," said Loughton.

Test your investigative social work skills with this interactive online quiz.

You are faced with a schoolboy complaining of being hurt by his father - what do you do?

The Association of Directors of Social Work in Scotland have launched the game as part of their campaign to increase public understanding of the profession, Social Work Changes Lives.

I tried it out this afternoon and while I must admit to getting one of the answers wrong it was an engaging and eye-opening experience, and demonstrated how much social workers have to think on their feet in child protection investigations.

Mental note: if a parent answers the door and is drunk and abusive, don't back off and call for help, either from the police or from colleagues. Without wanting to give the game away, mum could either assault the police or disappear without trace!

A social worker has been cleared of behaving in an inappropriate sexual manner towards his step-granddaughters.

Anthony Smart was accused of loosening his dressing gown and asking one of the girls, known as Child A, for a "special hug", and of touching the other girl, Child B, on the bottom. 

Former Calderdale Council social services chief Rod Ryall has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of indecently assaulting three boys, all under 16, when he was a live-in house master at Aycliffe Approved School in the 1960s and 70s.

Ryall was director of social services in Calderdale from 1974 to 1988. According to local reports, his QC is seeking dismissal of the charges. Read more in the Halifax Evening Courier

25 February 2010 marks the tenth anniversary of Victoria Climbié's death. Over the course of the last decade there have been major changes in child protection policies in the UK. But for one social worker involved in the case, life is still frozen in a state of uncertainty.

In the aftermath of Victoria's death, social worker Lisa Arthurworrey was vilified by the media and hounded out of the profession. She was put on the Protection of Children Act (PoCA) list and banned from working with children.

The Children's Workforce Development Council has created a new online children's centre on the DirectgovKids website for children, which aims to inform five to 11-year-olds about social workers and foster carers.

It tells children: "There are lots of people whose job it is to help children. ... Some adults work with a child for a short time, supporting them and their families in specific ways."

Tim Yeo, Conservative MP for South Suffolk, has accused Suffolk Council of "kidnapping" newly born babies in cases where the birth parents do not wish to give them up for adoption.

Writing ahead of last night's adjournment debate on the adoption and custody of children in Suffolk, Yeo expressed "deep concerns" about the council's adoption practices.

Read the full article on ePolitix.com

by Molly Garboden

Ofsted has "discovered" vital evidence relating to the judicial review hearing for Sharon Shoesmith, the sacked former director of children's services at Haringey. (Pic credit Rex Features)

Moves by the House of Lords to decriminalise child prostitution have failed.

Peers voted by 80 to 68 to retain the current position on Friday night.
Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer tabled an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill, arguing that child prostitutes should be treated as victims, not criminals.