Have you seen this woman (the one on the left)? Well you
will do on Thursday if you watch Coronation Street.
She is the social worker who is coming to assess whether Kylie and David (no
one ever uses their last name in soap land), get to have Kylie's son, who is
currently in care come to live with them. Tension will undoubtedly be ramped up
to the max.
It'll be interesting to see Corrie's take on the social work profession. So far
it seems it's sticking to stereotype with a fairly dowdy look but has
shattered the mould by leaving the cardigans in the props department - one all.
However, according to Digital
Spy, she also tells them that moving house could be grounds for not
returning to child to its mother. That seems like rather unlikely to me so
maybe she won't be the model of professionalism after all.
Tune in on Thursday to find out what happens *cue Corrie theme*.
Recently in children and young people Category
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.
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.
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.
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
Here at Community Care we try to bring you the most up-to-date
information about the social work and social care sector. Not everyone
else does. At the weekend three of the major nationals ran a story
about the Ministry of Justice's publication of a report into the use of
forced marriage protection orders, but that report was published in
December last year.No doubt we've made mistakes in the past and publication dates are easily overlooked but for three national newspapers to be caught out by this seems rather odd.
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.
Two children's homes in Swansea could close under plans to restructure the council's child and family services.
The department is expected to have a £6.5m overspend this financial year, with nearly half relating to children in the council's care.
Read more on this story on the BBC's website
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