Recently in General Social Care Council Category

Sue White, chair of the Association of Professors of Social Work, comments on Community Care's story, "GSCC accuses Cafcass over 'dishonest spin' in conduct case":

"Whilst I have no details of the specifics apart from those I have read in the CC article, it is clear that this case is an example of what we need to fix, all of us together, managers, practitioners, journalists and academics.

"One cannot have safe practices whilst there are gagging clauses - that organisations want to control information flow in such a high blame environment is however completely understandable and the media need to take their fair share of responsibility (but not blame). If we look to industries with a good safety record (dangers of crude comparisons accepted, we are not an airline, but many of the principles do transfer) confidential reporting of problems is absolutely vital.

"We need a cultural shift in what are complex human services so we can start to seek intelligent remedies. It can be done, but disciplining employees for voicing opinions - if this indeed what happened and, as I say, I don't know - is not the way to go."

Read the original comment and join in the debate on CareSpace 

Oh dear - our friends at The Sun are at it again. The tabloid's report of the General Social Care Council conduct hearings for the Peter Connelly case in the 27 May edition is not only biased but inaccurate. They even managed to get the GSCC's name completely wrong.

Continuing the theme of our Stand Up Now for Social Work campaign, Community Care has written this open letter to The Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan.

I would urge as many Community Care readers as possible to write into The Sun to complain, and if you're not satisfied with the response, contact the Press Complaints Commission.

 by Daniel Lombard

The forthcoming cabinet reshuffle could see us bidding farewell to the children's secretary if he fulfils his ambition of becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer.

As the first ever secretary of state to oversee children's well-being, Ed Balls has led a series of schools reforms over the last two years.

But how many children's social workers will remember him fondly?

 by Emma Maier

The findings from Community Care's latest exclusive research issue a significant challenge to adults' and children's services directors, government and the Social Work Taskforce.

The survey of 450 social workers paints a picture of the frontline approaching breaking point. It finds social workers lacking in supervision, support from employers, time for reflection or up-to-date reliable information to make decisions based on sound evidence. The result is that they can't guarantee the delivery of a top class service at all times.

by Emma Maier

The GSCC's latest decision highlights an important issue about where accountability lies for  child protection actions taken by multi-agency teams. In doing so, it sets a precendent that could have implications for the conduct hearings of the social workers involved in the Baby P case.