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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.)

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...

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

Professionals and Twitteratis came together once again last Tuesday for Social Work/SocialCare and Media Network's live Twitter debate to discuss developing leadership in social work and social care.

There were some thoughtful opinion pieces published ahead of the debate on the @SWSCmedia blog to raise relevant issues and to provide some content and context for discussion.

The first question for the evening was: "How can we define and develop leadership in social work and social Care?" which meant that participants had to jump right-into-the-deep-end.

The answers ranged from defining the differences between managers and leaders to lamenting lack of leadership in practice. Some felt that in the current climate, leadership was equated with meeting organisational benchmarks and management targets.

The debate was fast paced and moved through several issues, but its latter part was dedicated to pathways and examples of how social workers and social care practitioners could develop leadership in their practice.

Again many excellent views and suggestions were raised by participants and some important similarities were noted between social work and allied professions such as nursing, as expressed by Anne Cooper the National Clinical Lead for the Department of Health Informatics Directorate.

It was good to see the high hopes and spirit of practitioners who in spite of the challenges posed by the current difficult climate of budgetary cuts and increasing demands, were dedicated and enthusiastic about developing their leadership capabilities and skills. However, there was also concern about availability of the necessary guidance, support and resources for them to do so.

Overall it was a very lively, intense, exciting, and rich debate as evidenced by Dan Slee's tweet (Senior Press and Publicity Officer Walsall Council) which said: 'Wow. Impressed at the "very" active chat hashtag on social care organised by @SWSCmedia #SWSCmedia...'

So, join us on 15 November at 8:00 to 9:00 PM @SWSCmedia for our next debate focused on "supervision" and in the meantime visit our blog for a summary of our last Twitter debate.

Also don't forget to tell us know why you love @SWSCmedia debates and we'll choose the Twitteratis with the best answers as our Twitter Ambassadors.

Finally, we thank our sponsors Goldsmith University of London, The Open University, and The University of East London as well as our media partner Community Care for their support.

Uncertainty continues to surround the future of bursaries for social work students in England.

Most students pursuing non-vocational courses face tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year from 2012 onwards, following the coalition government's controversial decision to raise fees to plug a major funding gap. However, social work students have their cost of training paid by government.

The Department of Health plans to launch a consultation on changes to the bursaries given to social work students, which currently accounts for around £70m per year.

The consultation was due to begin in the New Year but despite repeated calls to the department's press office, there is still no date set for the consultation's launch.

Some universities are expressing disquiet at the delay and want answers to help them plan programmes for next year. Academics have already warned that forcing social work students to pay for their own training coudl spark a recruitment crisis in the profession.

A serious debate is clearly needed taking into account all of the issues affecting recruitment to courses, including the need to provide financial support for mature students opting for a career change into social work.

The National Skills Academy for Social Care has attracted more than 100 members following its official launch in February.

The employer-led body has a remit to transform the quality of leadership, training, and commissioning. It is charging between £95 and £450 for annual membership, depending on the organisation's turnover, while individual membership costs £35.

The Skills Academy, which is recruiting a second chief executive following the recent departure of Liz McSheehy, brought forward plans last year to become self-funding in the face of widespread spending cuts.

Like many not-for-profit bodies, it clearly faces a challenge to become financially buoyant with just a few thousand pounds accrued in membership fees so far.

A spokesperson said the academy's business model relied not only on these fees but also revenue from products it is currently supplying, such as training courses and endorsement schemes.

For example, social care professionals can receive two hours of coaching from an approved trainer for £375, plus travel expenses (or £300 for members). Not bad for a half-day's work.

Social workers are suffering from a "dearth" of direct training on child poverty issues, the Children's Workforce Development Council has found. And the children's workforce does not readily identify child poverty as a priority issue, according to the review.

It recommends therefore that the CWDC should take a look its own practice guidance, standards and training programmes to ensure that child poverty is explicitly addressed.

We reported yesterday that Jackie Rafferty, Hilary Tompsett and Sue White have written to ministers warning that any removal of bursaries for social work students could result in significant personal debts and a shortage of applicants.

The story focussed on bursaries, but, as Rafferty later pointed out, universities receive a certain amount of funding per student from the Higher Education Funding Council for England as well.

Rafferty said it was the potential loss of both that would be the double whammy. If bursaries are used differently but HEFCE funding remains, students might be able to weather the storm.

But if both go, social work may no longer be able to sustain its status as a degree-level profession.

Community Care's new Student Zone has received overwhelming support from sector leaders, including the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the General Social Care Council's head of education and one of the interim chairs of the College of Social Work.

But what we really want to know is how students feel about it. Will it make all the difference between meeting and missing that all-important essay deadline? Will it help you get the most out of your next placement? And, perhaps more importantly, do you like our new cartoon character Sam (seen above working hard at his desk)? Let us know what you think on CareSpace. 

Half of the social workers in England are receiving less than two hours of supervision per month and some receive none at all, according to a poll by the General Social Care Council.

Readers of the GSCC's magazine, Social Work Connection, were also asked how much support they received from their employers to complete post-registration training and learning. Almost 60% described their employer as not very, or not at all concerned with ensuring staff meet the requirement of at least 90 hours.

 

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!