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The College of Social Work was launched last week and there are probably lots of social workers out there pondering whether to join it.

If you are one of those social workers and need a bit of help, Mithran Samuel has written an analysis of some of the relevant issues.

And he has put together a handy table comparing the benefits and costs of the College, BASW and Unison.

Unions have denied rumours that a decision has already been made over the amount social workers and other council staff will have to pay into their pensions in the future.

Rather, Unison, GMB, Unite and the Local Government Association have reached a possible agreement on the principles and timetable of negotiations in January. This has yet to be signed off by Eric Pickles (pictured looking rather jolly - not necessarily a reflection of how he feels about reforming the local government pension scheme).

The dispute between care staff and senior management at Family Mosaic looks set to continue after Unison's members at the housing association voted in favour of a formal ballot for strike action.

Unison said the "drastic proposals" to cut staff pay and increase working hours "should worry Family Mosaic's services users".

"Imposing harsh changes demoralises a workforce and cannot but affect the quality of service delivery," said London Unison regional organiser, Colin Inniss.

Family Mosaic said: "Only two weeks after requesting staff accept new terms and conditions, more than 1000 employees have confirmed their acceptance. This is more than 75% of our workforce. This still leaves a group of our colleagues considering their future and we completely understand and respect their desire to do so.

"We are not going to get into a war of words with Unison, but only a small proportion of our workforce are Unison members. Our fundamental aim remains to ensure that high quality services can be maintained and we offer the best deal possible to staff."

Stressing out about getting everything cleared off your desk before Christmas? Or about Christmas itself? Let me propose two things (admittedly, one more serious than the other):

1. Manage your stress levels using one of Community Care's guides:

One of the first steps to helping deal with stress is to recognise that it is a problem and find out how you can address it. Community Care Inform subscribers can read its guide to managing stress.

Similar advice is available on www.communitycare.co.uk:

• Managing stress in social work (by Unison; details your rights as an employee)
• Reducing workplace stress (by Ray Braithwaite, freelance trainer)

2. Take your mind off it completely by watching The Muppet Christmas Carol: 

Trade union leaders will hold back from announcing public sector strike dates on Thursday as they consider their next step after mass walkouts on 30 November, the Guardian reports.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, told the newspaper: "Both in local government and the NHS we are making significant progress in the talks. We are calling all our key activists together in early January to look at what progress has been made in the talks and to decide on the next steps in our campaign for a fair pension deal."

Photo by Stephen Simpson/Rex Features 

I was appalled to read this headline in the Sunday Express at the weekend: "Social workers 'sex up abuse claims to snatch children for adoption'." Have we gone back in time? Have tabloid newspapers learned nothing?

In 2009, Community Care launched a campaign to promote more balanced, accurate media coverage of social work. This was prompted by news coverage of the Baby P case, including the Sun newspaper's campaign calling for the sacking of the professionals involved in the case. But it sounds like this fell on deaf ears in some tabloid newsrooms.

The Express story rests on the account of one whistleblower, who claims social workers "sex up" dossiers on parents in order to justify putting their children in care. The claims, in relation to that particular local authority, may be entirely accurate - I'm not trying to discredit them - and if that is the case, of course it needs to be investigated.

But the Sunday Express takes the experience of this one social worker and infers that this must, therefore, be happening across the board. A suggestion I think a lot of social workers and councils would dispute.

Granted, you could argue that the article highlights the increasing pressure on social workers. But it also falls back on the 2009 approach to reporting about those working in children's services - describing them as "child snatchers". 

Last week, Moira Gibb, chair of the Social Work Reform Board, told me that improving the public image of social work was still a top priority for her and the board. She sees this becoming one of the College of Social Work's main duties when it formally launches in January. The Sunday Express's coverage makes you realise how much still needs to be done.

Last week's downgraded growth forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility makes the case for public sector pensions reform more urgent, according to Lord Hutton - which may feel like a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of public sector workers who took part in a general strike over the government's proposals on Wednesday.

The OBR now expects growth of 0.9% this year, down from the 1.7% predicted in March (the Beeb has more background on this, plus a handy wee audio clip of Hutton explaining the case for reform in his own words).

Hutton said: "The events of the last couple of weeks have confirmed that change is going to be the order of the day now, if we're going to remain competitive, successful as an economy... we could be heading for the rocks unless we make adjustments now." 

Photo by Chad Ehlers/Rex Features

Unison has called on the BBC to sack Jeremy Clarkson following his comments about striking public sector workers on The One Show yesterday. For those who missed it:

Simon Cardy, a Unison steward and children's social worker in a local authority in the west midlands, shares his experiences from yesterday's strike over public sector pension reforms.

"At 7am yesterday morning two trade union members turned up to unlock the building at my workplace and the struggle to get all union members out on strike began. We have to 'think of the children' they claimed.

"Dealing with betrayal at dawn is not easy but, by 9am, we had 10 pickets, the majority of members on strike including a whole admin team who could least afford to lose a day's pay whose loyalty to the union was second to none. 

"By 11am we had over two thousand strikers at our city march around town and by 2.30pm at the regional rally central Birmingham there were 5,000. By the end of the day there were over 23,000 on strike in our region. 

"In order to look after the children in our service both now and in the future, we need social care workers who not be worn out or exhausted and with a carrot of a reasonable pension at the end of our working life. By taking this action now and protecting the value our pension, we are thinking of generations of children in the future."

Read more posts like this on the Social Work Steward

Social worker @ermintrude2 has also written about her experiences on The Not So Big Society

Scroll down to find out how Unison predicts a 54-year-old social worker will be affected by the government's proposals to reform public sector pensions.