I seem to have had something of a ‘home’ themed week in one way or the other, so thought I’d round it off with a few thoughts about more general housing. In one of the previous teams I worked in, we had a basic line that a lot of the...

Just when I thought I was pretty hot on all the acronyms that are flung around the workplace, I have been hit with a few more. It came as a result of a conversation with one of the managers (there are whole swathes of different levels of managers in the...

By Mike McNabb Violence against social care staff has been in the news again so if I were a tad worried about my chances of surviving a home visit intact, Ray Braithwaite would be a useful mentor to have. Read More...

By Keith Sellick I know I have posted on hearing voices before but BBC Radio's Thinking Allowed recently featured a sociological study about the subject. Read More...

By Mike McNabb Adult care has hit the headlines again with prime minister Gordon Brown wanting to open a debate on its future. It was a debate welcomed by Stephen Burke, chief executive of Counsel and Care . Read More...

By Mike McNabb Are politicians losing their appeal? Of course they are, they have been shedding it for eons. But when children's minister Beverley Hughes gave her keynote address today, one would have thought an auditorium that seats 500 could have...

How many Daily Mail readers were at Community Care Live? The safe answer is "not many". The bold answer is "quite a few". Perhaps I am about to commit mass libel, but some social workers must read it, even in a covert operation by...

I just read this story on the Times website about an elderly couple that were found dead following a visit from social services as they feared that they would be separated due to differing care needs. There isn’t really much that can be said, apart...

Yesterday, one of the plenary sessions I attended at Community Care Live was a discussion of an initiative by Help the Aged called My Home Life. As it says on the site, it is ‘a new initiative aimed at improving the quality of life of those who...

By Mike McNabb It is an age-old problem but it is only in the past 30 years or so that domestic violence has become accepted as a major social issue. And the understanding of the effect it has on children is even more recent. Read More...

By Mike McNabb Most commentators agree that personalisation is the greatest shake-up in service provision since the launch of the welfare state but it turns out it is fraught with dilemmas. Read More...

By Mike McNabb It was timely in a tragic sense that a discussion on gang warfare should take place in London. Thirteen teenagers have fallen victims of violent deaths on the capital¹s streets this year, although not all of them were gang-related. But...

by Mike McNabb Personalisation. How inelegant can a buzzword be? But it is one whose workings were explored elegantly by a panel of experts: Read More...

by Mike McNabb Tired of the right-wing media hype about those dastardly asylum seekers (whoops, nearly fell into the propaganda trap there), it was refreshing to hear the voices of a group of people who actually wanted to do something positive. In this...

by Mike McNabb Glen Mason, director of social care leadership and performance at the Department of Health, opened the 12th Community Care Live by describing Gordon Brown's desire to put a new focus on social care this week as an exciting development...

Community Care Live starts today. I expect attend a few of the workshops and plenaries that will be taking place. I wonder what a collective noun for social workers would be. I can’t think of many things that would be printable (so to speak!) but...

Brown announced that he was starting a six month consultation to make decisions about reforms to the ’social care’ system and in particular, its funding. The Wanless Social Care Review was produced back in 2006 and it examined ways of paying...

The Independent writes about the link between bipolar disorder and overspending. It doesn’t really come as any surprise and seems logical that a link would be made. I remember a conversation I had with a patient who spoke in terms of genuine regret...

The Guardian published an article this week about the germination of a New Deal for Carers and the results of the consultations that they ran over a period of a couple of months. I hadn’t known this had been going on so thought I’d look at...

by Natalie Valios Occasionally, decisions by the judiciary make my heart sink. A case in point is the story in today’s papers which reports on a court case involving 20-year-old Jon Dixon who tried to rape an 11-year-old girl. Read More...

by Amy Taylor This week home secretary Jacqui Smith has announced a new crackdown on antisocial behaviour by persistant offenders . Under the plans 'action squads' will work with the police in every community to reduce antisocial behviour by carrying...

by Anabel Unity Sale Three drunk women, aged 37, 39 and 41, were filmed on CCTV mugging a man , also drunk, of his wallet. He was punched and kicked by one of the women before the other two stole from him. Read More...

by Adam McCulloch On last night's Question Time (BBC1) Michael Heseltine, in answer to a question on the government's cannabis u-turn, put the surprising view that any successful drugs strategy should “start at the top”. He singled out the “Chelsea...

This article from The Guardian’s website compares the use of medication for older people with the safeguards in place when prescribing for children. It made a lot of sense to me. It is a part of the sensation that ageism permeates much of society...

It seems the government has decided that cannabis should be reclassified as a class B drug, ignoring the advice of its expert committee. Read More...

By Keith Sellick A story in the Financial Times about social workers in the Philippines handing out cheap rice shows how the global explosion of food and energy prices are impacting on the poor; and those who work with them. Read More...

By Keith Sellick BBC's look into personalities focused on spirituality this week. What was particularly interesting was a discussion on the hearing of voices. People who hear the voices of God/Jesus/Mary are deemed to be blessed and sane; those hearing...

There is another reorganisation in progress at work. I’ve managed to put it to the back of my mind for as long as I’ve been concentrating on the ASW training but that doesn’t mean things have been standing still. I wonder if there is...

The New York Times has a very interesting story about the links between some of the people who oversee one of the most important psychiatry handbooks. Read More...

MENCAP reported yesterday that funding for learning disabled athletes is struggling following the ban on these athletes after some reported shifty behaviour regarding eligibility of some athletes who apparently faked having learning disabilities, in the...

by Adam McCulloch Do you think that Premiership footballers are overpaid, flashy, disrespectful, foul-mouthed and arrogant, only interested in money, nightclubs, betting and women? Well, think again. Craig Bellamy, a player who in the past might have...

The BBC has a load of psychology tests on its site, which seem a relatively untaxing way of spending the day after a bank holiday. Read More...

Working in a multi-disciplinary team presents different challenges for social workers and social work in general. We have monthly ‘professional’ meetings where I work which, I think, is to ensure some kind of group supervision (as my line...

I was surprised when I spoke with colleagues who were working in a local CMHT, that few of them were aware of the IMCA (Independent Mental Capacity Advocate) service and none had used them. I have used IMCAs a few times over the last 8 months or so and...

By Andrew Mickel So the once-Iron Chancellor has a heart, according to care services minister Ivan Lewis, who is claiming that Gordon Brown cried after reading testimonies from children with learning disabilities. Read More...

Well, 11 years actually since the Labour Party swept into power. I’m not surprised by the poor performance of the government in the local elections this year. People tend to get tried of the same faces but there were some very obvious pointers too...

I saw on the BBC yesterday that a man died in an EMI/Dementia registered nursing home in Hertfordshire. It was only a passing reference on the news but I thought I’d check the CSCI report of the home in question. This is a quote taken from the CSCI...

By Keith Sellick I had to share this with you Telly Savalas does a travelogue for Birmingham . I have been laughing at it for days. The idea of Kojak on the mean streets of Britain's second city. Apparently he also did Portsmouth and Aberdeen Read...