President’s manifesto

May 22, 2003 in Child safeguarding, Mental Health

towards the tenements of Leith. Many of the problems that social
workers have to deal with are experienced daily in this part of the
city. But the people of Leith have also benefited from improvements
in social welfare and advances in tackling the inequities created
by social exclusion.

The ADSW approach to influencing progress in child protection and
mental health will, according to MacAulay, be consistent with the
association’s goal to promote social welfare and social inclusion
and the interests of those who use social work services. “We’ll
continue to use the same routes to influence the development of
legislation that have proved successful in the past, lobbying the
Scottish executive and other politicians, and giving evidence to
inform the development of bills.”

This approach has had recent notable successes. “We were able to
influence the final form of the Mental Health Act. Initial drafts
proposed that mental health officers should move out of the control
of local authorities. But, after consultation with ADSW members and
through representations to the Millan committee which reviewed the
previous legislation, we were able to ensure that this idea was
rejected.”

Free personal care is another area where MacAulay believes the ADSW
has used its influence. “That was a good example of how the ADSW
works at national and local levels. If it hadn’t been involved
through its lead officers and network of members, the Scottish
executive would not have introduced free personal care nationally
and it could not have been delivered locally.”

One project in which the ADSW shows a more reflective mood is
“Re-imagining Social Work”, an attempt to focus away from the
negative headlines that tend to dominate people’s view of social
work. The work is carried out with Pat Kane, a former member of
Scottish band Hue and Cry who now runs an organisation called The
Play Ethic which challenges perceptions of the puritan work ethic.
MacAulay says: “We want to reclaim social work and offer a much
broader view that includes the many positive and successful aspects
of the profession and the services we provide.”

The consultation process with ADSW members over a draft report from
the project will be launched at the conference. Kane will help lead
workshops on the project before the document is distributed for
wider consultation.

Also likely to appear high up the conference agenda is the nascent
modernisation road map for social care. “We are at a very early
stage in discussions but from what we have heard so far the ADSW
believes that social workers in Scotland will take on board the
issues and move reforms ahead.”

Doubtless, MacAulay has a challenging term of office ahead of him.
He may be able to call on the wit and humour that his stand-up
comedian brother, Fred, brings to TV and radio. But whatever the
future holds it is unlikely that MacAulay’s presidency will be a
quiet spell in the development of social work in Scotland. CC
Directors and senior managers of social work in Scotland arriving
at Dunblane this week for the annual Association of Directors of
Social Work conference may be in combative mood. And criminal
justice is the subject that stirs immense passion among members.

During the Scottish parliamentary election campaign, Labour
promoted its plans for a Correctional Service for Scotland to
direct policy on crime. Perhaps more controversial was the proposal
for parental orders to punish parents for the repeated crimes of
their children. The ADSW and Convention of Scottish Local
Authorities (Cosla) have in recent weeks signalled their strong
opposition to these measures (news, page 6, 15 May). Now that
Labour has been returned to power at Holyrood, albeit in coalition
with the Liberal Democrats, it seems likely that the plans will go
ahead.

For Duncan MacAulay, however, who is taking over as ADSW president
from Jim Dickie, the association’s negotiations with the Scottish
executive over these issues and others on the social care agenda
will be characterised by a consistent approach. “Regardless of what
the ADSW and its members feel about these issues, we want to
continue to try to work in partnership with the Scottish executive
and local authorities to achieve the best possible outcomes for
people in Scotland,” MacAulay says.

This does not mean being soft on the Scottish executive. MacAulay
recognises there is a tough debate to be had soon over criminal
justice policy.

“The whole debate raises significant issues for the ADSW,” says
MacAulay. “For example, if jail sentences for parents of
persistently offending children are introduced what will happen to
the child? Potentially it could mean that more children would need
to be taken into care. It’s doubtful that that would achieve
much.”

In the past 18 months the ADSW has been exploring different methods
of working with young people who persistently offend. “During the
last parliament, the Scottish executive put up money to develop
alternative approaches to dealing with youth crime,” says MacAulay.
“Some promising initiatives are being piloted. In Falkirk
Barnardo’s has been working with young offenders, and other
projects have been examining what expertise from the adult criminal
justice world could be brought to bear on youth crime. We need the
opportunity to find out whether these and other approaches can
work.”

It is a subject on which MacAulay can claim long-standing
experience. His first job was working with “maladjusted” children,
as they were known in the mid-1970s. It helped him “stumble into
social work”, as he puts it. “It wasn’t a clear, thought-out career
path for me,” he says. “I just felt I wanted to be involved in
helping people to develop and grow from the situations they found
themselves in.”

He studied for a formal social work qualification and became a
generic field worker with Lothian region. Since 1981, he has worked
in a series of management positions, from residential care adviser
to assistant principal officer running residential care units. In
1996, when Lothian region was succeeded by Edinburgh Council in
council reforms, he became head of operations for social work, and
will combine that role with the ADSW presidency.

His reputation as something of a pioneer goes before him. In 1981
he helped a group of people with learning difficulties to set up
the first self-advocacy group of its type in the UK. The group has
progressed to become People First (Scotland). And in the late 1990s
he acted as an adviser, on a voluntary basis, helping to guide
child care developments in Moscow.

But his focus this week will be conference reaction, particularly
to the anti-crime initiatives – the proposed Correctional Service
for Scotland being just one – that have drawn so much scepticism
from ADSW members. Although the full detail of the proposals has
yet to emerge, the Labour election manifesto described a “single
agencyÉ staffed by professionals and covering prison and
community-based sentences to maximise the impact of punishment,
rehabilitation and protection offered by our justice system”.

Several organisations are lining up with the ADSW, including Cosla
and Solace (Scotland) – the Scottish branch of the Society of Local
Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers – to oppose any bill
that contains provision for such a service.

Criminal justice is, however, only one topic that MacAulay believes
will occupy ADSW members’ minds over the next 12 months. Sitting in
Shrubhill House, the site of his office in Edinburgh social work
department’s headquarters, he identifies child protection and
implementation of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland)
Act 2003 as two topics that will figure prominently. His office
looks out towards the tenements of Leith. Many of the problems that
social workers have to deal with are experienced daily in this part
of the city. But the people of Leith have also benefited from
improvements in social welfare and advances in tackling the
inequities created by social exclusion.