Social skirmishes

● Conference speeches in any sector can go from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I was in London recently for a conference on learning disabilities that featured Dr Who and the Daleks. Jonathan Senker of Advocacy Partners told a bemused audience that when he was a child he used to live next door to Dr Who and how that had a big influence on him.

“Exterminate” shouted someone in the audience.

Unperturbed by the Dalek impersonators, he went on with his analogy of the time-travelling Tardis going back to look at learning disability services as they used to be, how they are now and what the future holds.

This provoked the day’s biggest argument about who was the best Who. Senker supported his own neighbourly Dr Who – Patrick Troughton other candidates for top Tardis driver were David Tennant and Tom Baker.

● Meanwhile, the award for stating the obvious goes to the General Social Care Council’s Owen Davies. At Community Care LIVE Children’s and Families event on 11 October, Davies gave a taster of what was coming up in the GSCC’s roles and tasks report that was published a week later. Outlining the findings of research into what good social work should be, he said that one of the main things was that “safeguarding children must be done right”. Such ground-breaking views were met by gasps of astonishment from the audience. With findings like that, no wonder the report has been described as “woolly and wet”.

➔ E-mail your anecdotes and observations to rosie.warlock@yahoo.co.uk