September 2010
7 posts
Strategic approach needed to Travellers
A strategic plan should be developed for addressing the health needs of travellers in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, according to the All Ireland Traveller Health Study published last week.
The study, commissioned by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) in Northern Ireland, examined the health status and needs of Travellers living in Northern...
Consultation events for NI social work strategy
Social workers are being asked to attend consultation events to consider the merits of the 10 Year Strategy for Social Work In Northern Ireland: 2010 – 2020. Set to be held in Belfast and Derry the events form part of a wider consultation process into the ambitious review of the social work profession.
Launched on 23 July the strategy is promising to ‘focus on supporting frontline staff and...
Fears over cap on overseas social work recruitment
Social work and service users in the UK have benefited significantly from immigration, BASW has told the government in response to its plans to put a cap on the import of workers from outside of the European Union.
In evidence to a Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the government’s proposals to place a cap on economic migration, BASW stated that while it understands the case for a...
BASW teams up with new ITV breakfast show
BASW is teaming up with ITV’s new flagship breakfast programme, Daybreak, which launched today, to undertake a major survey of social workers, timed to coincide with the publication of professor Eileen Munro’s initial report on reducing the bureaucracy in children’s services.
Social workers with any level of experience of the challenges facing child protection practitioners can go online now to...
'Grand coalition' needed to raise Scottish care...
All Scottish political parties should put aside their differences and form a ‘grand coalition’ to improve outcomes for looked-after children, according to leading children’s charity Aberlour Child Care Trust.
The charity demanded that the Scottish Parliament takes a long-range and cross-party approach to improving outcomes for Scotland’s looked-after children and young people. It made the call...
BASW's concern at social work regulation plans
BASW has voiced concerns that the government is pressing ahead with its plans to transfer the regulation of social work in England to the Health Professions Council (HPC) without its involvement.
In a letter sent in early September, the care services minister Paul Burstow sets out the rationale for abolishing the General Social Care Council (GSCC) and moving its functions to the HPC and says he...
BASW presses local authority chiefs to spare...
BASW has this week written to every local authority in England urging council leaders to spare frontline social work services from spending cuts.
In a letter sent to each local authority chief executive, Hilton Dawson BASW’s chief executive, said that social work services ‘are services which must receive priority for better support and development as reductions in public expenditure make things...
August 2010
10 posts
BASW says proposed end of life law lacks...
BASW Scotland has raised concerns that proposed legislation that would allow people to request an assisted death lacks safeguards.
The End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill would enable people aged 16 and over, who are terminally ill or permanently disabled, to ask a doctor to help them end their life.
It was introduced in Scottish parliament in January by Margo MacDonald MSP, who has...
Introduction to Advocacy course
BASW members can receive a 10% discount on an Introduction to Advocacy training day being hosted by Voice, the latest organisation to sign up to the Association’s 5 Star social work employer scheme.
The event is particularly targeted at social workers who work with childrena dn young people but have never received advocacy training, or those considering a change of direction in their social work...
College of Social Work consultation events during...
The College Development Group, of which BASW is an active member, is holding a series of consultation events during September, as efforts continue to define the future purpose and functions of The College of Social Work, ahead of its interim launch in 2011.
The events, targeted at social workers, managers, service users and their carers, are being staged across England. These are supported by an...
Share your views on the impact of overseas social...
BASW has been asked to submit a report to a Home Affairs Select Committee consultation process that is examining government plans for capping immigration to the UK, potentially affecting the recruitment of overseas social workers.
Ahead of this BASW is inviting members – those from the UK and those from overseas – to give their views on the proposed cap, the potential impact on social work of...
Social workers embrace digital technology
Social workers are increasingly embracing digital technology to find families for children, according to a leading adoption and fostering organisation which has reported a sharp rise in the numbers of children profiled on its online family finding service.
Figures from Baaf show a 37% increase in the number of children waiting for long-term fostering placed on its Be My Parent website.
The...
Social worker removed from register after paying...
A social worker has been removed from the social care register for paying for the services of a sex worker.
Salas Kochuparampil Abraham received a verbal warning from a police officer on 15 March 2009 for engaging in sexual activity with a sex worker in his car in Hull.
Mr Abraham conceded that the events described by the police officer were true but the officer’s record showed that Mr Abraham...
Caseload pressures on social workers revealed
Four in 10 social workers feel they have an unmanageable caseload, according to research by specialist social work recruitment consultancy Liquid Personnel. Two thirds of practitioners who responded to a survey reported that their caseload had increased in the last 12 months, and 84 per cent said they often worked over-time just to get the job done.
Liquid Personnel managing director Jonathan...
Social workers urged to define doctors’ role in...
The General Medical Council is calling on social workers and other professionals for evidence about doctors’ roles and responsibilities in child protection.
The GMC is asking social workers along with health professionals, doctors in all areas of practice, police, lawyers, children and young people and their families and carers to give evidence which will inform new GMC guidance for all doctors...
Care system struggles as numbers of vulnerable...
The care system is under extreme pressure and is struggling to cope with the numbers of children needing foster placements, according to a report published this week by the Fostering Network. Since the death of baby Peter Connelly in August 2007 there has been a continuing rise in the number of vulnerable children needing foster homes, the report warns, adding that the system is unsustainable...
BASW condemns "scandal" of unsupported child...
BASW has today slammed the current situation in child protection as a national scandal in the Association’s submission to Professor Munro’s independent review of child protection.
Welcoming the review, BASW highlights that there is compelling evidence to show that good social work and effective child protection systems save children’s lives.
However, the submission warns that more children are...
July 2010
36 posts
Early intervention commission announced by...
The government has announced an independent commission into early intervention to ensure that children with multiple disadvantages get the best start in life. Children’s minister Sarah Teather and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith said the commission will be chaired by MP and co-author of a report on early intervention Graham Allen and will report in January 2011. Ms...
Government calls time on the ASBO
Home secretary Theresa May has launched a review of anti-social behavior powers available to the police saying: “It is time to move beyond the ASBO”.
Highlighting that one in seven people believes their local area suffers from high levels of antisocial behavior, Ms May said the problem was so obvious that the last government could not ignore it.
However she said the previous Labour government...
Scottish regulator unmoved by abolition of GSCC
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has said it will be business as usual for regulation in Scotland, despite the surprise announcement earlier this week that the General Social Care Council (GSCC) in England is to be abolished.
SSSC chief executive Anna Fowlie said she would continue to co-operate with the GSCC’s replacement body, as well as care councils in Wales and Northern...
NISCC seeking urgent talks following GSCC...
The social work regulator in Northern Ireland is to hold talks with political leaders following the surprise announcement earlier this week that the General Social Care Council (GSCC) in England is to be abolished.
A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) said that the regulator would be meeting with the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety to assess...
Care Council for Wales to reflect after GSCC...
The social work regulator in Wales is to reflect on its future role following the surprise announcement earlier this week that the General Social Care Council (GSCC) in England is to be abolished.
The Care Council for Wales said the future of social work regulation would be included in the white paper for social services, announced by deputy minister for social services Glenda Thomas last month,...
BASW dismisses Ofsted social work findings as...
An Ofsted survey of social workers that shows they feel well-supported in their jobs has been dismissed by BASW as “absurd, ridiculous and out of touch with reality”.
Findings from the inspectorate’s first annual survey of social workers’ views, based on more than 4,000 responses from across England, found that most felt well-supported by line managers and happy with training opportunities.
...
BASW backs Khyra Ishaq review and urges investment...
BASW has responded to the full publication of the Serious Case Review into the tragic death of Khyra Ishaq by urging others to join social work in learning lessons from the case. The SCR revealed that professionals who worked with Khyra, the seven-year-old Birmingham girl who died from starvation in 2008, missed a number of opportunities to intervene and could have prevented her death.
The SCR,...
BASW responds to planned abolition of GSCC
BASW has responded to the Westminster government’s surprise decision to abolish the General Social Care Council and fold its regulatory work into a wider healthcare body, by insisting that the new entity must strongly recognise social work in its title and its focus.
News of the planned demise of the GSCC in April 2012 emerged today in the Department of Health’s ‘Review of arm’s length...
Harassment of own family results in GSCC...
A social worker who threatened to kill his wife and children has been admonished by the General Social Care Council (GSCC).
Paul Carney, who has an unblemished 31-year career in social work, pleaded guilty to harassment at Reading Magistrates’ Court in January and was given a community order. In its written decision, conduct committee said: ‘While this was undoubtedly persistent and deliberate...
Low take-up sparks fears over liberty safeguards
Mental health organisations are calling for an urgent investigation into why safeguards introduced in England and Wales to prevent people who lack capacity being detained unnecessarily in care homes and hospitals are being significantly under-used.
In April 2009, Deprivation of Liberty Safetyguards (DoLS) were introduced under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which mean care providers and hospitals...
Minister promises to limit child protection reform
Children’s services will not be radically reformed by the new government, the children’s minister has confirmed.
Tim Loughton said that the Department for Education, which has appointed professor Eileen Munro to undertake a review of child protection and will soon shut down the children’s database ContactPoint, was not planning an overhaul of the entire system.
“We are not going to throw the...
Teenagers get raw deal from child protection
Teenagers are often poorly served by the child protection system because they are mistakenly seen as more resilient than other children or better dealt with by another service.
A major research study, in which 160 professionals participated, found that young people aged 11 – 17 struggled to strike up trusting relationships with professionals, partly because their social workers were overworked...
Safeguarding services in Birmingham remain...
Safeguarding services in Birmingham Council have been graded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in an inspection report.
Although some improvements have been made recently in some key areas by social care services and by partner agencies – many of which were required by the Government Improvement Notice issued in February 2009 – the report found that ‘some key and important deficiencies remain’.
The report...
Welsh regulator seeks views on conduct system
Social workers in Wales are being asked to contribute views on how the Care Council for Wales (CCW) can improve its handling of conduct cases. The regulator announced this week that it is looking at ways to “streamline” the system and expand the number of sanctions that can be imposed when someone is found to have committed misconduct.
Under proposed changes, social workers given a suspension...
BASW calls on government to outline direction of...
BASW chief executive Hilton Dawson has written to education secretary Michael Gove urging him to set out his plans for social work. In a letter sent this week, Mr Dawson notes that the Department for Education has yet to publish plans on social work reform and has concentrated its focus on its manifesto pledge on schools.
“We would appreciate sight of and would ideally like to support and...
BASW membership likely to mean automatic College...
BASW and the development group working to establish the College of Social Work have reached agreement in principle on a deal that would see BASW members automatically becoming members of the College once it is launched, for no extra fee. The agreement would cover the first year of the life of the College, which is likely to be legally constituted in April 2011. The news came in the same month...
Unison deal would sacrifice College independence
BASW has warned that the College of Social Work could become dominated by trade union interests if it links up with Unison to offer joint membership to social workers.
Under a proposed deal presented by the trade union to a College Development Group meeting on 23 June and divulged to the media this week, social workers would pay a single fee to join Unison and the College of Social Work when it...
Government scraps ICT plans to save £15m
Education secretary Michael Gove has this week written to directors of children’s services informing them that the £15 million plans to improve ICT systems have been scrapped.
In the letter which set out Gove’s commitment to reducing the government’s End Year Flexibility requirements by £1 billion, he confirmed: “We will not proceed with plans announced just before the election of formulaic...
BASW calls for urgent MoJ meeting over fee capping
BASW has called for an urgent meeting with the Ministry of Justice to discuss the role of independent social work (ISW) in the family courts, as the prospect of a sharp cut in ISW expert witness fees edges closer.
The Association called for an immediate postponement of an MoJ plan to restrict expert social work witness court fees to £30 an hour (£33 in London) from 1 October 2010, a move that...
PM urged to 'choose Life over Art' by prioritising...
BASW’s chief executive Hilton Dawson has written to the prime minister to urge him to prioritise social work jobs and services at the expense of arts funding
He made the plea to ‘give Life priority over Art’ in response to a group of philanthropists, who between them have given hundreds of millions to the arts, writing to the government to warn about the impact of huge cuts. In a related move...
BASW reveals College convergence plan
BASW is considering a plan to move towards convergence with the College of Social Work, following discussions last week. BASW’s UK Council agreed last week to present convergence proposals to the board of the Interim College, ahead of several months of further deliberations.
Any concrete proposals for converging the two organisations would need the support of BASW’s Annual General Meeting in May...
BASW offers robust defence of "invaluable"...
BASW has defended independent social workers against a “major assault” by the president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, who last week called for their role in court proceedings to end.
In an article on Community’s Care’s online news site Marion Davis claimed the removal of ISWs from court proceedings would have no impact. Ms Davis added that the role of ISWs has a...
Social work students get help to choose courses
Social work students will be able to judge the quality of degree courses before applying after a decision by the General Social Care Council to crack down on universities by publishing inspection reports.
Reports on the performance of most universities and colleges offering social work courses were released for the first time this week, showing that 14 institutions fully met requirements set out...
BASW launches England-wide adult social work...
BASW England is holding a series of seminars across the country to address emerging concerns from social workers working in adult services. BASW England policy development officer Joe Godden said concerns centre on “cuts, reductions in qualified social worker numbers and a growing tendency for adult social work to be relegated in importance to children’s social work”.
Dates have already been...
NIASW to hold local Western Trust meetings
The Northern Ireland Association of Social Workers (NIASW) is holding a series of informal meetings with social workers from adult and mental health services across the Western Trust.
The move follows positive talks between Carolyn Ewart, NIASW country manager, and the director and assistant director of social work in the Trust.
The series of local meetings mark the beginning of a NIASW campaign...
Report calls for more training on end-of-life care
Social workers need training in order to play a greater role in planning and delivering end of life care ahead of huge increase in the numbers of deaths each year, according to a major report published this week.
Supporting people to live and die well: a framework for social care at the end of life says people aged over 85 are now the fastest growing segment of the population and the number of...
Social worker convicted of fraud banned from...
A student social worker who served an eight month sentence for fraud has been removed from the social care register. Antoinette McClue was convicted of fraud by false representation at Snaresbrook Crown Court in September 2009 and the following month was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment reduced to eight months on appeal.
Miss McClue, who did not attend the hearing, had informed the GSCC of...
BASW’s campaign continues as cuts begin to bite
BASW is urging social workers in all parts of the UK to highlight examples of public spending cuts impacting on social work services. The Association is also urging members to lobby MPs and ministers for social work to be spared from cuts that would undermine services to the most vulnerable people in society.
The Association is planning to step up its Not Doomed Yet campaign in the run up to the...
Children at risk of exploitation need better...
There should be better co-ordination and information sharing between agencies to protect children at risk of child sexual exploitation, says Barnardo’s.
The children’s charity says GPs, teachers, youth workers and the police are missing tell-tale signs that vulnerable children are being groomed. It is calling for specialist training for professionals working in England to help to them recognise...
Team managers given chance to hone frontline...
Team managers across Wales are being offered the opportunity to undertake sponsored training to develop their frontline management skills. The Team Manager Development Programme, which is made up of three modules and takes about a year to complete, is the first of its kind in the UK.
It covers areas including how to develop critical thinking skills to make better management decisions, improving...
UK commissioners welcome end to detaining child...
There is a pressing need to end the detention of children for immigration purposes to avoid the damage it causes, the UK’s children’s commissioners have said, urging the UK government to do so swiftly while new arrangements are put in place.
In a joint response to the coalition government’s consultation on ending the detention of children, the four commissioners welcomed the government’s plan to...
Report highlights failings for children in prison
A fall in the number of young people in prison has not resulted in improved conditions for the majority of incarcerated young people, The Howard League for Penal Reform has warned.
Despite a 25% reduction in the total number of children in prison, the fall has not led to fewer young people being held in young offender institutions, described by the penal reform charity as “the most basic form of...
Two year suspension for children's worker
A children’s social worker who admitted failings in his handling of child protection work has been suspended from the social care register for two years.
Marius Sacalos, who worked in the looked after team at Blaneau Gwent County Borough Council, breached the code of practice 17 times by failing to arrange visits with social workers, not maintaining clear and accurate records and not preparing...