The shape of things to come - British Association of Social Workers

Rostrum
October 2012
The voice of social work in Scotland
Number 110
Guth obair shoisealta ann an Alba
New Children Bill
An opportunity
wasted?
MediaWatch
Scotland’s silent
deaths
The shape of things to come
Looking to the social work of the future
Make a
note…
Rostrum
Production team
Contents
Editor
David Mitchell
4 Integration plans need culture shift
Editorial Group
Ronnie Barnes, Charlene Gay,
Neil Hume, Gordon Lockerbie,
Matt McGregor, Ruth Stark
Administration
Johan Grant
Design
Smallprint Services
Printing
Barr Printers
SASW officers
Convener
Graeme Rizza
Treasurer
Gordon Lockerbie
Social Worker Manager
Ruth Stark
Development Officer
Tim Parkinson
National Administrator
Johan Grant
SASW
3rd Floor, Princes House,
5 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh,
EH2 4RG
Tel: 0131 221 9445
Fax: 0131 221 9444
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.basw.co.uk/rostrum
5
SASW responds to government moves towards integration
David Mitchell
Mental health strategy launched
Government pledges to deliver on 36 key commitments by 2015
David Mitchell
6
Grasping the opportunities
Peter MacLeod, President, ADSW
7
Ruth Stark
Parliamentary business
8 - Social Work and Social Development: Action and Impact
9 Ruth Stark reports from the 2012 Joint World Conference in Stockholm
Study notes
Jennifer Bruce, BA (Hons) Social Work, Robert Gordon University
10 Development matters
Tim Parkinson, SASW Development Officer
11 A week in the life of…
One of our members working for an MSP in the Scottish Parliament
12 Meeting PRTL in the voluntary sector
Scott Read finds there are some creative ways to maintain your
registration in a voluntary sector post
13 Children Bill - A wasted opportunity?
Maggie Mellon argues that the new Children and Young People Bill
should be taking a more family-centred approach
14 -The shape of things to come
15 Ruth Stark takes a look at some of the latest policy developments and
asks where social work services will be in 20 years’ time
16 Letter to the Editor
Publications for review
17 The text factor
Wanted…
Editorial Board members
Would you like to join Rostrum’s
Editorial Board? We are keen to hear
from students, front line workers,
basic grade and senior workers
willing to help shape the voice of
social work in Scotland. Contact the
Editor at: [email protected]
The views expressed in Rostrum
are not necessarily those of the
Editor or of SASW
Cover pic: London Films
October 2012
Viv Cree, Professor of Social Work Studies, Edinburgh University
18 -MediaWatch
19 My Life and Times - Garry Fraser
Ruth Stark
Scotland’s Silent Deaths
Gordon Lockerbie, Social Worker and Mental Health Officer,
Aberdeenshire Council
20- Book reviews
22 Jennifer Campbell, Andrea Monica Nicolin, Iain McDonald,
Ken MacLennan, Rob Mackay, Kevin Brown
23 Diary Dates, Branch News, BASW Committees, SASW Office
24 Who should be in the picture this year?
SASW Social Work Awards 2012
3
Rostrum
Integration plans need culture shift
David Mitchell
Plans to integrate adult health
and social care services should
focus on cultural change and keep
structural change to a minimum,
SASW has told the Scottish
Government.
Responding to the
government’s consultation, SASW
said its members were sceptical
about the value of structural
reform in changing how services
were delivered at the front line.
“This view is based on their
experiences of structural changes
that have been introduced over
the past 40 years. It consumes
time and energy that are
disproportionate to any perceived
outcomes,” it said.
Cultural changes would be
needed if the people using the
services - and living with their
health and social care conditions were to be in the driving seat of
finding the help they needed.
“The key question is helping
people find the right route to
arranging health and social care
services that will meet their needs.
each body depending on funding.
“It will be critically important that
the right outcomes are measured,
particularly in terms of quality of
life. It will be equally vital that the
analysis of outcomes includes
reports on local performance and
reflects how local needs are being
met.”
“Critical in this pathway is the
ability to find a way of people
working with skilled professionals
who can help them get a
comprehensive multidisciplinary
assessment of their needs from all
the services - health, education,
housing and social work services.”
SASW said that shared, jointly
agreed outcomes would be crucial
in formulating any new
arrangements.
“The current different reporting
requirements are counterproductive,
not just for statutory health and
social care but also for other
service providers who are required
to submit different information to
Capital examines welfare reforms
Edinburgh City Council is to
examine the impact of the UK
Government’s welfare reforms on
the city’s residents.
The move follows concern from
Ricky Henderson, Convenor of the
Health and Social Care
Committee, that the changes could
have a profound effect on some of
its most vulnerable people.
The reforms are aimed at
simplifying the benefits system,
supporting people returning to
work and reducing costs. Some
measures have already been
implemented but most are due to
be rolled out from next year.
Councillor Henderson said: “The
welfare reform changes made by
the Government at Westminster
are likely to have a significant
impact on vulnerable and lower
income people in Edinburgh.
“We need to be fully aware of
4
what this impact is likely to be and
prepared to deal with the
consequences. It’s also likely that
changes to benefit payments will
have a direct impact on the
council’s finances and this also
has to be quantified.
“In addition, we need to work
with the many advice agencies
across the city to ensure we are
giving the best possible consistent
advice and support to people when
they come looking for help.”
The council’s has passed a
motion calling for a report on the
potential impact, particularly on
benefits and services provided or
funded by the council.
The report, to be produced later
in the autumn, will include the
financial implications for the
council and the impact on its
strategy and operations, including
the city’s advice services.
• SASW’s full response can be
found at: www.basw.co.uk/scotland
Workforce solutions
A two-day event was held at
Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh
last month to develop new
solutions to the challenges facing
the social services workforce.
The event was part of a joint
project to examine the “Workforce
of the Future” by the Scottish
Social Services Council and
Institute for Research and
Innovation in Social Services
(IRISS).
Out of more than 100 ideas
submitted online, seven were
pitched to a panel of judges
including Elizabeth Carmichael,
SSSC council member; Lesley
Musa of the Scottish Government;
and Sandy Cameron, Chair of
IRISS.
The five winning ideas were:
1.Dementia diary - a way of
recording and documenting life
and planning ahead
2.Blether-in - create a network for
nursery workers and children using
Skype
3.Wireless - pop-up offices for
various community environments
4.Yours and hours - time banking
using an asset-based approach
5.Positive wiring, positive people
- an interactive resource,
developed by and for young
people, to educate them on the
effects of abuse, neglect and
stress on babies and children.
The ideas will be pitched to
decision makers in December to
see if they will adopt them and try
them out.
Rostrum
Mental health strategy launched
David Mitchell
A new mental health strategy
aimed at improving the mental
health and wellbeing of everyone
in Scotland has been unveiled by
Public Health Minister Michael
Matheson.
The strategy sets out 36 key
commitments to be delivered
between now
and 2015 to
provide faster
access to
mental health
services for
younger
people, faster
access to
psychological
Michael Matheson: therapies,
Maximum impact
work to
reduce and
prevent suicide, and addressing
stigma and discrimination.
It also focuses on the actions
that people can take for
themselves and with their
communities to maintain and
improve their own health. Other
commitments include working
more effectively with families and
carers and improving links
between ongoing work on alcohol
and depression to improve
identification and treatment.
Mr Matheson said: “In Scotland
we are proud of what we have
already achieved in promoting
rights and recovery, addressing
stigma and improving outcomes
for people who use services and
their carers - ensuring people
receive more effective, quality care
and treatment more quickly than
ever before.
“We must now increase the pace
of change and focus on delivering
improvements which we believe
will have the maximum possible
impact across the whole population.
“We will work with our partners
across the NHS and local
authorities; the third sector and
service users and carers to deliver
on our ambitions and ensure our
mental health services remain
world-leading.”
Joyce Mouriki, Chair of the
national mental health service user
organisation VOX, said: “We are
delighted that the new mental
health strategy includes a number
of commitments such as faster
access to psychological therapies,
crises response, peer support,
social prescribing and
employment.
“We hope very much that the
strategy will improve the lives of
those who experience mental
health problems and look forward
to our continued involvement in the
process of making positive change.”
Edinburgh University social
work student Sharon Burn has
received the Marjorie A Brown
Memorial Prize for her honours
dissertation.
The award, presented by
Professor Viv Cree, commemorates
Marjorie A Brown who was
Director of the Department of
Social Studies at the university in
the 1950s and 1960s.
Miss Brown was a key player in
the development of professional
social work education worldwide
and one of the founder members
of the International Association of
Schools of Social Work in the
early 1960s.
October 2012
Briefly
The Multi Agency Resource
Service (MARS) and the
Scottish Child Care and
Protection Network (SCCPN)
have merged to become
WithScotland, the national
resource for child protection
workers. Based at Stirling
University, WithScotland aims
to support all practitioners in
exchanging knowledge and
information on child care and
protection.
Dumfries and Galloway social
work committee has been
forced to ask for £617,000
from central spending to cover
a deficit in its budget. The
problem has been blamed on
the cost of delivering home
care services. Members were
told that anticipated revenue
from additional charges had
failed to be realised.
An unannounced inspection
by the Care Inspectorate has
found that social workers in
Dundee are working effectively
to support young people who
are, or have previously been,
looked after by the city council.
The inspectorate graded
the quality of care, support,
staffing, management and
leadership as all “very good”.
Thirty-five-year-old Katherine
Hammond has been awarded
the City of Glasgow prize for
the top performing social work
student at Glasgow Caledonian
University. Katherine, who is
from Bishopbriggs in Glasgow,
graduated with a first class BA
(Hons) in Social Work.
The Scottish Social Services
Council has launched a new
website to make it easier for
social workers, social care
workers and service users
to access information on
their mobile ‘phones. Visitors
accessing the website at
www.sssc.uk.com using
smartphones will automatically
be directed to the mobile site.
5
Rostrum
Grasping the opportunities
Peter
MacLeod,
Director of
Social Work,
Renfrewshire
Council and
President,
ADSW
ADSW is facing a busy year
ahead. In the last issue of
Rostrum, I wrote about the
integration of health and social
care and that still very much
dominates the work that we are
doing as a professional body.
However, it is not the only thing we
are working on and it is really
important that as we deal with
policy and legislation in one area,
we are not only aware of its impact
elsewhere but aware of the
opportunities to ensure that all
legislation and policy is
complementary and linked, where
it needs to be.
The legislative programme
relevant to social work is packed
this year with the aforementioned
integration of health and social
care, self-directed support and the
new Children and Young People
Bill. There is also the review of
community planning to be
implemented and the wider more
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general learning on public sector
reform from the Christie
Commission to take forward.
There are huge opportunities to
be grasped here to make sure the
legislation and policy we develop
leads to better lives for the people
we support.
With the integration of health
and social care we need to make
sure that we do not, in solving one
set of issues, create more
elsewhere. Social work services
are interconnected, because social
work deals not just with individuals
but with their whole environment:
their families and communities,
which are complex entities. So we
need to make sure that in putting
adult health and social care
together, we are able to maintain
links to housing, criminal justice,
children’s services, addiction and
mental health services, housing,
leisure and transport.
We need to ensure that the
self-directed support legislation
does in fact give individuals more
choice and control over their care.
That means making sure that
integrated health and social care
partnerships will differentiate
individual budgets for all the
services provided, not just those
historically from social work.
It also means that the Children
and Young People Bill has to look
at what’s happening in adult care
and make sure that the best
outcomes for children are not
compromised by the impact of
legislation and policy in that area.
Many children come to the
attention of the authorities
because of the issues their parents
have, so it is important that services
for children and adults are linked
so that connections are not lost.
ADSW believes that locating all
these developments within a
community planning framework is
key to successfully achieving the
outcomes that we all strive for. We
need some way of looking
holistically at the changes we are
making to make sure they are all
making the impact we want them
to and also making sure that we
get the best services for the
people we support.
Former Strathclyde social
work director Bob Winter
has received an honorary
degree from Strathclyde
University in recognition of
his service to the people of
Glasgow.
Mr Winter, who studied
social work at the university,
retired as Lord Provost of
Glasgow earlier this year
after more than 50 years in
local government.
Giving the oration,
Hugh Hall of Strathclyde
University said: “Bob was
the youngest director of
social work in Scotland
when he was appointed and
was a founding member of
the Association of Directors of Social Work, serving as an executive
member for 27 years.
“He was a pioneer for community development, welfare rights,
inter-agency co-operation and group work with children. He
spearheaded several successful lobbying campaigns and the legacy
of his work continues to be felt today.”
Rostrum
Parliamentary business
Ruth Stark,
Social
Worker
Manager,
SASW
The
Scottish
Parliament
resumed work on 4 September
after the summer recess. The
Scottish Government’s programme
has been widely reported but there
are some important elements that
could affect the shape of how we
do social work in Scotland.
Heading the list is the health
and social care integration
agenda, closely followed by
self-directed support and the
review of community justice
services. Tribunals and courts are
also being reviewed and new
legislation is promised. Children
and families have not been left out
as we have proposed new
legislation on children and young
people which includes a wide array
of proposals.
All this is currently being
consulted upon and we have
responded to some already, will do
to the others and all our responses
will be on our website at: www.
basw.co.uk/scotland
However, other matters are also
discussed in the Parliament. On the
same day that the First Minister
was presenting the Government’s
programme, Justice Secretary
Kenny MacAskill was answering a
question from Central Scotland MSP
Siobahn McMahon on what action
was being taken to ensure young
people across Scotland have
access to information about the
legal and practical definition of rape.
On 6 September the First
Minister announced some Cabinet
changes. One significant change
which we should note in relation to
the health and social care agenda
is that this portfolio has moved
from Nicola Sturgeon to Alex Neill.
It is early days yet in this new
Parliament but in anticipation of
some critical debates about how
we will be working over the next 20
years, if you have views, evidence
or concerns about anything that
you think politicians need to be
aware of in developing policy in
our area of expertise contact us at:
[email protected]
THE SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION FOR
THE STUDY OF OFFENDING
43rd Annual Conference
Dunblane Hydro Hotel
16th – 17th November 2012
“Gender, Crime and Justice”
An opportunity to explore and discuss
the impact that gender has on victim and
perpetrator experiences of the Scottish
Criminal Justice System
Conference Chair:
Catherine Dyer, Crown Agent
Children should be better helped
Looked after children might achieve better outcomes if social workers
had time and space to use their skills, knowledge and expertise in working
with children and families, SASW has told MSPs.
SASW was responding to an inquiry by the Scottish Parliament’s
Education and Culture Committee into decisions made about when or if a
child should be removed from the family home.
The committee is looking into:
• The decision-making processes involved in determining whether a child
should be removed from the family home and taken into care
• Whether these decision-making processes are delivering the best
outcomes for children and their families
SASW said looked after children would be better helped if social
workers were able to make use of preventative measures so that children
remained with their families.
“Where action has to be taken to protect children from harm in the family
home, social workers need access to up to date knowledge and resources
to meet the needs of children, including understanding if we can learn from
the experiences of other countries about how to find best options for
children,” it said.
“Where children can be returned to family care this needs to be done
imaginatively, working with families so that they are involved in the
solutions that fit their family requirements.
“If children cannot move back to their families, are we ensuring we are
looking not just at their immediate needs but what will equip them for their
adult life, including understanding their own life journeys that may impact
on their adult relationships?”
• SASW’s full response can be found at: www.basw.co.uk/scotland
October 2012
Guest Speakers:
The Rt Hon the Baroness Corston
Professor Marianne Hester
Head of the Centre for Gender and Violence
Research at the School for Policy Studies,
University of Bristol
and Patron of South Tyneside Women’s Aid
Sheriff Daniel Scullion
Sheriff of Glasgow and Strathkelvin
Pragna Patel
Founding member of the Southall Black Sisters
and Women Against Fundamentalism
Detective Chief Superintendent
John Carnochan QPM
Lesley Riddoch
Commentator & Broadcaster
After Dinner Speaker:
The Rt Hon the Lord Carloway
Full conference programme and registration
details available on our website at
www.sastudyoffending.org.uk
or by contacting Irene Cameron
T: 0141 560 4092
E: [email protected]
Registered Charity SC008124
7
Rostrum
Social Work and Social
Development: Action
and Impact
2012 Joint World Conference
Stockholm, 8-12 July
Ruth Stark
This Joint World Conference in
Stockholm brought together three
international organisations to
promote the Global Agenda for
Social Work and Social
Development.
The significance of this event is
measured by the interest being
taken in our activities by the UN
John Stark
Gary Bailey and Rory Truell
which is asking us to be involved
in projects like “What will replace
the Millennium Goals in 2015?” or
“What can we contribute to the
development of social capital?”
which is now seen as significant as
economic growth if we are to
achieve balanced societies on a
global scale.
The three organisations were
IFSW (representing social
workers), IASSW (schools of
social work) and ICSW (third
sector organisations). The
programme was vast, the plenary
sessions thought-provoking and
very accessible and the
networking fantastic. Much of the
content can be seen on the
website www.swsd-stockholm2012.org with videos, papers,
abstracts and more.
The highlight however was
Walter Lorenz, Rector of the Free
University of Bozen-Bolzano,
author of many books on social
work and former president of the
European Centre for Community
Education, who gave the Eileen
Younghusband Memorial Lecture.
There is separate video of his
presentation which I would
strongly commend to you as part
of your PRTL.
From Scotland, there were a
number of presentations including
work that is ongoing at Stirling and
Edinburgh Universities and the
Glasgow School of Social Work.
The international links that we
make at these events helps
strengthen social work practice
here in Scotland. They help us
review what are the essential
elements of practice that
transcend the structures each of
our countries use to shape social
work provision. Ideas from outside
help us see what may be
obstructive to accessible services.
Finally, in the week preceding
the conference we have the
business meetings of our own
international federation, IFSW. It
started mid-week with the meeting
of the Global Executive. Again, I
was privileged to attend this
meeting as the Convenor of the
IFSW Human Rights Commission.
It is in this meeting that
presidents and executive members
of the six regions, the staff of
IFSW and the representatives of
the publications board, ethics and
David Jones with Spanish social workers
8
Rostrum
human rights commissions meet
with one of our Un
representatives.
The core principles of what joins
us together as a global profession
keep us on track in assessing and
planning the agenda and business
plan for the federation. This is then
presented and discussed by the
global meeting of all member
associations.
Sadly, social work is not
generally a well paid occupation
and travelling to a global meeting
is often impossible because of
finance and this can then be
compounded by visa restrictions.
We have a system of proxy
representation and voting but it
underpins the importance of the
regional activity to ensure the
involvement of all members.
This year we welcomed 15 new
associations to join in excess of
750,000 social workers across the
world. We voted to include in the
Global Agenda the development of
guidelines on sexual abuse and
whistleblowing and some of us
walked away with the commitment
to work on these issues in the
coming months.
After a long interregnum
between the departure of our last
Secretary-General and our new
appointment, Rory Truell from new
Zealand, iFSW is now introducing
some new ways of working and
communicating with members.
The new website is being
developed and the headline when
you get there - CONNECT –
share, discover and learn - gives
a renewed sense of direction
which is what i personally took
away with me from this very
exciting week with international
colleagues in Stockholm.
Study notes
name: Jennifer Bruce
Age: 22
Course: BA (Hons) Social Work, Robert Gordon
University, Fourth Year
Why social work?
My first job was as a relief social care worker. I really
enjoyed this type of work. I enjoyed supporting people
and helping them to make changes in their lives. When
it came to choosing a university course I thought social
work would be best suited to continue this kind of work.
What area of social work interests you most?
When I started the course, children and families
interested me the most. After completing a placement,
children and families work still interested me.
However, my second placement changed my mind again and I began to enjoy working
with adult services. I enjoyed helping people integrate back into communities and seeing their
lives move forward in a positive way after accidents or diagnosis of degenerative brain
conditions.
What did you do before social work training?
I left Glenrothes High School after fifth year and came straight to university. In the school
holidays, I worked as a relief social care worker for adults with learning and physical
disabilities.
favourite music?
I like all sorts. I particularly enjoy rap music - Eminem is my favourite artist. I also like rock
music and The Rolling Stones would be my favourite band. I prefer songs and music that
have some sort of meaning behind them.
favourite film?
There are too many films I like. My first favourite film was Enemy at the Gates but then I
watched Pulp Fiction and that soon took the top spot.
favourite book?
I like any book on serial killers. I like reading about their early childhood and how they
developed growing up. It’s amazing to see the similarities amongst them in their early
childhood and adolescent years. Psychology, and in particular human growth and behaviour,
interested me the most out of all aspects of my social work training.
last book out of the library?
I tend to buy all my books. My last read was The Night Stalker by Philip Carlo about the life of
the serial killer Richard Ramirez.
How do you let off steam?
I swim, go to the gym and play water polo.
Have you been on placement yet and how do you feel about it?
I’ve been on three placements: two of these were working with children and one working with
adults with disabilities. My first was at the Camphill Rudolf Steiner School near Aberdeen, the
second at Turning Point Scotland and the third with a children and families permanence team.
I’ve yet to complete my final placement. I find the placements good for gaining experience but
also feel there is a lot of pressure on you.
Where do you hope to be in five years’ time?
I hope to be qualified and working as a social worker. In any area of social work, I think at the
moment it’s important to gain as much experience in a range of social work settings as possible.
Message on your T-shirt?
What does not kill you makes you stronger
October 2012
9
Rostrum
Development matters
Tim Parkinson,
SASW
Development
Officer
Well what a
summer! It
rained for more
than 40 days
and 40 nights, and though we had
no money for the ark anyway, the
main disaster wasn’t flood. It
remains the broken world
economy and the absence of
confidence in any appropriate
model for recovery. There are no
longer any dependable “constants”
in social policy. As a result, the
area in which we work feels more
vulnerable and uncertain than at
any time in my memory.
So we had the Olympics and
the Jubilee celebrations, which I
enjoyed as much as the next
person. However, I couldn’t help
see the parallel with the crumbling
Roman Empire and its citizen
appeasement policy of “bread and
circuses” which inevitably
exacerbated its decline and fall.
Now, for social work it feels
increasingly as if there is a range
of forces combining to create a
momentum towards deprofessionalisation for reasons of
“economy and efficiency”.
I look on internet social work
forums and see discussions
involving social workers who have
qualified in a recent era, where
assessments are now prescribed
by standardised frameworks. They
seriously can’t see why
assessments need a qualified
social worker.
Another forum was asking:
“What is the difference between a
Social Worker and a Personal
Assistant?” (as they are used in
England). Again, because of the
way social workers have been
deployed and prescribed, there is
little difference.
In Scotland, we feel these
effects slightly later than in England
but the momentum is now growing.
The “Care Manager” role is very
susceptible to drift.
The health and social care
integration agenda holds huge
potential for social workers losing
professional practice governance
and our tasks being re-defined by
managers who are not social
workers. Many of these redefined
tasks probably would not need a
social work qualification.
This effect will be a dangerously
strong influence in the potential
restructuring of criminal justice
social work into a national
community justice service. Children
and young people’s services will
inevitably also be vulnerable.
What can you do? Well, we all
know how difficult it is as an
individual persuade an
organisation or government
department that our job is not what
they perceive it to be.
That is why the professional
association is here to be the
conduit for the collective voice of
the profession, and to ensure its
influence in policy and legislation.
For that we need social workers to
support us and empower us to fulfil
that role.
It is perfectly acceptable and
reasonable for SASW to be visiting
and speaking to social workers in
the workplace. ADSW recognises
our value to the profession and we
work in partnership on several
issues. There is no reason why
you shouldn’t ask your manager if
we can visit your team meeting for
20 to 30 minutes to brief and
consult on developments.
We are helping to build
professional confidence and
competence. We are briefing and
raising awareness of issues prior
to consultation and restructuring.
We are gathering opinion and
experiences. We are preparing to
be able to help social workers and
organisations to incorporate what
is valuable and essential into any
future structures and systems so
that they can actually deliver better
services, rather than diluting and
weakening them so that they go
further.
This is your profession, and how
you feel about yourself and going
to work each day is determined by
the position and role that
profession has in Scotland. Please
email me if you would like to
discuss the possibilities. I would
really encourage criminal justice
social workers to contact me as
well, as their future is really up for
radical change.
Watch for our CPD events, the
Mental Health Officers Annual
Study Forum and the team
managers’ consultation we are
holding this quarter, come along
and talk to us about your concerns
and needs. Or... I’ll see you at your
team meeting.
Contact: [email protected]
10
Rostrum
A week in the life of…
One of our members who is working for an MSP in the
Scottish Parliament - and finds it scarily like social work
Monday: Arrive to find six
messages on the ‘phone, all from
the same man. He regularly rings
during the night to let my MSP and
boss know what he thinks. Today’s
messages run from 11pm on
Friday night to 3am the next day.
He only wants to share his
thoughts. He has moved from
trying to persuade her to change
her view on equal marriage to
exploring how he feels about
Scottish independence. No action
needed, delete all.
Continue working through the
email correspondence backlog that
has built up. Everyone needs an
individual response, though there
is some standard text that can be
used. Many of the emails need a
couple of hours of research before
I can respond with anything
meaningful. No wonder there are
always so many of them.
Image © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body
Tuesday: There has been a
history of erratic communication
with a constituent and we are
already anxious about meeting
him. While working within
confidentiality guidelines, another
MSP’s office gives me enough
information to confirm my initial
assessment of someone who is
very needy but challenging.
OK. Dangerous. Contact
security and share the advice
which I have been given which
includes not to meet him alone.
They swing into action in a most
impressive way, tell me to change
the meeting room to the one which
has a panic button and CCTV
camera and reassure me that the
meeting will be monitored and the
police will be nearby.
Wednesday: The constituent
arrives 30 minutes early and I ask
reception to let me know that we
will collect him at the time agreed.
They are very skilled at dealing
with the public - always respectful
and friendly.
Before the meeting, I take my
MSP to the meeting room and talk
her through the security
precautions. She comments that
she is glad he has had to come
through security and so cannot be
carrying a weapon. Police have
materialised from the woodwork
and are very friendly and
reassuring but invisible once the
meeting starts.
The constituent has difficulty
focusing on the purpose of the
meeting, which was requested by
him, but we find some things that
my MSP can try to influence for
him. He wants his support worker
reinstated and a change in the law
to deal with childhood abuse. My
job is to help my MSP to stay
focused and to bring the meeting
to an end when we stop making
progress.
I reflect on the impressive
support for us within the
Parliament when social workers
deal with this kind of situation on a
daily basis with far less support.
On to the next diary item, my MSP
is visiting a team who work with
homeless people tonight and I must
make sure that she is fully briefed:
they don’t often allow people to
shadow them at work. I will have
an easier evening at the cinema.
Thursday: My ‘phone calling
friend again. He seems to have
had a few drinks as most of the
messages on the answering
machine are loud protestations of
his love for Scotland.
October 2012
Parliament is in recess and today
my MSP is working in a charity
shop for a few hours to learn about
the charity and to help them to
raise the profile of their work. The
afternoon is spent at a sheltered
housing complex where the
residents are concerned about the
reduction in their support grant.
These preventative services are
vital in keeping people as
independent as possible so we will
look into what we can do to help. It
is surprising and alarming how much
impact a letter or call from an MSP
can have. That power doesn’t feel
very democratic but helps me to
assist quite a few people.
Friday: I see three emails about
the “Naked Rambler”. Sigh. How
can I frame a response without
either looking ridiculous or ignoring
civil liberties issues?
Then, just as it is going home
time, I take another ‘phone call.
After 45 minutes, I have identified
that the caller is not well and that
she mistrusts doctors, dentists,
social workers and neighbours.
She will not allow any of them into
her house. She is unable to go out
and has no food. She cannot say
what it is that she wishes me to do
for her.
Phone the emergency social
work team. Even without her
address, the team recognise her.
Given that she will not allow
anyone in and will not accept any
help, it is hard to see what anyone
can do. My colleagues are grateful
that I seem unfazed by such calls
and know what to do.
I become convinced that social
work would be a good background
for working with or as an MSP, MP
or councillor.
11
Rostrum
Meeting PRTL in the
voluntary sector
Scott Read finds there are some creative ways to maintain
your registration in a voluntary sector post
The feeling of graduation and
becoming a qualified social worker
is something we all look forward to
after a lot of hard work and selfreflection. As a newly qualified
social worker, it was exciting to
finally go to job interviews and
enter the job market. Unlike a lot
of my peers, statutory social work
was not where I wanted to go
straight away.
There were many reasons for
this but suffice to say that after
working for the NHS and voluntary
sector before my masters degree
in social work, my philosophy
around how social work is carried
out seemed to fit a lot easier into a
voluntary sector idealism.
So with this in mind, I now liaise
with statutory agencies, parents,
service users, voluntary sector
service providers, universal
services (such as education and
health) and national government to
help improve service provision in
transitions from school to adult life
across all sectors.
My title is Development Officer
(I’m one of three) but I am also a
voluntary sector social worker as
the standards and ethics of the
post mirror those of social work. To
maintain my job role, I have to also
maintain my registration as a
social worker.
I see the role of a social worker
as a diverse one with many facets
fitting my new role but a number of
issues initially struck me. One is
tailoring what I do to fit in with Post
Registration Training and Learning
(PRTL) requirements; another is
flexibility in my role to enable me
to meet all these requirements.
This post offers opportunities to
really explore what a social worker
does outside a local authority
remit. Voluntary sector social
workers need to explore how their
experiences can fit in with the
PRTL requirements detailed by the
12
Scottish Social Services Council,
especially if these requirements
are primarily established from a
statutory viewpoint.
Personally, I think it’s best to
address PRTL and ongoing training
needs in any interview before the
job begins in an open and honest
way. Your future employer will be
made aware of what you need and
that they also have a role to play in
your professional requirements this can be built into your contract
if need be.
It’s very important that your
employer understands the
requirements you have and these
are dealt with as soon as possible.
This may require some
negotiation. On the upside, most
voluntary sector employers have
staff development programmes
which can be tailored to fit PRTL
requirements and isn’t as big an
ask as it may seem. It may also
mean PRTL/on the job training
might need to be approached in a
very creative upbeat way.
My previous practice teacher
very much believed in being a
proactive learner; this is what you
have to do to fulfil your
requirements if your workplace
doesn’t offer all the answers. This
approach can lead to exploring
unique and different avenues of
training and adding to your
diversity and knowledge as a
worker. There is also room for
creativity whilst undergoing
statutory social work training but it
can be more limited depending on
training, resources and time.
The SSSC requirements for
PRTL are also not as fixed in stone
as you may have been led to
believe. The SSSC is very open to
discussing any issues you may
have with your NQSW training
requirements.
I thought one of the sticking
points in the requirements would
be the mandatory 30 hours (five
days) of child and adult protection,
especially given the tradition of
passing more complicated
caseloads from voluntary sector to
local authority social work
departments. A ‘phone call to the
SSSC was all it took to explore how
this could be met by other means.
In a voluntary setting, you might
think there isn’t the same
consideration for child and adult
protection. This is an incorrect
assumption. PRTL is not solely
focused on the legislation - it’s also
focused on meetings with
individuals, groups or others that
you may come in contact with at
any time throughout your work.
This learning can be achieved not
only through the mandatory
training in adult protection most
voluntary sector organisations
have but also via case discussions,
presentations and supervision.
Being a voluntary sector social
worker is something that shouldn’t
be dismissed by newly qualified
social workers. PRTL is really a
process that rests on the back of
those undertaking it. It’s about how
you articulate your learning in line
with the requirements that count.
Granted some training can be
more relevant than others but if
you are upbeat and creative about
meeting your PRTL requirements
and writing to the outcomes the
SSSC requires you shouldn’t have
any problems. If the whole process
confuses you,
the SSSC is
happy to help.
Scott Read is a
Development
Officer for ARC
Scotland
Rostrum
Children Bill - A wasted opportunity?
Maggie Mellon argues that the new Children and Young People Bill misses the point and should
be taking a more family-centred approach
If any one of us was asked who
are the first and most important
named persons in children’s lives,
the answer would surely be “the
parents”.
Sadly, of course, a small
minority of children can’t look to
parents or wider family for this. But
for the vast majority of children in
Scotland, the reality is that parents
and family are the mainstay of
their rights and their wellbeing.
Parents are the most important
people in their children’s lives,
mostly for good, and are usually
the best guarantors of their rights
and welfare. Who but a parent
(including step-parents, adoptive
parents and kinship carers) is
likely to be so invested in the
health happiness and welfare of a
child as to make getting it right for
that child their top priority?
However, proposals for a new
Scottish Children and Young
People Bill that aims to make
Scotland “the best place for
children to grow up in” don’t seem
to start from this reality that
families are central to, essential for
children’s health, happiness and
development.
It is simply not possible to
separate children’s welfare from
that of their families. Children
cannot thrive where their families
are living in conditions of poverty
and poor health and housing.
Therefore, ensuring and
supporting the welfare of
Scotland’s families and in
particular providing material,
practical and necessary support to
parents to fulfil their enormous
responsibilities for children’s rights
and wellbeing is crucial.
However, the proposals in the
consultation are not about families,
but about professionals’
relationships with children. Every
child in Scotland is to have a
“named person” drawn from
teachers, nursery staff and health
visitors who are to oversee their
wellbeing and rights.
October 2012
The proposals come from
“service land” where there are no
families, just children and their
“named persons”. In reality, these
professionals will mostly work from
9 am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
So, what could we have instead
of these proposals?
Firstly, we could have an
endorsement of the importance of
the family to children’s welfare,
and a consequent commitment to
partnership with families, and a
right to their participation and
inclusion in decision making and
resource allocation.
Why not endorse family
conferences, working agreements
between professionals and
families, local community planning
and resourcing as the keystone of
the new legislation? These are all
well-evaluated and are part of the
legal or policy framework in a
number of countries.
There is a significant body of
research evidence that supports
such person centred, participative
approaches. The proposal to have
“named persons for every child in
Scotland” is not evaluated nor is
there any research evidence from
here or elsewhere to give it the
same credibility.
We need to allow families to
lead in making plans for children
and agreeing what resources they
will bring and what they need.
Insisting on this partnership and
inclusive approach not as an
optional extra but as a fundamental
right for children and their families
would transform relations between
public and professionals, and bring
a new set of resources to the table.
These approaches actively
encourage and support
responsibility, rather than
dependence. They strengthen
families in difficulty by promoting
shared decision making and control
and encouraging new skills in
problem solving and negotiation.
We should build on strengths in the
whole family rather than on the
weaknesses of individuals.
Secondly, very local community
planning, involving children and
young people as well as the adults,
with devolved budgets and
resources to develop the kind of
services that they need and want breakfast clubs, respite care, family
aides, befrienders, food groups and
book clubs. This means that most
of the social care, community and
social work resources that are
currently committed at a high level
should be devolved.
This level of community planning
can only happen in the context of a
new construction of public service.
That is that public services are
developed by working with people
to create and deliver the supports
that they need and want. This is the
only kind of transformative change
that will work.
The consultation ended on the
25 September. But there is still time
to ask for legislation that ensures
that Scotland gets it right for
children and
families.
Maggie Mellon
is an
Independent
Consultant
and Writer
13
Rostrum
The shape of things to come
Ruth Stark takes a look at some of the latest policy initiatives and developments and asks:
Where will social work services be in 20 years’ time?
Where will you be working
in 2032?
Social work in 2032 may well be
delivered differently but will it still
be helping people with making
critical changes in their lives, will it
still be delivered primarily by local
authorities or will it too be
centralised with other public
services like the police, fire
services and the NHS?
Consultations from the Scottish
Government and the Scottish
Parliament over the summer and
into the autumn are asking us to
think how best service could be
delivered in the next two decades.
SASW has long argued that
structural change takes a great
deal of energy and resources for
very little gain and that cultural
change, whilst harder to achieve,
could make progress towards
more accessible and effective
services that will meet people’s
needs.
Integration of adult health
and social care
The consultation that closed on the
11 September suggested some
radical changes to how services
may be delivered in the future. The
origins were in the complex and
often confusing array of services
available from health and social
care services, some universally
available and some which are
means tested.
As we get older our health and
care needs get more complex and
how we seek to meet our needs
will vary in relation to what will suit
us and our families in that period
of our lives the French call “le
troisiàme âge”.
The second driver is the
spending of the public purse as the
cost of emergency admissions to
hospitals, particularly at the
weekend, rockets with what might
well be issues that with a little
earlier intervention may have been
14
avoided. We should also recognise
that such admissions may be
accompanied by the stress and
trauma of crisis intervention - with
proper preventative work this could
be avoided.
Finally, we live in a country
where the demographic change
means that more of us are getting
older and we now face the
challenge about how to meet
people’s needs in a caring society.
We know that the longer we can
keep our bodies and brains active
and plan for our future housing
and care needs before the crisis
arrives, the better the quality of life
and less reliance on health and
social care services we will need.
Building up these preventative
services and a culture of
responsible planning is a cultural
change that we must embrace if
we are to offer the care in older
age that we seek.
Lord Sutherland (Scotsman,
16.9.12) suggests that social care
provided by the 32 local authorities
is not cost effective and needs
urgent reform to one centralised
service with one chief executive.
However, from the social worker’s
perspective, this is not so simple.
This is not just about achieving
budget cuts by using economies of
scale, this is about understanding
simple routes through complex
needs and complex services and
making sure there are sufficient
checks and balances when
people’s rights are being affected.
There are also issues of social
justice.
There are a number of issues
that emerged in the course of
preparing the SASW response.
We now have experience from
places like Highland and
Inverclyde about how different
models of service delivery might
be organised. We have
practitioners concerned that their
particular skills, knowledge and
expertise might get lost in the new
structures and that the very people
we work with will be the ultimate
losers.
We also debated the presenting
issues that one of the
consequences of the new structure
would be the diminution of local
government governance in favour
of more centralised systems. This
may well have human rights
implications in the checks and
balances currently afforded in the
current systems when the liberty of
adults and children are being
considered.
Finally, how budgets will be
brought together will in itself be a
challenge. Health budgets are set
centrally, front line staff are rarely
involved in individual decisions
about how the health pound is
spent; local authority social care
staff are directly involved in
calculating what will come from the
public purse.
How will staff be helped through
these cultural changes in bringing
both services together at the front
line? Who will be controlling the
budgets? This takes us on to the
next area of policy change and
direction…
Self-directed support
Alongside the desire to create
accessible services, the political
agenda also wants to put people
who are using services in the
driving seat so that they get the
services that best suit their needs.
But when you read the response
of the Highland Users Group
(HUG) to the Health and Sport
Committee of the Scottish
Parliament before the summer
recess, some of the issues this
policy raises for service users may
have unintended consequences
for what people need or want.
HUG highlights the nature of the
special relationship between
themselves and their MHO social
workers. They know that at times
MHOs have to take decisions to
recommend detention and loss of
Rostrum
liberty. This could sit uneasily with
the current proposals for selfdirected support.
What it does do is illustrate the
essence of the complexity of how
we work with people so they can
achieve a better quality of life.
Conveying the importance of this
part of the social worker’s role
demands that we work with people
who use our services to help policy
makers understand what we bring
to social wellbeing.
What about other social
work services like children
and families and criminal
justice?
Working with adults is only one
part of social work services. We
have seen what has
happened south of
the border where the
policy of splitting
adult and children
services now sees
them quietly reverting
to single services,
recognising that we
work with people
from the cradle to the
grave. One of the
great strengths of
social workers is the
ability to think
holistically.
We know that
some of those older
people for whom we
are trying to create
seamless services
live in families where
they may kinship carers for their
grandchildren or caring for a
vulnerable adults with learning
disabilities; they may have worries
about children or grandchildren
who have become troubled with
substance misuse or mental health
issues.
Most of the people we work with
have families, relatives and friends
with whom they interconnect and
intertwine. Over the past 40 years,
that interconnectedness has been
the fundamental reason for social
work services in Scotland being
able to help individuals and their
families make changes in their
lives to meet a number of
competing and complex issues.
October 2012
Understanding this dynamic will
be fundamental to one of the
policy directions in the
recommendations of the Changing
Lives report - community capacity
building - needed to supplement
public and third sector services.
Informal care is vital to people
remaining in the community rather
than expensive residential
facilities.
The big challenge to social
workers, apart from the increasing
elderly population, has to be the
impact that substance misuse has
on children and adults. Our prisons
are full of people who have
committed crimes to support or as
a result of substance misuse.
We have targeted everdecreasing resources in children
and families’ work protecting
children from harm and helping
their mother and fathers become
good enough parents. Will these
services also move from local
council governance into more
centralised services?
Our children’s hearings system
is in the process of implementing
the new legislation and social
workers will be entering into
in-service training on how the new
legislation will impact on their
practice.
The autumn will see a
consultation prior to legislation on
what will happen to criminal justice
services. Will these too be heading
for a centralised service and will
they become divorced from
mainstream social work? Will this
help the people with whom we
work?
We know that cuts are going to
be made in our court service as
criminal cases decline and there is
a rise in civil cases. We already
have a consultation on developing
our tribunal system that will affect
initially MHO tribunals but in the
longer term will focus on new
appeals procedures for children’s
hearings.
These are potentially critical
consultations that could affect the
way we have practised social work
since 1968 - the important
question is what will work best in
the future?
What next?
Change is with us and we must
work with it to get
better services for
people. Social
workers have to be
part of the debate
about how society
can best use our
skills.
We have to have
professional
confidence as well
as competence to
explain to other
professionals, policy
makers and the
people with whom
we work what we
bring to
strengthening social
capital and
wellbeing; as
equally important in our world as
economic wealth and security.
Your experience is critical in this
debate and SASW is one of the
ways you can get your voice heard
- please use it!
The SASW responses to these
latest consultations are available
on: www.basw.co.uk/scotland. As
the policy and legislation develop
we will continue to be involved in
discussion and debate about the
way forward. Please make sure
that what we are saying on your
behalf is accurate and reflects
what you want to say to the
Scottish Government and MSPs.
Ruth Stark is Social Worker
Manager for SASW
15
Rostrum
Le t ter to the Editor
Dear Rostrum,
i WAS concerned by the account
of the work of the Edinburgh youth
offending team social worker
featured in the July Rostrum which
referred to a primary school child
as “a young man”.
i am at a loss why Edinburgh is
sending a youth offending team
worker into children in primary
school? Scotland has the lowest
age of criminal responsibility in the
UK and one of the lowest
internationally. This is in
contravention of the Un Convention
on the Rights of the Child and has
been much criticised.
Despite the hearings system
being an improvement on juvenile
courts, the criminalisation of
children is not just wrong on a
developmental or ethical basis, it
also compounds the problem. As
the evidence of the Edinburgh
Youth Crimes and Transitions
Study has fairly conclusively
shown, a focus on offending for
official intervention is counterproductive and tends to entrench
rather than diminish the problem.
There are many older children
at risk of being moved inappropriately
into the adult criminal justice
system who desperately need the
support of youth workers. Children
of primary age need a family
focused service that can
appropriately support them.
Referring to a child of 10 years
old as this “young man” moves a
very young boy into the adult camp.
We already shift children into adult
courts at the age of 16, which is
also far too early in relation to their
maturity, development, capacity for
judgement and self management.
Children are not young men and
young women.
i would say a boy over 16 is a
young man who can be asked to
recognise adult responsibilities. A
boy of 10 or 11 is a child, with no
adult responsibilities. instead we
have responsibilities to them, one
of which is to let them be children.
Maggie Mellon, Independent
Consultant, SASW Member and
Writer
Publications for review
The following have been received by the Editor and are available for review in Rostrum.
From the British
Association for
Adoption & Fostering
Fostering Unaccompanied
Asylum-Seeking Young
People
Jim Wade, Ala Sirriyeh, Ravi Kohli
and John Simmonds, 2012
iSBn 978-1-90758-555-5,
324 pages, £14.95
From Jessica
Kingsley Publishers
Active Support: Enabling
and Empowering People
with Intellectual Disabilities
Jim Mansell and Julie BeadleBrown, 2012
iSBn 978-1-84905-111-8,
224 pages, £19.99
Setting Up and Facilitating
Bereavement Support
Groups: A Practical Guide
Dodie Graves, 2012
iSBn 978-1-84905-271-9,
176 pages, £18.99
From Open
University Press
Conducting the Home Visit
in Child Protection
Joanna nicolas, 2012
iSBn 978-0-33524-527-7,
104 pages, £9.99
Assessment in Social
Work with Adults
Elaine Aspinwall-Roberts, 2012
iSBn 978-0-33524-521-5,
96 pages, £9.99
Working with Substance
Users
Kim Heanue & Chris Lawton, 2012
iSBn 978-0-33524-521-5,
112 pages, £9.99
Report Writing
Daisy Bogg, 2012
iSBn 978-0-33524-513-0,
128 pages, £9.99
From Russell House
Publishing
Social work models,
methods and theories: A
framework for practice,
Second Edition
Edited by Paul Stepney and
Deirdre Ford, 2012
iSBn 978-1-90554-183-6,
328 pages, £23.95
A review copy will be sent to anyone interested. Reviews for the next edition to be received by 1 December 2012
Contact: SASW Office, Tel: 0131 221 9445 Email: [email protected]
16
Rostrum
the text factor
Viv Cree describes some of the books that have influenced
her most during her career
How to choose three books that
have influenced me? Now there’s
a challenge. I have been a prolific
reader throughout my life, using
books (fiction and non-fiction) as a
way of making sense of the world
and my place in it.
I love books and I love libraries,
so selecting three was bound to be
difficult. In order to do this, I have
chosen books that I see as
foundational - they set me on a
path in social work and social work
education that I have been on ever
since.
The first book is Paulo Freire’s
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
(1972). I first read this as a youth
and community work student in
Glasgow in 1975 and my now very
battered copy has been through
generations of social work
students ever since I became an
academic in the early 1990s.
Freire’s main topic is education
but not in the narrow sense of
qualifications and curricula.
Instead, he is concerned with what
he calls “humanization” (becoming
more fully human) and its opposite
“dehumanization” (all the things
that distort or get in the way of
becoming more fully human).
Freire argues that formal
education, by its very nature, is
dehumanizing: it denigrates the
knowledge and experience that
people bring and treats them as
“empty vessels” to be filled with
someone else’s ideas of what is
acceptable knowledge (this might
be the university, the government,
regulatory bodies).
Through this process, people
become oppressed and lose sight
of their own beliefs and values,
going on eventually to become
oppressors themselves. In order to
surmount this “situation of
oppression”, Freire calls on people
to: “First critically recognize its
causes, so that through
transforming action they can
October 2012
create a new situation - one which
makes possible the pursuit of a
fuller humanity.”
It is this spirit that I took into my
work as a youth and community
worker, and later as a social
worker. It is also the message I try
to hold onto in my academic
teaching of social work, whilst
being fully aware that I am,
according to Freire’s
conceptualisation, inevitably one
of the oppressors.
My second choice is C Wright
Mills’ The Sociological
Imagination (1959). I came
across Mills many years ago as an
Open University student and have
held onto his ideas ever since, as
a way of challenging the strongly
individualising and psychologising
drive within social work. Mills
argues that what he calls “personal
troubles of milieu” (like
unemployment, war, divorce, the
city) must be understood as “public
issues of social structure”. In other
words, they are caused by
structural changes and are social,
not individual, in nature.
In his book, Mills is highly
critical of much sociological writing
which, he suggests, loses sight of
the real purpose of sociology. He
writes: “What is specifically
‘sociological’ in the study of any
particular feature of a total society
is the continual effort to relate that
feature to others, in order to gain a
conception of the whole.” This is
the “sociological imagination” to
which he refers. This is also, I
believe, the core of social work; it
is why we are called “social”
workers and why we must always
seek to forefront the wider context
within which individual lives are
lived.
My final choice is Peter L Berger
and Thomas Luckmann’s The
Social Construction of Reality
(1967) which I was first introduced
to as a social work student in
1980. Berger and Luckmann
challenge us to see that
“knowledge” (i.e. everything we
think, feel and believe) is a social
construction, created by the
processes of “objectivation,
institutionalization and
legitimization”. There are, they
argue, no ideas outside of this;
human reality is “a socially
constructed reality”.
For me, this pulls together a
number of thoughts that I have
carried throughout this brief
review. Firstly, it reminds me that
we need to think historically; to
understand the present, we need
to know what has gone before and
to be prepared to interrogate both
past and present.
Secondly, we must challenge
common sense ideas and the
current wisdom (whatever it is)
since both are created by
particular social and structural
conditions (some of which, in
Freire’s terms, will be oppressive).
Finally, we must be prepared to
open up for scrutiny our own
knowledge, seeing it for what it is,
i.e. an individual response to a
particular social reality at a given
historical moment.
These are the principles that
underpin my understanding of
social work and social work
education and that I seek to share
with others as we go along life’s
journey together.
Viv Cree is Professor of Social
Work Studies at Edinburgh
University and author of many
social work textbooks. Her next
book,
Becoming a
Social Worker:
Global
Narratives,
will be
published in
January 2013
17
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MediaWatch
My Lives and Times - Garry Fraser
BBC Two Scotland, 22 July
Reviewed by Ruth Stark
Ingrid Mur
The journey from a harmful
birth family, through public care
and into adult life and film-making
forms the substance of this film.
Beautifully shot in some of the
most stark landscapes of urban life
in the Lothians, I was interested to
see what other people who
reviewed this film had taken from it
and how it compared with my own
perception, having started my
social work career in the
Muirhouse area of Edinburgh and
been part of the journey that
others like Garry had taken.
We have so little research on
long term outcomes that I think this
is an important film for students
and practitioners to use to reflect
on their work, not just in the short
term but to help get long term
perspectives into the planning for
the best interest of children with
whom we work in the community
and in particular who are in public
care.
One reviewer picked up on the
use of methadone in helping
people with their addictions.
Another picked up on
marginalisation and social
exclusion. However, the big impact
of the film for me was the issue of
relationships with other people and
I kept hearing my student
supervisor stressing with me the
importance of helping people to
make and sustain relationships. It
brought me back to what is at the
heart of social work.
Garry’s early childhood is
described as one of a lack of care
and neglect. He experiences many
different placements in public care,
some of them in themselves
places where he was abused. With
such a history the making and
sustaining of relationships, building
up that trust in people becomes an
enormous task.
It is the meeting with his foster
carer now he is an adult that really
sparked the train of thought about
the significance of relationships. In
testing out the carer’s commitment,
he ran away. But in the meantime
she was taken ill and was in
hospital. He could not understand
why he could not visit her and he
was placed elsewhere. He was
allowed to write her a letter. Years
later she had that letter.
Do we really understand how
important contact is in making and
sustaining relationships - not just
face to face but by letter or these
days by email or text? He left that
placement inevitably with guilt that
he had brought on the admission
to hospital. How long did he carry
that burden with him? Who did he
feel he could talk to about it at the
time?
It was good to see that
affirmation of the relationship so
many years later. But could it have
been handled differently at the
time? All these would be good
questions for students and
practitioners to discuss as part of
their CPD.
Glimpses of current life with his
partner and children showed that
Garry has been able to make and
sustain relationships - but after a
journey through drug addiction and
criminal activity. Lessons may be
here from criminal justice and
children and families social
workers about what works,
particularly as a longer version of
the film should be available.
So how did Garry get there?
The tutor at Telford College where
he went to embark on his filmmaking career was very
understated. But clearly had been
the right person at the right time to
recognise that Garry had reached
a point in his journey where he
wanted to make a significant
change in his lifestyle, even
though he was still on a
script and did have the
occasional relapse.
The reaching out from
both sides was clearly the
basis of an important
relationship to sustain
Garry through the
transition from drug addict
to a confident adult who is
in a stable relationship,
providing good parenting
to his children and
establishing himself in a
career.
This is one of those films
that could help put your
work in context in the
reality of today’s society.
Ruth Stark is SASW’s
Social Worker Manager
18
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Scotland’s Silent Deaths
BBC One Scotland, 19 July
Reviewed by Gordon Lockerbie
They said that up to not being
THiS PROGRAMME looks at the
offered a bed for various reasons
impact of suicide on families whilst
the service had been supportive.
concentrating on their belief that
But at the critical moment they
their cries for help were not heard
had been let down and left with
by the professionals. Presented
coping with their loss, as well as
compassionately and in a nonthe loss of a mother to two very
sensationalist style by Fiona
young children. it was really sad to
Walker, it asks why those in need
see their pain wondering what to
at this critical time believed their
tell the children when they were
requests for help and support were
old enough to understand.
not met.
The health board counteracted
Obviously in these situations
some of these claims and this is a
there are two sides to the story difficulty in these situations which I
that of the families affected and
that of the professional
organisations they turned to
for help. Having been there
on both sides, and still am, i
can completely empathise.
It’s difficult personally and
professionally and this
programme helped to find
possible reasons and
solutions.
Suicide always leaves
feelings of why, grief and
anger. More people die by
suicide than from road
accidents and drug deaths
put together, and it is a
leading cause of death
Julie Brown’s son Daniel
amongst young men. But
thought the programme and
suicide is not a preserve of youth.
presenter dealt with on a balanced
Tayside Police’s figures,
and compassionate basis.
revealed in the programme, are
Following the BBC investigation,
alarming as it deals with 150
the Scottish Association for Mental
suicide attempts, including four
Health called for better services for
deaths, every month. Across
people who are feeling suicidal.
Scotland, there were 772 deaths
Kirsty Keay, national Programme
by suicide in 2011, averaging just
for Suicide Prevention Manager,
over two a day. in 2011, the
said: “Suicide devastates
suicide rate for males was just
Scotland’s communities and there
under three times that for females.
is a gap in the services available.
Tayside Police said it has to
Psychiatric and community mental
treat people like criminals and lock
health services do their best to
them in a cell with harm reduction
help, as do the police, but we need
clothing for their own safety when
to work together - the voluntary
mental health services don’t or
sector, police, nHS, Scottish
can’t provide support at the time
Government and local authorities
the police get involved. Suicidal
- to give people a place to turn to
and alone in a police cell?
when they are desperate.”
One of the families explained
This is a view i’m sure we all
how they felt when their sister
share and perhaps by encouraging
developed a serious post natal
greater awareness of the problem
depression and was turned away
and being supportive as friends,
from hospital, only for her to go
families and society in general we
home and kill herself that night.
October 2012
can reduce the stigma of talking
about suicide, ergo preventing loss
and emotional pain.
We all know that talking about
suicide can save lives… but who
does one talk to? it is not only
those with mental health problems
who kill themselves so are the
professionals the most appropriate
people to talk to?
The programme was sensitive,
reflecting the true feelings of those
affected with a good balance of
views between individuals and
professionals. Legislation
plays a big part in
professional decision making
with strict criteria for
detaining someone. Julie
Brown thought her son
Daniel met the criteria, and
although he wasn’t detained,
she did question whether this
type of intervention could
have prevented his death.
Harrowing tales about
looking for help and losing
sons and daughters to
suicide indicated that the
families concerned genuinely
had difficulty having their
voices heard. Police,
government, families, a parent and
a suicidal woman agreed if one
doesn’t fit neatly into the mental
health category there isn’t anywhere
obvious for people to go for help.
Penumbra in Edinburgh has a
crisis centre enabling people to
text, ‘phone or email for support,
with rooms for people who need a
place of respite or solace at a
critical dark moment. We need
more places like this.
Warning signs such as drugs
and alcohol, self-harming, missed
appointments, people asking for
help and not being followed up are
serious indicators of suicide. We
need to develop services to meet
these needs to prevent people
killing themselves in despair.
Gordon Lockerbie is a Social
Worker and Mental Health
Officer with Aberdeenshire
Council
19
Rostrum
How to Become a Better
Manager in Social Work and
Social Care: essential Skills for
Managing Care
Les Gallop and Trish Hafford-Letchfield
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2012
ISBN 978-1-84905-206-1, £19.99
Reviewed by Jennifer Campbell, SelfDirected Support Team Manager, Highland
Health and Social Care Partnership
AS A relatively
new social
work manager,
I found this
book really
helpful and
motivational.
The layout is
clear and
easily
understandable
and it is a
useful tool particularly in the early stages
of the management process. Each chapter
is concise and easy to navigate. By using
scenarios it helps the reader identify and
apply the information to their own
individual practice setting.
The chapters are well laid out making it
is easy to dip in and out enabling the
reader to explore specific topics as and
when required. This will therefore make it
an important book for all social work and
social care managers’ bookshelves.
The use of tables and diagrams allows
you to reflect on your own management
practice and I enjoyed the opportunity to
undertake the short tasks that determined
my own specific management style. The
appendix is valuable as it provides
assessment tools to assist with individual
professional development and also for use
with team members to enable a manager
to gauge the quality of their current
managerial skills and to make any
necessary improvements.
I particularly enjoyed the chapter on
Managing Meetings which allowed me to
focus on how the quality and standard of
meetings I chair (and attend) could be
improved and more importantly kept to
tight timescales.
The chapter on Skills for Managing
Change is highly pertinent with many
significant changes occurring across all
20
aspects of social work and social care at
this time and I would recommend that all
social work and social care managers take
time to read this chapter to assist them in
understanding and appreciating the
significance of change in their managerial
role within their own organisations.
The chapter on Skilful Negotiation and
Conflict Management outlines guidelines
on negotional skills and allows you to
explore the manager’s role in dealing with
conflict within a team something that is
very relevant and useful not only for a
newly appointed manager but for
managers who have struggled previously
to manage and address conflict.
I found this book really valuable and
expect to use it as a point of reference on
a regular basis and would highly
recommend its purchase to all social work
and social care managers.
Supporting people with alcohol
and drug problems - Making a
difference
Sarah Galvani
The Policy Press, 2012
ISBN 978-1-84742-116-6, £19.99
Reviewed by Andrea Monica Nicolin,
Social Worker and Family Therapist
THIS IS a very practical and
comprehensive book for all professionals
and social work students. It provides the
reader knowledge about the subject and
how to work with people who have alcohol
and drug problems and their families.
This well researched book has 11
chapters which deal with: Setting the
scene: alcohol and drug in social work
practice; Working with people using
substances; Working with specialist
substance use services; Substance use
among Black and minority ethnic people;
Substance use and parenting; Domestic
abuse and substance use; Older people’s
substance use; Young people’s substance
use; Coexisting mental distress and
substance use; Mind the gap: people with
disabilities and substance use; and
Conclusions.
The author is one of a few who have
mentioned the needs of one of our most
marginalised communities - Gypsy
Travellers - and provides the reader with
good practice examples of working with
this community. Sarah Galvani also
identifies a major gap in research about
substance problems among older people
and people with physical and learning
disabilities.
The book constantly challenges the
reader. Each chapter starts with practice
examples. Throughout the book the writer
challenges the reader to identify issues
and find potential solutions for the cases
provided. Theory is explained through
these practice examples. Each chapter
ends with a summary, discussion,
questions and exercises for the reader to
find out whether or not he or she can put
in to practice the theory provided.
I found it a very effective way of
learning and it has already had an impact
on my way of approaching these very
relevant issues. It makes you question
your practice and there is always room for
improvement. Further learning resources
are also provided.
Social workers have to be equipped
with knowledge about the substances,
patterns of use and the impact these have
on individuals, families, friends and the
community.
In 2009,
BASW
published a
position
statement
calling on
practitioners:
“to do better in
terms of
responding to
substance
use.” Practitioners should be “well-trained
and well-supervised workers who are
competent to deal with alcohol and drug
problems.” The book approaches social
work ethics and values and makes
reference to the Code of Practice that
should guide us all in our everyday
practice.
The author states: “Nobody starts using
drugs with the intention to develop a
problem.” Social workers should listen and
understand rather than rush to judge.
Sarah Galvani goes on to say: “Not
knowing enough about substance use to
make an informed decision affecting the
lives and liberties of service users is a
breach of the (GSCC) Code of Practice.”
Rostrum
This is a well structured book and very
easy to read. It is a must if you wish to be
a good practitioner providing high quality
services to those affected by alcohol and
drug problems.
This book sets out to make a difference
in building the professional’s “confidence
and effectiveness” in supporting people
with alcohol and drug problems. It
succeeds admirably in doing so.
Social work in the community:
Making a difference
Barbara Teater and Mark Baldwin
The Policy Press, 2012
ISBN 978-1-84742-484-6, £18.99
Reviewed by Iain McDonald, Locum
Social Worker, Perth & Kinross Council
THIS IS the
latest in the
Social Work in
Practice series
and bills itself
as “a resource
in how to
approach
social work in
the
community”. In
this it is
successful by means of first defining what
a community is - a geographical location,
a shared interest or a shared need.
Community social work is then defined
and the role it can have in empowering
communities and promoting antioppressive practice.
This book makes the link between
theory and practice through the use of
case studies that are developed
throughout the course of the book
alongside useful discussion points for use
in groups. As such, it is of use to both
students and experienced practitioners.
At eight chapters, it not a particularly
long book but the chapters do contain a lot
of information. Broadly speaking the first
three chapters act as an introduction to
the topic and role of community social
work in promoting the empowerment of
the individual within the community.
The book challenges the current focus
in social work of working with individuals in
the community who are in crisis and notes
that community social work with its focus
on capacity building and supporting
informal networks lends itself to
preventative rather than reactive practice.
It is also suggested that prevention is
more effective.
October 2012
The historical and theoretical
development of community social work is
also discussed as its recent development
since the Seebohm and Barclay Reports
first saw it as a means of supporting family
and other networks. The current context of
the Big Society is also discussed within
the terms of community social work.
The next three chapters relate directly
to facets of community social work with a
practice orientated description of
community social work followed by
chapters on community development and
community profiling respectively.
I found the latter particularly interesting
especially in relation to its links with the
statutory duty of local authorities in
England and Wales to define the level of
need within a community as part of the
Children Act 1989 and the need to consult
and plan with communities within the NHS
and Community Care Act 1990.
The wider uses of community social
work are considered in an interesting
chapter on global issues and how
communities can be assisted to respond
to these. Overall, I found this book interesting
and stimulating as it made me think about
how social work can be practised
differently and potentially more effectively.
Mastering Approaches to
Diversity in Social Work
Linda Gast and Anne Patmore
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2012
ISBN 978-1-84905-224-5, £17.99
Reviewed by Ken MacLennan, Social
Work Consultant
INTERVIEWED
about the book,
Linda Gast
said: “It is only
in a spirit of
learning
- where we can
all get things
wrong on
occasion, and
need others to
be able to point
things out and
explain why particular words, phrases or
behaviours are not acceptable to them that we are then able to modify our own
behaviours.”
When I first saw this book I was really
excited and couldn’t wait to read it. All
went well until Page 32 where I was
disappointed to see the use of lower case
in referring to one of our most marginalised
communities - Gypsy Travellers. (The
Inquiry into Gypsy Travellers in 2001
recommended the use of upper case
when referring to these communities)
I remember discussing social work
education and training on numerous
occasions with BASW colleagues. Some
of us had felt that the current situation in
relation to the teaching of antidiscriminatory and anti-oppressive
practice was unsatisfactory - this book
reinforced this view.
There were positive features including
an attempt to engage with professionals
about this challenging subject. They were
diminished I felt by obvious omissions.
The most serious was any substantive
discussion of human rights in the section
dealing with legislation. A human rights
approach is crucial if we are to protect all
of our communities, including our most
marginalised.
There was also a missed opportunity to
share the memory of the millions who
have been murdered in the Holocaust and
subsequent genocides in Cambodia,
Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur in order to
challenge hatred and persecution in the UK
today. Dehumanising techniques were used
then and these rather disturbingly are being
used today in relation to Gypsy Travellers
and Roma in the UK and in Europe.
Chapters on dealing with Learning
Styles and Exploring Personal
Preferences may be of interest and some
use to the reader. They might well assist
professionals in understanding diversity
but how do they help front line staff
working in institutionally racist organisations?
Other chapters deal with Diversity in the
Context of Current Social Work Practice, A
Model for Understanding Discrimination,
Understanding and Responding to Cultural
Diversity. A “Diversity Awareness Model” is
also provided.
The book undoubtedly provides useful
points to consider, case studies, further
reading and references. Some references
to human rights and their importance to
the social work profession are essential.
Inequalities Experienced by Gypsy and
Traveller Communities: A Review by Sarah
Cemlyn, Margaret Greenfields, Sally
Burnett and Zoe Matthews stated that “...
existing equality and human rights law
provides the framework for addressing
these injustices, but it needs to be
proactively and effectively implemented.”
The deficiencies in this book may
hamper social workers in practising
effectively and will certainly not ensure the
best possible outcomes for service users
as is suggested. Compliance with human
21
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rights and equalities legislation is not
currently being adequately implemented
by public bodies, including social services,
and the hopes of Doreen Lawrence to see
an end to institutional racism remains a
dream a decade or so later.
Chapter One concludes: “Practice
which does not take account of oppression,
and the discrimination which gives rise to
it, cannot be seen as good practice, no
matter how high standards may be in
other respects.” (Thompson 2006) This
book will either be an opportunity lost or a
beginning to changing our behaviour!
Connecting with Kids Through
Stories: using narratives to
facilitate Attachment in Adopted
Children
Denise B Lacher, Todd Nicholls, Melissa
Nichols and Joanne C May
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011
ISBN 978-1-84905-869-8, £15.99
Reviewed by Rob Mackay, Independent
Social Worker and Narrative Practitioner
THIS BOOK is
written by four
staff members
of the Family
Attachment
and
Counselling
Center,
Minnesota. Key
concepts
discussed are
trauma,
attachment relationships, parental
attunement and regulation and Family
Attachment Narrative Therapy (FANT).
The significance of the narrative aspect
is that the authors remind us that personal
and family stories shape who we are and
that re-storying may enable a child who
has experienced trauma to develop
altered perceptions and an improved
sense of self. They point out that story
telling is a part of the bonding experience
and argue that families are in a unique
position to create bespoke stories for their
children. The book is written mainly for
adoptive parents although there are
references to foster parents as well.
As this is written from a US context, it
does not attempt to connect with UK policy
debates about adoption but rather the
appeal is one based on the needs of
children placed with families. This book
attempts to support families to meet the
needs of children through an
22
understanding of attachment behaviours,
although possibly some prior reading
about attachment theory might help.
The remaining chapters address the
meaning of narratives and different type of
narrative (claiming, trauma, developmental
and successful) with examples provided of
situations and stories used. These
chapters are weaker theoretically with
surprisingly little from Narrative Therapy
but are well rooted within problems
encountered by children and adoptive
parents. The types of narratives used
within FANT are well explained with good
examples and helpful guidance on how to
develop and use personalised stories in a
child-centred way.
There is an acknowledgement that at
times parents need the support of
professionals, although the position
adopted is that parents should be
regarded as the “primary healing agent”. It
is to be hoped that parents attempting to
use trauma narratives are part of a good
support system that should include being
able to access a social worker.
This book is a welcome addition to the
resources available to not only adoptive
parents but also social workers in practice
with children and young people with
attachment issues.
The book has a good balance between
theoretical material and practical
application including examples of stories.
The use of personalised narratives in
these situations, in my view, is to be
welcomed and can help to shift negative
meanings by facilitating a child to own a
preferred and positive story.
Core Social Work: International
Theory, Values and Practice
Willem Blok
Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2012
ISBN 978-1-84905-176-7, £17.99
Reviewed by Kevin Brown, Senior
Lecturer in Social Work, Management
Center, Innsbruck
AS A former practitioner in Scotland and
now a lecturer in Austria, I was
enthusiastic about the theme of this book.
Chapter One starts well, outlining at length
the international definition of social work
and the code of ethics which must
orientate our practice. However, the
positives virtually end there, as Blok then
rambles through a hotch-potch of
contradictory and, in terms of the definition
of social work and the code of ethics,
largely irrelevant theories.
Blok’s thinking is at best muddled. He
claims we have two mandates, first
described as help and social order, later
as “controlling while emancipating, and
emancipating while controlling”. His
understanding of key terms from the
definition of social work is unusual to say
the least e.g. he identifies liberation and
empowerment as “helping clients tap into
their own resources and abilities”! Our
main mandate of social change seems to
drop out of sight.
Rather than
considering
social work
theories, he
identifies the
core body of
knowledge in
primarily
psychological
terms (mixing
up humanistic
psychology
with spurious - and arguably unethical “motivational” theories from Bandura,
Skinner and others) in order to achieve
individual change, as well as “holistic” and
systems theories (e.g. from the psychologist
Bronfenbrenner) to promote social order.
Blok does not represent the current
curricula of social work education (the
specific social work theories and the
socio-political issues) in the UK or in
German-speaking countries. He focuses
his text on individual change or functional
systemic improvement rather than social
change and therefore fundamentally fails
to address the causes of social problems
(apart from as individual failure) and the
mandate of social workers to address
social rather than individual problems.
Perhaps as an after-thought, he
belatedly switches tack and refers to the
“Vienna Declaration” and UK “Manifesto”,
both emanating from 2007, which criticise
the social order, social control and
individual change foci of social work.
The key international social work
theories that analyse social problems and
promote social change, that UK students
learn, such as anti-discriminatory practice
and empowerment, feminist social work,
anti-racist social work, structural social
work and radical social work, are dismissed
in one sentence: “most of them… are less
known, and have a limited scope because
of their specific, context bound, premature
or otherwise limited character.”
So much for Lena Dominelli, Bob
Mullaly, Neil Thompson, Iain Ferguson,
Rona Woodward and Michael Lavalette (to
name but a few) then!
Rostrum
Diary Dates
October 24
Children`s Services Reform:
Improving experiences and
outcomes of Scotland`s families
Edinburgh
Email: [email protected]
October 25
Protecting People through
Partnerships
WithScotland National Conference
Stirling Management Centre,
University of Stirling
Email: [email protected]
October 31
Scottish Drugs Forum AGM &
Conference
Macdonald Holyrood Hotel,
Edinburgh
Email: [email protected]
November 1-2
Every child, Every childhood
Children in Scotland Annual
Conference
Carnegie Conference Centre,
Dunfermline
Email: conferences@
childreninscotland.org.uk
November 2
The Older Person’s Experience
of Care
Scottish Older People’s Assembly
Edinburgh International
Conference Centre
Email:
[email protected]
November 16-17
Gender, Crime and Justice
Scottish Association for the Study
of Offending Annual Conference
Dunblane Hydro Hotel
Email:
[email protected]
November 21
Creative Middle Managers
Joint ADSW/SASW study
conference supported by the
Scottish Government
Carnegie Conference Centre,
Dunfermline
Every local authority will be
offered two places
Email: [email protected]
October 2012
November 28-29
Partnership, Prevention and
Performance
CCPS Annual Conference
Doubletree by Hilton Hotel,
Dunblane
Email: caroline.scott@
ccpscotland.org
BASW
Committees
October 10
Staff Meeting, Birmingham
November 6
Rostrum Editorial Group
November 7
Finance and Human Resources,
Birmingham
November 8
Ethics and Human Rights,
Birmingham
November 21
Council, Birmingham
November 27
IRAP, Birmingham
December 5
Scotland Committee
December 10-11
Country Managers, Birmingham
SASW Office
Office Closed
24 December 2012 3 January 2013
Forth Valley
Branch News
At the branch meeting on 11
September Judy Reed, Lead
Officer/Co-ordinator for Adult
Support and Protection, Falkirk
Council, gave a presentation on the
issues emerging from the
implementation of the Adult Support
and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007.
She advised that practice is
evolving and developing but
experience varies across
the country. The majority of the work
undertaken is the adult support and
protection inquiry stage, which is a
statutory duty. She outlined the local
framework covering, for example,
the Adult Protection Committee
structure and multi-agency training.
The majority of referrals come
from the police and, rather
worringly, very few from health. She
provided statistics on the referrals,
such as harm type; client group and
on the use of orders and identified
some of the issues raised, such as
human rights and the role of GPs.
She highlighted a joint research
project by Stirling University, East
Dunbartonshire, Falkirk and Perth &
Kinross Councils exploring how
practitioners support adults at
risk of harm in light of the
legislation. This was a very
interesting topic to which we may
wish to return.
The next meeting is scheduled
for 23 October when we will
consider issues around self-harm.
The presentation will be followed by
the AGM. Members will receive
details of the meeting directly from
SASW.
Kate Pryde, Branch Chair,
Email: [email protected]
Next Rostrum
Rostrum No 111 in January 2013. Copy deadline 1 December 2012.
Circulation 1400. Subscription for non-members £16 per annum.
To find out more about our competitive advertising rates
please contact Johan Grant, National Administrator
Tel: 0131 221 9445, Fax: 0131 221 9444,
Email: [email protected]
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23
SASW Social Work Awards 2012
• Social Worker of the Year • Residential Care Worker of the Year •
• Student Social Worker of the Year (Practice Award) •
All of these people were nominated for a SASW award last year.
Who do you think should be in the picture this year?
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e
n
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i
M inat
m
o
n oday!
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The winners will receive -
Closing date:
30 November
201
2
• The SASW Social Work Award •
• A European Weekend Break • One year’s free membership of SASW •
Awards will be presented on World Social Work Day, 19 March 2013
Further information and nomination forms from:
Mrs Johan Grant, National Administrator, SASW, 3rd Floor Princes House, 5 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh EH1 3BG
Tel: 0131 221 9445 • Fax: 0131 221 9444 • Email: [email protected]