The news that funding for the Children’s Improvement Board (a partnership between the Association of Directors of Children’s Services [ADCS], the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives [SOLACE], and the Local Government Association [LGA]) has suddenly been withdrawn by the Department for Education [DfE] is something no one was expecting. It has left people confused, angry, and worried that decisions like this are being made without any warning. From twitter I can see that people are also saddened by this news. They are sad that the sector has now lost a significant opportunity to have well coordinated (by a board that was working!) sector-led improvement schemes before being left to coordinate improvement activity between ourselves.
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Protected: Exam talk
A handful of search engine terms
These are just a few of the things that people have searched the internet for that have led them to my blog. I have not included the general ones or the ones that I will use as the idea behind future blog posts.
Eastenders social worker
**This is not intended to be a complete analysis of the situation, but happy to do that if people want it. This is no criticism to the BBC, who have in the past represented storylines involving social workers incredibly well, just a professional view point on this particular story**
Never have I really felt so strongly towards a soap storyline involving a social worker. Last night I was sat around a friend’s house, catching up with them and eating takeaway whilst watching Eastenders. It was the storyline where Lola had her baby removed from her care by the police and her social worker. I haven’t really been following the storyline, but have seen the odd episode.
Online safeguarding training
Recently, whilst planning a longer post about social care inductions, I have been thinking a lot about the advantages and disadvantages of online training courses. In particular, my mind has been focussed on online safeguarding training.
Social Work Reading List (and the wider social care sector)
It is that time of year again. Yes, people are off to start university or return after the well deserved summer break. To mark the occasion, I thought I would put together a list of the fifteen books that helped me through the social work degree and that continue to support my work (not a social worker). Going through my bookshelf there are a number of publishers who produce quality social work and social care texts, but I have to say that my bookshelf is dominated by texts published by Palgrave Macmillan (please also enquire about their online Social Work Toolkit), Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Open University Press/The Mcgraw-Hill Companies, SAGE publications and Oxford University Press. They can be found on twitter;
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Social Worker of the Year Awards 2012
As promised I thought I would write a quick post to say how pleased I am to have the opportunity to be involved in this years Social Worker of the Year Awards. As part of the judging panel, it is exciting to be joining practitioners and managers from across the workforce to contribute to celebrating social work. The categories that I will be involved in are;
- Practice Teacher of the Year
- Team of the Year [Voluntary Sector]
- Overall Leader of Innovative Practice [Children's Services]
- Overall Leader of Innovative Practice [Adult Services]
- Employer of the Year
- Lifetime Achievement
Do nominate someone for one of several categories and read about the awards at http://www.socialworkawards.com/.
