Community Care articles from April 2003

Community Care archives from April 2003

Laming clashes with social services directors over funding for proposals.(Lord Laming)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Lord Laming has denied that a huge injection of cash is needed to implement the 108 recommendations of his report into the death of Victoria Climbie. Giving evidence to the health select committee in parliament, he rejected criticisms by...

The training now arriving.(Scotland may train residential child care staff)
April 3, 2003... The first call for residential child care staff to be trained was made in 1869 but little has been done since. Scotland, however, may be about to break from this inaction, reports Graham Hopkins, while, on page 36, Amanda...

out of the shadows.(Older people could be gay men or lesbians)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... The onset of dementia in older gay men and lesbians may make their sexuality public for the first time. Academic Jill Manthorpe and social worker Elizabeth Price argue social care needs to rid itself of stereotypes if it is to offer them the...

research into practice.
April 3, 2003... Although partnerships between health and social care are all the rage, what of research and development, ask Jenny Owen and Jo Cooke Partnerships between social care and health are a main policy and practice theme. But we know little about...

winning against the odds.(Residential child care deserves credibility)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... There is a widespread notion that the residential child care sector is an abyss of staff stress and low morale. But the truth is somewhat different, according to researcher Amanda Mainey, who says it is time to raise the profile of the...

NVQ fails test of child care skills.
April 3, 2003... In other European countries the training and qualifications of residential child care workers are equal in status to those of social workers, nurses and teachers. It remains possible in Britain to employ staff with no relevant training or...

children; Wide variation in Scottish referrals.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Variations in Scotland's children's hearing system, which have resulted in major fluctuations in referral rates and supervision requirements, have come under fire from Scottish education minister Cathy Jamieson. In some areas, Scottish...

carers; Kinship carers need to be used more.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Local authorities are missing a chance to ease the foster carer recruitment crisis by overlooking relatives and carers, a report published this week reveals. The research, by the Children and Families Research Unit at De Montfort...

is this called support?
April 3, 2003... My name is David, I am 24. I was taken into care, under a care order, when I was 13 and placed with foster carers. When I was 15 I moved to Cradley Heath to be fostered by Jackie and Clive and stayed with them when they moved to Kidderminster...

where's the cash?(Supporting People's problems with funding is examined)
April 3, 2003... Councils will struggle to find the funding for support services in the Supporting People pot, argues consultant Neil Miller Supporting People has been compared to the introduction of community care - both introduced a government grant to...

book reviews.("Tomorrow is Another Country" and "Wellbeing" are reviewed)(Book Review)
April 3, 2003... Alison Taylor examines a controversial stance on asylum and Chris Hanvey on the elusive emotion of well-being BYLINE: Tomorrow is Another Country Myles Harris with a complementary essay by David Conway, Civitas, pound sterling5,...

first-name offenders.
April 3, 2003... The question of how to address others is still hard to answer, even though the class distinctions of the past have mostly vanished. In social care the client should have their say, suggests Conrad Russell During my adult lifetime, the use...

pioneers ; together.
April 3, 2003... What's in a name? When it comes to care trusts, the answer varies considerably depending who you ask. For many front-line staff and most of their clients, being told that the organisation they worked for or received services from would be...

rebuilding countries is best done without the state.
April 3, 2003... independent organisations hold the key to humanitarian relief, says margaret bamford The war in Iraq is likely to be followed by a period of massive reconstruction in that country. The experience of rebuilding eastern Europe may carry...

education; Excellence centres come out on top.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Any type of pre-school education is better for intellectual and social development than none at all, research published last week reveals. But a report, by the Institute of Education and Birkbeck College in London and the University of...

youth justice by Clare Jerrom; Plea for action to help hundreds of young Scots missing out on services.
April 3, 2003... Action is needed to ensure that children in Scotland's youth justice system receive the services to which they are entitled, say Scottish parliamentary watchdogs. The audit committee slammed as "disturbing" the number of cases that were...

older people by Katie Leason; General service improvements mask neglect of mental health provision.
April 3, 2003... Claims by the Department of Health of progress in implementing the National Service Framework for Older People have been challenged by professionals who say some services are still being neglected. A report by the DoH on the second...

foster care; Treasury to fix tax anomalies for carers.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... The Treasury has recommended harmonising the tax arrangements of foster carers across the country to help make fostering more attractive. The proposals, released last week by the paymaster general Dawn Primarolo, would exempt the vast...

Research findings 'are being ignored'.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... A professor of social work has hit out at the government for praising the idea of evidence-based research then ignoring its findings. Jane Tunstill, professor of social work at Royal Holloway, University of London, accused the government...

eligibility; Local priorities detract from effort to ensure fairer access to services.
April 3, 2003... New government guidelines should improve consistency in deciding who is entitled to care packages. But local resources will remain the final arbiter, says Ruth Winchester On 7 April, a new era of consistency will begin in local authorities...

children; Key workers hope for autistic children.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Children suspected of having an autism spectrum disorder should have access to a multi-agency assessment and be provided with a key worker, according to new national guidelines. The worker should be appointed as soon as ASD is suspected,...

learning difficulties by anabel unity sale; Government admits departments are not following white paper guidance.
April 3, 2003... The government has admitted that it is failing to take the learning difficulties white paper Valuing People seriously enough in its work, according to its first annual report on learning difficulties. A report, Making Change Happen, which...

housing; Next year's money will help avoid cuts.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Local authorities finding it difficult to reduce their initial Supporting People spending will be able to use next year's funding to fill any gaps in service provision, the government has said. The government agreed to the change to the new...

Barnardo's voices green paper worries.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... The senior director of children's charity Barnardo's last week made a plea to the government to make sure that the children at risk green paper did not "get caught in the maelstrom of other papers and gather dust". Speaking at a Community...

asylum seekers; Blunkett's 'zones of protection' attacked.(David Blunkett is home secretary)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Refugee campaigners have hit out at proposals by home secretary David Blunkett to develop "zones of protection" for asylum seekers outside the UK. Under the proposals presented last week to the European Union, the zones would deal with...

youth justice; Rethink sentencing policy, say charities.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... A coalition of children's charities and penal reform groups is calling for an overhaul of the youth justice system as parliament debates the Criminal Justice Bill. The group, which includes The Children's Society, the National Children's...

has nature ganged up with nurture?
April 3, 2003... In February 2001, it was announced that the genome contains not 100,000 genes as originally expected but only 30,000. Some scientists concluded that there aren't enough genes to account for the different ways that human beings behave - so...

health; GP contract turmoil threatens deprived.(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Uncertainty over the new GP contract could threaten plans for local services to help disadvantaged groups access basic health and social care. The proposed contract has been dogged by financial flaws. It was envisaged that primary care...

learning difficulties; Council steps in to cover axed services.(Inverclyde Council)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... People with learning difficulties whose independently run resource centre closed last week will still be able to access services after Inverclyde Council intervened. Advocacy workers and staff feared the 10 clients of the Impact Project...

suspect transactions.(Social workers straying into areas outside their knowledge ought to following explicit procedures)
April 3, 2003... A woman with mental health problems and a learning difficulty depends on her in-laws for support. But as community social worker Mark Sloman (left) tells Graham Hopkins, he suspected the trust she had in her brother-in-law was being...

some performance!(Advice for managers in social care is given)
April 3, 2003... 2-4-6-8, evaluate! With performance indicators, reviews and inspections we're drowning in information. Mike Pinnock provides some practical advice to keep your head above water Imagine you worked in a business where you were paid to manage...

Brave or wrong stand?(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... In our latest web poll more than half of those voting believed that organisations representing social care, such as the British Association of Social Workers, should express opposition to the war in Iraq. But a hefty 46 per cent said they...

Three paths, one destination.(treatment of mentally ill young persons)
April 10, 2003... There are three routes that are used by practitioners to compulsorily treat young people with severe mental illness. Psychiatrist Anne Thompson examines the pros and cons of each Severe mental illness is less common in children and...

practice teaching.
April 10, 2003... faces uncertainty Lecturer Aidan Worsley argues that practice teaching could be undermined by the planned changes in social work training in England Social work students have enjoyed the benefits of high-quality learning during...

divide, rule, exclude.
April 10, 2003... Some of the most joyous, creative and exciting times of my life have been spent doing things with other service users. I've never doubted that I did the right thing getting involved in service user-controlled organisations and being open about...

Beggars belief.(treatment of drug users by criminal justice system; Centrepoint research)
April 10, 2003... By enlisting the criminal justice system to treat drug users, the government risks setting up people to fail, says charity worker Ellie Lewis Ellie Lewis is a policy and research officer at homelessness charity Centrepoint. Contact her at...

It's not a race, but...(Scotland's social care policy)
April 10, 2003... Scotland seems to be accelerating away from England in terms of social care policy. Natalie Valios and Anabel Unity Sale argue that Scotland's provision of long-term care, youth justice and help for the homeless and people...

Women only.(social services for women)
April 10, 2003... Services for women with mental health problems tend to ignore their specific needs such as child care or female-only wards. Sarah Wellard reports on efforts to provide services more attuned to women's needs For a woman who has...

Social workers 'best placed' to fill support role, as Lord Hunt puts onus on councils.(Adoption UK)
April 10, 2003... Adoption UK believes the role of the adoption support key worker would be best filled by a qualified social worker. Under the draft adoption support services regulations, to be introduced from October as part of the Adoption and Children...

Recruitment; Social workers fail to take up starter homes under 'key worker' schemes.
April 10, 2003... A scheme to help 10,000 public sector workers buy a home has reserved only 400 places for social workers. Amy Taylor explains why even fewer have been tempted to apply Despite complaints from public sector workers that they cannot afford...

Post-adoption bill could be enormous.(Baaf Adoption and Fostering and Local Government Association conference)
April 10, 2003... Local authorities could be hit with a huge bill for providing post-adoption support services when the Adoption and Children Act 2002 comes into force in October. At a joint Baaf Adoption and Fostering and Local Government Association...

Children; Move to confront truancy stepped up.
April 10, 2003... Measures to improve behaviour and attendance at schools, including additional truancy sweeps and electronic registration schemes, have been announced. Phase two of the behaviour improvement programme will dedicate pound sterling1.4m this...

Youth justice by Alex Dobson; Study condemns shortage of secure places for young offenders in Wales.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Wales is suffering from "unacceptable" shortages in secure accommodation for young people, according to a new report on youth offending. The draft joint report from the Welsh assembly and the Youth Justice Board, The All Wales Youth...

Policy; A month of upheaval as profession is buffeted by the winds of change.
April 10, 2003... From asylum rights to at-risk children, a flood of policy and practice changes has hit the social care sector this month. Community Care reporters highlight key developments Antisocial behaviour Police forces have new powers under the...

Local authorities; Councils warned on housing contracts.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Local authorities must not change their contracts with housing associations that provide supported housing without proper negotiation, a senior government minister has urged. Housing minister Jeff Rooker's guidance came as the government's...

Continuing care by Craig Kenny; Criticism of long-term care charges prompts thousands to seek redress.(health services ombudsman Ann Abraham)
April 10, 2003... Nearly 2,500 people have contacted the health service ombudsman after she criticised four health authorities for failing to pay for individuals' continuing care in nursing homes. In February, Ann Abraham criticised Dorset, Wigan and Bolton,...

Workforce; Unison underlines pressure in Scotland.(Unison Scotland)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Unison Scotland has hit out at the problems social work staff face and is calling for a full-scale review. A campaign document, The Future for Scotland's Social Work, paints a bleak picture of a service struggling under increasing pressure...

residential care; Care home owners face hike in fees.(health U.K.)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Care providers are having to pay more to register with the National Care Standards Commission. The Department of Health has increased the basic cost of registering a home from pound sterling1,100 to pound sterling1,320. Annual fees for...

children in Care; New exam targets branded 'insulting'.(educational achievement testing)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Looked-after children's organisations have branded the government's revised targets for improving the educational performance of children in care as "insulting", "patronising" and "fundamentally flawed". The new targets specify that 90 per...

justice; Number of orders lower than forecast.(antisocial behaviour legislations, London)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Just six antisocial behaviour orders were issued in Greater London in the year to September 2002. Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth said the figure was based on the number issued within the Greater London Magistrates' Courts Association...

training; Delay to new care managers awards.(Arthur Keefe, Topss England)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... The government target for all residential child care managers to hold both a recognised care award and a recognised management award by 2005 is likely to be "pushed back", according to the national social care training body. Speaking at a...

ethnic minorities by Katie Leason; Treatment of black people suffering mental health problems questioned.(psychiatry Canada)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... At least 27 black people have died in psychiatric care since 1980, but the actual figure could be far higher. There is no central statistical record, but some sources indicate that there have been at least 10 more deaths since 1998. The...

children; Judge sounds early intervention alert.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Resources for the government's early intervention initiatives to target children at risk must be directed at "joint endeavours" rather than "individual enterprises", a senior judge warned last week. Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the...

delayed discharge; Support staff 'key' to intermediate care.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Care and support workers are essential to building intermediate care capacity, a conference on tackling delayed discharges was told last week. Janice Robinson, health and social care senior adviser at the King's Fund, said that although...

child protection; Laming report lifts public confidence.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Public confidence in child protection workers has increased since Lord Laming's report into the death of Victoria Climbie. Two surveys carried out by children's charity NSPCC before and after the report was published found public confidence...

bed-blocking; Delayed discharge bill becomes law.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... The Community Care (Delayed Discharges) Bill became law this week after receiving royal assent. Last week the House of Commons agreed to exclude mental health patients under the care of a consultant psychiatrist from the terms of the bill...

mental health; Two new care trusts go live.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Two new mental health care trusts went live this week, increasing the number of care trusts to seven. The Sheffield Care Trust will deliver mental health services currently run by the Community Health Sheffield NHS Trust and Sheffield...

direct payments; Voluntary groups improve access.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... The Department of Health has set up a pound sterling9m direct payments development fund to finance partnerships between councils and the voluntary sector, aimed at increasing take-up of the scheme. The DoH will begin seeking bids from...

disabilities; Just a council cock-up, on the surface.(newly painted disabled parking bay outside home is inadvertently resurfaced)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... A man who waited 12 months to have a disabled parking bay outside his home watched in horror last week as the road was resurfaced the day after it had been painted. Ken Stevenson, 78, from Portland, Dorset, who suffers from arthritis in...

asylum seekers; Allegations against company unproven.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... An inquiry has cleared a firm that houses asylum seekers of intimidation, breaching people's human rights and providing inadequate accommodation. Landmark Liverpool Ltd was investigated over its contract with the National Asylum Support...

readers' views; Slender majority reject Iraq war.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Fifty-four per cent of visitors to Community Care's website believe BASW and the Association of Directors of Social Services should voice the sector's opposition to the war in Iraq. This week's question asks: Is it feasible for British social...

asylum seekers by Anabel Unity Sale; Inspectors criticise five immigration centres for providing poor services.
April 10, 2003... Immigration centres housing unsuccessful asylum seekers are failing to provide appropriate mental health care for detainees or adequate services for children. Speaking after the publication of the first five inspection reports produced by...

children by derren hayes; Judges tell MPs why the children's guardian service is going downhill.
April 10, 2003... The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service is failing to improve services for children, families and the courts, a committee of MPs was told this week. During the first day's hearing of an inquiry by the committee of the...

A city of two tales.(demographic data about South Africa)(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... Background South Africa is 1,219,912 sq km (nearly five times the size of the UK) and has a population of 43.6 million. The life expectancy of the population is just over 45 years old (78 in the UK). Ethnic groups: African 75.2...

human rights; Legal victory for autistic residents.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... A residential home for adults with autism has overturned a local authority's noise nuisance order that banned six autistic people from using their back garden after 8pm. Since 1990, the residents of the Hoffman de Visme Foundation home in...

youth justice; New penalty aims to punish and reform.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... A new community penalty aimed at 18 to 20-year-old young offenders was launched by the home office last week to provide an effective alternative to custody. Introducing the Intensive Control and Change Programme (ICCP), Home Office...

taken with a pinch of salt.(panel response regarding learning disabled man's allegations about sexual assault)(Panel Discussion)
April 10, 2003... The police fail to take seriously an allegation of sexual assault from a man with learning difficulties. Our panel advises panel responses Louise Lewis I am left wondering whether something went wrong with John's initial...

Behind the headlines.(panel discussion about social care in National Health Service)
April 10, 2003... Phil Frampton, national chairperson, Care Leavers Association "The Association of Directors of Social Services is correct to express its fears. It remains to be seen whether the government will dumb down social care. If it does it will make...

gender blindness.
April 10, 2003... O ne in four adults will, during their life, suffer a mental health problem. GPs already struggle to cope with emotionally vulnerable patients, a frailty so often closely linked to social or economic difficulties. And for many women in crisis...

social workers; Profession urged to oppose war in Iraq.(Brief Article)
April 10, 2003... The social work profession must make its voice heard and take a stand against the war in Iraq, the annual meeting of the British Association of Social Workers was told last week. Ruth Stark, BASW professional officer for Scotland, said...

a national disgrace.
April 10, 2003... Chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers says that some of the asylum seekers detained in immigration centres will previously have been imprisoned elsewhere in "less than humane" conditions. Presumably, she means in the countries from which they...

research into practice.
April 10, 2003... A scheme in Hertfordshire to reduce the risk of social exclusion and offending among young people could become a model for preventive programmes elsewhere. The Young Citizens Project was set up to: Identify and work with young people...

see beyond the label.(psychiatric care of young people)
April 10, 2003... Graham Hopkins reports on how a resource for severely damaged young people in Southampton is offering a valuable alternative to the prospect of life in a psychiatric hospital or years of residential care Being a city there is nothing...

meet the job challenge.(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... After years of stagnation in workforce planning, social care employers are slowly building up a toolkit with which to repair the damage caused by the recruitment crisis. Some of these tools are obvious if not always affordable, such as markedly...

keep people onside.(it is more of a challenge to manage people than things)
April 17, 2003... Managing people is more interesting than managing things and processes - but more testing. John Belcher, John Burton, Tony Hunter and Kathryn Stone offer pointers to help you pass muster When dealing with people, there is no single right...

a clash of cultures?(social services embrace Best Value reviews)(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... Best Value reviews are now embedded in the practice of social services departments. Social services manager Joe Pidgeon asks whether they are compatible with the ethos of a learning organisation.

fast track to placements.(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... Concurrent planning for placing looked-after children offers several advantages over traditional methods, suggests research specialistElizabeth Monck Reasonable possibility of the child's return to parents or wider family. Temporary...

adoption options.(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... Former adoption worker Rachel Foggitt outlines how using carers approved to foster and adopt is at the heart of concurrent planning. While on page 36, Elizabeth Monck looks at how it is used in practice

'Rush to custody' brings huge surge in under-15s sentenced to detention.(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... The number of under-15s sentenced to detention over the past 10 years has risen by 800 per cent, according to a report by rehabilitation agency Nacro. The study, launched at the organisation's youth crime conference in Loughborough last...

calling time on 9 to 5.(working hours for social services agencies)
April 17, 2003... Are 24-hour services and shift-working the way forward for social services, asks Ruth Winchester Sod's law states that if there's going to be a crisis, it will happen at the worst possible time. This has long been recognised by police...

standards by katie leason; Inspectors pinpoint services that councils need to improve the most.(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... Councils are not expecting to meet all their targets in key areas, according to a mid-year report from the Social Services Inspectorate. While progress has been achieved in some services, the report states that councils are not managing to...

asylum seekers; Inspectors give removal centres short shrift in damning reports.
April 17, 2003... Critical inspections of removal and reception centres have fuelled fears about the government's strategy on asylum seekers, writes Sally Gillen Fears about the welfare of asylum seekers being detained in immigration removal and reception...

Policy adviser cites green paper goals.(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... A national body to take a strategic overview of services for children at risk may be proposed in the forthcoming children at risk green paper. Dr Joanne Drean, a policy adviser on the green paper team, told conference delegates that the...

Minister recalls juvenile establishment visit as his 'most depressing moment'.(Hilary Benn)(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... Home Office minister Hilary Benn admitted last week that visiting a secure juvenile establishment was "the most depressing moment of my life". Benn, the minister responsible for prisons and probation, told the conference that the visit had...