Occupy movements and critical social work

A tweet from James picks me out but asks anyone about the connections between the occupy London, Sydney and elsewhere movements and critical social work.

james_scwk James

How to mix radical or critical #socialwork with #occupyLondon #ows #occupySydney? @MalcolmPayne? Anyone? thoughts? yfrog.com/hwplfscj

This is James’s profile: he is based in Sydney.

James @james_scwk Sydney

A tweeter who tweets about social working without tweeting on behalf of my employer. Seeking a balance of social, work & existential...ness.

Twitter doesn’t give me the space for a full answer, hence this more extended post.

I think the occupy movement (which aims to draw attention to the responsibility of financial institutions for the austerity programmes of many Western governments and the damage this is doing to the well-being of many people across the world, especially people  inn poverty or vulnerable to economic and political pressure) connects with critical social work in three main ways.

First, it draws our attention, as critical social workers, to an important, taken-for-granted aspect of our capitalist societies: the role of financial institutions. They are self-important and politically important because of the money they make in taxes for the exchequers. As usual, the issue is not a simple one; there are tensions here. The UK, which is particularly dependent on the finance industry for the success of our economy, replies significantly on taxes from this source, and this has helped to pay for a lot of social improvements over the past few years. But any sector that pays for public services is liable to gain too much political power; its interests become too important in the political reckoning. Their taxes are only an instrument for public betterment; they’re not entitled to special consideration; if they become corrupt, if their use of power is overweening, they should be slapped down just like anyone else who becomes too big for their boots. Nicely, courteously but surely. We should all know that if our expectations step over the boundary of reasonable reward for our contribution that our true value will be asserted by the people around us.

Second, radical, rather than critical, social work places a special focus on alliance with mass movements that truly represent submerged strands in the power structures of our societies. We usually can’t do this as part of our social work jobs, because these are usually for governments and the people that elect governments are entitled to a reasonable degree of personal neutrality in how we pursue our jobs. But we can as part of our personal lives and as part of other allegiances, such trade unions and community groups.

Third, critical social work values public movements that help to make our clients aware of issues hidden in the taken-for-granted aspects of our society. If we can find the space to talk about the occupy movements with clients, we can engage them in understanding a bit better what is happening to them and helping them make appropriate decisions about how to react. We might do this is young people in care, with women coping with family stresses, unemployed people, especially those who are disabled or recovering from mental illness, with older people coping with reduced flexibility in their incomes, all as a result of the global economic crisis. This might help them make decisions about how to act, how to manage their money, to see whether they need to change their life strategies. Awareness of what might be happening in a world that is a bit distant from their everyday struggles can help them to make sense of what is happening to them, and ‘making sense’ is a really important aspect of the personal help that social workers can offer people who struggle with the everyday. Movements such as ‘occupy’ can dramatise and focus answers to a feeling of ‘not-understanding’ that excludes many clients from living their lives satisfactorily.

I believe Murdoch: too rich to bother with lawyers wittering about a paltry half million

I believe Murdoch that he didn't take in what he was being told. How many times have you sat telling a manager something important, when his mind has been on his own agenda? With his pay packet, Murdoch probably thinks a paltry half mill is not worth the lawyers wittering on about.



The point is: if he wasn't listening, he should have been, but he's too inexperienced a manager to focus on the small things (just half a million - sign it off).

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

Former News of the World legal manager Tom Crone has told MPs he was "certain" he told James Murdoch about an email which indicated phone hacking at the paper went beyond one rogue reporter.

Giving evidence to the committee, Mr Crone said: "It was clear evidence that phone-hacking was taking place beyond Clive Goodman. It was the reason that we had to settle the case. And in order to settle the case we had to explain the case to Mr Murdoch and get his authority to settle.

It was at that meeting that James Murdoch authorised him to reach a settlement Mr Taylor, who was eventually paid £425,000 over the hacking of his phone, the committee heard.

Following Tuesday's proceedings, News International released a statement in which Mr Murdoch said: "My recollection of the meeting regarding the Gordon Taylor settlement is absolutely clear and consistent. I stand by my testimony, which is an accurate account of events."

Mr Murdoch wrote to the committee on 11 August to expand on the evidence he gave that he was not shown or informed of the "for Neville" email. Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1cj2u

Are you a carbon addict? Probably yes: and children are dying

Do you have carbon dependence syndrome?

Take the CAGE test - do you need a regular carbon fix, by taking a bath or a long shower, by updating your mobile phone while it's still functioning, or by going on an overseas weekend break or by buying new food instead of using up what's in your fridge?

I've been enjoying the website Carbon Addict, which treats irresponsible carbon use as a disease, which needs managing.

Remember: the World Health Organisation estimates that 150,000 people have already died from climate change, and they are mainly non-addicts in developing countries - another word for this social group is 'children in poverty'.

Try it: http://www.carbonaddict.org/

More creativity and funding for children: aims in Australian debate

An Australian social worker who has built up a big family and child welfare organisation uses a congratulatory press interview to press for reform of the Victorian child welfare system : no it’s not that old – the state of Victoria. She aims for:

Getting rid of the adversarial legal processes through the Children's Court … 'Investment in early years; funding for out-of-home care that matches the demand — right now it's capped; an education allowance for kids in out-of-home care, and the transferring of case management from the Department of Human Services to the community sector.

These would be recognisable aims in many countries. Adversarial legal antics is not a good way of handling children’s lives. Adequate funding that prevents children from coming into state care, supports children’s education and if possible keeps them in a community setting is an important priority to many social workers. And too often hard-pressed state social work agencies focus on government priorities and political prejudices instead of the needs of children. Better to support planning and advocacy outside the state. Of course, social workers can be creative in government services, but over-bureaucratic controls and poor finance often hold creative practice back, for children and for adults.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/repairing-broken-young-lives-20110715-1hi75.html#ixzz1SSp5O7vI

Why do people expect the truth from case records?

Garfinkel's obituary: I often find obituaries one of the most attractive parts of newspapers, because, with the odd exception when the Guardian prints a critical obit on someone every right-thinking leftie hates, they are usually positive, and they look at the whole of someone's life and achievements, rather than just the currently newsworthy snippet of their lives.



I have often cited with pleasure Garfinkel's paper on clinic records, in which he points out that health and social care professionals are bound to write records which show them in a good light, because they know what really went on, when they read the note, so it reminds them of what they need to know, but anyone else who reads it is likely to want to criticise them, so they will always present the best of what they did. It's so obvious, and we all know this, so why do people expect the truth from case records?

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

Harold Garfinkel, who has died aged 93, was professor emeritus in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was based from 1954 until his retirement in 1987. In the 1950s, he coined the term "ethnomethodology", literally meaning "people's methodology".

Ethnomethodologists showed how the formal methods and procedures that take place in courtrooms, scientific laboratories and workplaces are underpinned by everyday understandings, argumentative practices and embodied skills. Garfinkel challenged the idea that sociological methods were grounded in a specialised scientific rationality that was independent of the irrational and subjective basis of ordinary social conduct.

Garfinkel sought to probe the presumptive existence of social order with a series of idiosyncratic investigations that disrupted commonplace routines in households and public places. Even apparently mild disruptions, such as acting the part of a polite stranger at one's own family's dinner table, provoked explosive reactions laden with indignation. This demonstrated the moral accountability infused within even the most mundane of routines. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a17wmy

Do more as a caring dad for a disabled child and your marriage gets better: new Polish research

A colleague in Poland, Eugene Kaniok, sends me the outcomes of his research on 243 Polish fathers of disabled children. Fathers means also carers of course, and it's usually mothers who do the most caring.

But this research looks at fathers' involvement: if they got interested in the child’s life, and involved in the child's care, education and rehabilitation then this was very significantly associated with an increase in satisfaction in their marriage. Less important, but still significant, involvement correlated with the level of fathers’ concentration on the needs of their child with disabilities, the level of fathers' cooperation with their wives, the number of years during which parents cared for a child with disabilities, time devoted by fathers daily for their child with disabilities, fathers’ self-esteem, fathers’ education, the level of disability of a child, the level of fathers’ skills in dealing with their child with disabilities and the level of fathers' knowledge about their child with disabilities.

My experience is that when families have a child with disabilities the mother is almost forced to take on responsibility for the care, and fathers can feel left out, or decide that they can't cope with what's happening to their family. It often, sadly, leads to marriage break-up. If this research relates to other families with disabled children across the world, it's a message to social workers and others helping families with disabled children. Work hard to get dad interested and doing things actively, and you'll strengthen the marriage and really benefit the child in their life too.

Far be it from me to give it a political tinge, but one thinks, looking at this research, of our Prime Minister's family. Whatever you think of his politics, he clearly did the business as a dad, and if this research is true for England, that's probably one of the reasons that he seems to have a strong marriage.

I've got this from the English abstract and talking to the writer. there are going to be papers published in English, and I'll try to draw attention to them when they come out. We should be looking at and learning from international research.

P. E. Kaniok. (2011). Poczucie powodzenia malzenstwa a udzial ojcow w opiece nad dzieckiem niepełnosprawnym i w jego wychowaniu [Fathers' marital satisfaction and their involvement with their child with disabilities], Opole, Opole University Publishing.

Does all practice in a religious social work agency have to reflect that religion?

An American Catholic archbishop has made a speech that raises issues that should be considered by Catholic social work agencies, agencies and social work practitioners with other religious or denominational commitments and anyone who is thinking about: 'what is the nature of social work'?

The main point he is making is that if you are going to call yourself a Catholic social agency or Catholic social worker your practice has to reflect and espouse your Catholic beliefs. Otherwise stop calling yourself a Catholic.

I think there are some problems with this point of view. To start with, I know some Catholic agencies that say: 'We are Catholics providing services for everyone'. I remember Catholic Social Services in Liverpool, when I was involved with them as saying this: I don't know what their policy is now. I also remember some children that I was responsible on behalf of local authority who were 'in care' (being 'looked after' in current jargon) in a children's home run by nuns from a Catholic children's agency; again, Catholics helping children in general rather than just Catholic children.

There are many care and aid agencies that operate with wider communities in this way. If they are going to do social work, they will have to accept different denominational and cultural beliefs and values and behave in a neutral way about these; thus not including their Catholic emphasis in everything that they do. The aim of a social agency is not to be 'useful to the Gospel' as the Archbishop puts it, in this way. They are useful to the Gospel by demonstrating that Christians care about everyone, whoever they are.

Archbishop Chaput's point, though, is a bit different. He is commenting on a situation that we have also experienced in the UK, and will probably be a worldwide issue. That is, if equalities legislation says you cannot discriminate against gay and lesbian people in an adoption and fostering service, you shouldn't run an adoption  and fostering service.

There is a practical problem here: how far does a Catholic go? Do Catholic social workers or agencies have nothing to do with a child care system that accepts decision-making on these grounds that are so anti-Catholic. In that case, Catholic people rule themselves out of engagement with increasingly wide swathes of social provision. Or do they accept that some of it goes on, but avoid direct involvement with it. You can almost see the Catholic working in a school, jumping back faced with a child of gay adoptive parents saying: 'Ugh, no! We cannot teach that person, they are contaminated'. Well no, most Catholics I know and most Christians, maintain a concern for others and do their job with others, even though they may not like the social trends reflected in some of the things that happen. So a Catholic agency or a Catholic social worker should not be saying: 'we don't go there'.

The Archbishop is quoted as saying: 'Catholic ministries “have the duty to faithfully embody Catholic beliefs on marriage, the family, social justice, sexuality, abortion and other important issues. And if the state refuses to allow those Catholic ministries to be faithful in their services through legal or financial bullying,” he added, “then as a matter of integrity, they should end their services.”

There's a broader ethical point: if you agree to provide services to the public, you have to accept that the society in which that public lives may not agree with you about many of the things you believe, and a public service means an equal service for all the public, not the ones you happen to agree with. If they don't agree, and the law, which enacts the general settlement in a society about an issue, supports them, a Christian should not just take their bat and ball home. To me, then, this stance is not Christian, and so therefore cannot be very Catholic.

More important, it is not and can never be social work. The whole point about social work is that it is concerned with achieving more solidarity and resilience in social relationships among all peoples. An agency or a practitioner that says: 'We don't do these kinds of social relationships' cannot be a social work agency or practitioner because their social preferences detract from general social engagement.

Of course, any agency can decide on an admissions policy that limits the range of people and issues that that they deal with. I know several Jewish agencies that focus on providing services for Jewish people in their area only and several Muslim and Hindu agencies whose style, presentation and policy means that they are only likely to attract clients from their particular community. but they don't say: 'We're not going to have anything to do with the way in which most of society wants to play ball'. You're cutting yourself off from that society, and with a good deal of arrogance too.

A bit of Christan humility means taking part in society, and not rejecting fundamental principles about how that society is run, such as equality with people who you don't like and don't agree with. I don't want to see Christians of any kind (or any other religion) cutting themselves off in this kind of way. What does a Catholic social worker who is committed to equality and who wants to work in adoption and fostering, a vital and valued service, do? Catholic agencies are closed to them, does it mean all practice in this area is closed to them, too? I suppose the Archbishop would say that in their professional practice they are not pursuing a 'Christian ministry'. Yes, but can't a valuable social agency do the same thing?

The account of the speech by Archbishop Chaput: : http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishop-chaput-warns-about-catholic-institutions-losing-religious-identity/

Child and alligator protection in America

It's different all over the world: American child protection social workers responding to a report of seven neglected children found a large alligator in the room with them. I've had dangerous dogs and multiple cats, but in England we don't usually get alligators. Apparently both the children and the alligator were taken into custody (but the alligator separately - its aquarium was filthy, who knows about the children - the newspaper doesn't say).

Read the news report here: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/05/10/3100717/gator-found-in-home-with-7-kids.html

Adult services in the EU: some unusual central Europe perspectives

I've been involved with the editing of an interesting new book, based on a conference, on social work in adult services in the EU, with mainly a central Europe perspective. There is interesting stuff on helping Roma communities, disability policy and unemployment policy in Poland, papers on services on homelessness in Denmark, chronic drug abuse in Germany, alternative punishment, family problems and older people in Slovakia.

There's a good policy paper on trends in general social services policy, stuff on social work skills, two papers on palliative care from the UK and I wrote a piece on where personalisation is at. Two fascinating papers give you a history of child care during the communist period and after in Poland, as a prelude to looking at recruiting adults to provide foster care and at the transition of care leavers into adulthood. While a UK social worker would distinguish those from adult services abd call them child care, they make the point that understanding the needs of the adults who provide child care in the community is also important and that children inc are become adults and you have to work at making the transition work.

A lovely paper on working with odler people in Poland through the University of the Third Age makes the point that educational initiatives are an important community resource of older people. the perspective of central European social pedagogy emphasisies thatperspective.

Also a bit unusual, there an interesting paper from the owner of a private care home and private domiciliary care in the UK; you don't often see an emphasis on commercial decision-making as an element in decisions about social care.

It’s published by College Publications in London: http://www.collegepublications.co.uk/other/?00018
and you can find it on Amazon UK or US by searching for the title: Social Work in Adult Services in the European Union. Selected Issues and Experiences.

I have been looking at a guide for housing staff on end-of-life care, and I'm struck by the numbers of specialised nurses that they have to work with: here's the listing in the guide: the district nurse, the Macmillan nurse, Marie Curie nursing service, community matrons, nurses in discharge planning teams.



Not mentioned, there are nurses in hospices (home care nurses and nursing at home services that some hospices run) nuses in the charitable chains of hospices (Sue Ryder homes and the Marie Curie hospices) (separately managed from their nursing service - why?) hospitals and care homes.



Is there scope for merging some of these functions, services and charities. Granted they would probably all say they have different objectives, values etc etc. But really how different is it all? And, in these hard times, would it not save a lot of money and improve efficiency to merge some of these specialist services or plan them differently? http://amplify.com/u/bwf92

Social work student Rahmani's art recalls her imprisonment in Iran

Anahita Rahmani, 53, now a social work student in Toronto, has created a sculpture based on her experience of imprisonment for eight years for political activity in Iran. Her husband died in another prison while she was inside.

Shahrzad Mojab, 55, a professor of women’s studies in Toronto has devised a project titled Words, Colour, Movement, involving two dozen people from Iran and Turkey who were political prisoners, of whom Rahmani is one. An exhibit of their work titled, Lines of Resistance: Prison Art from the Middle East, runs at Beit Zatoun Gallery, 612 Markham St., from April 9 to 17.

In Rahmani’s piece sculpted out of Plasticine, dark figures line up before firing squads and for floggings.

A picture and further details at: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/952898--from-prisoners-to-painters

International Wormen's Day: women's achievements in the Indian social sector

Samhita is a sort of charities aid organisation in India - you can look at its website for information about Indian voluntary organisations. It has an interesting feature acclaiming women contributors to social development, in recognition of International Women's Day. Among the women recognised are:

Sara Lizia D’Mello – Founder, Committed Communities Development Trust

She has been working in the social sector for the past 24 years, and founded Committed Communities Development Trust (CCDT) in 1990. It uses a rights-based approach working with marginalized communities living in the slums and Red-Light areas of Mumbai, engaging with people impacted by HIV/AIDS and with ensuing stigma, discrimination and deprivation. Children, especially orphan and vulnerable children, and women, including women in prostitution, have constituted the core of its integrated community development interventions.

Prema Gopalan – Founder, Swayam Shikshan Prayog

Prema completed her Masters in Social Work and her pre-doctoral study on women in the informal sector left her restless and she wanted to engage directly with such women. Swayam Shikshan Prayog partners with over 72,000 women in self-help groups or networks in three states in India Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and Gujarat. Scaling up its microfinance and enterprise strategy by partnering with women’s groups/federations, SSP expanded its operations to 1600 villages across six districts in Maharashtra promoting a women’s leadership to operate savings and credit and insurance businesses and act as information/service providers. 

Nikita Ketkar – Founder, Masoom
Nikita worked in different capacities as a Journalist, Lecturer and Social Worker. She started Masoom in 2008, an organisation focused on improving the night schools. Masoom is presently working in 10 night schools of Mumbai. Masoom plans to reach out to 210 night schools by 2020 impacting 20,000 night school students in Maharashtra.

Annabel Mehta – Honorary Treasurer, Apnalaya

Annabel was born and brought up in England, She completed her Diploma in Social Administration and came to India in 1966. Annabel has been closely involved with Apnalaya since early 1973. Apnalaya strives to achieve this through urban community development projects in Mumbai. Its role is one of empowerment: of encouraging ordinary men and women to believe in themselves and in their abilities to change their lives for the better.

My comment: These case histories ilustrate the importance of connecting women's economic and educational development with 'rescue' of marginalised groups.

Needed: proactive statement of freedom from government, not damp squib #Protection_of_Freedoms_Bill

The government issued the Protection of Freedoms Bill recently, implementing the much vaunted ConDem policy releasing us from the tyranny of government oppression. Well, it's not a tyrannosaurus rex of a Bill, more a flutterby of mishmashed minor concerns. I've listed an edited version of the Home Office information here. I don't mind this, but it's hardly a comprehensive statement of our freedoms in relation to government,

Amplify’d from www.homeoffice.gov.uk

DNA retention

fingerprinting of children in schools

the use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 by local authorities stop and search powers pre-charge detention

powers of entry –  there are some 1,200 separate powers of entry

prohibiting wheel clamping

reform of the vetting and barring scheme and criminal records regime

disclosure of decriminalised convictions for consensual gay sex

freedom of information – extending the freedom of information regime to cover companies wholly owned by two or more public authorities

creating an obligation on departments and other public authorities to proactively release datasets in a reusable format

changes to the appointment and accountability arrangements to enhance the independence of the Information Commission

serious fraud trials – repealing provisions removing the right to trial by jury Read more at www.homeoffice.gov.uk

 

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Living Treasure of Hawai'i shows how social work theory should be local

One of the nice things about the US is that they are not so anti-elitist about congratulating their colleagues on their achievements. I like the title 'Living Treasure of Hawai'i': that's what Masaru Oshiro has just been awarded in celebration of a lifetime in social work. A notable aspect of his work was how he contributed to the resurrection of repressed local cultural responses to difficulties with families and children. My comment is that we should all be looking for appropriate local responses to local issues, not simply imposing international soicla work theories of practice where they are inappropriate.

You can read about his work at: http://www.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=4180

He was a social worker at the Queen Lili`uokalani Children’s Center in 1963 where he remained for twelve years, being promoted to executive director in 1967. Noticing that classic western social work was not effective with some of the Hawaiian children, the workers brought their concerns to Oshiro. He encouraged them to explore other practices.

They created the “culture committee" - the purpose of which was to examine the cultural aspects of conflict in Hawaiian families. Kumu Mary Kawena Puku`i was generous enough to observe their case presentations and provide advice and mentoring. The committee (including Lynette Paglinawan, also a social work alumna) resurrected ancient healing practices, including ho`oponopono. These had been forced underground or discredited when early missionaries prohibited Native Hawaiians from engaging in many indigenous practices, including speaking in their native tongue. Out of these consultations, the classic two-volume Nana I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source) was published and is still in use today.  

Homeless in Bratislava: street-walking with Nota Bene

Bratislava, Slovakia. Two former students working for Nota Bene, the Slovakian equivalent of St Mungo’s, take me out on a ‘finding’ evening (as opposed to a static evening, where they serve soup at a known location and people come to them). they translated this as street-walking - I said that had other impolications. Nota Bene was founded some years ago from the Comenius University school of social work (which I am visiting) as a practical project, operating alongside their project for drug users.

Link to the Nota Bene streetwork site: http://www.notabene.sk/?streetwork

Hefting a giant medical kit, and rucksacks with flasks of hot soup and other possible needs, we find the Commander and his female friend nesting behind a barrage of large dustbins in a covered area surrounded by flats. A radio is quietly playing. Shouting ‘Good evening, Nota Bene’, as a warning several times, Pauli wheels a dustbin away to reveal them camped on the ground under a hot air vent from a restaurant.

I am introduced. ‘Ah, English’, says the Commander, remembering his smattering of many languages from a long gone sea-going career. He announces he will play a serenade for me, and a passable harmonica rendition of ‘She’ll be coming round the mountain’ assails the night air. Various local residents come by to drop in their rubbish, or walk their dogs, while Sergio unpacks the medical kit. A lady in a blue coat hovers.

Helping the Commander to pull off his boots, Sergio unpicks soiled bandaging, and re-dresses the Commander's ulcerated legs, spraying with antiseptic and smoothing in paraffin cream, while Pauli hands a mug of soup to the lady. A cheerful conversation ensues throughout the long period of dressing. Trainers are produced from a rucksack, softer than the sodden boots, which are left to dry by the air vent. They ask for a new coat, but only a sweater is offered. Nota Bene does not get enough clothes donated: the Commander already has a coat, so a new one is not a priority.

We wheel the dustbin barrage back, and the blue-coated lady engages us in conversation. She is a local resident who sometimes helps the two rough-sleepers, wanted to know what we were doing. It’s good she is positive, not everyone agrees with helping homeless people.

The Commander apparently, is a fixture with his harmonica in a local food market, making enough money to get by. They will be back in a few days to check on his legs again.

A drive through the outskirts of the capital brings us to an area of semi-derelict garages by a railway line. The laptop is extracted from its concealment, and checked: every known living site in the City for homeless people is noted with multicoloured flags in Google Earth, which gives an overhead photography view guiding them to the exact garage. the new social worker uses technology. The garage is occupied by a family who own this property, but no house or flat. A number of possibly aggressive dogs wander around, Sergio emerges from the van cautiously, morsel in hand to tempt a canine appetite.

But no, the dogs are in the control of various members of the family. A visitor from another town tries to extract a donation, but they are all drinking and invading their territory seems unwise.

Another drive, and we park nose forward for a quick getaway about 50 metres from a thriving main road, in some fields by a derelict house. Conversation is audible from an upstairs room, but the people living here do not respond to cheerful calls of ‘Nota Bene’. They are perhaps in the midst of drug-taking or glue-sniffing.

A passer-by has alerted their control centre to possible incursions in a redundant school in a nice area of town. It is in darkness when we get there, and local residents do not answer their doorbells. Eventually, Sergio and Pauli clamber over a fence, more calls of ‘Good evening, Nota Bene’, and, powerful torches in hand, search around the building, then go in. Nothing; perhaps a homeless occupant has moved on, or lies doggo or drunk.

Driving back to the main road, we see some more garage blocks, backing on to some derelict land by another railway. These are unknown to them: ‘Just the sort of place for us’. So we get out and wander round. But these garages are well-kept and locked, we progress on to some abandoned gardens, but there are no signs of nest-making.

That’s it for today: no time to visit a pregnant woman, often abused by her partner and living under railway arches some way away. She is slated for a visit tomorrow.

Bratislava has only limited hostel accommodation, prioritised for people who have had medical treatment. There is little opportunity to get people off the streets. Housing is expensive compared with local wages and the hand out of state housing at the end of the communist regime has led to a shortage of public housing.

The swing between children's, natural and adoptive parents' rights

An opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald shows us that concern about the experience of children who are fostered and adopted is universal, not the product of any one care system. Geoff Strong’s article is here:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/abused-and-neglected-children-need-their-own-revolution-20110206-1aibn.html

He talks about a daughter that he was not able to adopt, who had experienced significant abuse in her birth parents’ home and observed abuse closely in the care system. This was still with her many years later. But he comments how the political pendulum affected the security of children in care. The swing between focusing on natural parents’ rights and making children available for secure substitute parents reflects an important political debate. But the consequences are carried by children in care for life.

#Bigsociety is not a PR message, it demands that communities do the government's job

This article by Jane Wilson, a public relations wonk, gets supportive comments on the Chartered Institute of Public Relations website, but I think misses the point, because public relations people so often talk about image rather than reality.


The big society should not be about getting across a message that community involvement is a good thing. I believe, from long experience, definitely a good thing and most people I know believe it too. But any community development professional knows that it's hard to engage people in doing something positive in their community when the government wants community involvement to substitute for things it doesn't want to spend money on any longer.

So as a government, you can't send out a message on the one hand that we're going to cut back and on the other that we want you to do it instead of us. Government responsibilities are not individual responsibilities, getting them carried out are what we elect governments for, to act collectively on our behalf. Community activism is not about doing what the government wants done but won't pay for, it's about doing what the community wants, which I think the government is going to find will not be what the government would like at all.

Amplify’d from www.cipr.co.uk

'The Big Society' is the philosophy behind the coalition government's social policy centre piece. It promotes devolution of power to communities and local government and is the counter weight to the hard fiscal management programme they have also embarked upon.

Whilst it may be far sighted to begin a debate about the role of the state within society, the big society is about all things local - and central government may not be the best place from which to communicate the substance of the idea. Among the public and among some opinion formers, there is a degree of cynicism that the idea is being put forward to soften the image of a government engaged in a fierce economic struggle to reduce public sector debt.

It takes skill and expertise to communicate a complicated message to an uncertain public looking for reassurance about the provision of the public services that support their standard of living. Read more at www.cipr.co.uk

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ao8fl

Superbusy community activists in Britain and Cambodia need a good work-life balance

An interesting issue comes up both in Britain and Cambodia.

In Britain, Lord Nat Wei, was appointed to be the government 'big society tsar' to help promote community voluntary activity. The aim of 'big society' policy is to get communty activists to replace government activity which the new Conservative government is trying to reduce. However, the new 'tsar' is cutting back on the time he gives to this activity so that he can earn some money and see more of his family.

In Cambodia, the Phnom Penh Post interviews its 'young person of the week' (a nice idea that, which it would be good to see in British newspapers), Choun Sovanary, aged 18, who has been doing massive amounts of voluntary work encouraging youth participation. Although she is 'superbusy' she always takes time to get her parents' involvement in what she is doing, so that she has their support and consent. And she argues that at her age, it is important to put her own educational and relationship needs first, not allows her voluntary work-life balance to get out of kilter.

These reports suggest that making it government policy that members of the public have got to take over and run the big society for us has flaws. Is big society policy accepting that activists, particularly young and inexperienced activists, need to balance the whole of their lives quite carefully? This is an integral part of professional training in social and health care. And it also needs to be part of policy and part of the management of community activism not to drive your volunteers into the ground.

See the reports on the internet: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/01/big-society-lord-wei-volunteering

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011020246522/LIFT/youth-of-the-week-chhuon-sovannary.html

Shobhana Ranade gets important Indian award for practical social work

Not everyone who makes a major contribution to social work is a qualified, accredited or registered professional of the current era, but have continued making an immense contribution across the decades. One such, Shobhana Ranade, has just been honoured (again, because she is a well-known and well-regarded citizen) with a significant award, the Padma Bhushan, by the government of India. Even while we develop social work as a profession, we should still be recognising as the highest quality of social work what people have done in practical everyday contributions to their community. The contribution and commitment of people who get stuck in to the very real problems in their communities, using the resources in their community, and contributing to education and personal development of individuals and social development by doing it: that's social work, and we should value it when we see it.

People such as Shobhana would be the first to value professional development and education for people working with others in social work. We should never denigrate the value of their contribution because they never had the chance to qualify in a profession that is growing at different paces across the world.

Inspired as a child by Gandhi, her particular focus has been destitute women and children; in her career, she has started a school, a child welfare centre and working for women's empowerment. 

She helped in starting the Gandhi National Memorial Society and a national training institute for women at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune in 1979. She also received the National Award for Child Welfare Service from President Giani Zail Singh in 1983.

Reports of the Awaard from the Daily News and Analysis, India: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_award-will-encourage-me-to-continue-work-says-shobhana-ranade_1499302

and Mid-day Pune: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/jan/260111-Prime-Ministers-Office-Padma-awards-Pune.htm

A more extended biography and interview, but from 1999 at The Indian Express:

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19991201/ile01142.html

World-renowned academic Frances Fox Piven targeted in American political attacks

It’s not often that social work features in the well-known American political blog the Huffington Post. But this week it covers threats against the world-renowned sociologist Frances Fox Piven, apparently stimulated by vituperative attacks on her by one of the ‘shock-jocks’. Piven is a professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, and many social workers across the world will have been brought up on her social policy books.

We heard so much about right-wing abuse in the US in the recent spate of concern when Congresswoman Giffords was shot in Tucson, but it’s a shock to most of us outside the US who regard Piven as an academic of impeccable standing. But the report quotes just awful material which is claimed to have resulted from media attacks on Piven. And a more extensive and, it seems, unfair campaign against her.

We should all offer her our support and note that supporting social change is sometimes not an easy thing. Many social workers across the world also experience hostility and abuse for what they do.

You can read Peter Deier’s account of it all here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/glenn-becks-attacks-on-fr_b_812690.html

Social work and human rights: view from the Philippines

Interesting Filipino account of the role of socila work in human rights:

Social work & human rights Educators Speak by AMBASSADOR ROSARIO MANALO, Dean, HZB School of International Relations and Diplomacy, The Philippine Women's University

See the article on the web here:
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/300109/social-work-human-rights
My comment: This is quite an erudite article, and there will be later lumps. It's particularly interesting because it provides some information about Filipino cultural ideas on social work helping, and emphasises social work as one way of furthering human rights.

#Sutton's #BigSociety vanguard tells us what the BS will be like: not a lot so far.

My local council, Sutton, is a 'Big Society Vanguard Council', so I thought I'd find out what the Condem's big society means when it's put into action. Stimulated by my local LibDem publicity sheet, I looked at the Council's Big Society website.

They're claiming four Big Society projects: transport, the 'Life Centre' for training young people in lifeskills, the Hackbridge environmental scheme and consultations about health care. I've excerpted what they're able to claim.

Not a lot, is the answer; all these are things they were doing anyway (the Life Centre, a valuable ideas, has opened but has been building for some time). Or, they've got to do it (like te GP consultations) so they'll brand it Big Society anyway. Indeed the Council leader claims on another bit of the site that Sutton is a big society sort of place with lots of community activity (it's a middle-class area, so not surprising). This virtually admits that they're not going to do anything special.

I can't avoid the suspicion, since presumably they've had extra money to be a vanguard, that, in the tradition of well-run voluntary and local government organisations everywhere,as soon as there's some funny munny about they've looked round their activities and rebranded some of the 'Big Society'.

We'll wait to see, and I'll carry on reporting.

Amplify’d from www.sutton.gov.uk

We're now working on Integrated Transport Packages across our district centres.

Our 'Life Centre', opening in October 2010, will use world class facilities to become a hub for the whole region and a catalyst for change.  We will put young people in virtually real situations

We will teach a whole range of people the skills for community investment. We will illustrate the rewards of volunteering schemes and social action

Sutton's Hackbridge project

will build on our "Community Forums" to provide a national model that will develop the community skills to resolve issues with the government agencies, local councils, partners and the private sector.

This project will trial the arrangements set out in the Government's White Paper, working with GPs to commission local services and supporting the integration of health and social care. Read more at www.sutton.gov.uk

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/anh06

Social services should invest in workforce development and training

And another follow-up: tweeting a comment on the Sunderland news item, (you remember, Texans being employed in Sunderland children's services) led to this Tweet from one who knows a bit more than I do:

444blackcat johntucker

 

@MalcolmPayne know sunderland fairly well been in trouble for years with its finances this will be to save money there arelots of nqsw

 

My comment is: it's clear Sudnerland thought this was financially advantageous, as John says, and indeed they said they could get lots of newly qualified social workers, but the commentators on the news item wondered (and I shared their questioning) why it was not possible to support newly qualified British people to become more experienced and avoid the need to recruit people from abroad. I think any local authority does better if it builds a loyal staff using training and staff development. That costs money. And it's never a good ploy to assume that vacancies are a temporary gap: that way, you end up employing (and possibly exaploiting) expensive agency staff, rather than spending enough money to build stability in your workforce.

It's tempting for a local authority to go for short-term options that are cheap at the time, without spending enough money on the long-term options that build a better department. And probably in a time of pressure on finances it's even more tempting.

 

My message is that local authorities that want good services have to avoid the temptation to go for cheap, quick solutions and invest in their future workforce for the longterm. Staff development and training every time.

On being out of order, even when low profile

My post on 7th January about a University of Washington academic moving to a senior social services post has a follow-up. Opponents have stirred up an old controversy about an unserious email she sent a few years ago that people thought may possibly have been a bit racist. Opinion varies (you can tell that from the press report and comments on it).

My comment is that this is of course just a silly media nonsense got up by politicking. But it goes to show that senior people everywhere are going to be watched and assessed by all sorts of people, not just their sorts of people. And modern electronic gadgetry can let us do things too quickly before thinking carefully about it. Of course, we should be generous to social worker Beth Mills, in taking up a high profile job, but even if we are low-profile at the moment, we should all learn that being out of order is likely to come to haunt us. At that point we cease to be low profile and become high profile. Avoid the stress: caution is a good watchword, even if it leads to a boring life.

The full report on the Lexington Herald-Star Leader.
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/20/1604247/controversial-e-mail-by-gray-appointee.html#more

Sunderland recruiting Texan social workers: why and how?

Sunderland City Council are proud of having filled their need for experienced children's services workers by recruiting them from Texas. The motivation seems a bit suspect though:

And the Children’s Services boss claims recruiting the new members of staff from America will be financially beneficial to the city, saying the employing of permanent staff to fill the 11 posts will save council tax payers in Sunderland £320,000 over a two-year period.

From: http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/council_takes_on_u_s_staff_1_2939704

I wonder why Americans are so cheap. The Council says they can easily get newly qualified workers and since wages are not low in the US and the pound is not doing specially well, my comment would be that the Council must be avoiding some other employment-related costs. Is it perhaps that newly-qualified workers are too expensive for it because it does not like the costs of training and support for its staff. Or has it been employing expensive agency staff will nilly, rather than building a loyal local workforce?

Commentators on the Sunderland Echo website are thinking the same way. One writer asks: is the Council offering internships for the newly qualified workers so that they can learn from these wonderful Texans (or from anyone else) so that it does not have to do this again? And is it really offering good support and supervision according to the advice recently issued by the Social Work Reform Board? In which case, why can't it retain and train up local qualified social workers, says another commentator?

My comment again: I'm all for social workers gaining experience of other cultures and countries, but I'm also in favour of local authorities providing systematic support and training for staff of all levels of qualification and building skills in the social work profession. That's every employer's responsibility, and local authorities have a record of ducking it.

Ugandan life experience contributes to UK social work career

A Ugandan website, describing the career of social worker, Dorothy Nababi Sebuliba, and her impresive academic qualifications and contribution to chkild and adolescent social work in the UK, draws attention to the importance of early life experience and family traditions in forming the skills and commitment of social workers, even when they move to another country to work. Because of her life histroy, Dorothy is a 'gift' from Uganda to the UK, and UK social work is richer because of it.

From the New Vision  website:

“MY late father used to often tell us that his contribution to our education was our inheritance and the rest of his possessions were for his brothers and sisters,” says Dorothy Nababi Sebuliba.

The senior mental health practitioner, who is based in Warwickshire in the UK, is a graduate of Makerere University, with a degree in social work and social administration. She also has a post-graduate diploma in psychiatric social work from Manchester University, funded by a scholarship from Save the Children Fund.

She has a masters’ degree in child and family mental health from the University of Leicester, UK.

Read more: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/744042

Valued social work expertise to influence government in Singapore talent development

A minister proposes a 'Talent Development Scheme' in the Singapore Government Monitor so that gound-level expertise of social work can be rotated into and out of ministry policy-making. What an opportunity for influencing government to the benefit of clients. You could wish all governments wanted some social work expertise in making decisions. Reading the speech also leads me to wish that social workers everywhere were so well-regarded. I also like the recognition that social work is not a business and has long-term objectives. Seeing that Singapore is such a successful economy, do you think our government would be prepared learn something from them?

Here are some excerpts from the speech:

...I want to underline the importance of the work you perform. There are still things we can do to upgrade our performance and standards...FSCs need to be proactive, anticipate needs, identify vulnerable families and collaborate with other local stakeholders...Families who approach the FSCs should be able to expect a certain level of standard and professionalism that encourages them to trust and rely on you. Similarly, for the Members of Parliament and other grassroots leaders who refer cases to you, they need to know you and your qualities, and they need to feel that they can trust and rely on you.  I know it is uncomfortable, but we have to find ways to measure and incentivise quality. This is of course not easy in social work. You are not running a business, and the impact of your work often takes a long time to be evident.  

...I am also acutely aware that within MCYS and NCSS, we do not have enough social workers with real ground experiences involved with policy formulation, professional supervision and setting standards.  I am therefore considering the establishment of a Talent Development Scheme. This scheme would directly employ some social workers. They would consist of people who are already in the profession, and through a process of peer review, are considered leaders and good mentors. In addition, we could offer scholarships to top students. We would then have a central pool of top notch social workers, who would be seconded to the ground and work on the frontlines. But in the course of their careers, they would be able to be rotated to ground work, policy work, supervisory duties and perhaps even academia. That would give leadership within the entire social service sector in Singapore, which will be beneficial to the ground, to the FSCs, to the ministry and NCSS. We will have people like you, with real experience, active in making policies and setting standards. 

But the key point that I want to leave with you is that everything that we do in social work rests in your hands, your conscience, your academic qualifications, and your experience and expertise and, ultimately, the strength and quality of your heart. 

On the web at: 

http://www.thegovmonitor.com/world_news/asia/singapore-outlines-scheme-to-grow-professional-social-workers-44821.html

Zimmerman tributes identify social work values

Gabe Zimmerman, the social worker killed in the Tucson shootings (see my story on 10th January), is collecting tributes in the press, which aside from a credit to him, demonstrates some of the values associated with social work:

National Public Radio says:

Gabe Zimmerman was known "as a conciliator with a deft touch when it came to working with difficult or angry people," Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep noted earlier. Zimmerman, who was engaged to be married, "devoted his life to social work and public service and helping people," a high school friend tells NPR.Giffords' spokesman, C.J. Karamargin, tells the Los Angeles Times that Zimmerman "put his all into his work, he put his all into his life." "Gabe was unfailingly patient with people. He presided over thousands of constituent cases," Karamargin tells the Times. "He was helping World War II vets get medals, people with Medicare benefits, veterans with benefits issues. These are the types of things day-in and day-out he did, and he was determined to just do the best he could. He worked hard, he really worked hard."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/10/132804391/arizona-victim-gabe-zimmerman-devoted-his-life-to-social-work

The Arizona Star says:

He offered an example of how to live a life of public service. "He would go out of his way to help people in trouble," recalled Daniel Graver, who worked with him in Giffords' office. "People would come into the congressional office, he would listen to them and give them money for a cab home. Some days during a campaign I would harass him to take a weekend off from his job to work on the campaign. He said to me that if I didn't work, people wouldn't make phone calls but if he didn't work, people didn't eat."

http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_06f98f89-343f-597f-82ba-0c9c7591eaa4.html 

The headline in the Examiner, Tucson, is:

Loss of aide Gabe Zimmerman leaves Giffords office lacking vital humanitarian

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Loss of aide Gabe Zimmerman leaves Giffords office lacking vital humanitarian - Tucson Places & Faces | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/places-faces-in-tucson/loss-of-aide-gabe-zimmerman-leaves-giffords-office-lacking-vital-humanitarian#ixzz1BHmN2DM6

Social work with an education focus helps with finance problems

A report in the St Louis American tells of an initiative by social work students from Washington University:

In remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr., the Society of Black Student Social Workers  at Washington University’s Brown School will host the fifth annual “Financial Freedom Seminar: Recovering From the Recession, Reaching for the Future.” 

The seminar, free and open to the public, is designed for St. Louis community youth and adults interested in building wealth, repairing and maintaining good credit, purchasing a home or starting and expanding a business.

The FDIC recently reported that St. Louis has the highest percentage of unbanked African-American households in the entire country. “This devastating statistic implies that many of our community members are not effectively being connected to quality, financial education resources,” said Jessica Eiland, the event’s co-chair, a society member and a Brown School graduate student.

My comment: This great initiative shows how students can use their knowledge to contribute to serving the community, but especially the importance of helping over managing finances. Some of the more esoteric psycho-type social work needs to keep their feet on the ground. At St Christopher's Hospice, evaluations have shown that seminar-format educational approaches are a good way of getting people to accept help with financial issues - it's non-stigmatising, compared with a problem-based approach, because you say in effect 'everyone need to learn about these issues' rather than 'you've got a problem that we need to sort out'.

On the web: http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/article_2e0ae0a4-1dca-11e0-9652-001cc4c03286.html

Social workers should be part of corrections services

My comment on the following excerpted news report on the Californian corrections system: It's good to see some recognition that if you want to run an effective community corrections system, you need a good leavening of social workers.

The post originally on my UK policy and social work site: http://malcolmpayne.amplify.com

Amplify’d from thecrimereport.org

For the past decade, California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has been operating in crisis mode.

The catalogue of defects seemed endless. “The recidivism rate [of 67 percent],” the report noted

The reasons for California’s prison crisis, according to the commission, “were complex, yet simple: too much political interference, too much union control, and too little management courage, accountability and transparency.”

In May, 2008, Schwarzenegger named Matthew Cate as his Secretary of Correction

Cate: One of the good things coming out of this bad economy is that [high paying] jobs like California’s corrections officers have become much more coveted.

Typically in California parole agents have been former corrections officers. We still recruit some of those people, but in the next academy class,  between 50 and 70 percent will be from the outside, either from law enforcement or social work backgrounds.

Zimmerman Tucson shooting victim was a social worker

One of the people profiled by whdh TV as a victim of the Tucson shooting was a social worker:

GABE ZIMMERMAN, 30:
Gabe Zimmerman, the director of community outreach for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, handled thousands of issues raised by constituents out of the congresswoman's offices in Tucson and Sierra Vista. Zimmerman was one of the Giffords staffers who organized many public events where voters could meet Giffords and talk to her about issues. Co-workers say Zimmerman, who had a master's degree in social work, cared passionately about helping people. Zimmerman's mother, Emily Nottingham, said politics was a good fit for him because it combined policy and making a difference for others. "He had a real interest in helping people and had a real caring for social justice," Nottingham said. Zimmerman, who was engaged, had set a wedding date for 2012.

On the web:http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/national/12003232492888/sketches-of-victims-in-tucson-shooting

My comment: Sorry to hear of Mr Zimmerman's death. It's often said that the constituency work of Members of Parliament in the UK is like social work. I wonder how many MPs actually employ a social worker to to it, like US Representative Giffords? And Ms Nottingham makes another important point about Zimmerman's job, how personal help connects with social justice.

Ruth Morris: social worker makes Hollywood debut

Ruth Morris [is] the body double for a key, one-armed character in [a new film, 'True Grit',] the Coens' version of the classic Charles Portis novel about flinty 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), who hires crusty U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track down her father's killer.Warm and outgoing, Morris was born with only one arm in a car in Houston 29 years ago. She was doing social work at Advanced Arm Dynamics in Irving when a nationwide casting call went out for a woman of about her height and body type with a missing left upper limb.Now studying for a doctorate at the University of Texas School of Public Health in San Antonio, Morris had done some stage work and was on the dance team at San Marcos High School.

From the web: http://www.austin360.com/recreation/ruth-morris-a-social-worker-who-helps-amputees-292398.html


My comment: Great to see the flexibility and range of skills that social workers can put to good use.

Moving between academic and management in social work

A Kentucky newspaper:

Mayor Jim Gray announced the appointments of three new city commissioners on Tuesday.
[including]...Beth Mills commissioner of social services...Mills also is returning to city hall, this time as commissioner of the department where she worked for more than 14 years. Since 2004, she has worked at the University of Kentucky as a faculty member and director of field education for the College of Social Work.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/05/1586972/gray-appoints-commissioners-for.html#more#ixzz1AMVH21y4

My comment: Wouldn't it be great if British local authorities and universities made it possible for senior staff to move back and forth between academic and management posts? We should question some of the pressures that make careers that cross this line almost impossible.

Katherine Kendall, international social work guru, dies

Katherine Kendall died at 100 during December. She was a major figure in international social work as general secretary and then in honorary positions in the International Association of Schools of Social Work.

Scottish-born, she had an idyllic country childhood, moving to Chicago with her parents during the first world war. She experienced the depression of the 1930s at first hand, then moved into international work, being an early appointee at the UN. She was an outstanding secretary of the IASSW and occupied honorary positions in that organisation in retirement.

She also wrote many papers and books about various aspects of international social work and the history of social work.

You can find more at: http://www.ifsw.org/p38002204.html

Do scare tactics improve mental health spending?

Jennifer Stuber, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Washington, stood up for sensible ways of explaining the needs of people with mental health problems. She criticised a trade union newspaper for coverage of expenditure cuts in mental health services that stigmatised mentally ill people. 'Don't look now or you may be killed' was justified by the union as a way of drawing attention to the risk that mentally ill people may go untreated.

But mental health campaigners sided with Stuber's view that we need a more positive dialogue about people with mental health difficulties and alternative ways of raising concerns about the outcomes of expenditure cuts.

My comment: With cost-cutting a major feature of politics world-wide, we need to join with Jennifer to makke sure that campaigning does not demonise our clients, and damage the job we're trying to do.

News from Crosscut.com, a Seattle news service:
http://crosscut.com/2011/01/05/social-services/20515/Can-scare-tactics-sell-the-state-on-mental-health-funding-/