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

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bqh4p

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