Social work strike in LA leads to promises of extra recruitment

For many social workers around the world, striking is unimaginable, partly because of the concern for professional responsibilities, but also partly because you can't imagine many governments being all that concerned if they couldn't offer their social services. However, in Los Angeles County, social workers have been on strike, partly for a pay rise, but the internet media coverage has largely been about excessive workloads. And it is broadly positive to the social workers, also unimaginable in social work-hating UK. One of the outcomes of the strike has been the promise to recruit hundreds of extra workers. Hard to imagine that happening in cuts-hit Britain, in spite of the occasional moral panic about child abuse. I see from photos of the strikers, however, that 'child safety now' is an important slogan. Perhaps this is increasingly the social work equivalent of doctors 'shroud-waving'.

Picture by  Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times.

Press reports: LA Times; South California Public Radio

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