Social work news

• Families missing out on social work support because early help staff given overly complex cases – report

  07-11-2023 23:36
  
  Families are missing out on the social work support they need because some early help staff are being given overly complex cases, inspectors have found.
  Inspections of five areas identified some “excellent” early help practice, but also cases where lead professionals did not have the necessary skills and experience to provide robust oversight of the situation, amid a lack of early help staff capacity across agencies.
  Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and His Majesty’s I
  
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• To pay for pensions and care, tax those who are really rich, not older homeowners | Letter

  07-11-2023 18:54
  
  Rowan Adams responds to Polly Toynbee’s suggestion that ‘the money is right there for the taking, in wealthy pensioners’ assets’Polly Toynbee says that to pay for pensions and care, “the money is right there for the taking, in wealthy pensioners’ assets” and that “one in five over-65s live in households with assets worth more than £1m” (During Covid, callous Tories knew this about old people: they’re very expensive, 3 November).Bu
  
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• Care experienced practitioner crowned social worker of the year

  07-11-2023 16:22
  
  Afghanistan-born social worker Omaid Badar, who lived his teenage years in a refugee camp, was the overall winner’s prize at this year’s Social Worker of the Year Awards.
  Losing his father and brother as a child because of the war, Omaid had to emigrate to England at the age of 14, seeking refuge.
  At last week’s awards ceremony, the Kirklees Council practitioner won the children’s social worker of the year prize and, following a “unanimous decision” from the j
  
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• Sunak and Johnson repeatedly pushed against autumn lockdown, inquiry told

  07-11-2023 16:18
  
  Covid investigation also told taskforce coordinating pandemic policy had no warning of ‘eat out to help out’UK politics live – latest updatesRishi Sunak and Boris Johnson repeatedly pushed against lockdown measures during the second wave of Covid in autumn 2020, with the government’s chief scientist accusing the then-chancellor of using “spurious” arguments against new rules, the inquiry into the pandemic has heard.In a day of evidence that placed increasing f
  
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• Sunak and Johnson pushed repeatedly against autumn lockdown, inquiry told

  07-11-2023 16:18
  
  Covid investigation also told taskforce coordinating pandemic policy had no warning of ‘eat out to help out’UK politics live – latest updatesRishi Sunak and Boris Johnson pushed repeatedly against lockdown measures during the second wave of Covid in autumn 2020, with the government’s chief scientist accusing the then-chancellor of using “spurious” arguments against new rules, the inquiry into the pandemic has heard.In a day of evidence that placed increasing f
  
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• Covid taskforce had no warning of ‘eat out to help out’, inquiry told

  07-11-2023 14:45
  
  Former head of body set up to coordinate pandemic policy agrees that he was ‘blindsided’ by Rishi Sunak’s planUK politics live – latest updatesThe government body set up to coordinate Covid policy had no warning about Rishi Sunak’s “eat out to help out” scheme and felt “blindsided” by the Treasury over it, the inquiry into the pandemic has been told.Simon Ridley, the senior civil servant who was made head of the Cabinet Office’s Covid t
  
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• Reducing social work vacancies through meaningful career development

  07-11-2023 13:54
  
  It is no secret that local authorities in England are struggling to recruit permanent social workers: one in five children’s social work posts lay vacant in September 2022.
  However, even during this challenging time nationally, South Gloucestershire council has been able to grow its permanent workforce, which now stands at 106.7 full-time equivalent permanent caseholding social workers this year, compared to 75.3 at the same point last year – the most that have ever been employed wit
  
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• Fears of NHS transfers causing care home deaths raised early, Covid inquiry told

  07-11-2023 13:50
  
  April 2020 email from No 10 official said evidence from Europe was that once coronavirus enters a care setting ‘many die’Officials raised concerns at the start of Covid that discharging potentially infectious hospital patients into care homes could see “many die”, and that the health department had lost sight of this, the UK inquiry into the pandemic has heard.Simon Ridley, the civil servant in charge of the government’s Covid taskforce, said the Cabinet Office and
  
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• Mental Health Act reform ditched, King’s Speech confirms

  07-11-2023 13:00
  
  There will be no reform of the Mental Health Act 1983 before the next election, the government has confirmed.
  Today’s King’s Speech – setting out the government’s last legislative programme before the election in 2024 or early 2025 – did not include a mental health bill, meaning any reform would have to be carried out by a future government, if at all.
  It also means the Conservatives have broken their 2019 manifesto pledge to “legislate so that patients suffer
  
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• Speech: UK Statement at 7th Intergovernmental Negotiating Body

  07-11-2023 12:45 via gov.uk
  
  UK opening intervention at the 7th Intergovernmental Negotiating Body. Delivered by the UK's Ambassador to the WTO and UN, Simon Manley, on 6 November 2023.
  
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