Social work news

• Police fear ‘rightwing driven’ reaction to grooming gangs will harm victims

  17-01-2025 19:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Senior officers say fraction of child abuse cases relate to gangs and funding could be diverted from current casesSenior police officers fear that government pressure to reinvestigate closed historic cases of gang grooming could make it harder to catch those targeting children today.The government on Thursday announced more reviews of past cases and also that victims, whose cases did not end in prosecutions, will be given a new right of appeal to have their investigations reopened. Continue read
  
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• Cafcass pay deal for 2024-25 agreed

  17-01-2025 14:31
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Cafcass has agreed a pay deal for its staff covering 2024-25.
  Staff, including the family court body’s approximately 1,700 social workers, have been a given a 4.43% increase, backdated to April 2024.
  Pay talks at Cafcass were delayed by the general election, which meant the incoming Labour government did not issue a pay policy for the civil service until the end of July last year.
  5% p
  
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• Starmer urged to prioritise child sexual exploitation victims

  17-01-2025 09:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Charities and experts call for national conversation to move away from sensationalism after Musk criticismKeir Starmer must move the conversation on child sexual exploitation away from sensationalism to support for victims who have had help and protection reduced in recent years, charities, campaigners and experts have said.A joint statement, whose signatories include government services contractors such as the Salvation Army and the Snowdrop Project, says changes in the law have made it harder
  
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