has anyone seen the Press news on Medway Social Services recently

[Bethany45]

last 2 or 3 days - maybe Daily Mail? It featured Medway Council being down graded by a CQC NHS report on its services. Here's the joke Medway excused themselves because they couldnt keep any social workers for very long. Well there's a surprise. Any comment or are you too exhausted from their abusive incompetence?

It's not been downgraded

https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/44/80522

Remains as requiring improvement but making progress

Thanx for the link, I lost mine. I did post this topic to see if anyone has suffered. I may not get any response as those who have suffered are likely too traumatised to share the experience. You see, unless you have been on the receiving end of Medway Child Social Services you wont understand how devilish their system is. I saw a rumour posted on web (but quickly removed), that Social Workers have a special bonus scheme to reward achievement of Targets (undisclosed and at the discretion of the Department head). Anyone heard this also? I wondered whether they were on a bonus to snatch children for adoption. Anyone heard of this
IIRC Social Services was one large department a few years back and coworkers could flit between desks to coordinate information and actions etc. Then came along a reorganisation where the Dept was broken up into "Working Groups"? and internal (natural) co-worker communications all had to be implemented via a recorded paper trail and facilitated via request forms of some sort. So a 5 min clarification issue could take days for a response or even "get lost"
Does this ring bells with anyone

Has anyone see that blog from a whistle blower Social worker who exposed the who corrupt system nationwide?

OBTW I found a reference link to just how evil the who family court procedure really is - nationwide.
https://transparencyproject.org.uk/why-doesnt-the-family-court-punish-professionals-who-break-the-rules/

The bonus thing always comes up for social care across the country

Its a complete misunderstanding of how funding works and is a red flag for a conspiracy theorist seeking to exploit people's fears.

No individual social worker is receiving this. Nor is it profit for the council.

Its similar to how schools are paid per pupil.

A child going into care, costs a hell of a lot of money, both in legal costs, social worker time and even things like post adoption support funds etc. A budget is given sometimes to cover that, because historically the concern was that children weren't removed simply because the council couldn't afford to rather than because it was safe to do so.

Sometimes councils are given more money to fund resources clear backlogs to meet targets but these are usually about waiting lists clearing etc or social services can have budget removed if they are deemed to be failing.

Nothing is going in an individual social workers christmas bonuses no matter how often it's shouted

This whole post sounds like a load of conspiracy theory rubbish (to use no stronger term).

Why would they want more children taken into care? It costs around £280k a year for a child in care, they won’t have the budget to have lots of kids in care and there are way more children avaliable for adoption then there are people who want to adopt them. It just doesn’t make sense.

Social Workers have a special bonus scheme to reward achievement of Targets (undisclosed and at the discretion of the Department head). Anyone heard this also? I wondered whether they were on a bonus to snatch children for adoption. Anyone heard of this

This is conspiracy theory bullshit spread by inadequate and neglectful parents who would rather blame social workers snatching children to get paid bonuses rather than look at why their parenting was so bad that the state had to remove their children for their own safety.

Hope that helps.

The underlying flaw in the negativity that the people who are really concerning for social workers are the ones who don't agre theres a problem so are the ones more likely to have kids removed but also more likely to be the ones shouting about how bad it is.

My female relative for example thought social work were mad, never engaged properly, never showed any form of insight or reassurance it wouldn't happen again thus lost her kids

Say the concern is a dirty house.
Person 1 says "oh shit it is dirty', cleans it, looks contrite and social work goes away. Even if person 1 doesn't actually agree that things were that bad

Person 2 spends time arguing about how its completely fine environment for kids to live in, social workers are corrupt/evil. social work know the second they leave the house will be in the same state and even worse the person thinks it's ok and is completely unable to recognise what kids need, the importance of keeping it up, or try to stop it happen again. They get their kids removed and usually have zero insight into why so publicly go on a rampage

Change dirty house, for emotional neglect, abuse or whatever

My relatives was a dodgy partner. Her ardent arguing that social workers were unfair, completely confirmed the idea that she had no idea of how to recognise concerns and would put no effort into making sure that it wouldn't happen again and would clearly let him back in the second social workers left.

If she'd have understood and seen the risk, they would have trusted her more. It also doesn't help she assaulted the kids social worker (again she denies it was "that bad" to class as an assualt, was definitely provoked into it etc so no remorse). If her family hadn't prioritised trying to show up social workers, support her on her Internet raging etc, then he'd probably have been kept in the family too but again they gave everg reason to think they would completely disregard everything put in place to protect the child

However she's all over the Internet about how unfair, random and unfounded it all was

I absolutely don't think they get it right all the time, but half the time people completely self sabotage by deciding proving ss wrong is more important

Indeed there is a lot of custom and practice that is kept hidden from Joe Public. I cant fathom whats behind this fanatical obsession to have children adopted at all costs. If you read the link I posted here it gives a load of examples. Of course there may not be a full disclosure on the parental side

Im afraid there are some real bad apple social workers who survive in the system when they should have their registration removed or at least suspended. I have been a victim of two separate persons not fit to practice by the extent of gross falsification of an assessment report (say it had been in attendance when she never visited), deliberate lying to the family court as proven by evidence, making me out to be a thoroughly immoral drug taking drunk - no evidence given to the court - report was thrown out and an independent SW was brought in who was 100% professional and went through strand drug tests for substance and alcohol for last 6 months. I have never in my life been a prostitute and no CRB problems ever. Worse still The Council colluded in lying and altering reports etc and has been consistently obstructive at every turn. This Council is well known for being one of the worst in the Country.

Cant say more as Im waiting for a final result after which I will resort to legal means with the Ombudsman and claiming damages of several thousand paid out because of Council malfeasance.

As I said before, until you experience Social Workers and Council bad behaviour you cannot appreciate just how bad they can be. There is no suitable corrective measures available to the hapless parent. The same immunity applies to GPs - there is not complaints procedure available - if you go to your ombudsman you will be black listed. My partner nearly died in a GP's surgery because of an entitled receptionist (former shelf filler) who though she could perform a triage, refused to call the manager. when he was having a heart attack in front of her.

I cannot believe there's still this myth that social workers get bonus money for adoptions or children coming into care.
I spent part of my social work career working in a team with the remit to get children out of the care system!!!

There is a special bonus scheme but the way it is applied is not written down and is left to the discretion of the Dept Head. It is in fact to try to retain permanent staff due to the extreme churn of personnel and the large influx of agency SW who tend to move on as soon as it gets too hot or the working conditions/work load becomes impossible or the office moral is so low and management malpractice is dangerous. I have seen all this personally over 2 years we have a dozen SW's come and go, no continuity, never read the files, continually telling lies and so on.

Surely I am not the only one who has experienced this? I can sympathise with silence because the trauma it causes leaves you want to shut all doors to the nightmare.

I tend to believe the majority of the horror stories I read about people’s experiences. And OP it all sounds v stressful.

But I do think you need to be clear that it is some social workers and some councils. There are many ordinary SWs and some fantastic ones who would not behave without integrity and they do a good job.

Totally ridiculous conspiracy theory rubbish.

Social workers don’t get paid bonuses to remove children from families. There is absolutely no incentive to do so. The vast vast majority of people working within the family court system just want the best for the children who are subject to the proceedings.

As in all walks of life, there are a tiny minority of professionals who cross the line. They should be disciplined within their own professional guidelines.

Social workers on the frontline have to make unimaginably tough judgment calls. They get slated whichever way they fall - either for not removing a child who then suffers catastrophic harm or by removing a child who it turns out was not at such a risk of harm as they initially assessed them to be. They can only make decisions based on the evidence available to them at the time.

There is not 'fanatical obsession to have children adopted at all costs'. It's costs cash -strapped public services millions of £ to take children into care, pay foster carers, pay for solicitor and barristers for the legal proceedings, train adopters, support the adopters after placement - why would they want to do more of it?

The bar for removing children from their birth family is rightly extremely high. The legal requirement for an adoption order to be granted is that 'nothing else will do', that no family support or alternative plan can be put in place for those children to prevent an adoption having to happen.

If you're asking why is there a push for children who cannot safety stay with their birth family to be adopted, it's because children in foster care have the worst outcomes of any children. Children need stability and permanence and a family of their own, so the best thing is for children to stay in their birth family but if thats not possible for the child's own safety, the next best thing is adoption. Long term foster care is the least good option for children that's why once it's clear a child can't be in their birth family, the system will try to get them an adoptive family.

There is no secret government plan to steal children from good homes and send them to adoption. The idea there is makes no sense even if you don't think social services care about children at all,just purely the time and the money it takes shows you that makes no sense.

You answered your own question - bonuses are used to try to retain good social workers. We need someone to do that job, and it's a hard stressful job, and services being understaffed makes it even harder and then more leave because they burn out. As a society we need social workers so if bonuses are used to retain permanent staff and stop using expensive agency workers who come and go all the time, then that a good thing isn't it?

Surely I am not the only one who has experienced this?

Experienced what exactly, having a terrible social worker? Yep I'm on a stage 2 complaint about one now, she wrote a sloppy assessment and lied about what she said to me in a Teams meeting. I've also in my time met a terrible doctor, a horrible nurse, more than one crap teacher, a useless counsellor. I've also met really good social workers and all those other professions too. There are crap and excellent people in all jobs, but those kind of jobs are higher stakes than if your Tesco checkout person is rubbish. There's no big conspiracy to have nasty social workers and cover it up. Some are good, some are crap.

There is no bonus scheme to remove children. None. There are some financial incentives paid to attract social workers to jobs, but they are part of their salary, not a bonus for removing children. There is no fanatical desire to remove children or have them adopted. Removing children is extremely expensive and involves a huge amount of work. No social worker is happy when we have to issue care proceedings. Not one. It's sad, stressful and a lot of work. No extra pay.

I do agree some social workers are bad at their jobs, and some departments are dysfunctional.

Quote @Icepop79
As in all walks of life, there are a tiny minority of professionals who cross the line. They should be disciplined within their own professional guidelines.
Social workers on the frontline have to make unimaginably tough judgment calls. They get slated whichever way they fall - either for not removing a child who then suffers catastrophic harm or by removing a child who it turns out was not at such a risk of harm as they initially assessed them to be. They can only make decisions based on the evidence available to them at the time.
unquote

Yes indeed and my experience has been a succession of a dozen Agency SW (on £35ph) over 2 years who are in and out for a short time - then vanished. Their work was criminally irresponsible , lying , falsify records, and utterly callously gaming the system and moving on. No realistic complaints or challenging of opinions available. This at the same time aided and abetted by a corrupt Council looking to cover up at all costs. My original SW assessment was so bad that when it finally came to court (prelims), the judge threw the document out and ordered a new independent assessment. This SW turned out to be brilliant and completely what you expect from a professional, she indeed saved my bacon and prevented my children being compulsorily adopted. The Council BTW conspired all this time in the calumny and disgraceful work by the original (Agency) worker and obstructed me at every possible turn. If the work had been done honestly in the first place it would have been completed in <1 year but instead, because I had challenged the system and caught lying and falsifying records that the Council went into full attack - and 4 TIMES attempted to get an adoption order from the Court. Each time is was thrown out by the judge because not a shred of credible evidence was produced to the Judge. That how much the Council cares about "cash strapping". The staff have a blank cheque to pursue their whims as Child care is a statutory obligation and there is no oversight to their vindictive incompetence (a very well known secret in the SW trade.)
So I hope you see why I have such a jaundiced view - which could result in my childrens' futures being ruined for the rest of their lives - worse still a brother and sister aged 2 and 3 1/2 could have been separated (how cruel is that?).

The system stinks

IMO if a SW is overloaded by too many cases that the SW must return these folders dumped in an in-tray back to management with the report that extra work cases cannot be accepted. Any attempts and bullying etc can be referred to the Tribunal - Its up to the SW to defend a position and stand up for themselves and not conspire to immoral shoddy work that could ruin a child's life.
There is a whole shelf full of documented guidelines and professional practice standards for the to rely on.
To defend my own children I had to become my own expert in all these rules and regulations and very frequently had to quotes these the the Council and the Agency SWs - much to their discomfort - but it just made them more vindictive.

If people didn't continuinley get themselves into messes in the first place there would be less need for social services, i can't imagine a job where they try to put children first but parents don't

OBTW speaking as a coal-face mum , it doesnt seem as if any armchair opinionaters here have trouble to see others' experiences TL,DR

Read pls
https://transparencyproject.org.uk/why-doesnt-the-family-court-punish-professionals-who-break-the-rules/

Many of you are from the other side of the fence defending your profession maybe? You wont know how bad some of these Agency SWs can be. We Client Service Users know only too well how dishonest they can be but we have no reliable means to raise an objection. If this were a Police Officer - there is a procedure and the Criminal Court is very severe with malpractice

A criminal court would never allow such unjust unfair behaviour as shown by dishonest SWs

Agree with all this, only thing I would say is that absollute worst outcomes are for what we describe as "edge of care" children who should have been removed but weren't or were but far too late.