you know...i've never voted tory, and dave...well, jury's out....BUT

[Heathcliffscathy]

am i the only one on here that feels as sense of jubilation that at last a political party seems to really be courting the woman's family vote?

like wake up guys, there are lots of us, and no one really pitches to us until now...and i'm GLAD!

he might even sway me, you never know...i'm so fuckingcheesedoff disillusioned with new labour.

MP, good points, esp wftc, mat leave and gay consent

OK- I shall put my hands up to this- I would be scared to vote for a party I didnt think would maintain the WTC system as it is because we couldn't afford to live without it. Mercenary, but there it is. For a lot of families in our position where a parent HAS to be at home (carers) then choice is so limited you do worry about hanging on to what you do have. Am studyinga s well so i can go back to work when possible, but right now despite DH's working we're fairly vulnerable I guess.

Flexible working has saved us a lot of problems as well, the right for DH to amend his hours (not lessen, but adjust shift timings) has seen a big improvemnt in our ability to cope as a family unit. That in itself has saved social services a mint because we don't ned the respite input they were looking at before.

But then as you see, Yurt and I- in fairly comprable situations- differ, so peolpe will. thats life!

Morning paper,glad you flagged up all of that stuff. Some of the more privileged among us have no idea of the wonderful work and energy that has gone into stuff like Sure Start. I am on the board of the local Sure Start scheme and it has quite honestly changed lives.

But...agree with Yurt too. As a salt I am sickened and appalled at what is happening to our service. I pointed out to my line manager last Friday that the onerous referral system for so much as 5 mins. of basic advice that we have to go through in my sector (Learning Dis.) is designed to dissuade the therapist and the referrer from referring.It's just too much trouble.

Similarly, despise the meaningless language used by NHS. Reflection, Knowledge and Skills framework,care pathways, forging new identities blah blah blah. Complete and utter shite all of it and I feel dirty for my (involuntary) collusion in a system that is not doing its job.

Dave is a charlatan-white tails and Oxford drinking clubs and now bleating on about solar panels and maternity nurses.Gimme a break.
Still,I never vote owt bt Welsh Nationalist anyway.

Yurt do you HONESTLY think that the SALT part of the NHS would be BETTER under the Tories? It won't. It will be slashed.

I strongly suspect that - as with a lot of things pertaining to child development - it is referrals that have massively increased and the system is struggling. In fact, the New Labour 10 year plan for children includes getting a SALT in each school!

So fine - vote for the party that will slash it's funding and will also take away your tax credits. But bear in mind you will be fucking over poorer families than your own when you do so.

Moondog, do you remember the NHS under Major? It was just as full of management bollocks and jargon. And how soon you got seen depended on whether your GP was a fundholder or not - hardly something mere patients had any control over. Hospital files were marked 'GPFH' in 48 point so staff knew exactly which patients to push up the list!

A salt in each school would be good.

Main problem with salt is that too many inappropriate referrals. Vast majority of trivial pronunciation issues will resolve themselves naturally but because peopel are encouraged to refer, they then have to be seen (in 12 weeks in Wales which has created a host of problems as this is the holy Grail-nothing else seems to matter)

It sickens me that a salt will sit with a nice little MC family in a clinic, farting about doing work on f and th say,when a child who really needs some help (maybe one with Autism and challenging behaviour) isn't seen to properly. More ironic still is the fact that if that child' needs aren't met, chances are that in the long term he will end up costing the tax payer a hell of a lot more in terms of all the care he will need when perhaps he could have been helped to lead an autonomous life.

I have 21/2 days a half term to spend in one unit which contains 15 children, all with complex comm. needs. This 21/2 days includes travel,meetings eith teachers,parents, and SWs,clinical intervention, clinical prep, assessment and report writing.It's a sick joke.

Edam, GPFH??

But aren't half(or more) of the labour cabinet of privately educated, priveleged background just like DC and his mates. But they seem very keen to stop everyone else having their advantages in life.

Moondog, I wish someone had sat with my son and farted about working on f and th (he is 10 and still says "de" instead on "the". Perhaps we didn't get help because I am middle class. Perhaps I should have done more, but I have had to spend my time dealing with the mess the education system has made of teaching him to read(no help for that either).

Sorry but PMSL at the idea of a SALT in that timespan (MD knows our story anyhow)- took our then totally non verbal 3 year old over a year to see someone.

BUT I did Nurse training in 192 (dropped out after 2 years), it was awful then too. Class started out over 50, there were less than a dozen left when I went- all disillusioned or simply couldnt afford to continue. Fridays were given over to reflective Studies- a time slot so crap that the tutors wouldnt turn up even, they just wrote 'think about what you learned this week and jot it in your diaty' on the board. We were constantly told that only 1 of the previus graduation year had managed to locate a job. So were running up debts (£365 or thereabout bursary a month irrc and you HAD to run a car) with no way of knowing how we'd pay them off- I feel far more confident about my student loans i am now accruing, at least a degree ahs some flexibility- with ursing you nurse- and if you canyt nurse you work in a care home for £3.20 an hour (pre minimum wage)

I'm sorry Sanae,but saying 'de' in no way registers on my scale as being serious in comparison to the scores of children I see every day that i am unable to help.

(If it concerns you,I suggest yuo book a private SALT for a few sessions)

Peachy, when I am ordered to write something 'relective' about my work (as I often am) I want to batter the speaker about the head with a crowbar and bellow

'IF IT'S ALL RIGHT WITH YOU I'D RATHER GET ON WITH THE FUCKING WORK I AM PAID TO DO'

And pay for a private tutor for his reading I suppose.

I do understand how Sanae feels- ds2 has some pronounciation issues that I wish could be dealt with BUT ds1 only got 1 session for his SPD (Autism related problems, causes more isues than you'd think and contributes to hs aggression i think), and ds3 is 4.5, 1st centile for both spoken and receptive langauge and has never received a therapy session yet- someone went into school I beleive but every time we get anywhere the SALT leaves or is promoted and we get shunted back onto a waiting list. but of course we all want our child helped, and that is a perfectly reasonable response.

only way we ever got PECs training (communication system suited to autistic kids amongst others) was for a chairity to step in and run it 3 weeks ago, BIBIC. The SALT couldn't, and the private course wasnt running at a time we could attend (no childcare after school club etc for sn kids in our area, plus baby due that month)

I'm no fan of the education system myself believe you me. I have my own problems in that dept and yes,I have decided that it is easier and more effective to address issues myself at home.

Sanae- if his reading is really delayed (not sure of his situation) have you looked at getting him an IEP etc? DS1's sattement includes his reading (he's V bright- IQ of 130- but completely illitrate which seems to be more dyslexia than his HFA (hgh functioning autism). Kids who need help shoudl be getting IEPs from their school and if that doesn't work then they should go onto school action plus and eventually maybe a statement- the IPSEA website explains it well.

GPFH = GP fundholder - what hospitals used to put on patient notes so they could discriminate against those patients whose doctors didn't want to cream NHS money off to build their own swimming pools. (Seriously, there was one GP fundholder who did exactly that - I interviewed him.)

Blimey

I'm with Peachy on this one, I don't particularly like New Labour but I don't think there is a chance in hell that the Tories would keep the tax credit system as it is and without it we'd be screwed!!
A SALT in each school would be really good, DS2 (4yrs) has severe speech problems and is now on the waiting list to start SALT. We have had to fight for it though, Dec 06 he was assessed by a speech therapist who told us that he had severe speech problems and was an ideal candidate for the I Can Nursery and he would start in Sept 07. In June 07 (after being on the waiting list for therapy) he was assessed again by the same speech therapist who said that his speech was now in normal parameters and discharged him!! We didn't agree but what could we do. In December 07 after discussions with his nursery teacher I contacted SALT to see about getting him assessed again. The speech therapist who had discharged him had left and the one who had taken over was someone that I had met a few times through Sure Start. She agreed to assess him at the next triage in January.
After assessing him she said that he should never have been discharged and does have severe speech problems, but he now has to go back on the waiting list for therapy which is at least 6 mths. She is also referring him to a paediatrician because he also has very poor coordination (always falling over) and as his nursery teacher puts it he is "socially immature" when compared to his peers.

Moondog- have been pondering your email and also what you say here. Had a very interesting conversation with a student SALT friend about Care Aims. They seem (to me) to be a problem.....

We've had to employ people all the way along. Esepcially in pre-school days- early intervention didn't exist.

Care Aims?

What is that all about?

I was under the impression that we come into this profession with care aims and that just because they don't have a capital 'c' and a capital 'a', it doesn't make them any less real.

Don't in the name of God get me started on Investors in People.Our sec. spent about a week photocopying manuals for us all until they formed a pile over 5 foot high.

I doubt anyone read them. Neither has the service improved in any way since we were rubber stamped as IEP.

what interests me about this thread is that no where have i said that I would, or that anyone should vote for the conservatives.

i observed that I felt courted by the focus that conservatives seem to be placing on issues that I really care about and that (unfortunately) are issues that primarily affect women.

my main issue, my huge betrayal by labour is iraq. perhaps my total disillusionment makes me more open to listening to opposition parties, and i'm glad that at the moment, after the TOTAL horlicks that the lib dems made of the opportunity that the tragedy in iraq provided them that there is an opposition tbh.

moondog, ime surestart is a huge waste of resources, often being used by middle class mum's like me and NOT being picked up by those it should be targetting. our babysitter worked fulltime for surestart and was often so disappointed by the incredibly poor uptake, knowing that they had loads of money and it just wasn't going where it was meant to. it has been a disaster, certainly in london.

Soph, yes I know that Surestart has not worked well everywher,that is true but on my doorstep it has been a lifeline to many desperate people.

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