Social worker power

[Babyonboardinthesticks]

...needs to be curbed. Also if cases in the press there should be more rights for social workers to publicise their own evidence to some extent too. Openness is more important than confidentiality sometimes. Justice needing to be seen to be done as much as done.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7052599.ece

It feels at times like the book 1984. You suspect if the state really wants to take your children they could come into any of our homes and find anything that every average parent has done and claim that's "abuse" and remove the child and that once you're in their clutches that's that.

We should let parents waive anonymity and set up web sites with access to all correspondence and reports.

but JH, it's wrong to publish the minutes. Much as we would all like to see them, they are not for public comsumption, this is a child who has a right to some privacy.

The child has the right to not be persecuted by the local authority.

I accept that at times such documents do have information that would be best not published. However, that is not always the case.

The "privacy of the child" is used to justify the unaccountability of the practitioners.

No it's not. It's to protect children from exactly this sort of intrusion.

I can understand why wahwah may want to leave. I mean we all have to appreciate that being a sw must be awful. a thankless task. involved with people( the parents i mean) who don't want their involvemment.
that is a fundamental basic that can not be overcome.

Well that's your view, Leoniedelt. Mine is entirely different and based on knowledge of many, many case conferences. I wouldn't give a toss about my old reports being shared other than the problems it could cause for children, I've always been happy to evidence my position and risk assessment, but the decision of the conference is based on all the information, not just that of the SW.

If this case is as it's been represented, then that's terrible, but I do remain sceptical that's it's as ridiculous as portrayed, even if many posters here are scathing about emotional abuse of children, it does team its not hugely damaging.

That should read 'doesn't mean'.

Oblomov, just to say that I left CP for another really great job that I am really committed to and I think I'd reached my shelf life before getting into burning out. However it is an area of work that I am quite passionate about ( not in Mastercheffy way! ) and my work with children and their families has been so rewarding. I have a great deal of respect for families and they have given that back to me, no parent has ever behaved as badly as some professionals and the public with unfavourable opinions!

Truly I have been treated with more understanding and dignity by people I have been instrumental in removing children from...make of that what you will!

Wahwah - so sorry to hear of your health problems and hope that you do get back to some kind of job in social care if that is indeed what is right for you. I am now at the age of 67 years more or less coming to the end of my working life and probably will not renew my GCSC registration next month. I shall miss the work and feel privileged to have had a job that I have found so fulfilling and worthwhile but think I've probably had enough now. Like you I have been amazed at the good realtionships I have been able to make with parents where there have been cp concerns and sometimes where children have been removed. I have always always treated service users with respect and been straight talking when necessary but in a way that has not been judgemental. I think people respond well to this and are willing to see that you are just doing your job.

Sixtyfootdoll - you are SO right. the notion that approx 12/14 people are going to sit around a case conference table and agree to place a child on the cp register because the mother told the child she was born by cs and because she hugged her for 15 minutes is totally ludicrous, BUT many poster on here just will not believe it because it suits their purposes to believe this nonsense.

I have just read in today's Guardian (Children's Services) that Unison (trade union for public service workers) figures state that vacancy rates for social workers average 12% peaking at over 39% in some areas. I think this says it all really and who can blame people for not wanting to go into social work.................so all you people who are so critical, here's your chance, why don't you train as social workers and come and tell us, who have spent many years in the profession how it should be done.

Good points, Nananina and thank you. I expected to have many more years in the work, but I'm really proud of what I've achieved anyway and I really hope people come into the profession feel that sense of satisfaction at doing such amazing and privileged work-even though sometimes you wonder why you bother!

I've always used 'client', I agree with your perception of 'service user'. I also have no doubts that people have poor experiences, but whereas most individuals have one or a few experiences, my view has been of many hundreds / if not more. Now that doesn't mean I dismiss your view, I don't at all, it just gives me a very different context and much more positive view than you have.

I don't deny anyone elses reality, but it can get a bit tiresome when mine is!

Social workers can't win. they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Also the more right wing elements of the press treat them like some sort of folk devil- there seems to be a flood of this sort of hysterical one sided article these days. imo the press take full advantage of the LA's inability to respond, and the reading public's inability to work out for itself that there are two sides to any story...

"they're damned if they do and damned if they don't."

It is not that. It is that the judgment is so bad in so many cases that the wrong children are taken into care.

The only way they manage to hide this is through using secrecy.

This is one of the many reasons that I do not want to have children in this cuontry. I very nearly cried reading that, possibly one of the worst SW stories I've heard and I've seen many of them first hand.

This cuontry is going to the dogs, and unfortunately the next generation are the ones who are suffering for it. Parents can't take care of their children for fear of having them taken away.

I haven't read the whole thread but will in the morning definately.

I'll bow out now. I've said what I need to. I hope this child is ok and mattters get resolved properly.

Answering maryz I think it is entirely reasonable to ensure that someone independent (eg the GP, anyone really independent) has seen the child and ensured that she is well.

I would go as far as saying that the police have powers that they can use to ensure that this is the case.

However, that is it. The police do not have powers to force people to go to meetings.

The problem with the system is that time is spent on cases where there is no evidence for state intervention often because the parents are un-cooperative, but parents who are co-operative such as the mother of Peter Connolly (Baby P) are left alone.

The system needs to be evidence driven.

Incidentally it is me that has done most of the independent research on the false negatives (where action should have been taken, but isn't). Some of that research appeared in the Mail on Sunday last year.

Please all sign this petition URGENT -
Catholic Home Educating family - local LEA came round asked for entry, which legally they're not entitled to, so family said no, officer reported them to SS, said kids were in danger, they weren't, now they've had to flea the country with the SS in hot persuit threatening to take the kids away. Please help by signing the petition.

www.ipetitions.com/petition/ukssleaveourkidsalone/

Please stop bumping all the old threads and start your own new one.

Shahnaz and family went to Ireland.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1268433/In-hiding-mother-accused-abuse-cuddling-child.html

comewhinewithme - no thanks