Do Holyrood’s claims about a National Care Service add up?

COVID-19 exposed just how undervalued the adult care workforce is. Demoralised workers are leaving in droves. The recruitment crisis is so bad that the Integrated Joint Board (IJB) responsible for social care in Edinburgh has taken the unprecedented step of warning service users they might have to rely on family and friends for support. Other areas have issued similar warnings. First published in the Morning Star 2 Nov 2021 https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/s/do-holyroods-claims-about-national-care-service-add

Action to bring dignity to the workforce and those who rely on it is therefore long overdue. That makes some aspects of the plans for a National Care Service (NCS) in Scotland very tempting.

The view from Gorgie - Raith Rovers

For the Raith Rovers v Hearts match programme 30 April 2021

The danger of quoting figures, as I did in the programme for 26 January when Hearts edged a 0-4 win against 10-man Rovers, is that they soon go out of date.

The 60 players I said played for both Hearts and Rovers have since been enhanced by Rovers’ shrewd acquisition of Dario Zanatta, currently playing for the ‘Honest Men’ (and ‘bonnie lassies’ to be accurate to the Burns origin of the Ayr nickname). Not to mention Christophe Berra which, unfortunately, I have.

Hearts recall of Canadian Zanatta during his loan spell at the San Starko in 2017/2018 was controversial with some saying it affected Rovers’ promotion battle with Ayr United – well, with current league placings, what goes around…

It's harder than you think to count months back from December

One thing I’ve learned from a few hospitalisations over the last year is that it is harder than you think to count the months backwards from December.

I could see nursing staff getting worried as I hesitated around February 2020 but that was just me having a flashback to when pubs were open. As an explanation, it seemed to work and – along with my refusal to believe that Boris Johnson was prime minister – they deemed me to be semi-compos mentis.

The other thing I learned was that no matter how many failed tries any staff member has to insert a cannula, there is always a genius on the ward who can be summoned to do it first time.

But the major lesson was that nurses appear to have no workload management system whatsoever and are constantly run off their feet. 

Ubuntu and the power of being kind

Today (16 March) is World Social Work Day. Its theme is Ubuntu, which Nelson Mandela explained as: “The profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievement of others.” Desmond Tutu defined it simply as: “My humanity is inextricably bound up in yours.” (First published in Morning Star 16 March 2021)

One of my social work bosses, though never mentioning Ubuntu, encapsulated the humanity aspect in one word. Amidst the restorative practice he championed, genuinely involving children and families in decisions in real life, not just in policies, he conceded that social workers must sometimes take action that overrides that to protect a child.  

His view, however, was that, no matter what we had to do, there was no excuse for not being ‘kind’. 

Do the Tories really have it in for council staff? (rhetorical).

Edinburgh’s Evening News runs a story today that Tory councillor Susan Webber backed the public sector pay freeze (as did her party) but took an even more punitive lunge by saying of public service workers on WhatsApp: “I was thinking of a vote-winning policy called salary sacrifice where they only get 80 per cent and have to struggle like the others on furlough. Then they might want this sorry state to get resolved faster.” https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/edinburgh-tory-candidates-whatsapp-messages-spark-concerns-over-suitability-to-become-msp-3161957

I’m not sure many Edinburgh council workers will actually see that as a vote-winner.

A committee system fit for purpose?

Despite myself, and in the knowledge that there are no good guys here, I've been watching the Salmond evidence session to the Parliametary Committee.

With the media focussing on a personalised Salmond/Sturgeon spat, you'd be forgiven for missing the astonishing allegations of arrogance and abuse of power, legal processes, and Parliament itself (along with denying information to the committee) at the heart of the Scottish government establishment, some of which will of course be challenged in future evidence.

Neverthless it might chime with what we already know about this government's woeful record on Freedom of Information. 

A view from Gorgie, at Starks Park

For the Raith Rovers v Hearts match programme 26 January 2021

According to the wonderful London Hearts Supporters’ website, 60 players have played for both Raith Rovers and Hearts (at different times of course) since 1913.

And it goes beyond players to managers too. For almost 17 years from 1951, Hearts knew only one manager, Tommy Walker. He presided over two league titles and four runner-up spots along with four League Cups and a Scottish Cup final win that wouldn’t be repeated for 42 years.  

'22' get it wrong in gen sec election complaint

Rant alert! I note from the Returning Officer’s report on the UNISON general secretary election that ‘22 individual members’ wrongly blamed UNISON Scotland staff in their (not upheld) complaint about the Scotland in UNISON newspaper. As retired editor, I am happy to enlighten the ‘22’ that SiU is in fact proudly LAY edited and LAY produced and has been for 27 years.

A lay organisation that involves activists across Scotland in their own union’s communications may not be something familiar to their local organising but since UNISON’s inception in 1993, Scotland in UNISON has been published by a lay team six times a year and sent to every activist in Scotland. It has also been published online since 1998. 

Given the content of the complaint, it may also be important to point out that since at least 1998, the words "Use these stories in your branch newsletter or circulate the pdf version to members” had always appeared under the masthead as part of the normal strategy to cascade UNISON Scotland’s news to its broader membership in Scotland.