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.

What to think about the ‘named person’ scheme?

(First published in the Morning Star on 3 Sept 2019)
In a 40 year social work career, I don’t think I’ve come across legislation more controversial than the Named Person scheme in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act. 

 You know it’s controversial when it is attacked jointly by a Christian group that’s anti-abortion, the Manifesto Club, and a left wing social work writer, all under same NO2NP banner.

To be fair, part of the controversy is the complexity of sharing information about a child, a key criticism in most inquiries into the deaths of children.

On the occasion of retiring from social work

Beautifully written by my daughter Seonaid Stevenson on her train journey through to my social work leaving party on 15 March 2019 - and much appreciated.

When I was wee
My Dad asked me what I wanted to be
When I grew up.

I said I wanted to work in a cafe,
And if I couldn’t do that… then I’d just be a Social Worker.

Like Dad.

'Don't judge - We're no different from you' - powerful message from care experienced young people

Nothing beats getting the story direct from those who have lived it. And that’s what we got in a moving and revealing presentation from a group of care experienced young people at the Scottish Parliament today as they launched their “Don't Judge - We're no different from you” campaign.

The campaign booklet and DVD was produced by Aberdeenshire’s Young People’s Organising and Campaigning (YPOC) Group of young people working alongside the council’s children’s rights staff. It follows a previous campaign on corporate parenting.

Social work on the brink

This first appeared in the Morning Star on 15/3/16: My name is John and I’m a social worker. There I’ve said it. After all it is World Social Work Day (15 March).

It used to be that when you were asked about your job, you would say ‘I work for the council’. It’s perhaps a reaction to the false media portrayal of council staff as a pile of lazy pen-pushers that more colleagues are now proudly confessing their social work identity.

That’s the problem when you are trying to defend local services. People don’t always know the range of essential services councils provide. When they actually need one of those services, they find resources are cut to the bone.

Austerity and Social Work

Presentation to Edinburgh Local Practitioner Forum 26 November 2015.
I want to focus on three main challenges that austerity brings to social work and social workers.
1. Poverty and demonisation of the poor.
2. The role and effect of social work, especially in local government
3. Resources - facing the reality. How do we do the best with what we've got?

1. Poverty /demonisation of the poor

There is a deliberate strategy to portray those in need as less deserving so services are not needed - or they become punitive rather than enabling.
Austerity - who is really affected?

Assumed guilt: Social work contempt case

First published in the Scottish Review on 6/5/15: It has been hard to be silent on the social worker 'contempt’ case over the last 18 months. As the union initially representing the individuals, it was important we avoided anything that might prejudice their case in such bizarre and unpredictable legal proceedings.

Despite the woeful inaccuracy of some social work commentators’ responses, we could not correct them without sharing details of the case which are only now fully in the public domain. Now that the social workers have been cleared, and even more importantly the paramountcy of the welfare of children has been recognised, it is time to put some records straight.

UNISON was the first to step in with legal support for our members. So confusing were the beginnings of the case that it was not clear how or where else legal support would or could come from. Honourably, the City of Edinburgh Council readily took responsibility but without that immediate union support in the first few days and weeks, our members would have been totally vulnerable in the Kafkaesque proceedings they found themselves at the centre of.

UNISON presentation to social services vision and strategy launch

UNISON Scotland has welcomed the engagement of the social work strategic forum and has consistently supported a united strategy for social work in Scotland.

We share the vision statement of “a socially just Scotland with excellent social services delivered by a skilled, and valued workforce which works with others to empower, support and protect people with a focus on prevention, early intervention and enablement.”

Workers Memorial Day: Fight for the living.

Speech, Workers memorial Day Edinburgh 2010: 20,000 people die prematurely every year because of work related injury or disease. Another 1.2 million say they suffered illness that they thought was due to their work.

Many of them still come to work, despite their illness.

Another million who have left work say they have ill-health because of their work - still suffering in retirement.

70% of workplace accidents have been shown to be down to poor management of health and safety.
And the government says health and safety regulations are just 'red tape'.

A voice for social work in poetry?

John Stevenson reviews 'Dancing With Big Eunice - Missives from the frontline of a fractured society" by Alistair Findlay

In a world of guideline after guideline, key performance indicators, inspections and media savagery, social work these days can seem so distant from the human relationships that should be central to the job.

Then along came poetry.

Poetry?

On leaving Springwell House

Event to mark the children and families social work team leaving Springwell House Edinburgh: The lessons learned through the experience of a man of my age are twofold.

The first is that there is a time to stop wearing light coloured trousers.

The second is that reorganisations always come just when you are getting the current system right.

The chances are that the next reorganisation will come up with the novel idea of locally based generic social work teams, and we’ll all be back at Springwell again.

Dawn raids slammed as UNISON issues guidance on asylum seeker children

UNISON and the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) have launched a guidance booklet for social workers in Scotland. It advises on ethical practice for social work staff dealing with asylum-seeker children. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/siu/oct06/22.html

A commitment was made by the UK Immigration Minister back in March to ensure that asylum-seekers' children would be assessed and each would have a lead professional appointed. In addition immigration staff dealing with children would have to have enhanced disclosure checks. These commitments have not yet been implemented, but UNISON is exerting more pressure following a spate of recent 'dawn raids' by immigration officials outwith the agreed protocol.

Capital audit confirms resources are the key to child protection

http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/siu/nov04/17.html
UNISON's long campaign in Edinburgh to expose the lack of resources affecting child protection and child care work has been confirmed by an expert external audit of child protection. 

The council has responded positively by accepting all the recommendations and immediately pumping new money into buildings and IT support.

John Stevenson, Edinburgh UNISON branch secretary, said, "We welcome this action but it has been a long haul. We took a grievance to councillors as long ago as 2001 about this, and we argued that the O'Brien report into the death of Caleb Ness was flawed and had missed this point.

Child protection risk must be recognised

UNISON Scotland has called for the Scottish Executive to set up a standing system for inquiries into child protection crises as part of a plan to address the problems of social work across Scotland. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/siu/siumay04.html#3 

The call was made by Edinburgh's John Stevenson at a UNISON Social Work Conference and in evidence to the Scottish Parliament Education Committee.

You never hear about social work until something goes wrong

You never hear about social work until something goes wrong. As many politicians admit, it is not a vote-catcher. Who wants to hear about families in crisis, children at risk, the elderly needing care or people with disabilities relying on support to keep their independence? (Opinion piece Evening News 27 April 2004)

Child Protection and the Trade Union

UNISON SOCIAL WORK CONFERENCE GLASGOW 24 MARCH 2004. Asking me to speak on Child Protection and the Trade Union is a dangerous thing because those who know me also know that I can bore at length on both at the drop of a hat. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/socialwork/conf24mar.html

Child protecton: Time for calm analysis

UNISON Deputation to City of Edinburgh Council Meeting 16/10/03 On the Inquiry into the death of Caleb Ness. Let me say first that it is with immense sadness that UNISON comes with this deputation today. Before I say anything else, I think it is important to let you, and the public know how social workers - and indeed many staff and managers throughout the Council - have been feeling about the awful death of Caleb Ness. http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/socialwork/swaddress.html