CommunityCare.co.uk Childrens services news

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Updated: 51 min 4 sec ago

Social worker saves mother and child after frenzied knife attack

Fri, 04/19/2013 - 16:21
A former nominee in the Social Worker of the Year awards has had her bravery recognised by police after she helped a mother and child following a frenzied knife attack.
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Judge criticises social workers for not challenging police

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 17:07
Social workers have been forced to re-assess a case after the appeal court found they were at fault for not challenging police officers enough.
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Social worker saves mother and child after frenzied knife attack

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 17:07
A former nominee in the Social Worker of the Year awards has had her bravery recognised by police after she helped a mother and child following a frenzied knife attack.
Categories: Communities RSS Feed

Multi-agency inspections a tough hill to climb for Ofsted

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 10:58
Ever since the Munro review raised questions about the inspection process for child protection, Ofsted has played a fast-moving game of change.
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Multi-agency inspections a tough hill to climb for Ofsted

Wed, 04/17/2013 - 18:12
Ever since the Munro review raised questions about the inspection process for child protection, Ofsted has played a fast-moving game of change.
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SCRs to get more expensive but no guarantee on learning

Wed, 04/10/2013 - 18:42
It was announced last week that the case of six children who all died in a house fire, deliberately started by their parents, would be the subject of a serious case review.
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£3m scheme to boost social work to be scrapped as DfE pulls funding

Wed, 04/10/2013 - 17:12
Department for Education scraps £8.5m funding for Children's Improvement Board removing cash to help improve frontline practice.
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Lead children's councillor resigns over poor Ofsted rating

Wed, 04/10/2013 - 14:59
Sandwell’s cabinet member for children’s services, Bob Badham, has resigned after Ofsted rated the council’s services for safeguarding children as inadequate.
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Criminal record checks relaxed for social care recruits

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 14:30
Minor offences and cautions will be removed from records after a period of time, says government in response to court ruling.
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Council suspends senior manager ahead of critical Ofsted report

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 14:30
Sandwell council is expected to receive a critical report into its children's services
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Unison to consult social workers on strikes after rejecting pay offers

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 14:30
Union says councils' proposed offer of 1% pay rise but with cuts in benefits for social workers is "derisory" as it prepares to consult on industrial action.
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Social worker suspended for providing false references

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 14:30
Practitioner barred for one year by Health and Care Professions Council panel after pleading guilty to providing false references for her sister and nephew.
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Firmer future for Scie as it wins contract to produce care guidance

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 14:30
Social Care Institute for Excellence and partners awarded £1.8m-a-year contract to produce care quality guidance as it prepares to lose core government funding.
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Directors slam second round of adoption maps

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 01:01
The government has pressed ahead with a second publication of its “useless, irrelevant and out-of-date” adoption heat maps.
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Huge numbers of adoptive parents put off by system

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 01:01
More than 4 million people in England would consider adopting but are baffled by the system, concerned about continuing support and unsure about eligibility according to research.
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How social workers can reduce risks for children placed out of area

Thu, 03/28/2013 - 11:15
Tougher requirements on councils and children's homes are needed to reduce the risks to children from out-of-area placements, finds Louise Hunt.
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Criminal record checks relaxed for social care recruits

Tue, 03/26/2013 - 17:26
Minor offences and cautions will be removed from records after a period of time, says government in response to court ruling.
Categories: Communities RSS Feed

Council suspends senior manager ahead of critical Ofsted report

Mon, 03/25/2013 - 16:57
Sandwell council is expected to receive a critical report into its children's services
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Council suspends senior manager after critical Ofsted report

Mon, 03/25/2013 - 16:57
Sandwell council is expected to receive a critical report into its children's services
Categories: Communities RSS Feed

More pain for social care staff and services in Osborne's Budget

Wed, 03/20/2013 - 15:08
Councils face further cuts in 2014-15 and budgets will be restricted in 2015-16 to limit pay rises to 1%, announces Chancellor George Osborne in 2013 Budget.
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PwC Report on the Current State of Project Management

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 10:44

Keywords:

PwC Project Management ReportPwC found that successful companies are getting more mature in their project management ability.  This raises the game – successful companies have lower costs from fewer failed projects, and less successful companies have to work harder to catch up.  There are some important lessons to take this report for everyone – Read more…

Joy instead of tedium

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 05/10/2013 - 21:04

Keywords:

The Office

Every office has them - the tasks that have to be done that nobody likes doing.  Whether it's the audit, the wages, standard letters, whatever it is - someone has to do it and it feels like a waste of time and money.

Why should you care?

So you employ somebody, so why do you care about how tedious the task is? Well they are costing money, to do something that could be done far more effectively.

Learning from the Past

Submitted by HugoM on Fri, 05/10/2013 - 20:27

Evidence for service improvement

Many public service changes have little basis in evidence. Their success (or otherwise) does not appear to depend on how 'good' the policy itself is, but rather on how it has been implemented. This relies on staff attitudes and relationships. My research falls into a number of broad categories: finding out what is currently happening; what people think about it; and what people think it will mean.

Keywords:

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

Consumer Price Index (CPI) Calculator for SROI

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Tue, 04/16/2013 - 10:05

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CPI components

When calculating a Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation or SROI forecast , sometimes you have to rely on published figures from reports.  But if these are from a few years ago, then they probably need adjusting for inflation.

There are calculators on the web to do this for you, but I found them cumbersome and it was difficult to keep a record of what calculator I'd used, and how, for which value - auditability and transparency is vital for SROI.  So here's a spreadsheet to do this properly!

Leadership and Margaret Thatcher

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Tue, 04/09/2013 - 14:19

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Margaret Thatcher - a greta leader?

Leadership is one of those characteristics that most people recognise, some people claim, and nobody manages to explain.

We can identify the great leaders from the past and present, and talk about their characteristics, but it is too easy to overlook the hundreds of thousands of people who claimed to be leaders or tried to be leaders, and who shared these characteristics.  We need to identify what the great leaders have that the failures or mediocre leaders don’t have, or we will be no nearer to identifying the characteristics of leadership.