Following months of investigation, The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of adults services reported that social workers from the South Tyneside Council are delivering a high standard of care to elderly people.

The CQC inspectors met with elderly people and their social carers, staff and managers from South Tyneside Council and overall were very satisfied with the quality of the services provided.

Inspectors said:

“We saw evidence of a range of good provision and commissioned services, these included specialist services for people with dementia, palliative care and home care.”

Another area the inspectors also looked at were the arrangements in place to safeguard vulnerable adults, and found that performance was adequate.

The commitment and quality of services provided by South Tyneside social workers should be an example to be followed by other social workers around the country and should also serve as an inspiration for others thinking of starting a career in social services.

The commitment and quality of services provided by South Tyneside social workers should be an example to be followed by other social workers around the country and should also server as an inspiration for other thinking of starting a career in social services.

Education Secretary Ed Balls is actively encouraging professionals such as teachers and solicitors to consider a change of career and become social workers.

The move forms part of proposals brought in following the report released regarding the current state of child protection, after the awful and much highlighted death of Baby P.

Mr Balls will reveal a new ‘on the job’ social work qualification to the Association of Directors of Children’s Services.

The aim is to get 200 people including doctors, teachers and solicitors who are looking for a change in career to become social workers.

Roughly a third of social worker positions were left vacant in November 2008, this is obviously a worrying statistic and makes it clear that trained social workers are needed and soon!

It has become clear that in the case of Baby P, if the social workers on the case had been more thorough in their investigations, the outcome may have not resulted in such a tragic ending.

However, there is also the assumption that if these social workers had been trained doctors for example; they would have been better equipped to identify injuries and psychological problems within the Baby P household.

It could also be the case that if they had been solicitors with an understanding of the law, they would not have missed out on any instances of law breaking that may have occurred.

Taking all this into consideration, I think this is why Ed Balls wants people with this type of knowledge in the social working industry – to avoid any cases like Baby P’s ever being repeated.

What do you think of Mr Balls proposition, would we benefit from having professionals re-trained as social workers?

Weeks after the biggest scandal in childcare services ever to be reported came to an end; another story of child abuse is making the headlines in England.

This case is a little different from Baby P’s case where qualified social workers failed to identify that the toddler was been brutally “tortured” by its mother and stepfather, this new child abuse case involves a nursery worker who was sexually assaulting children by touching and penetration, as well as posting photos of the children under her care on the internet.

Police arrested Mrs Vanessa George 39 after seizing a computer disc from a suspected paedophile in Manchester, after analysing the contents of the disc police found indecent images of children taken at Little Ted’s Day Nursery in Plymouth which then lead them to Mrs George, who has been working there for the past two years.

Mother of two, Mrs George is being charged with seven offences, including two for sexual assault by penetration and two of sexual assault by touching.

It makes me wonder why a mother of two does such things to other children. Would she like that done to her own children? What goes through these peoples mind?

What you have to say about these child abuse cases and how can they be prevented? Leave your thoughts in our comments section below.

As awkward as this title might sound, the campaign is for real and is happening right here in the UK.

At the beginning of the month, the government launched a campaign to lure retired social workers back to their jobs due to the lack of qualified social workers and the struggle of local councils to recruit social workers.

A report from the Local Government Association (LGA) called Respect and Protect revealed that 1 in 10 social worker jobs remained empty and 89% of councils had reported difficulties with social workers recruitment.

As councils across the country are having a hard time to recruit and retain social workers in their jobs, the government launched this campaign as a short term measure to try and encourage up to 5,000 retired qualified social workers to go back to social work.

Alan Warner lead officer for communications at the Public Sector People Managers’ Association (PPMA) said:

“Social recruitment and retention problems had been exacerbated by the negative publicity surrounding the death of Baby P, which had caused the public to lose respect for social workers, the public at large need to get behind social workers and support them.”

And added:

“We need to give people respect for what they do. If there is no respect then why would anyone want to do it?”

And concluded:

“There needs to be more information made available to the general public about what social workers do, and perhaps national awards to recognise achievements. There is no overnight fix for this; we just need a more balanced approach.”

Social work services in North Lanarkshire are among the best in Scotland, according to inspectors.

The Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) looked at 10 key areas. Three were rated as ‘very good’, and the other seven as ‘good’.

Inspectors said social workers were improving the lives of many of the people they were dealing with.

Leadership within the social work department was singled out for praise, as were the brilliant partnerships with the NHS and other agencies.

Inspectors also commended staff for seeking ‘highly personalised’ outcomes for people.

The inspection took place over a 6 month period last year and involved 1,500 questionnaires being sent out to staff, carers and those who use the authority’s social work services.

Executive director of housing and social work services, Mary Castles said:

‘This positive inspection report reaffirms the high priority we place on delivering essential services to the most vulnerable people in our society.’

‘SWIA singled out our ‘highly motivated staff’ who like working for this council and who had a real vision for social work services in North Lanarkshire.’

‘It is extremely pleasing that they feel supported by managers and acknowledged the opportunities available to them for professional and career development.’

Restart Resources provides assessment and front line social work resources for Childcare and Mental Health Services, for more information please click here.