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Targets so oppressive
• TOM Foot’s article two weeks ago seemed to stir a huge hornets’ nest (Child protection: morale high, workloads safe, April 24). It is indeed interesting to see Labour and Lib Dem councillors defending the children’s services management structure when, in fact, we are quite clear that for Unison members there are issues that are clearly problem areas in the department.
These are:
• Paperwork and administrative support. Paperwork means people have little time to work with children and families.
• Long- and short-term casework. It is hard to juggle these differing priorities and long-term work suffers as a result.
• Morale. Councillor Paul Convery says this is high but I am not convinced. There are pockets where this is true and others where it is not.
• Target-driven performance indicators. The atmosphere has been one of senior managers being pushed, and then team managers pushed by senior managers and social work staff by team managers. This has led to an oppressive atmosphere that needs seriously addressing.
It is Unison’s view that there needs to be a more open and social work-driven environment rather than one inspired by deadlines, performance indicators and targets.
That is why Unison is pushing our 10-point charter for social workers in children’s services.
MIKE CALVERT
Deputy branch secretary, Islington Unison
• CARE proceedings have escalated as much as 35 per cent since the tragic death of Baby P and other local authority failings up and down the country.
If common sense doesn’t prevail, many more parents will suffer injustice and gross miscarriages of justice at the hands of the family courts. Babies are being taken from hospitals in the West Midlands within hours of birth. Social services have little evidence to support such drastic action, and should consider the kin care clause, mentioned in the Public Law Guidelines, by placing children with an immediate family member, such as grandparents, while Crown Prosecution Service investigations are taking place.
There is another worry: with the new legal aid payments with regard to barristers, parents may be forced to represent themselves. They don’t have the knowledge of this complex side of the law. Good McKenzie friends are few and far between. Local authorities will have a real baby boom.
ALISON STEVENS
Via email
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