Welfare Reform on the Web (January 2009): Social care - UK
How the United Kingdom's Criminal Records Bureau can reduce the prevalence of elder abuse by improving recruitment decision-making
N. Mustafa
Journal of Adult Protection, vol. 10, Nov. 2008, p. 37-45
More structured staff recruitment procedures could help reduce the number of reported cases of abuse of vulnerable persons. The Criminal Records Bureau was created to enable more organisations to access accurate criminal record information as part of good recruitment practice. This research investigated how this information is being used in the recruitment process to protect vulnerable adults while not discriminating against ex-offenders.
A national solution to social care
Right Care, Right Deal Coalition
2008
In this briefing paper the charities that form the Coalition call for national eligibility criteria to ensure equal access to adult social care in England and to replace the different systems currently operated by councils. They reject the argument that councils' ability to determine access to care enables them to tailor services to local needs, dismissing tailoring as a myth. They call for the new Care Quality Commission to have a role in monitoring consistency of entitlement across the country.
Regional agents for improvement
A.U. Sale
Community Care, Nov. 27th 2008, p. 26-27
The Care Services Improvement Agency was launched in 2005 by the Department of Health to support the local delivery of health and social care policy in England. It was shut down on December 1st 2008 and accountability for the programmes it oversaw has become the direct responsibility of Department of Health national programme leads and the new deputy regional directors for social care and partnerships.
The Scottish adult support and protection legal framework
K. Mackay
Journal of Adult Protection, vol.10, Nov. 2008, p. 25-36
This article describes the development in Scotland of a modern and comprehensive framework for assessment of and intervention for adults at risk of harm. First, the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 updated financial and welfare interventions for people who did not have the capacity to act or make decisions. Secondly, the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 modernised the way in which care and treatment could be delivered both in hospital and in the community and improved patients' rights. Finally, the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 widened the range of community care service user groups who could be subject to assessments and mostly short-term intervention, if they were deemed to be adults at risk of harm.
Voices from the frontline: perceptions of multi-agency working in adult protection in England and Wales
L. Pinkney and others
Journal of Adult Protection, vol. 10, Nov. 2008, p. 12-24
Government guidance has encouraged partnership working within adult protection without laying a statutory duty on agencies to collaborate. This article focuses on the implementation of this guidance at practice level and social workers' perceptions about partnership working and the role of regulation. It explores 92 social workers' reported experiences of partnership and multi-agency working and how this, along with overarching regulatory frameworks, affected their practice.
What a performance
M. Hunter
Community Care, Nov. 20th 2008, p. 16-17
Performance-related pay schemes for staff are spreading rapidly across the social care sector. This article reports on whether such schemes have been successful and whether they compromise practice.