Welfare Reform on the Web (March 2009): Social care - UK

Degree needs a reality check

C. Williams

Community Care, Feb. 12th 2009, p. 16-17

Widely welcomed as a major step forward when it was introduced in 2003, the social work degree course is now under criticism for failing to adequately prepare students to practise in the real world.

Every vulnerable person deserves an assessment

J. Smith

Professional Social Work, Feb. 2009, p.15

Local authorities are discriminating against vulnerable people with means to fund their own care by refusing to provide information, advice, and an assessment of the services they need. Councils conflate their duty to provide advice with their possible duty to provide financial support.

A lighter touch or a heavier hand?

J. Smith

Caring Times, Feb. 2009, p.12-13

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has come under government pressure to retreat from face-to-face inspections of care homes and to rely on paper returns. This move has arisen partly from the need to make operational economies and partly from pressure exerted by the bodies being regulated. There are also concerns that the new inspectorate, the Care Quality Commission, which takes over from CSCI in April 2009, will be preoccupied with regulation of healthcare and that adult social care will get little attention.

What (a) difference a degree makes: the evaluation of the new social work degree in England

J. Orme and others

British Journal of Social Work, vol. 39, 2009, p. 161-178

The new social work degree in England was launched in 2003 after many years of debate. The Department of Health commissioned a three-year study of the new degree to establish whether it was actually leading to improvements in the qualified workforce. This article describes the aims of the evaluation and the methodological choices made to meet them.

Why social work can't ignore obesity

J. Kornbeck

Professional Social Work, Feb. 2009, p. 20-21

This article shows why obesity is a social work issue as well as a challenge for the medical profession. It points out that issues around obesity and unhealthy lifestyles are already impacting on decisions about taking children into care and looks at alternative ways of working with families to encourage physical activity.