Saturday 12 March 2011

Rain drops on Roses...

Sorry about the grumble in the last post. I'm a very rational and logical chap, with a wealth of experience over a massive range of experience. That's not a boast. It's a fact.

To do that, you have maintain contacts and keep up to date. No one whom I'm in contact with has any illusions otherwise. The well worn phrase that "it's not what you know, but who you know" is valid up to a point. But only applicable as far as the information your sources are given is valid.

There is something very odd happening in the Social Services in the UK at the moment. Putting aside performance targets, and the media spotlight many have found themselves in, and arrgghhh! don't get me into that...



They've found themselves 'dropped on'. They're working on a case, and bang, they're shifted off to another, and someone else takes over, starting from scratch. When you consider the horrendous workload, that's just stupid.

Worse, they aren't given a reason, which leaves them worrying whether they've made an error. They wouldn't know. They aren't told.

The basic complaint I hear is that they are fed up that the administrative work has overtaken the caring that they want to do. They don't want to be talking to a client and worrying about the administrative consequences - something the police have had to to deal with for so long they feel they've become ineffectual.

So where does that leave a client? A sad public impression of someone who has contact with the social services is that they are somewhat lacking in some way.

Wrong. The social services are there to support anyone to provide those services THAT THEY ADMINISTER that enable people to live full and productive lives, or provide information to those in the local community to help themselves and to support and protect their communities.

About time these unsung heroes got a reputation upgrade.



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