In an on-going series of blogs, Birmingham’s new head of Children’s Social Care Colin Tucker talks from the frontline.
Part of our recovery does depend on increasing the self-esteem of social workers and improving their reputation and I was mindful of this earlier today in looking at how we improve our training arrangements with the universities (for post and pre-qualification courses) and in responding to a local MP.
I reflect on the fact that for the last decade there does seem to have been a real focus on blaming social workers for child deaths rather than trying to create the conditions to learn from the death of children and achieving a more collective sense of responsibility – ie one that involves senior managers, politicians and other agencies outside of the Council.
Unlike the aviation industry which has long resisted blaming pilots but rather has sought to understand mistakes in their broad context. Not sure the MP wants to hear this!
This afternoon we are drafting our budget strategy and this is a reminder of the difficult position we are in. On the one hand we have to make improvements and this does require some investment in training, additional staff at the front-line, improvements to carefirst 6 and acquiring much better accommodation, whilst at the same time spending less!
I am pushing ahead the move to Lifford House despite the fact we do not have a budget to pay for the refurbishment of the Selly Oak office nor the ongoing lease cost of Lifford – altogether a mere £250k per year! There is some political momentum built up around improving accommodation and I intend to make the most of this.
Related posts:
Accomodation for Social workers has been on the agenda for years and we are so pleased to hear its a priority for when we visit other directorates and compare their environments Social workers have had to endure poorer conditions.
The social work profession nationally faces challenges regarding recruitment and training and Birmingham has an oppurtunity to pioneer a framework and system by bringing together the univerities of the Midlands and developing a think tank to review what works and what does not. This has to be lead from the bottom up.
we are looking forward to moving to Lifford Lane and embracing a new way of working!!
You make a good point..we all need to look at the real issues and the wider picture instead of the continual ‘social worker bashing’ we encounter.