Scottish Prison Statistics

The Scottish Government have released data for 2009-10 on the Scottish Prison Population including information on admissions by gender, age, ethnicity and length of sentence.
Scottish Government. (2010). Prison statistics Scotland: 2009-10.

New Scottish documents

Scottish Government (2010). National Guidance for child Protection in Scotland. These new guidelines provide a framework for practitioners and agencies working to safeguard children. These replace the guidelines published in 1998, Protecting Children - a shared responsibility.
MacLeod, P. & Page, L. (2010). 2009/10 Scottish crime and justice survey: partner abuse. Scottish Government. This information in this report was collected as part of the general Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.
Laing, K. & Wilson, G. (2010). Understanding child contact cases in Scottish Sherriff Courts. Scottish Government. This research commissioned by the Scottish Government, examines the court's role in contested contact cases, the characteristics of  parents and their reasons for undertaking court action and whether the views children in such cases are considered by the courts and parents involved.

New Scottish Government E-documents

The following e-documents have been added to the catalogue with links:
National Health Service Scotland (2010). Health in Scotland 2009: time for change.
Scottish Government (2010). Tackling child poverty in Scotland: a discussion paper.
Landy, R., Walsh, D. & Ramsey, J. (2010). The Scottish Health Survey: the Glasgow effect.
Page, L. (2010). 2009/10 Scottish crime and justice survey: main findings.
Fraser, A. (2010). Youth violence in Scotland: literature review.
Scottish government. (2010). Refreshing the national strategy and action plan to prevent suicide in Scotland: report of the National Suicide Prevention Group.
Scotland. Communities Analytical services. (2010). Domestic abuse, housing and homelessness in Scotland: an evidence review.
Scottish Government. (2010). An assessment of the development of telecare in Scotland 2006-2010.

On Care knowledge - Scottish Reports

The Scottish Government have published this years MAPPA, Multi Agency Public Protection annual reports, one for each of the Scottish Criminal Justice Authorities. The reports offer statistics on the number of offenders being managed and also detail what arrangements are made in each community to manage offenders who pose a risk to the public. The reports have been collected together by CareKnowledge for convenient viewing.

Also on Careknowledge: Landy, R., Walsh, D. & Ramsey, J. (2010). The Scottish Health Survey: the Glasgow effect. Scottish Goverment. This examines health inequalities in relation to socio-economic factors.

Baby P - What would you have done?

Following the publication of the second serious case review, in this week's Community Care (11 Nov 2010), Perdeep Gill reviews the options the workers on the case faced at each stage. Community Care can be found at Jordanhill Serials 362, and is also available electronically via Suprimo.

Community Payback Orders in Scotland

Community Payback orders effectively replace Community Service Orders, Probation Orders and Supervised Attendance Orders. Read more in:
 McNeill, F. (2010). Community payback and the new national standards for criminal justice social work. Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.
This report was highlighted by the Carekowledge Service.

Care Quality Commission on the Mental Health Act

The Care Quality Commission have published Monitoring the Use of the Mental Health Act in 2009/2010. This includes a detailed survey of Community Treatment Orders, which are now being used at 10 times the rate anticipated at the time the legislation was introduced. Dame Jo Willams, chair of the Commission, has expressed her concern in the Guardian, 27 October. the report also cites examples of poor practice which infringes the human rights and dignity of mental health patients.

National Adoption Week

November 1st - 7th is National Adoption Week as championed by BAAF. Find out more about the BAAF campaign. A newly adopting parent is also writing a blog on the Guardian web pages: Daddy's adoption stories.

Looked after children

SCIE and NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence - an arm of the NHS) have produced a guidance document : Promoting the quality of life of looked-after children and young people, which calls for health social care and educational institutions to address the need for inprovement in the quality of life of looked after young people, who currently suffer poored mental and physical health and educational outcomes than children who are not in the care system. More information can be found on the SCIE website.

Children's perceptions of children's hearings

This months British Journal of Social Work carries the following articles:

Woolfson, R., Heffernan, P., Paul. M. & Brown, M. (2010). Young people's views of the child protection system in Scotland. British Journal of Social Work. 40 (7), pp. 2069-2085.

Social work drama

BBC Radio 3 are presenting a play, Natural Born Caretakers, by Sarah Daniels based around the work of a social work team on a child protection investigation. BBC 3, Sunday 8pm.

This week on CareKnowledge

Shisheva, M. (2010). Maintaining family unity throughout the asylum support system in policy and practice. Scottish Refugee Council. This report focuses on those families who arrived in the UK seperately or who formed relationships after arrival in the UK and examines the difficulties in maintaining family unity and protecting childrens' interests in the face of current UK asylum policy.

Drugs Issue

This weeks Community Care, dated 14th October 2010, is a special issue on social workers' needs for knowledge on drug misuse and the future of treatment. Substance misuse was found to be a factor in 25% of child deaths examined by Ofsted in the period 2008-2009, yet substance misuse is not a compulsory part of many social work courses. Community Care magazine can be found at Serials 362 in Jordanhill Library.

Drug Knowledge Quiz

With increasing demand that social workers should receive more training on the symptoms of drug misuse, Community Care's blog carries a drug awareness quiz. Test you knowledge here. Community Care journal is available online via our catalogue or in print at Jordanhill Serials 362.

Telecare report

Perry, J., Beyer, S., Francis, J and Holmes, P. (2010). Ethical issues in the use of telecare. Social Care Institute for Excellence.

Serious Case Reviews

This week sees the publication of new reports on Serious Case Reviews, in which the authors have attempted to collate information form several years of serious case reviews, carried out in England in cases where a child has died from abuse or neglect:

Sidebotham. P. et al (2010). Learning from serious case reviews: report of a research study on the methods of learning lessons nationally from serious case reviews. Department for Education.

Brandon, M., Bailey, S. & Belderson, P. (2010). Building on the learning from serious case reviews: a two year analysis of child protection database notifications 2007-2009. Department for Education.

Integrated Care in Lanarkshire

Hendry, A. (2010). Lanarkshire's managed care network: an integrated improvement collaboration. Journal of Integrated Care. 18 (3) pp. 45-51. This journal is available via CareKnowledge. The Lanarkshire service encompasses health, social care and housing, to improve service delivery to older people.

New SCIE student page

SCIE - Social Care Institute for Excellence - has a new student page with the latest information and guidance for students of social work. See the new page here. SCIE carries a lot of useful information on social care and social work, assessment and personalisation.

New Scottish Executive E-documents

Link to the documents below have also been added to our Suprimo catalogue - just search for them in the usual way:
McVie, s. (2010). Gang membership and knife carrying: findings from the edinburgh study of youth transitions and crime. Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.

Social Work Inspection Agency. (2010). Guide to leadership: taking a closer look at leadership in social work services.

Maltreatment in Foster Care

University of York Social Policy Unit, in conjuction with the Fostering Network, have published the following paper:
Biehal, N. & Parry, E. (2010). Maltreatment and allegations of maltreatment in foster care: a review of the evidence. This paper is available via Care Knowledge.

New E-documents on safeguarding children

Mariathasan, J & Hutchinson, D. (2010). Children talking to childline about parental alcohol and drug misuse. Childline/NSPCC.
Atkinson, M., Lamont, E. & Wright, B. (2010). The role of primary mental health workers in education. NFER.
Hicks, L. & Stein, M. (2010). Neglect matters: a multi-agency guide for professionals working together on behalf of teenagers. DCSF.
Rees, G. et al. (2010). Safeguarding young people: responding to young people ages 11to 17 who are maltreated. Children's Society.

Adult Care Leavers Speak Out

Duncalf, Z. (2010). Listen up!: adult care leavers speak out: the views of 310 care leavers aged 17-78. Care Leavers Association. Zachari Duncalf's reports on the experiences of care leavers across the lifespan. Duncalf's report surprises by revealing that more care leavers reported residential care as a positive experience than viewed foster care as positive. Also, care leavers, while often perceived as under achieving educationally, frequently returned to education in later years to gain qualifications.

Children in custody

Jacobson, J. (2010). Punishing disadvantage: a profile of children in custody. Prison Reform Trust. This is the first in-depth analysis of custodial sentencing of children to be carried out since 1984. The authors found that young people finding their way into custody had suffered  a combination of disadvantagous circumstances eg, bereavement, absent parents, being looked after by the state, poverty and self harm. They further found that the 75% increase in custodial sentencing of children since 1992 is not due to increases in offending but in a widening in the types of offences which might lead to incarceration eg for the repetition of minor offences or the breaching of ASBOS. See also The Guardian, 15 september, 2010.

Knife carrying in Scotland

A new research report, Bannister, J, et al, (2010). Troublesome youth groups, gangs and knife carrying in Scotland. Scottish Government Social Research, provides new evidence on youth gangs, the prevalence of knife carrying and gang related violence, and offers recommendations for strategies to reduce such offending, based on evidence collected in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and West Dunbartonshire.

Mental Health

The National Mental Health Development Unit has been publishing a series of well referenced fact files, on mental health. this Department of Health (England) site has searchable resources acrossa  spectrum of mental health topics.

This week on Careknowledge

Report:
Audit Scotland. (2010). Getting it right for children in residential childcare. Examines how effectively councils use their resources for looked after children and improvements which could be made.
Journal Article:
Reece, A. (2010). Leading the change from adult protection to safeguarding adults: more than just semantics. journal of Adult Protection 12 (3), pp. 30-34.  Reece argues that a change in practice and focus is required to improve the life chances of disabled adults.

Discrimination in youth justice

May, T., Gyateng, T. and Hough, M. (2010). Ethnic minority young people: differential treatment in the youth justice system. Institute for Criminal Policy Research. This study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, investigates the causes and extent of differential treatment in the youth justice system including the over representation of Black Carribean and Black African groups, the differential inflows caused by policing and how the youth justice system responds to different ethnic groups.

National Archive opens online for Poor Law Research

More than 115 000 web pages on Victorian workhouses and the poor law, covering England and Wales, are now available for free thanks to the National Archive. Dr Paul Carter, Project Director and Principal Modern Records Specialist at The National Archives said: 'The importance of this series of records cannot be overestimated.'The records cover all aspects of poor relief, but also cover matters such as opposition to the workhouse system, industrial strikes, Chartism, wages, treatment of children and much more. They are essential for any study of Victorian life.'

In Careknowledge this month

This months CareKnowledge brings us a link to a report by the Care Commission: The physical health of young people in residential care: Are services meeting the standards?, Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care, (2010). 
Also available is a report for the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre: Statham, J. and Chase, E. (2010).  Childhood Wellbeing: a brief overview.
Careknowledge is a very useful source bringing together reports relevant to social work and social care, as well as giving exclusive access to a collection of social work journals including The Mental Health Review Journal, The Journal of Adult Protection  and The Journal of Children's Services.

Social Care Researching

SCIE have published Bibliographical Databases for Social Care Searching, J. Clapton, 2010, a report on the use of bibliographic databases, coverage and strategies, for researching in the field of social care. Among others the report recommends Social Care Online, Child Data, Psychinfo and Applied Social Science Information and Abstracts (ASSIA), all of which are available via our Social Work Electronic Services page. The report recommends search coverage of a minimum of eight databases to ensure in depth research. Our Articles and Search on the Suprimo Catalogue page, can help you with this, and you can now compile customised bundle of databases to cross search using the Find Databases function. Ask at the library enquiry desk for further help.

Fostering in crisis

A report published recently by the Fostering Network, Clark, H. (2010). Bursting at the Seams, highlights the crisis in fostering preciptated by the unprecedented rise in the number of children in need of foster placement in the wake of the baby Peter Connolly case. BBC Newsnight, August 4 also reported on the issue. Charity Barnardos claimed today that govenment data shows that children in England and Wales can wait up to 65 weeks for court decisions on whether they should be permanantly taken into care, leaving children vunerable in family homes or in unstable temporary foster placements. the problem has been exacerbated by the husge rise in cases and the declining status of social workers which has seen courts call for more independant assessments, rather than trust the judgement of social workers involved on the ground. See Guardian August 9, 2010.

New report on public services

Buddery, P. et al (2010). Equality cohesion and public services. 2020 Public Services Trust. The Commission on 2020 Public Services was established by the 2020 Public Services Trust to make recommendations on the possiblilites for public service reform which enables greater progress on inequality in the face of financial constraint.

Children on the front line of UK Border Control

Safe at last? : children on the front line of UK Border control (2010), published by Refugee and Migrant Justice outlines the alleged inhumane and illegal experiences of unaccompanied children at the hands UK Border Control Agency, on entering the UK, and the new Statutory duty of the agency to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Recent E-documents

Department for Children, Schools and Families (2010). Use of force guidance: short summary. This is primarily aimed at teachers but may have relivence for residential settings.
Neil, E. et al (2010). Supporting post adoption contact in complex cases. Department for Children, Schools and Families. From the research brief series. A fuller report will be published by BAAF.
Farmer, E. (2010). An investigation of family finding and matching in adoption - briefing paper. Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Facebook and post adoption contact

The Guardian, June 19 carried an interesting article on Facebook and the challenges which social networking sites present in social work in adoption and fostering. The task of tracing birth parents or birth children has been made much easier for the parties in adoption and has led to a huge increase in unmediated contact between birth parents and children. BAAF are also publishing a new guide Facing up to Facebook: a survival guide for adoptive families.

New Government - new review of social work in the England

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education has engaged Professor Eileen Munro of the LSE to conduct an Independent Review of Child Protection in England. Michale Gove's letter outlines the scope of the review in the areas of early intervention, empowering and supporting front line social workers and maximising transparency and accountability. Following the commissioning of the review Professor Munro stated in a BBC radio interview that she favoured a team approach as modelled in Hackney, where decisions and responsibilities for an individual case were shoulderd by a group of professionals, with administrative work on cases being performed by an administrative worker on the team, leaving social workers with more time to spend on home visits. BASW have commented favourably on Professor Munro's appointment. See also Guardian, June 10.

Professor Munro recently had published the article "Learning to reduce risk in child protection", British Journal of Social Work 40(4), pp. 1135-1151.

Another reform will see the full publication of Serious Case Reviews, starting with the two Peter Connolly reviews. See BASW.

Poverty in the UK

The new UK Government has published its State of the nation report: poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK (2010), Cabinet Office.
Scottish executive have also published on poverty this week. Growing up in Scotland is a longitudinal study funded by the Scottish govenment and carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research:
Growing up in Scotland: the circumstances of persistently poor children summary report.
Further information on the Growing up in Scotland study and further research findings can be found at the Growing Up in Scotland website

Support worker wins Orwell Prize

An anonymous social work blogger who writes Winston Smith - working with the underclass, has won the 2010 Orwell Prize for political writing, in the best blog category. The blog details his experiences of working in supported accomodation with teenagers and his frustrations with managers, policy and practice in social services.

Children's Hearings and the European Convention on Human Rights

Douglas Bulloch, Retiring Chairman of the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, has described the European Convention on Human Rights as the "biggest challenge" facing the Childlrens Panel system. The panel system my conflict with the convention in the area of the right to a "fair tribunal", and the current situation, where children and parents do not have direct legal representation, is in conflict with this. Read more in the Herald, May 16, 2010.

Mental health on BBC4

BBC 4 are screening a themed mental health night on monday 17th May. Progammes include Mental: a history of the madhouse, which focuses on High Royds near Leeds, a large long stay mental hospital and Sectioned, which follows three men through their experiences of compulsory treatment.

SCIE learning objects

SCIE provides a number of E-learning resources including Communication Skills, Law and Social work, and An Introduction to Residential Care.

Two new E-documents

Shaw, C. (2010). Research into private fostering. Department for Children Schools and Families. This research aimed to collect information into the practices and procedures of local authorities in relation to private fostering arrangements and to improve the understanding of the needs of privately fostered children, especially in regard to safeguarding issues.

Hart, D. (2010). Children and young people in breach: a scoping report on policy and practice in the enforcement of criminal justice and anti-social behaviour orders. NCB. This research is the first phase of a project undertaken by NCB to increase understanding of policy and practice in relation to breach proceedings, wih particular focus on young people who are incarcerated as a result of breach of bail conditions or ASBOs.

Scottish Executive Consulation

The Scottish executive have issued Draft National Guidance: under-age sexual activity - meeting the needs of young people and identifying child protection concerns, for consulation. responses to the consultation should be submitted by 23.7.10.

Evidence Informed Practice Portal

A new link to the Evidence Informed Practice Portal is now available on the Jordanhill Social Work electronic resources web page. The Evidence Informed Practice Portal is provided by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services and brings together key evidence sources, new research, current awareness links from many respected organisations and the Confidence Though Evidence Toolkit to enable practitioners to acquire, assess, adapt and apply evidence in practice.

Looked after children

Groves, J. (2010). No place like home: improving adoption services in England. Policy Exchange. Groves examines the true comparative costs of local autorities using Voluntary Adoption Agencies or local authority services and urges greater cooperation and planning between local authorities and voluntary agencies.
Walker, J. et al. (2010). Care matters: budget holding lead professionals (BHLPs) with looked after chidlren in England. Department for Children, Schools and Families. A multi-disciplinary team from Newcastle university evaluates budget holding pilots with looked after children.

British Journal of Social Work

The latest issue of the British Journal of Social Work, April 2010 Volume 40, no. 3 is now available on line via the library catalogue. This months articles include:
Selwyn, J. (2010). The views of young people on being cared for by an independent foster-care provider.
Parker, J. (2010). When things go wrong! Placement disruption and termination: power and student perspectives.
Glavani, S. (2010). Working with alcohol and drug use: exploring the knowledge and attitudes of social work students.

Anti-social behaviour

Policy Exchange have published A State of Disorder: moving beyond the ASBO in tackling anti-social behaviour. The report critical of government policy on anti-social behaviour, ASBOs and the lack of state research on their efficacy. Author Max Chambers urges the use of evidence based approaches and proven interventions such as early intervention and Family Intervention Projects.

Court Appearances

This weeks Community Care (15 April 2010, pp. 16-17) gives advice for social workers inexperienced in giving evidence in court. find it at Jordanhill Serials 362.

New publications form the Department for children, Schools and Families

Farmer, E. & Lutman, E. (2010). Case management and outcomes for neglected children returned to their parents: a five-year follow up study. Department for children, Scools and Families research Brief 214. Key findings of this study include that there is a tendency over a long period of time of intervention for abuse and neglect to be minimised in reporting leading to insufficient action to protect children; that outcomes were much better for younger children, for whom intervention tends to be more proactive, and that in two fifths of cases children were not adequately safeguarded, often because of over-optimistic views of the possibility of parental change.
Carpenter, J. et al (2010). Outcomes of inter-agency training to safeguard children: final report to the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health. This study examines the evidence base for inter-agency training and. assesses the efficacy of training in safeguarding children.

Department for Children, Schools and Families (2010). Parenting and Family Support: guidance for local authorities in England. Non-statutory guidance for service commsioners, managers and decsion makers.
Langer, S. et al (2010). A report on themes emerging from qualitative research into the impact of short break provision on families with disabled children. DCSF research report conducted by the Centre for Disability research, Lancaster University.
Robertson, J. et al (2010). The impacts of short break provision on disabled children and families: an international literature review. DCFS Research report 222

Funding for care

March saw the publication of the govenment white paper "Building the national care service" and a great deal of public debate about the future funding of social care, particularily elderly care.
See also two Viewpoint documents published by the Joseph Rowntree foundation:
Hirsch, D. & Spiers, P. (2010). Funding care: how can each generation pay it's fare share?
Beresford, P. (2010). Funding social care: what service users say?

Supporting young people

A Scottish Government funded scheme designed to tackle offending behaviour of young people is being piloted in Aberdeen and will be rolled out further, beginning in the Central Belt. Under the schemeYoung people up to the age of 18 are screened by a multi-agency group within a week of being apprehended and referred directly to support services. See Herald, April 5, 2010.

Department for children, Schools and Families (2010). Safeguarding children and young people who may be affected by gang activity. Guidance for frontline practioners in social care, probation, health and education on the nature of risk posed by gang activity, including violence, sexual exploitation and extremism, signs of  gang involvement and guidance on dealing with gang involvement.

Safeguarding Children

Singleton, R. (2010). The chief Advisor on the Safety of children: first annual report to Parliament 2010. Outlines the changing environment in which safeguarding professionals are working, the increased demand for services and concerns from the sector.
Depatment for children, Schools and Families (2010). Working together to safeguard children: a guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Covers statutory guidanceand non-statutory practice guidance for agents working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in accordance with the Chidlren Act 1989 and the chidlren Act 2004.

New E-publications

Action For Children (2010). Deprivation and risk: the case for early intervention. In three sections: policy analysis, life stories and a summary of effective practice in tackling child deprivation.
Statham, J. & Smith, M. (2010). Issues in earlier intervention: identifying and supporting children with additional needs. Department for Children, Schools and Families. Focuses on two broad types of need: the risk of abuse or neglect and the risk of emotional/behavioural/mental health difficulties.
Walker, J. et al. (2010). Relationships matter: understanding the needs of adults (particularily parents) regarding relationship support. Department for Children, Schools and Families. A qualitative study designed to inform policy formulated to support relationships between parents, in order to minimise the risks, for children, associated with parental separation.
Department for Children, Schools and Families. (2010). Building a safe and confident future: implementing the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force. A joint policy implementation plan from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department of Health and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in partnership with the Social Work Reform Board.
DCSF Violence Agains Women and Girls Advisory Group. (2010). Advisory Group final report and recommendations. this group was set up to advise ministers on how schools can help to tackle the issue of violence against women and girls.
May, T. et al. (2010). Differential treatment in the youth justice system. Equality and Human Rights Commission. Examines the inequlity of treatment of different ethnic groups by the youth justice system.

Sexualisation of young people

Papadopoulos, L. (2010) Sexualisation of young people review. Published by the home office. Papadopoulos examines the current state of affairs folowing a review of literature, media and research with those working with and foryoung people, and makes recommendations.

Literature review of attitudes towards violent extremism amongst Muslim communities in the UK

Research conducted by S. Sheikh et al, for The Department for Communities and Local Government. The report concludes that here are major gaps in the availablility of quality research data on the subject and inconsistencies in terminology used around the subject of violent extremism. The authors make recommendations that future research should involve muslims in the design and delivery and point out that muslim communities seek to be actively involved in any work which challenges those who support violent extremism.

The Norway town that forgave it's child killers.

Some years ago I read about the case of the murder of five year old Silje Redergard by two young boys, no doubt in comparison to the media frenzy surrounding the trial, in an adult court, of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson for the murder of James Bulger. Given the recent media coverage of Jon Venables readmission to custody following alleged breaches of licence, it seems pertinent again to compare the treatment of children committing the most serious of crimes in this country, where the tabloid press excert such power in public opinion and can influence the actions of the home secretary, with the Norwegian case. See Guardian, March 20, 2010.

Social Work Education

Raising Standards: social work education in england 2007-08 published by the General Social Care Council, should be of interest ot everyone involved in the education and training of social workers, particularily in the wake of the "Baby P" case and the government Social Work Taskforce review. The author's maintain that it is important that employers and other stakeholders have realistic view of the readiness of newly qualified social workwers to under take the complex task of social work.

Teenage mothers access to education

In Not The End Of The Story: supporting teenage mothers back into education, Jane Evans and Martha Slowely assert that schools act to  unofficially exclude young mothers from education for spurious "health and safety" reasons, further damaging the life chances of mothers and their children who may already have had poor experiences of schooling prior to pregnancy.

Improving Social Work in Scotland

12th of March saw the publication of the Social Work Inspection Agency's overview of inspections in scotland from 2005-2009, Improving Social Work in Scotland. While inspections generally found social work services to be of good standard, reliable and improving, there are some areas of concern. In the area of supervision and management of violent offenders, inspectors found plans failing to focus on risk management and confusion among social work staff as to whether their role was to prevent reconviction or to protect the public from violent offenders. There were also concerns about the ability of services for older people and children to meet the growing demand for services. See also the Herald report, March 12.

Mental Health Recovery Star

Imonloro, O. (2010). A guiding star: Onyemaechi Imonioro from the Mental Health Providers Forum explains the mental health recovery star, due to be implemented across five strategic health authorities. Mental Health Today. March 2010, pp. 28-29.
The mental health recovery star is an outcome measurement and key working tool, which is useful in delivering services, within the personalisation agenda, to adults with mental health needs.

Residential Childcare Network

A new networking website, Residential Child Care Network, has been set up by Gareth Wall, a registered child care manager, as a forum for information and practice sharing on all aspects of residential child care.

New technology in adult care

Community Care (Jordanhill Serials 362), 4th March 2010, carries two articles on new technology in adult care:
Pitt, V. (2010). Tagging and the freedom of movement -  on the use of GPS technology to track the movements of people with dementia.
Valios, N. (2010). Going techno in the house - on the benefits of telecare devices, as used in North Yorkshire services.

Escaping poverty

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have published two papers:
McQuaid, R. (2010). How can parents escape from recurrent poverty? on the low pay/no pay cycle, and
Ray, K. (2010). Better off working? : work poverty and benefit cycling.

College of Social Work referendum

The British Association of Social Workers is holding a referendum of its members, to garner support for the establishment of a professional College of Social Work, independant of plans being drawn up by the Social Work Reform Board, reflecting BASW disillusionment with what it sees as an England-centric model, too closely tied to government and lacking the independence necessary to transform standards, empower and promote social work as a profession to the media and public. The ballot will be concluded by the end of April.

The real cost of imprisoning young people

In the report Punishing Costs, (2010), A. Knuutila of The New economic Foundation has called for a huge reduction in the number of young people locked up for offending, and the £100 000 annual cost per offender to be redirected to local authorities in programmes designed to reduce offending and create a safer, more inclusive society.

This weeks highlights on Careknowledge

On Careknowledge this week:
Children's hearings - the new bill
The future of integrated care
Financial integration across health and social care: evidence review
Access new reports in addtion to E-journal titles such as Quality in Aging and Tizard Learning Disability Review via Careknowledge.

Khyra Ishaq

The full text of statement by the chair of the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board following their review of operational practice, in the wake of the death of Khyra Ishaq, can be read here, courtesy of the Guardian, February 25, 2010.

Nature builds resilience

Harrison, T., (2010). Lessons from the natural world. Special Children, Feb/March 2010, pp. 18-20. Harrison is one of a team from Camphill School, Aberdeen, running the Nature Nurture project, which aims to build the resilience of young children from families affected by alcohol/substance misuse, poverty or domestic violence, though play in the natural world. Find it at Jordanhill serials 371.9.

Children looked after statistics 2008-2009

This statistical report has been published online by the Scottish Executive, collating for returns for each individual looked after child, for the first time, from all 32 authorities.

Social work after Baby P

Eleanor Brazil, working as interim deputy director of social work in Haringey Council explains how change has been implemented to rebuild confidence since the Baby P scandal. See Guardian February 24, 2010. Changes included establishing multi-agency teams, staff recruitment and reorganisation of referral and assessement processes.
A poll carried out by the General Social Care Council has found that most social workers beleive that newly social workers lack key skills in risk assessment vital to ensuring the safety of children and vulnerable adults. Respondents backed the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force, that  an assessed year in employemet post training is essential to building a confident and experienced workforce.

Localism & employee stakeholding in public services

Today NESTA (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts) publish a report, Blond, P. (2010). The ownership state: restoring excellence, innovation and ethos to the public services. This document advocates the restrucuring of public services, with radical flattening of managment structures and power and decision making devolved downwards to those with an intimate knowledge of the front line delivery of services. See also Guardian February 23, 2010 on how this new model has enabled greater localism and social enterprises to deliver community and health improvement.

Forced Child migration

This week Gordon Brown will formally apologise on behalf of the British state for the forced migration of children, some orphaned, but many separated from their parents for social or economic reasons, to former Brtiish colonies in a period which ended as recently as 1967. An article in the Guardian, February 20, 2010 looks a the work of the Child Migrants' Trust, which offers suport to the victims of forced migration.

Mental health services for looked after children

Ofsted have published a report, An Evaluation of the provision of mental health services for looked after young popel over the age of 16 accomodated in residential settings. The report draws on visits to 27 children's homes across 8 local authorities.

Social Care Institute for Excellence

SCIE continue their series of personalisation papers with At a Glance 21: personalisation briefing: implications for people with autistic spectrum conditions and their family carers.

Arrest and Detention of Children Subject to Immigration Control

The Children's Commissioner for England yesterday released a follow up report detailing concerns over the treatment of children during arrest and transportation procedures leading to detention and the failure of the UK Border agency to ensure that adequate measures are in place to access the psychological well being of the 1000 children detained each year at Yarls Wood detention centre.
You can add your name to the petition to the UK government calling for the end to detention of children in immigration centres.

Teenage relationship abuse

The GB Home Office is launching a national campaign to tackle abuse within teenage relationships, with a new website with information and resources for teenagers, parents and professionals.

This week in CareKnowledge

Weaver, b. (2010). Multi agency protection arrangements (MAPPA): what do the statistics tell us? Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.
Scottish Executive (2010). Criminal Justice Social work Statistics. Information probation orders, social enquiry reports and community service orders in 2008/9.

Teenage parenthood

A new study, Duncan ,S. (2010) "Teenage parenthood: what's the problem", makes the case that parenthood can be an encouragement for young people to imrove their lives and is not in itself a cause of poor outcomes for mothers or their children. See Guardian February 13, 2010. The study argues against the labelling, by politicians,of teenage parenthood as a social evil, and calls for more attention to be directed towards social and economic disadvantage rather than specific policies targeting teenage pregnancy.

Resilience in the early years.

The latest edition of Nursery World includes an article on how early years practiioners can help young children lving with domestic violence. Stephens, K (2010). Staying strong. February 11, 2010, pp. 24-25.

New E-documents

Speight, S. et al. (2010). Families experiencing multiple disadvantage: their use of and views on childcare provision. National Centre for Social Research.
Silvestra, A. (2009). Young people, knives and guns: a comprehensive review, analysis and critique of gun and knife crime strategies. Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
Stanley, N. et al. (2010). Children and families experiencing domestic violence: police and childrens' social services' responses. NSPCC.
Loureiro, T. & Fellow, L. (2009). Child and family impact assessments in court: implications for policy and practice. Families Outside.
Centre for Social Justice. (2010). Green paper on the family. Centre for Social Justice.
Ministry of Justice. Reducing re-offending: supporting families, creating better futures.
Esley, S. (2010). "Advocacy makes you feel brave": advocacy support for children and young people in Scotland. Scottish Parliament.

Long Term Care Policies in the UK

Bell, D. (2010)The Impact of Devolution: long term care provision in the UK, published by the Joseph Rowntree foundation.

Social workers secure a huge reduction in child deaths

Research carried out by Professor Colin Prichard of  Bournemouth University, which will be published later this year in the British Journal of Social Work, has found a 38% drop in violent and unexplained child deaths between 1974 and 2006, due to better monitoring by social workers and improved inter-agency working. The BASW chief executive welcomed the findings as a "tribute to the dedication of thousands of unsung - in fact often reviled heroines an heroes.

Adoption - using VAAs and kinship care detectives in the USA

A recent report published by the Policy Exchange, Groves, J. No Place Like Home: improving adoption services in England, asserts that the life chances of looked after children are being affected by local authority decisions not to use Voluntary Adoption Agencies, which they perceive as being more expensive than seeking placement via their own or other local authority services. In addition to this, permanent placments are being delayed as the annual cost of fostering is lower than the one-off cost of an adoption, with local authorities making decsions based on short term budgetary considerations. See also Guardian, January 31, 2010.
Across the Altantic in St. Louis, the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition uses detective work to seek kinship carers for children in foster care, who are in desperate need of family ties. New York times January 30, 2010.

Child Poverty in Scotland

240 000 children in Scotland are living in poverty, with 90 000 children living in families where there isn't enough money to provide essentials like winter clothing and decent food. See Save the Children Scotland for briefings on severe child poverty and the impact of poverty on education. See also BBC Scotland for their coverage from January 26, 2010.

Who Care's Scotland - anti -stigma campaign

Youing people in care in Scotland chose tackling the stigma associated with being in care as their number one priority in a Who Care's consulation - hence the launch of the 'Give me a chance' campaign. See BBC Scotland for further reportage.

Intute - internet social worker

The Intute gateway for social sciences offers a free online research tutorial for university students at Internet Social Worker.

NHS choices Alzeimer's video.

NHS Choices have posted a large collection of videos on health care and caring on YouTube, including this one on Alzeimer's care.

Palliative Care

In a week which has seen much coverage of "mercy killing" court cases and proposed right-to-die legislation in Scotland, reportage by those working in palliative care offers another perspective. See  A Tradition of Excellence in Palliative Care, Financial Times, 22 January 2010.

Building user & carer involvement in social work education

This At A Glance publication from SCIE aims to provide help with the mandatory requirement for Higher Education Institiutions offering the social work degree, to consult with service users and carers to ensure that their needs and opinions are reflected in the design and development of courses.

In CareKnowledge this week

Children's Hearings and the love that binds - transcript of the 9th annual Kilbrandon Lecture by professor Kathleen Marshall.
The societal cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland for 2007: research conducted for the Scottish government by the University of York.
Universalism and personalisation,G. Wistow (2009), Housing Care and Support, 12 (4).

Doncaster social services criticised re grevious bodily harm case

Social services in Doncaster have been criticised in a leaked report by the Safeguarding Children Board with regards to the case of two brothers in foster care, then aged 10 and 11, who seriously and sexually assaulted two other young boys. The board stated that the brothers had been failed by nine seperate agencies, who had missed more than 30 opportunies to intervene in their lives before the assaults took place. The boys will be sentenced later this week. BBC Newsnight January 18, 2009.

Child protection - a police officer's account

"Baby X", Detective Seargant Harry Keeble's account of working for Hackney Child Protection is published this week.  An article about hs experiences, "How can a child be beaten to death, yet no one is jailed for murder" appeared in the Observer 17 January.

In Children and Young People Now this week.

The 12-18th January issue of Children and Young People Now (Jordanhill Serials 362.7) carries articles on a fathers' support group and  family drug courts. The Child Right section focuses on protection from forced marriage and age assessments for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

Why refugees come to the Uk.

Independent research conducted for the Refugee Council reveals that refugees have little or no choice over which country they come to to seek asylum and many did not know their destination, had no expectation of financial support and had the primary objective of seeking safety. See the research report and press release.

Men who pay for sex

Men who buy sex: who they buy and what they know. (2009). London. Eaves. The respondents in this study describe their patterns of use of the services of prostitutes, their awareness of violence and coersion and their attitudes to legal sanctions and enforcement. This is part of an international study. See also co-author Jullie Bindel in Guardian January 15, 2010.

Haiti Earthquake appeal for funds

Possibly the easiest way for UK residents to give aid to survivors of the Haiti earthquake is via the Disasters Emergency Committee, which is coordinating collections on behalf of 13 major UK aid organisations. Give via tinyurl.com/yh28dtg or phone 03706060900.

Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment

The House of Commons Justice Committee first report, Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment examines the current situation where, under successive governments, the UK prison population has risen, and the failure to address the causes of the increase, including media and public opinion, politicisation of the criminal justice system and the failure of agencies outside the criminal justice system to effectively reduce the numbers of people entering the criminal justice system. See also coverage in the Guardian January 15 2009.

Managing Performance

Social Work Inspection Agency. (2009). Guide to managing and improving performance: taking a closer look at managing and improving performance in social work services. Published by the Scottish Executive following consultation with six Scottish local authorities.

Recent e-documents

Risky behaviour and social activites (2009), research report from the Department for Children Schools and Families.
Provision of mental health services to care leavers (2009), published by NFER and the Local Government Association.
Increasing the number of care leavers in 'settled, safe accomodation' (2009), by the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services.
Children's care monitor 2009 Children on the state of social care in England, reported by the Children's rights Director for England.
Children talking to Childline about sexual abuse (2009). Childline case Notes, NSPCC.
The chance of a lifetime: preventing early conduct problems and reducing crime (2009), Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
Family life: the significance of family to homeless young people (2009). J Monford, Centrepoint.

Accomodation for Runaways

Rees, G. et al (2009)Commissioning, Delivery and Perceptions of Emergency Accomodation for Young Runaways, Dept for Children, Schools and Families is a research report by members of the Children's Society and the Social Policy Unit at the University of York. The scope of the report includes England, Scotland and Wales.

Forced Marriage - the role of social services.

One Year On: the initial impact of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 in its first year of operation. The act has been used to protect women and girls ranging widely in age from 9 to 35 years, with 86 Forced Mariage Protection Orders being issue in the first year of operation. Unfortunately, in this report social work departments have come in for some criticism, with some local authorities being slow to make use of orders and their potential for integration with child protection procedures. See also Guardian The Times, both 8 January 2009.

Child Mental Health

Following the independent review of CAMHS sevices, the final report of which was published in November 2008, the Westminster government have published a response paper, Keeping Children and Young People in Mind.

Highlights from Careknowledge this week

Care knowledge brings together 11 social work journals and useful reports from a variety of sources. This weeks reports include A Recipe for Abuse, a Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland investigation into the care and treatment of a supported landlord scheme; What are we learning about protecting children in the community?, a Save the Children Report; and Risky People or Risky Societies? : rethinking interventions for young people in transition, from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.

Airport body scanning of children illegal?

The introduction, on a trial basis of body scanners at airports has provoked child welfare campaigners to inform Manchester Airport management that the scanning of persons under eighteen would constitute an offence, in that it would create indecent images of children. See report and comment in the Guardian January 4, 2010.

Keeping In Touch

Keeping in Touch is a new report from the Children's Rights Director for England, which presents the views of 370 looked after children, with regard to keeping in touch, or choosing not to keep in touch with birth family members and friends.