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.