Debt-ridden social workers turning to payday loans

Growing numbers of social workers are falling into financial difficulty, with some resorting to high-interest payday loans, according to a support charity.

The Social Workers Benevolent Trust, established and supported by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), saw a 61% increase in social workers approaching it for help last year. A further significant rise is expected this year.

The trust believes the economic downturn, a reduction in staffing levels and a growing number of agency staff struggling to find enough work have all contributed to increasing levels of financial hardship.

The trust received 97 applications for assistance and made 63 grants in 2010-11, compared to 63 applications and 43 grants the previous financial year. The trust has already received 100 applications in 2011-12.

The trust’s chair Simon Cole said the use of payday loans was a relatively new phenomenon. “Some of these companies have an APR of 4,214%. These loans, often relatively small, when not repaid on the due date, can grow very quickly and often cause people’s overall situation to worsen. It is a cause for concern that social workers feel pressured to turn to the same loan providers they might caution their clients against using,” he added.

In response to the trend, BASW has launched a debt advice service which members can contact on 0800 652 1640.

Source: Community Care

Study highlights widespread discontent among children

Half a million children across the UK are unhappy with their lives, the latest report from The Children’s Society has estimated.

The charity, which carried out the research with 30,000 children aged eight to 16, is calling for a “radical new approach” to increase happiness levels among children.

The Good Childhood Report 2012 reveals that children who have low levels of happiness are less likely to enjoy spending time with their family and friends and are more prone to worry about the way they look, potentially leading to eating disorders and depression.

The report found stability is an important factor for children, with almost a quarter (23 per cent) of children who have moved home more than once over the past 12 months having low levels of wellbeing.

Elaine Hindal, The Children’s Society’s campaign for childhood director, said: “We are calling for a radical new approach to childhood, placing wellbeing at the heart of everything we do. We want our country to be the best place for our children to grow up. Yet unless we act now we risk becoming one of the worst and creating a lost future generation.”

The problem of inequality was also identified in the report with around a quarter of children saying they often worry about the way they look and “fit in” with their peers.

The report found bullying to be a major issue affecting wellbeing with 36 per cent of children bullied more than three times in the past three months significantly more likely to experience low levels of wellbeing compared to six per cent of children who had never been bullied.

The Children’s Society has now identified six key ingredients for a happy childhood:

• having the right conditions to learn and develop
• having a positive view of themselves
• experiencing what matters to them
• having a positive relationship with their family and friends
• living in a safe and suitable environment
• having the opportunities to participate in positive activities to help them thrive

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said the report should act as “a wake-up call to us all”.

“The moral test for any society is how it treats its most vulnerable, including children,” he said

Source: CYP Now

Military academies key to preventing repeat of last year’s riots, says think-tank

Schools run by the military should be introduced to tackle issues linked to last year’s riots, a think-tank has suggested.

A report by ResPublica calls for a partnership between the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Education to create a chain of academies in areas where there are high numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet).

Eventually the programme could be extended to all local authority areas with ResPublica suggesting that residents could petition for military academies to be opened.

“We believe that riot-hit areas will be among those neighbourhoods that will particularly benefit from this initiative,” the report states.

Military academies would create and teach from a unique curriculum, using expertise already existing in the Armed Forces.

The report states that academies would also be distinguished by their “whole person education” approach, emphasising the importance of “character formation”, and “high ethical standards and values”, besides more traditional and vocational skills.

It states that two-thirds of young people involved in last summer’s riots had some form of special educational need and more than a third had been excluded from school during 2009/10.

“Most obviously and straightforwardly, our proposal benefits the young who have grown up in deprived areas, both those who are talented and those who are troubled,” the report states.

However, the idea has already sparked controversy. Chris Keates, general secretary of the union NASUWT, said the report is based on a “cynical misuse and misrepresentation” of the causes of last summer’s riots.

“There is no evidence of either the widespread involvement of people from deprived, working-class communities in the riots or that they instigated them.

Source: CYP Now

“The proposal amounts to nothing more than the disgraceful, unjustified vilification of whole communities, promulgating the view that if you are poor and working class you must, therefore, be inclined to criminality and antisocial behaviour.”

Ten days’ notice on adoption inspections mooted

Adoption support agencies could be given just 10 days’ notice before an Ofsted inspection, rather than the current eight-week period, under proposals outlined today.

A consultation, launched today by the watchdog and running until April 3, has set out a number of changes designed to re-focus inspections. They include reducing the number of judgements inspectors make from thirteen to just four and introducing a system where people can comment, at any time, about the service they receive.

Ofsted said the changes will focus inspections on “what makes a positive difference to outcomes for children, adoptive families and adults” and help inspectors to “gain as true a picture as possible” of an adoption support service.

John Goldup, Ofsted’s deputy chief inspector for social care, said: “Adoption is rightly under the spotlight at the moment – and we know that good adoption support can be critical to the success of adoption.

“These proposals will focus inspection on what matters most – the difference services are making to the lives of children and their families. If that support isn’t available, the result can be placement breakdown, which can be a devastating double rejection for children and traumatic for adopters who can be left with a huge sense of guilt and failure.”

The four key judgements inspectors will be expected to make, under the consultation, concern: outcomes for service users; the quality of service provision; safeguarding children, young people and families and the leadership and management of the service.

Inspections under the new regime will begin in September 2012, pending the consultation.

Source: Community Care

Government concealed scale of opposition to benefit reform

A report written by disabled people, their friends and carers found that 74% of group respondents to a 2010 government consultation on replacing disability living allowance (DLA) with a new benefit, personal independence payment (PIP), were against the proposals. But in its summary of responses, published in April 2011, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said “it was clear from the responses received that some reform of DLA was welcomed.”

The report, Responsible Reform, was based on an analysis of 500 group responses to the consultation, obtained under Freedom Of Information requests.

It also claims that the DLA consultation did not meet the government’s own code of practice on consultation as it was two weeks shorter than recommended and took place over the Christmas holidays. And, the Welfare Reform Bill was presented to Parliament two days before the consultation ended, meaning that responses could not be taken into account when the legislation introducing PIP was drafted, the document argues.

The study has been dubbed the Spartacus Report, a reference to a 1960 film about a slave revolt in ancient Rome which has come to typify the idea of solidarity in adversity.

The DWP said it had had over 5,500 responses to its consultation and The Spartacus Report was a selective analysis of 500 responses from organisations only.

It said its proposals for the PIP had developed significantly since the consultation and it had been working closely with disabled people and disability organisations.

Source: Community Care

Waltham Forest children’s services threatened with government intervention

Children’s services at Waltham Forest Council need to improve significantly to avoid government intervention, children’s minister Tim Loughton has warned.

An inspection carried out by Ofsted in September 2011 found that, overall, safeguarding services in Waltham Forest were “adequate”, but services for looked-after children were judged to be “inadequate”.

Furthermore, in its annual assessment published in November, the overall performance of the council’s children’s services was rated as “poor”.

Following discussions between Department for Education officials and the council, Loughton issued an improvement notice to the council.

Councillor Marie Pye, cabinet member for children and young people in Waltham Forest, said: “The appointment of a new chair to the safeguarding board is just one of a number of changes to management that are being made. We are confident that we can raise standards of practice and provide a greatly improved service to residents in the future.

“There is nothing more important than safeguarding our young people and providing services to children in our care. It is down to us to work with local health professionals, schools, families and the whole community, to make sure we are providing the very best service possible.”

The council has been told to prove care standards in children’s services are acceptable and will have to meet a series of targets and deadlines set by the government.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said the improvement notice will be published on the Department for Communities and Local Government website in “due course”.

Meanwhile, an unannounced inspection report into Brighton and Hove City Council revealed improvements to safeguarding services, whileHalton Borough Council was praised for significant safeguarding improvements.

A report into Cornwall also showed overall improvement in safeguarding services, although inspectors said quality of case recording remained variable.

Source: CYP Now

Ofsted unveils plans to scrap school inspection notifications

Teaching unions have reacted angrily to plans to stop giving schools advance notice of impending Ofsted inspections from September this year.

The watchdog’s new chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw argued that “the time is now right” to make all school inspections unannounced.

“Ofsted has been moving towards a position of unannounced school inspection over a period of years,” he said. “I believe the time is now right for us to take that final step and make sure that for every school we visit inspectors are seeing schools as they really are in the corridors, classrooms and staff room.”

Ofsted already conducts some unannounced school inspections – for example where particular concerns are raised about a school. The watchdog also carries out no-notice inspections of local authority safeguarding services, among others.

“Ofsted already has considerable experience in undertaking unannounced inspections and we know it works,” Wilshaw explained. “With this further change, parents and all those interested in what is happening in our schools can have absolute confidence in Ofsted’s findings.”

He added that the inspectorate’s new “parent view online questionnaire” would allow inspectors to consider the views of parents during inspections, since parents can now share their opinions of their child’s school at any time.

But Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, argued that the proposals would reduce schools’ ability to engage with inspections and limit the usefulness of checks.

“It [inspection] is supposed to be a joint process and a dialogue that changes the school’s thinking rather than merely criticising it,” he said. “And it is this engagement which translates inspection judgments into real improvements. Unless inspection leads to such improvements it is a waste of time.”

He added that it is often necessary for school leaders to be out of school during the daytime – attending child protection hearings, for example.

“A well-run school functions normally in their absence but it is not appropriate that leaders should not be present at an event with such vital consequences for the school and their career,” he said.

Philip Parkin, general secretary of the union Voice, claimed that no-notice inspections would put an enormous strain on teachers and support staff.

“Ofsted inspections are stressful at the best of times, but it would be intolerable to work under the constant and relentless stress of anticipating an inspection at any moment,” he said.

“If that is the way inspections are to go, it shows a distrust of, and disrespect for, the teaching profession and signals that the inspection regime has become too overbearing and needs to be reviewed and restructured to make it much more supportive and advisory.”

Nansi Ellis, head of education policy at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned that tinkering with the amount of notice for inspections would not improve education for the vast majority of children and young people.

“We also remain deeply concerned about the use of the online parent view questionnaire,” she said. “Any survey that allows people to ‘opt-in’ is likely to attract more critical responses than positive ones, and this one is unlikely to reflect the education most children receive at a school.”

The details of Ofsted’s plans will form part of a consultation, due to be unveiled in the next few weeks.

Source: CYP Now

Needs of older children in care forgotten, Barnardo’s chief claims

Older children in care risk being overlooked for adoption because of a focus on finding placements for babies and younger children, the charity Barnardo’s has warned.

According to the latest government statistics, almost 12,000 – or 43 per cent – of all children who entered care in England last year were aged between 10 and 17. Of those children, 80 per cent were taken into care for the first time.

Barnardo’s argued that finding adoptive families for these children is becoming increasingly difficult.

This is partly because of the emphasis on placing babies for adoption, but also because of a general shortage of foster families across the UK. The charity estimates that at least 8,750 new foster families will need to be recruited within the next 12 months.

Barnardo’s chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said the needs of older children are being forgotten.

“All children deserve a loving home and older children need looking after just as much as infants and babies in order to thrive,” she said. “We urgently need more people to consider becoming foster parents to children over the age of 10.

“We know from our experience that older children in care can need extra support. They need carers who can help them overcome emotional and behavioural difficulties, and provide much needed stability.

“We have seen many of the older children we work with blossom into healthy, happy, adults after being placed with the right foster family. Which is why I want to encourage more people to open their homes and their hearts to help to transform an older child’s life”.

Dee and George Collins have fostered three teenage girls over the past three years. Dee said: “Before I became a foster carer I didn’t realise how much support children need. But it didn’t faze me and I learned a lot from the first child I cared for. You realise that what you can do for these children can make a big impact on their lives.”

Source: CYP Now

Loss of legal aid spells disaster for parent-child contact, lawyers warn

Family lawyers are warning that parents risk losing contact with their children because of reforms to legal aid, ahead of further scrutiny of the legislation in the House of Lords

According to a snapshot survey by Resolution, the association representing 6,000 family lawyers, less than a quarter of families that currently qualify for legal aid will be able to access subsidised legal support if the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is passed.

The survey of 267 family lawyers found that 57 per cent believe a parent risks losing contact with their child in at least half of their cases – a total 4,348 from the snapshot sample alone.

A further 41 per cent of members said their current legal aid cases would be unsuitable for mediation, partly as a result of domestic violence, drug or alcohol problems or mental health issues.

David Allison, chair of Resolution, said: “It is clear that the government’s proposed legal aid cuts could bring devastating consequences. Many of those currently eligible for legal aid would seriously struggle to obtain the legal advice and support that could ensure they continue to see their children after a difficult separation.

“The changes also risk increasing the nation’s benefits bill. Many of our members say that the majority of their clients would not know what financial settlement they are entitled to, which could see them left dependent on the welfare state and benefits.

“Resolution welcomes the government’s desire to see fewer family cases going through the court system. However, there needs to be support for those for whom mediation is inappropriate, which, according to the survey, could be in as many as 40 per cent of cases.”

On average, the 267 family lawyers who responded to the survey worked on 51 cases, representing 15,000 children in total.

Further results reveal that more than half of respondents, 55 per cent, would do less private family legal work – 31 per cent for public family legal aid.

Source: CYP Now

Ofsted tightens training requirement for registered childminders

Childminders will be required to undertake relevant training before applying to the childcare register under proposals for Ofsted’s revised early years inspection and registration regime

In light of the recommendations set out in the review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), Ofsted has published its consultation on changes to how it will register and inspect settings including nurseries and childminders.

The consultation sets out the inspectorate’s aspiration to allow registered providers more autonomy in managing services and focus attention on progress in children’s learning and development.

Currently, childminders can be accepted onto the register without relevant experience, but are required to undertake training within six months of registration, but Ofsted’s proposals seek to change this.

Jean Humphrys, Ofsted’s director of education and care, said: “Removing unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy is important to providers. Ofsted is aiming to find the right level of enforcement to ensure that children are safe and well cared for. Our overriding ambition it to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life.

“The changes we are proposing provide a balance. They will reassure parents that our systems and processes for regulating early years and childcare providers are robust, preventing unsuitable people from having access to children, while simplifying inspection for those providing care.”

Other changes include the way concerns are investigated. Under the proposals, the watchdog will carry out a full inspection and publish the report on its website if it receives information that raises concerns about the setting, in an attempt to offer greater transparency to parents.

On all other inspections, Ofsted proposes to continue visiting each setting once in every 47-month period. Unnanounced inspections for most group provision will also remain and childminders and holiday playschemes will be called no more than five days in advance of an inspection.

Ofsted is encouraging all those with an interest in early years, including parents and carers, to respond to the consultation before 6 April.

Source: CYP NOW