Aberdeenshire UNISON
       
 
 

Social work issues Feb 2013

Report of Social Services Seminar 12th February 2013
Putting the dignity (and radicalism) back into social care

UNISON's seminar for members working in social care and home care has called for dignity for service users and dignity for the staff who serve them.
The call came 24 hours before UNISON warned that the home care system is in crisis following a Care Quality Commission Report into homecare services in England which found that as many as a quarter are failing to meet quality and safety standards.

Ethical care charterKate Ramsden, Branch Chair, joined social work and home care members from across the UK at the seminar in Birmingham on 12 February.

Kate said, "We heard harrowing stories of service users condemned to brief 15 minute visits to provide care, Alzheimer’s sufferers subjected to regular changes of carer and welfare cuts taking away the independence of disabled people.

"We also heard of the widespread exploitation of outsourced home care workers on zero hours contracts, paid on or less than the minimum wage, not paid or reimbursed for travelling between service users and having to do the job with precious little training."

"We are glad that home care in Aberdeenshire is mainly run in-house but we need to take lessons from the failures of outsourced services and make sure that they stay that way," she said.

Graeme Ellis of UNISON’s National Disabled Members’ Committee told of the human cost to himself of cuts in budgets and the vicious attacks on welfare benefits. Attacks like changes to Disability Living Allowance will have life-changing effects on disabled people and the savage ‘bedroom tax’ will throw many people into deeper poverty, family breakdown or homelessness.

"But it was not all despair," said Kate. Activists told how they were recruiting, organising and fighting back. Sharing campaign strategies and lessons was a major part of the seminar with workshops on issues like UNISON’s Ethical Care Campaign, Health and Social Care Integration, Cuts in Children’s Services, Organising in the Voluntary Sector, Residential Care Conditions and Practising Radical Social Work.

The term ‘dignity’ was one brought up across the groups. UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/21188.pdf demands that the time allocated to visits has to match the needs of the clients. “In general, 15-minute visits will not be used as they undermine the dignity of the clients”, it says.

UNISON has called on all councils to sign up to the charter and lays out three stages in the programme. The immediate principles are that services should match need, home carers will be given adequate time to meet that need, home care workers should be paid for travel and given enough time to get from one service user to the other. They should also get sick pay if they are off.

Kate added, "That doesn’t sound like too much to ask, does it? The modesty of the demands shows just how bad things are in this sector in some parts of the UK."

Stage 2 of the charter calls for continuity of staff for service users, no zero-hour contracts, systems to support staff raising issues about service users’ needs and regular training. Stage 3 calls for the Living Wage to be paid and a proper sick pay scheme “to ensure that staff do not feel pressurised to work when they are ill in order to protect the welfare of their vulnerable clients.

Helga Pile, UNISON national officer for homecare, said: “…despite Government cuts, councils cannot wash their hands of their responsibilities. It is time for councils who commission or provide these services, to take responsibility for the welfare of those who receive them and for the workers who deliver them. They must do far, far better than they are now.

"Unscrupulous private financiers should not be allowed to cream millions out of an underfunded system, whilst providing seriously substandard care. In some cases this has had appalling consequences.”

Colin Turbett, our UNISON Scotland and Social Work Issues Group member ran a workshop on Practising Radical Social Work, which also tackled the issue of dignity and respect. Calling for the values of respect, building positive relationships with and advocating for service users, Colin warned against the oppressive practice and attitudes deriving from ‘managerialism’ and an over-structural approach to social work practice.

Kate said, "This was not about rampant revolutionary action, but about client-centred practice and about recognising issues of poverty and class in anti-discriminatory practice. It was also about honesty and not avoiding the hard decisions. In short, it was about good practice as we used to know it."

Colin said that cultural change is possible and promoted a manifesto for radical practice that included an emphasis on “security, dignity and resilience building rather than surveillance of risk”.

The manifesto calls on social workers to focus on empowerment and capacity building, agreeing goals, recognising power imbalances. They should seek opportunities for ‘small scale resistance’ but also use collective opportunities to campaign for social justice. Really, it was about practising ethically.

Colin, from UNISON's North Ayrshire Branch, has written a book on the subject to be published soon.

Kate Ramsden (with thanks to John Stevenson of UNISON's Social Work Issues Group, from whom this is borrowed in part. Click here to see his report on UNISONActive.)

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