Interest in the Care Review grows – as does disquiet. Last week’s Social Work Today article on the feedback received regarding the Case For Change, quoted members of the CRWA outlining in powerful terms the shortfalls hindering the potential of the review, at a recent COMPASS event. The broad range of views demonstrated that the review needs to consider the importance of allowing children to remain in care settings as long as they need; and that it needs to acknowledge the impact of chronic destabilisation at the hands of successive Conservative governments – because it is a Conservative government implementing

Ant-man and the Josh: Superhero Storytelling and Public Policy Reform This is a blog about public policy reform, and more specifically the Children’s Social Care Review currently taking place in England. So please bear with me while I talk about something seemingly unrelated first: films and storytelling. There is a storytelling technique known as lampshading. The name of this technique was first brought to my attention a couple of months ago by The Weekly Planet Podcast, but it was something I instantly recognised. The Weekly Planet Podcast covers “all things movies, TV shows and comics”, and in this episode the

“[The Case for Change] seems to try and inhabit a parallel universe in which the impact of austerity is glossed over, the import of the Children Act 1989 is wholly misunderstood and tries to reach for an efficiency narrative when sufficiency of resource for families and services is the issue.” Guest blog by Avery Bowser, Social Work Manager Northern Ireland Introduction I am responding in a personal capacity as a social worker with 28 years’ experience who has followed the Review closely since it was announced. I have worked in children’s services in the statutory and voluntary sectors including statutory

Care Review Watch Alliance highlights serious concerns with Case for Change The Care Review Watch Alliance (CRWA), a loose collective of care experienced people, care professionals and academics, have submitted their response to the Care Review Case for Change. In their response the Alliance raise a number of serious concerns about the content and poorly evidenced approach being taken by the Care Review, and its chair Mr Josh MacAlister. CRWA members have drawn on their decades of knowledge and lived experience to outline fundamental issues with the first substantial report coming from the Care Review: A lack of understanding of

Robin and Alissa, steering group members of the Care Review Watch Alliance, discuss what is – and crucially is NOT – contained in the Case For Change. Robin is a lecturer in Social Work and talks Alissa, a frontline worker who has not managed to digest the CFC, through some major concerns. Please share with others who may appreciate this format!

Introduction The Care Review Watch Alliance (CRWA) is a loose collective of care experienced people, care professionals and academics. We come from all corners of the community, including social workers, providers and care experienced folk. We all have concerns about how the current ‘once in a generation’ Care Review is being undertaken. This submission reflects a collective view of the Case for Change (CfC). It is with great regret that we approach this response having to recognise the politically contrived nature of the design and promotion of the MacAlister Care Review. The fact we have a CfC proposed and costings

This a summary version of a much longer blog which follows below. The key points in the longer version are: Under Government proposals to regulate currently unregulated accommodation for children in care, 16- and 17-year-olds in care will have no right to receive care. This is despite the state’s responsibilities to promote the welfare of children in care. The Government’s proposals will create a legal nonsense that some 16- and 17-year-olds in state ‘care’ will not be entitled to day-to-day care. The Review of Children’s Social Care has pronounced itself in favour of the Government’s proposals to exclude care for

The Case for Change and supportive media stories portraying social workers as the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will cause unnecessary fear for parents and harm to children. It will prevent parents from seeking help and support when they may desperately need it. I know because I’ve been there. My son, Elliott, had to be delivered by caesarean at 27.5 weeks, he weighed 940 grams. I had developed an extremely rare pregnancy complication called HELP syndrome and I could not breath as my organs were filling with blood. Without the immediate medical intervention neither of us would have

I have read and responded to many reviews on different aspects of children’s social care over the years but I have to admit, I have never read a report quite like this one before.  It definitely marks a departure from other reviews as we enter an era where sound bites and memes have become the order of the day as children’s services are compared to a ‘ shaky Jenga tower held together by sellotape’ which predictably caught the eye of the media and became the headline for a newspaper article.  (I hope the spin doctor responsible for this was paid

First thoughts on the foundational premise of the CFC: It is poorly written. While that remark may seem an undue or repeated criticism of mine with written reports from the CSW office, my view is the same in this instance. The report takes a lot of reading to make sense of the material, which is often subjectively constructed and lacks structural coherence. It is a concern that the quality of analysis within written outputs from the gov’ts defined CSC is often below the standard one would usually expect from a government department. Why is it of this quality? It reads