is bizarre to think that Gordon Brown in 2000 announced extra spending almost higher than we had demanded - but it has been spent in such a wasteful way, lining the pockets of private shareholders while leaving health workers discontented.
"The sad but predictable thing was that the Labour councils which had self-righteously proclaimed how independent we were while they were funding us in the 1990s, axed our funding after Blair's victo"We now get no council funding at all: we have had to survive on affiliation fees, donations and commissioned work from unions for several yers now.
"Now Labour misters are going further than Thatcher ver dreamed towards the privatisation of health care, with new private, profit-seeking Diagnostic andID Y Treatment Centres snatching the cast from existing NHS services." What are the prospects now for LHE and for campaigning? "There is a frightening lack of activity on the ground around foundation hospitals, for example, even though it is hugely unpopular as a policy, and has been slammed at national level.
"Our anniversary meeting on October 16 is an attempt to revive some of the campaigning spirit which animated the early 1990s - the battles against Trust optouts were broad-b. ed and raised awareness.
"The unions that led those fights recruited memb sands igthened their organisation. V want to ersuade them to try the same gain tod
"Unle they figh ack now, the conditions wil! > even er later on.
"If pe ght in defence of the values ar the NHS, LHE is still ther We can still offer useful su,
"But times ar: We need the movement to ! 10 SU e work and information v
"We l fer: But we could do much m , we can stir some embers olt- strike a few more blows! a we re our 2lst anniversary!" same way as Victoria Climbie without protection by the agencies?" a massive 82% of respondents voted a resounding 'no'. Sam Feeney investigates.
ahe publication was delayed from earlier in the summer, apparently because Blair wanted to put his personal stamp of authority on its release There was probably a more political reason for the delay as the original timing was overshadowed by the media furore over Margaret Hodge's appointment as the government's first Minister for Children.
• Around 80 children a year die as a result of abuse, a figure that has not changed significantly in over 30 years. But with every new tragedy that hits the headlines, social workers bear the brunt of the fury whipped up by the tabloid press and, particularly in the case of child protection social workers, are damned if they do intervene and damned if they don't.
No wonder that social services departments around the country face acute prob. lems in recruiting and retaining experienced and qualified workers.
The Green Paper proposes:
• the appointment of an independent Children's Commissioner to champion children's views
•teams of health and education professionals, social Connexions advisers based in and around schools and Children's Centres
• "sweeping away barriers" to information-sharing to promote effective communication between everyone with a responsibility for children
• every local authority to have a Children's Director responsible bringing all children's services together as Children's Trusts • new duties guardice, hear and ath.
safeguard require them to come together into Local Safeguarding Children Boards
• children's services to be judged on joint working
The civil rights group Liberty Littlewood, warns: •• In the team that takes child there is a 40% vacancy rate. • ••• workers and
this enormous new database. for children
try." He also adds: "There is a real risk that st
• a national campaign to recruit more foster parents and a workforce reform press release, 25/09/03) package to make working with children an attractive career, and improve the skills and effectiveness of the children's workforce
Liberty have warned of the dangers of the 'sweeping away barriers' to information-sharing. All 11.3 million children in the UK will be given à unique identification number to enable them to be tracked throughout their lives
Director, Mark ...•• • 12109/03) Social Workers, says: protection referrals
.... siveworkloads, and to pay better salaries to
"Of course, everyone wants to see steps taken to ensure there is never again a in a very difficult job." Victoria Climbie tragedy. But serious questions need to be asked about whether the government's proposals will do anything to improve security, or whether they will merely undermine the privacy of the children and parents who will be recorded in
"It is extremely doubtful that casting the net this wide is a sensible use of resources. We need to target our efforts and focus our work more carefully on those who really are at risk, rather than collating extensive of vacancies filled. files on every child and family in the coun
Her. "In the team th ion piled referrals alone, ti upon rumour and supplementec y wild - Anyone calling guesswork will be the new way of trying to message that guarantee our children's safety." (Liberty
While many NGOs have broadly welcomed the far-reaching scope of the Green Paper, there are many concerns being expressed about the timetable outlined, the new levels of bureaucracy created, additional pressures on existing staff, the doingaway with existing social services departments, and the blunt acknowledgement from Margaret Hodge that in implementing the proposals "we can save money - we don't need more money." (Community Care
In UNISON's response to the paper, Owen Davies, Senior National Officer for
"The real key to solving the crisis in chil. dren's services is to get local services working properly. Our members are understandably cynical about national initiatives which draw funding away from local services. "Funds need to be spent to boost local services, to employ more staff, to cut the exces. attract new people who are willing to work
Socialist Resistance spoke to one child protection social worker (who did not want to be named) working in New Labour's flagship local authority, Brighton & Hove, one of 35 pilots for the recommended Children's Trusts. In a recent article by The Guardian's David Batty (03/09/03), the Chief Executive of Brighton & Hove, David Panter stated that since the education and social services budgets had been pooled last year, there was now a near 100% complement
"This is a patent lie," said the social worktakes child protection is a 40 Vacancy rate. hotline hears a recorded use of shortages the line is only open between 10 and 12."
"We are already swamped by referr for children at risk of significant harm. The are simply not enough shelf spaces left store the files
"The city already has the second high number of children in care in the UK, se ond to Glasgow. Yet earlier this year were instructed to put all our caseload ir care. Millions of pounds are going into p vate fostering agencies - this is privatisati by stealth and in-house local authority pr vision is consistently starved of the nec sary resources to meet need.
"The private sector has local governm by the short and curlies."
Much lauded community regenerat initiatives, like eb4u (East Brighton Ne Deal for Communities) that were suppos to be tackling the problems of poverty a social exclusion in an area of great depri tion, just don't deliver the money to t people who really need it.
Without fundamental structural socia economic change such problems stand chance of being solved and more childr will continue to be harmed by the ender problems faced by families struggling to s vive on below subsistence incomes. T Children's Green Paper does absolute nothing to address this fact
The consultation period ends or December. Local Socialist Alliances sho reach out to activists in UNISON, the NI the health unions and workers in all sect the Children's Green Paper touches on, well as local voluntary and commur groups who are struggling, with dwindl grants, to deliver services to children a young people
Blair must not be allowed to go unch lenged as he and New Labour moral about protecting children yet do damn all really invest in their future and their safety
page 10 of the scan
10 codil October 2003