The challenges of local government reorganisation
Guy Clifton, director, Local Government Value for Money, Grant Thornton UK LLP looks at reorganisation lessons from recently established unitary councils.
Council to pay social worker £64,000 over harassment
17/09/2024 Cambridgeshire County Council will pay a former employee almost £64,000 over harassment relating to her ‘gender critical’ beliefs and sexual orientation. |
Council support staff declare strike over salary grades
26/07/2024 Around 200 support staff in Lancashire County Council’s social work team today began strike action in a dispute over salary grades and working arrangements. |
Council requests fresh appeal over discrimination case
04/07/2024 A council has requested a second appeal over an employment tribunal that found it had racially discriminated against an employee. |
Judge: Kent cannot wriggle out of asylum duties
05/06/2024 Kent CC has been told by a judge it cannot wriggle out of its duties to ‘accommodate and look after’ all unaccompanied asylum seeking (UAS) children. |
Gender-critical social worker awarded over £50k
29/04/2024 A social worker who faced disciplinary action following complaints about her gender critical beliefs will be awarded over £50,000. |
Social workers’ concerns not addressed, union warns
02/04/2024 Welfare concerns raised by social workers are not being dealt with, putting vulnerable people at risk, a union has warned. |
Ofsted rates Havering's children's services inadequate
16/02/2024 Havering LBC’s children’s services have been rated inadequate by Government regulator Ofsted after a two-week on-site inspection. |
Bronson Battersby: Review launched after toddler’s death
18/01/2024 Lincolnshire County Council has launched a review after the tragic death of two-year-old Bronson Battersby. |
Health backing for police withdrawal delay
08/08/2023 Senior healthcare figures have backed councils’ demand to delay police withdrawal from non-urgent mental health callouts. |
Leicester City Council loses race discrimination case
13/04/2023 A social worker who claimed she suffered racial discrimination at work has won her case against Leicester City Council. |
South Gloucestershire social workers announce pay strike
05/04/2023 South Gloucestershire Council said it was committed to engaging with Unison after the union announced a strike by social workers and occupational therapists. |
Social workers report helping vulnerable out of their own pockets
21/03/2023 A third of social workers are using their own resources to help the people they work with, a new survey has revealed. |
Children's social worker numbers drop for first time since 2017
27/02/2023 The Government has been urged to act after official figures showed the number of children’s social workers has fallen for the first time since 2017. |
Record number of children seeking help from councils for mental health problems
14/11/2022 The number of children with mental health problems being seen by social workers has reached record levels, new analysis has revealed. |
Social workers urged to complete annual registration
01/09/2022 Social workers who want to practise in England must now complete their annual registration renewal application and meet new requirements, regulator says. |
Ofsted calls for social care workforce strategy
27/07/2022 The watchdog the need is ‘more urgent than ever’ as it published a report looking at the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on children’s social care. |
Half of social workers at risk of quitting survey finds
13/06/2022 Nearly half (49%) of social workers say they are less likely to stay in their jobs due to excessive workloads, high stress levels and low morale. |
Advisers call for minimum pay to ease care workforce crisis
27/04/2022 The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has said the Government should foot the bill for a minimum rate of £10.50 per hour for care workers in England. |
Councils warn of 'staffing crisis' amid exodus
03/03/2022 Councils have warned of a ‘staffing crisis’ as the number of children and family social workers quitting the profession hits a five-year high. |
Experts urge immigration rules change for care workers
16/12/2021 Restrictions should be relaxed for care workers ‘immediately’, according to experts appointed by the Government. |
Social care White Paper ‘set up to fail’
01/12/2021 The local government sector has praised the ambition of the long-awaited adult social care reform White Paper, but warned it will not succeed without funding to meet current demand. |
Support workers 'undervalued' by nearly £7k a year, warns report
09/07/2021 Frontline social care workers are paid nearly £7,000 less per year than their peers in equivalent positions in other public funded sectors, a new report has uncovered. |
Government announces £16m for virtual school heads programme
17/06/2021 The Government today announced that more than £16m is now available to councils to ensure there is a local champion for children with a social worker in every local authority in England. |
Newborn baby care orders on the rise, research finds
04/06/2021 The majority of mothers facing urgent care proceedings are given less than a week’s formal notice that their newborn baby might be removed, new research has warned today. |
Sleep-in shifts legal battle ends
19/03/2021 A long-running legal challenge by care workers over pay worth £400m has been rejected by the Supreme Court. |
Mobilising the social care workforce
15/01/2021 A continued drive towards more mobile public services is needed to help overcome social care challenges in the bleak winter months, says David McKinney. |
Social workers report significant spike in nation’s mental distress
17/12/2020 Nearly all local authorities have reported an increase in the number of people accessing mental health services for the first time, according to a new survey. |
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Funding boost to train hundreds more mental health social workers
29/09/2020 A £27m funding boost will create 480 new mental health social workers over the next three years, the Government has confirmed. |
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Half of professionals feel childhood obesity is a child protection issue
03/09/2020 Nearly half of health and social workers believe child obesity should be considered a child protection issue, according to a new study. |
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Third of social workers looking to quit profession, survey reveals
10/07/2020 A third of social workers are are thinking of leaving the profession putting the system at risk of collapse, new research has warned. |
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Social workers to be placed in schools to spot children at risk
22/05/2020 The Government has committed £6.5m to place social workers in schools to help spot the signs of child abuse and neglect. |
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Ensuring continuity of care in a time of crisis
22/05/2020 Julie Tyas discusses how tech is becoming the eyes and ears of social workers during the pandemic. |
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Social workers ‘urgently’ need hand sanitizer, survey reveals
25/03/2020 Social workers have called on the Government to provide them with safety equipment in order to minimize the risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus. |
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Social workers call for clarity on carrying out statutory duties
20/03/2020 Social workers are concerned they will be unable to safeguard families and carry out their statutory duties in the face of mass isolation. |
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Former social workers urged to return to sector
06/01/2020 Former social workers are being encouraged to get back into the care sector with the return of a national scheme. |
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Report: 580,000 more social workers needed by 2035
05/08/2019 More than 500,000 social care jobs in England will need to be filled by 2035, a new report has predicted. |
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Social workers warn of 'devastating' impact of cuts
19/06/2019 Social workers have claimed they cannot do their jobs properly because of years of funding cuts. |
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Sleep-in care workers report unsuitable conditions
18/06/2019 Overnight care workers have reported being attacked at work and forced to sleep in offices, in a new survey conducted by Unison. |
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Care workers suffer from 6,000 violent attacks
10/06/2019 Care workers suffered more than 6,000 violent attacks resulting in serious injuries during the last five years, shocking new figures have shown. |
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'Slow progress' two years after inadequate judgement
24/05/2019 Gloucestershire CC is making ‘slow progress’ in improving its services for its children and young people two years after it was judged inadequate, Ofsted has found. |
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What I've learnt from reading my social services file
16/05/2019 Louise Hughes explains what impact reading her care file had on her, and calls on social workers to write their case notes with young people in mind. |
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Front-line workers ‘must get better’ at tackling child exploitation by drug gangs
30/01/2019 Front-line professionals ‘must get better’ at spotting signs that children are being exploited, a children’s charity has said in response to an annual assessment of county lines drug networks. |
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Hinds announces £45m to train children’s social workers
08/01/2019 The education secretary today announced the Government would fund the training of an extra 900 children’s social workers. |
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Shortage of social care workers to reach 290,000 by 2030, says report
06/12/2018 NHS figures show that in the last two years two million hospital beds were unnecessarily occupied because of a shortage of social care to support patients ready to be discharged, according to management consultants. |
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Hearing the voices of children in care
15/11/2018 Dr Claire Baker explores what children and young people living in care actually feel about their lives and care experience. |
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Social workers face ‘chronically poor’ working conditions
30/10/2018 Almost half of carers responding to a poll report they want to leave their jobs due to ‘chronically poor’ working conditions. |
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Frontline staff warn of ‘perfect storm’ in children's services
24/09/2018 Social workers, education and law enforcement workers in England are facing a ‘perfect storm’ of complex growing need, according to Barnardo's. |
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Funding call to end 'postcode lottery' for children's services
11/07/2018 MPs today called for more funds to help end a so-called postcode lottery for children’s services. |
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Calls to protect social workers from 'escalating violence'
06/06/2018 Social workers should receive the same legal protection from violence as emergency workers, according to sector bodies. |
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Children's services blow for new chiefs
16/05/2018 Surrey CC’s children’s services are still inadequate, according to Ofsted – three years after they received the same grade. |
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A child referred to social services every 49 seconds, figures reveal
12/01/2018 Referrals to council children's services reached 646,120 last year, according to new figures from the Local Government Association (LGA). |
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Council leaders demand end to pay cap
07/12/2017 Nearly 100 council leaders have written to the chancellor demanding extra funding for workers and an end to the public sector pay cap. |
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Five councils chosen to pilot social worker accreditation system
06/12/2017 Five local authorities have been chosen to pilot the roll-out of the new National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) for child and family social workers. |
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Project launched to retrain 100 social workers
23/10/2017 Three regions will take part in a new programme to help retrain 100 social workers who have left the profession. |
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Minimum wage enforcement for care workers is suspended for a month
29/09/2017 A further suspension of the minimum wage enforcement in the social care sector has been announced by the Government. |
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Failing to provide the full picture
27/09/2017 Gary Pettengell warns that messy government data makes it impossible to predict outcomes for vulnerable children. |
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Social workers demand ‘respect’ to stem exodus from profession
22/09/2017 Social workers launched a campaign today demanding respect for their profession after report revealed they work more than £600m of unpaid overtime a year. |
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Intervention for vulnerable children being dictated by resources, warn social workers
13/09/2017 Vulnerable children are less likely to qualify for help from social services because of a growing lack of resources, according to new research. |
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Research warns of ‘mass exodus’ of social workers from profession
17/07/2017 More than half of social workers in the UK are considering leaving the profession in the next 18 months, a new survey has revealed. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.
