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Monday, March 22, 2010

Oi! What about the (social) workers?

It was good to see an ad in today's Metro from UNISON defending social workers engaged in child protection work.

The nearest I ever want to get to child protection is stopping my two (wonderful) children from squabbling!

Just like most of you reading this blog I would not want to be a social worker with responsibilities for child protection and (as the proud son and nephew of social workers) I am lost in admiration for those who will take that responsibility on.

In twenty years and more of trade union activity I have too often seen scapegoating of social workers. I have also seen that our trade union is the only defence a social worker has.

The answer is not - as Madeline Bunting rightly points out in today's Grauniad - more form filling and question answering.

The answer is that we should value people prepared to do an awful job in difficult circumstances - and that we need to rebuild the trade union organisation that once made social workers a force to be reckoned with in the workplace!

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