The path to the precipice
“We are blithely rushing along a path towards a fundamental change in our welfare system that will have far-reaching social and fiscal consequences. There is a perfect storm of a poorly contracted Work Programme, political rhetoric, and short-term accounting practice.” Richard Johnson looks at the debate on the next round of welfare reform.
Long term unemployment: four people in their own words. And why the word “vulnerable” needs to go
“One of the reasons I’m posting these transcripts is that in the last week especially, we’ve not heard enough from people who’ve actually experienced long-term unemployment.” Kate Belgrave shares four stories from people who have been unemployed for several years.
Service before self
“Above all I want the work that I do to matter and make a difference to people’s lives; only then will the internal critic of self-doubt and guilt quieten down for a while.” A guest blogger at We Love Local Government describes the very human impact of the cuts.
Parting shots – Why I left my social work post and what I’d change
“While I don’t regret leaving, not really, I do wish I’d been listened to more. That more than anything, would have led me to stay.” CB describes the pressures on social workers from cuts and successive reorganisations, and why some have to leave the profession they love.
Chris Huhne, rehabilitated. Too bad for everyone else.
“The appearance of Chris Huhne’s weekly column is now a serious irritation. He is a crook, a liar and a cheat. His greatest talent is blaming others for all of that.” Kate Belgrave shares a few thoughts on the return of Chris Huhne and a few people she has met who’d love to be welcomed into genteel society as well, but never will be.
Dear Mr Grayling
“I’m no politician or academic, I’m just a Probation Officer, but to me it seems as if Probation are the experts in managing ‘offenders’ but we are the only people excluded from bidding for our work.” As the outsourcing of probation marches on, the Probation Officer writes an open letter to Chris Grayling.
What are the Lib Dems for?
“For about fifty years, until Nick Clegg agreed to a coalition with the Conservatives, probably most people would have agreed that LibDems or Liberals, the third party in UK politics, were “for” providing an alternative to Labour or the Conservatives…” Jane Carnall poses the question what are the Lib Dems for in an era of coalition politics?
On Education: Dear Britain…
“I’m not perfect. I admit I get things wrong. Not every lesson I teach is ‘outstanding’. I have my off days and occasionally I get behind on my marking, but I am in this job for the right reasons and I am trying to do the very best I can.” Juliet O’Callaghan writes a letter to the British public on education.
Councils using zero hours, casual staff and the work programme
“This post lists the results of an FOI I recently sent to councils to get a rough idea of how many people councils employed on zero hours contracts or zero hours-type working arrangements and how many councils were using the work programme.” Kate Belgrave investigates the increasing use of zero-hours and casual work contracts in local authorities.
Capita, Serco, G4S, government and the rise and rise of electronic tagging
“It seems that Capita has positioned itself (with three other companies) to take over the dire electronic tagging system run by Serco and G4S for the Ministry of Justice. By “dire,” I mean “very likely fraudulent”…” Kate Belgrave is concerned about Capita’s expansion into the electronic tagging market.
Despite all the propaganda, Britain remains liberal and collectivist
“One lesson for Labour might be that it needs to be more bold and speak above the heads of the media and more directly to people, to enable it to connect with the more liberal and collectivist attitudes that, despite all the propaganda, still dominate amongst the public.” Steve Hilditch argues that Britain remains a liberal and collectivist society.
Protests and government extremism
“So interesting that the Taxpayers’ Alliance got a free, media-wide pass yesterday to bitch again about people on benefits…” Kate Belgrave disputes the idea that disability rights campaigners are extremist.
The child protection ship is sinking: but everyone is too busy putting fires out to notice
“The ship that is child protection is both on fire and letting in water fast. The passengers, made up of children, need help but the crew are badly managed, under represented and exhausted. Is it not time to build something new and fit for purpose?” The Secret Social Worker asks some difficult questions about the state of child protection.
Going, going gone
Whilst the Ministry of Justice issues upbeat press releases on the basis of spurious statistics which have yet to be analysed by outside experts court closures and the threat thereof continue to make news in their localities amidst silence from most national media. Magistrates’ courts at Bolton, Richmond and Shrewsbury are just the latest in […]
£3.8bn for health and social care? No thanks!
When I heard the announcement that the Government was creating a £3.8bn pot to fund social care my heart sank. Not because the funding isn’t needed. It clearly and quite desperately is. But this isn’t new money. It’s money that is currently in the “ring fenced, protected” NHS budget and used to provide services free […]
A huge percentage of the population without redress – that is dangerous
The Government’s plan to slash £220m from the UK’s legal aid budget has rightly been condemned for its sweeping scale but, in this series of interviews I’ve done for the Guardian, the very human impact – the effect on the individual – is laid bare. Under the proposals, victims of miscarriages of justice like Gerry Conlon, […]
The Chaos Spending Review
“It is a simple fact that by being brave enough to conquer just the three [issues here], in the medium to long term the savings to police budgets and society as a whole would be so great that we could all sit down in ten years time and wonder what all this fuss was about.” Constable Chaos offers an alternative solution to save money in policing.
Why sex education matters to “nervous” young people
With schools taking a vacation from the National Curriculum and a renewed focus on traditional ‘academic’ subjects, many schools have already laughed subjects like Sex Education off their teaching roster. “Teaching about condoms?” they say, “Ha! How quaint. These days we teach about real things like romantic poetry and royal history”. Except, however quaint it might seem, sex matters […]
Frontline Friday 14th June 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 14th June 2013. Let us know which posts we’ve missed and which other bloggers we should be following for next week’s list.
Myths about DLA and PIP
Today is the start of the national roll-out of Personal Independence Payments. All new claims for DLA/PIP will be for PIP from now on. Given the DWP’s emphasis on the need for PIP, it seemed timely to summarise some of the main facts (and myths) about PIP. More can be found on our most recent […]