Social work news

• Notice: Notice to improve: Sikh Academies Trust

  15-11-2024 16:00 via gov.uk
  
  A notice to improve issued to Sikh Academies Trust by the Department for Education.
  
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• UK’s unhealthy food habits cost £268bn a year, report finds

  15-11-2024 20:24
  
  Exclusive: Food, Farming and Countryside Commission added up cost to NHS and economy of diet-linked diseaseThe UK’s growing addiction to unhealthy food costs £268bn a year, far outstripping the budget for the whole NHS, the first research into the subject has found.The increased consumption of foods high in fat, salt and sugar or which have been highly processed is having a “devastating” impact on human health and Britain’s finances.The market in ultra-processed foo
  
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• Care population falls for first time in 16 years but remains at historically high levels

  15-11-2024 13:00 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.The care population in England has fallen for the first time in 16 years but remains at historically high levels, Department for Education (DfE) data has shown.
  The number of looked-after children in England fell by 0.5%, from 83,760 to 83,630, in the year to March 2024, the first reduction in the care population since 2008.
  However, the total is 5,500 more than was the case in 2019, when co
  
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• Lessons from two decades analysing serious case reviews

  15-11-2024 11:49 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  This article is part of a series of profiles of key figures who have shaped social work over the past five decades, to mark Community Care’s 50th anniversary. Previous interviewees include Brid Featherstone, David Howe, June Thoburn, Eileen Munro and Herbert Laming.
  Marian Brandon’s social work journey began in a way familiar to most practitioners, with a desire to make a difference.
  After graduating in law in the mid-1970s, she began working in a reside
  
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• ‘I credit my late social work professor for the brilliant career I have had’

  14-11-2024 14:57 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  For Community Care’s 50th anniversary, our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career.
  In this entry, a principal social worker remembers their late professor, Patricia Roderick, who they credit for being a guiding light throughout their career and a pioneer of strengths-based practice “long before it was a concept”.To my dear social work professor, the late Patricia Roderick:
  Dear Pat,
  I want to thank you for your support
  
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• Policy paper: Mental Health Bill: European Convention on Human Rights memorandum

  14-11-2024 14:09 via gov.uk
  
  Memorandum on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) relating to the Mental Health Bill 2025.
  
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• Official Statistics: Higher-level learners in England: 2022 to 2023

  14-11-2024 13:58 via gov.uk
  
  Statistics providing an overview of higher-level learning across the further and higher education sectors in the academic year 2022 to 2023.
  
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• Open consultation: Teachers’ Pension Scheme regulations: 2024 proposed amendments

  14-11-2024 11:00 via gov.uk
  
  We would like views on the proposed changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) regulations.
  
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• Transparency data: Skills Bootcamps: completions and outcomes 2022 to 2023

  14-11-2024 10:30 via gov.uk
  
  A summary of provider-reported Skills Bootcamps completions and outcomes between April 2022 and March 2023.
  
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• Guidance: Adult skills fund: guidance for providers

  14-11-2024 10:30 via gov.uk
  
  Guidance for providers explaining the policy decisions which have informed the adult skills fund funding rules.
  
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• Guidance: Adult skills fund: guidance for devolved authorities

  14-11-2024 10:30 via gov.uk
  
  Guidance for devolved authorities to support their use of the adult skills fund.
  
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• Form: Initial teacher training (ITT) accreditation: expression of interest

  14-11-2024 10:30 via gov.uk
  
  Express an interest in applying to be accredited to deliver ITT courses leading to qualified teacher status from the 2026 to 2027 or 2027 to 2028 academic year.
  
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• Accredited official statistics: Children looked after in England including adoption: 2023 to 2024

  14-11-2024 10:30 via gov.uk
  
  Information on looked after children at both national and local authority levels for the financial year 2023 to 2024.
  
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• Press release: Birth defects prevented by fortifying flour with folic acid

  14-11-2024 01:01 via gov.uk
  
  New legislation being introduced today will require millers and flour producers to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid from the end of 2026.
  
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• Black, male and 40-plus social workers still overrepresented in fitness to practise cases

  13-11-2024 22:45 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Black, male and 40-plus social workers remain disproportionately represented in fitness to practise (FtP) cases, Social Work England data has confirmed.
  The regulator has released an update on analysis it conducted last year on how different groups of practitioners were represented in the FtP process, which was based on referrals received from its inception in December 2019 to March 2023.
  Th
  
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• Number of mainstream foster care households down by 10% over past three years

  13-11-2024 18:25 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.The number of mainstream foster care households in England has fallen by 10% over the past three years, despite a rising care population, official figures have shown.
  As of 31 March 2024, there were 33,745 approved non-kinship foster households, down by 1,260 (3.6%) on the year before and by 3,580 (9.6%) since 2021, revealed the Ofsted data.
  Though the number of family and friends carer hous
  
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• 10% drop in mainstream foster care household numbers since 2021

  13-11-2024 18:25 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.The number of mainstream foster care households in England has fallen by 10% over the past three years, despite a rising care population, official figures have shown.
  As of 31 March 2024, there were 33,745 approved non-kinship foster households, down by 1,260 (3.6%) on the year before and by 3,580 (9.6%) since 2021, revealed the Ofsted data.
  Though the number of family and friends carer hous
  
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• Impact assessment: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill: impact assessment

  13-11-2024 17:03 via gov.uk
  
  Impact assessment relating to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
  
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• Policy paper: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill: creating a smoke-free UK and tackling youth vaping

  13-11-2024 16:59 via gov.uk
  
  This document provides more information about the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which was introduced in the House of Commons on 5 November 2024.
  
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• Independent report: Shingles (herpes zoster) vaccination programme: JCVI statement, November 2024

  13-11-2024 16:06 via gov.uk
  
  The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) setting out its advice for the expansion of the shingles vaccination programme.
  
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• Independent report: COVID-19 vaccination in 2025 and spring 2026: JCVI advice

  13-11-2024 16:06 via gov.uk
  
  Statement setting out advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on the COVID-19 vaccination programmes for 2025 and spring 2026.
  
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• Speech: Skills Minister's keynote address to the Association of Colleges

  13-11-2024 15:54 via gov.uk
  
  Baroness Jacqui Smith's keynote speech at the Association of Colleges national conference.
  
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• Budget will lead to cuts and job losses, say social workers

  13-11-2024 15:23 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Social workers believe the Budget will bring cuts and job losses for the sector, a Community Care poll has found.
  On 30 October, chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget allocated £600m in grant funding for social care in 2025-26 as part of a £1.3bn package for councils.
  Combined with other revenue increases, this would see local authorities’ available budgets rise by around
  
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• Guidance: Supply Skills Bootcamps

  13-11-2024 14:48 via gov.uk
  
  Information about Skills Bootcamps for potential suppliers.
  
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• Speech: Our ambition to reform the NHS

  13-11-2024 13:45 via gov.uk
  
  The Health and Social Care Secretary spoke at the NHS Providers annual conference 2024, in Salford.
  
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• The bill to legalise assisted dying explained

  13-11-2024 10:08 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  By Tim Spencer-Lane
  On 11 November 2024, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was published. This bill makes provision for a person who is terminally ill and meets the eligibility criteria to choose to request and lawfully be provided with assistance to end their own life.
  This will be of particular interest for social workers who work with people who have a terminal illness or practise in specialist palliative care settings.
  This is a private member’s bill, introduced by the Labou
  
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• Killing Time by Alan Bennett review – a cut above

  13-11-2024 10:00
  
  From afternoon sherry to sex with the handyman in the lawnmower shed, Alan Bennett takes a wry look at lockdown life in a care homeBack in 2020, with the country in lockdown, the BBC commissioned updated versions of Alan Bennett’s consummate Talking Heads, originally broadcast in 1988. Ten of the 12 monologues were remade with a new A-list of British actors that included Kristin Scott Thomas, Lesley Manville and Martin Freeman reprising roles played first time around by Eileen Atkins, Magg
  
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• Press release: Zero tolerance for failure under package of tough NHS reforms

  13-11-2024 01:01 via gov.uk
  
  Health and Social Care Secretary will outline how government and NHS leaders have a duty to patients and taxpayers to get the system working well
  
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• Policy paper: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill: creating a smoke-free UK and tackling youth vaping factsheet

  13-11-2024 01:00 via gov.uk
  
  This factsheet provides more information about the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which was introduced in the House of Commons on 5 November 2024.
  
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• Social work practice changes urged to promote direct contact between adopted children and birth families

  12-11-2024 21:27 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Social work practice changes are needed to engineer a shift towards much greater direct contact between adopted children and their birth families, experts have said.
  The call came in a report that urged an overhaul of the current “outdated” approach to post-adoption contact in order to enable more face-to-face time between children and their birth relatives.
  Despite evidence of t
  
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