Social work news

• Press release: Failing NHS managers' pay clampdown

  11-11-2024 18:16 via gov.uk
  
  Health and Social Care Secretary to set out measures in speech at NHS Providers annual conference.
  
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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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• 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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• Rise in NICs will endanger public health services | Letter

  12-11-2024 17:22
  While the NHS has been given an exemption to the NIC increase, health services commissioned outside the health service have not, says Greg FellYour article outlining the extra strain on council budgets that the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) will cause highlighted the likely impact on adult and children’s social care services (Adult social care in England needs urgent help from ministers, say bosses, theguardian.com, 6 November).There will also be a s
  
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• Sign in to your childcare account

  12-11-2024 10:31 via gov.uk
  
  If you're a parent registered for Tax-Free Childcare or free childcare if you're working, sign in to pay into your account, reconfirm your eligibility, update your details.
  
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• Podcast: locum v perm – what works for you?

  12-11-2024 09:51 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  What are the pros and cons of working as a locum versus being a permanent social worker?
  In this episode of the Social Work Community Podcast, senior careers editor Kirsty Ayakwah asks two social workers from either side of the divide about what has driven their career choices.
  Kayleigh Rose Evans has spent her career working in permanent roles, while Le’Siran Edwards has largely worked in agency roles.
  Alongside her social work practice, Kayleigh works as an independent trainer and also s
  
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• Licences granted to nearly 200 UK care providers despite labour law violations

  12-11-2024 06:00
  
  Exclusive: Study finds evidence of major gaps in government oversight of foreign workers in care sectorNearly 200 care providers have been given government licences to bring foreign nurses to the UK despite having previously violated labour laws, according to a study that highlights widespread employment problems in the social care sector.The report by the Work Rights Centre shows 177 companies in England have been given licences to sponsor carers, even while publicly available information shows
  
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• Press release: GOV.UK One Login makes securing and completing an apprenticeship easier

  12-11-2024 01:15 via gov.uk
  
  GOV.UK One Login simplifies access to public services by offering a single sign-on, removing the need for multiple usernames and passwords.
  
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• Social Worker of the Year Awards 2024 winners unveiled

  11-11-2024 22:44 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 Social Worker of the Year Awards 2024 winners were unveiled at a ceremony in London last week.
  The judges selected 18 gold award winners and 19 silver award winners from the over 90 practitioners, students, teams and organisations shortlisted for this year’s prizes.
  The overall winner’s prize, along with the children’s team gold award, went to Norfolk council’s pe
  
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• Press release: Secretary of State pledges to contain NHS agency spend

  11-11-2024 18:24 via gov.uk
  
  Wes Streeting will set out plans to clamp down on temporary workers in speech at NHS Providers conference.
  
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• Transparency data: DHSC: spending over £25,000, April 2024

  11-11-2024 17:45 via gov.uk
  
  Reports on departmental spending over £25,000.
  
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• Transparency data: DHSC: spending over £25,000, May 2024

  11-11-2024 17:44 via gov.uk
  
  Reports on departmental spending over £25,000.
  
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• Guidance: Adult skills fund devolution

  11-11-2024 17:18 via gov.uk
  
  Operational guidance on the devolved adult skills fund (ASF).
  
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• Employers given guidance on implementing agency social work rules and improving staff support

  11-11-2024 16:20 via communitycare.co.uk
  
  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Employers in England have been issued with guidance on implementing recently introduced rules to reduce use of agency staff as well as longstanding standards on how they support their social workers.
  The Department for Education-commissioned resources, produced by Research in Practice, Essex County Council and King’s College London, are designed to improve support for, and the stabilit
  
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• Bishop calls for Justin Welby to resign over failure to pursue serial abuser

  11-11-2024 14:54
  
  Helen-Ann Hartley says archbishop’s position is untenable as members of Church of England’s ruling body launch petitionA Church of England bishop has added her voice to growing calls for the archbishop of Canterbury to resign over his failure to pursue a sadistic abuser of children when allegations were brought to his attention.Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Justin Welby’s position was untenable and he should quit. A line needed to be drawn, she added. Continu
  
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• Case study: Peter Symonds Sixth Form College

  11-11-2024 13:58 via gov.uk
  
  How Peter Symonds Sixth Form College built a new education block on the site of a disused block.
  
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