In my opinion nothing will change if social workers do not have the resources,sound management direction,sound working systems in place such as IT systems, feeling safe to take accountablity rather than a blame culture.Social workers will continue to struggle to provide safe professional services to those we train to protect.

By the time local authortys employ agency staff systems in place have failed,there is a high turnover of staff,cases may not have had social work input for some time and some decisions questionable.The team culture may not be present with each social worker working in isolation.Ask what does this tell you!!

Agency staff leave for various reasons perhaps the question should be asked why?

Requiring agency staff to give notice the same has that of permanent staff does not address the issues if you do not have the infrastructures to support you in your role.

Think about it the role social workers carryout is a necessary role which impacts us all in some way or other.In my view it is not a service which can do without resources.The above bills are made to ensure that every child has access to education,health services a fair chances to achieve thier full potential yet this can not happen without adequate support and services.Should the question be why did the everychild matter Bill not work,what will be different if this bill is similar to the last bill.

I simply ask what will be different? Is it to cut cost or to improve services to reflect the hard work most social workers attempt to achieve.

This is all good in theory, but if a local authority is short-staffed, they’re going to pay what they can to get workers in, regardless of whether they’ve been in a recent permanent post elsewhere or not.

Is this merely about the extention of the remit of the regional Purchasing Organisations which with big infrastructure projects works well but it helps local Social Services, how? Are Council’s continuing with the failed-outsourcing-programmes. Are Councils simply dumping business ahead of facing bankruptcy? It’s all abit Eron isn’t it.

Maybe, the employment of local residents as Social Care Support Workers teases out the actual prevalence of, say, domestic violence as, it’s reported, that 70% who join the sector do so because of their lived experience. And, maybe it’s a long-term repopulation programme to boost high street spending local people cannot afford? You know apartheid so sorts?

‘We’ already know that off the shelf specifications and procurement for Social Work purposes doesn’t work ~ it’s PR not HR! It’s usually a reputation damage limitation exercise wrapped up in the language of efficiency gains made at scale ~ you know, as with carbon reduction, complete bollix!

What about ‘blacklisting’ ~ it happens more than the sector would care to admit and interferes with the autonomy and ‘independence’ from the ’employer’ agency work brings. Who can discipline who or is it simply a matter of ‘their agency they’ll be gone soon?’ Discrimination and hostility is rife!

Who is going to ensure that agency Social Work is allocated and contracted for fairly and safely ~ Leeds is a good recent illustration, no? There are countless others like in Sunderland 2014 and following a child fatality from a drugs overdose from a prescribed controlled drug, the US agency social worker was publicly hung out to dry ~ a ‘cover-up’ of the deeper seated wrong-doing in making an unlawful contract award for the drug services in the first place.

This is the actual territory for agency Social Work ~ back filling the social work permanently employed staff refuse to do and for good reasons ~ it’s unsafe!

The transparency needed remains woefully inadequate and is still akin to the mess that the construction industry faced some years ago.

Has the growth of the regional Purchasing Organisations found reconciliation with the SOLACE and Senior Public Procurement Managers summit findings saying that ‘Social Services contracting is out of control’ and Why is this area of work being regionalised when so much of the actual care being offered is done so for free by local people looking after their own families, parents and children and left wondering if they can actually ask for help? In one instance only 50 of 300 people, having been assessed as being in need had their needs met ~ some of remaining 250 were in turn left looking after their, now, very elderly parents.

However, this is dressed-up, and for sure it’s been day light robbery, unless Council’s receive massive uplifts across all service areas and, then, those services rooted in the wards by elected members the only services social service requiring a regional and national programme will be funeral services.

‘We’ are collectively letting people die! The adage from the Chronically Sick and Disabled People Act 1968 ‘Adding Life to Years and Years to Life’ once placed the UK as a world leader in championing social welfare.

Austerity II will kill people irrespective of whether the social worker is agency or not!