Pay rises are nice and welcomed at all times but the reality is there are no funds there to cover the cost of what they’re demanding. Councils are already restructuring so where is this money coming from???

UK Government can offer NHS staff a massive increase but leave the rest of public sector to starve!

We need 1 Union to represent Social Workers and agree to strike as/if needed.

The negotiation may end up as you suggest but have you asked yourself what councils have “no money”. Have you asked why councils set up side businesses of dubious provenance and invest vast sums when no returns are likely? Have you asked yourself why councils spend obscene amounts on lawyer fees defending cases that they know they are unlikely to win? Have you asked yourself why renumeration of council officers is justified as “the going market rate”? Have you asked yourself why councils commission consultancy firms with virtually no oversight to undertake “evaluation and review” of services that their own staff can conduct with equal if not better competence for no fee? Have you asked yourself why councils spend so much of their revenue on obstructing freedom of information requests? I could go on. That councils are profligate with council tax monies is a given because council leaders are not accountable to the public. Fines are paid from the public purse and on those rare occasions when officers or councillor are bang to rights their severance pay runs to several thousands and after a brief sojourn they turn up elsewhere with equally generous remuneration from the public purse. I have no sympathy for any council issuing bankruptcy notices. The mess is of their own making not just supposed shortfalls in Government funding. I was an elected local councillor once and if confidentiality clauses didn’t prevent me I would say more. Pleading poverty while sharing bonuses and gifts amongst pals is the least of it.

This pay round will play out as usual with employers reminding the Unions of the lack of funding and the Unions sticking with their usual playbook of pointless and expensive ballots all of which will result in accepting the offer by November, when the backdated pay award will be eroded vastly by inflation.

Agency staff are in part responsible for suppression of wages in social work. Employers are relaxed about vacancy rates because they think they can get agency workers to cover for short periods while in reality leaving a permanent position vacant. So no that isn’t the question. And if the game is pitching agency workers interests against those of permanent staff than the outcome is obvious, neither will get what they think they are worth.

The only way that we are going to get anywhere near what we deserve is go and strike and to stick together in the same way as other professionals have.

I am sick and tired of hearing that NHS staff has done this and that NHS staff has done that, especially when everyone else is and especially ourselves keep getting F.A. each year

It is as if no one else has done anything these last few years and we are having to take on 2nd and even 3rd jobs to make ends meet and both our main political parties as well as our unions are tone deaf at what we are having to do.

I have stopped paying my stubs to the union years ago because I don’t see the point in throwing my good money away in return for nothing.