Wilt predicted precisely this 12 months ago: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/07/26/114986/sector-leaders-shocked-and-surprised-by-abolition-of-gscc.htm

According to Community Care sector leaders are shocked – well they should have been reading Regulator Watch. So, no surprise to Wilt and he will not be on his own in feeling pleased. The GSCC, with its stupid logo, has been a nightmare from day one. No doubt staff will be leaving to find new, proper, jobs with far less perks and salary – good.

The GSCC was after all one of the primary reasons for Regulator Watch being set up – to publicise those aspects of their work which they preferred not to have published.  You know like the major cock ups they frequently made and continue to make. What will Regulator Watch do without them and after the demise of Plaskitt (ex) MP and his demonic constituent?

Of course there is no word about the sister agencies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – and the functions of the GSCC will be transferred and subsumed by the Health Professions Council. Let’s see how well they do. For sure they cannot do any worse.

I like the title of the Government Report found here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/documents/digitalasset/dh_117832.pdf

“Liberating the NHS” has a certain, very satisfying ring to it! The title of Chapter 5 will be particularly poignant to some people in Oxfordshire and Salop.

Pages 21 – 23 deal with the proposed abolition of the GSCC and transfer of its functions. Interestingly, there is a hint that social work students will not be required to register and, unlike at present, the new registration will require no government subsidy i.e. total self funding.

Legislation will be introduced in November 2010 to make all the various changes and implementing the transfer of functions by the GSCC will be effective from April 2012 – these are indicative as distinct from absolute. If all goes to plan, by the end of March 2012 the GSCC will no longer exist – the end of an era error!

So who next? The ISA is already under notice and has delayed starting registration – they are as good as toast and Wilt predicts they will be gone before the end of the year.

Ofsted, Cafcass and Scie? The latter, to my surprise is not a public body although one suspects it gets some funding – it is widely predicted it will not survive. Wilt predicts Ofsted will get broken up and demolished and Cafcass will simply disappear.

The General Teaching Council is already toast. You never know, it might yet come about that regulation of social care might just go the same way. If not, expect to pay more for your registration or start calling yourself something other the protected title of “social worker.”

When the term ‘bonfire of the quangos’ was termed – they really meant it!

Good.

Wilt

Now we all know that Wilt is something of a simple minded chap – at his age keeping things simple is necessary. The previous Gordon Brown led Government complicated (and generally fucked up) almost everything. The only uncomplicated thing Brown can be thanked for, to wilt’s mind, is the “flat rate” VAT scheme – it’s too complicated to explain! However Wilt’s bookkeeper and accountant sort all that out.

You see, if Wilt’s services were no longer required, or if he were short of work (which he aint), he would just move on to other new work. No severance pay (except for breach of contract) and no pension either – not until it matures after years of contributions by the said Wilt, and no one else. The only exception is his current pension (taken in a lump sum – thank you) and his pending local government pension to kick in soon – and very good it is too. He was very lucky that the LA pension is so generous, and “locked” until he shortly falls off his desk chair and hangs up his Court/business suit.

To Wilt, simple minded as he is, he made good provision for the future, and indeed for the future of his offspring, friends and family – together with Mrs Wilt probably a combined portfolio in excess of £Xm. Not a lot we admit, but enough for the prudent and well in excess of that which most can hope to bestow upon their journey to their maker (or the devil).

However, what about our current civil servants and local government officers pensions and severance? Pensions will without doubt require them to contribute more, a considerable amount more, and their severance pay will be reduced, Wilt is in no doubt, the up to “6 years” redundancy payments will not now happen further – what fucking idiot ever agreed that? Probably Gordon Brown advised by Ed “Ferkin” Balls, the smarmy bastard.

The Telegraph has about the best article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7871570/Ministers-to-slash-pay-offs-for-civil-servants.html

And others include: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10504840.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/05/government-war-unions-strike-redundancy

What rather confuses Wilt is the threat of strike action – “OK comrades we will go on strike cos we are to be sacked………And sacked without severance pay of six years” The “comrade” union official on a £250,000 salary thinks and then adds “Comrades you deserve better, you have served (sic) your country and the public well – what reward are you given? A few weeks’ severance pay and a p45 with the option to actually work (I mean do a real days work) for a living in the private sector, no expenses, no huge paid holiday and sick leave entitlements.”

The man dressed in a very expensive suit continues with a lump in his throat: “Comrades, I need you, my children in public school need you, my wife (who shags many of my colleagues) needs you (although I hope not all of you 600,000) and I have a standard of living to expect from your union contributions – how else am I expected to live? I would have to go out to work, for Gawd sake – is that reasonable?

A lone, very shaky voice peeps up – “ahem, so I go on strike, lose my job anyway and I have less money than I would have had if I had not gone on strike, and yet you still get my contribution to your trade union that pays you 70 times more than me to achieve what exactly?”

The “comrade” replies – “It’s your duty to serve your comrades and the union.”

Union member: “Can I get a rebate on my union contributions?”

Wilt kind of thinks most civil servants and local government officers realised, albeit too late and regretfully, that at some point they were to join the real world – the real world beyond state benefits and state salaries.

You see there is not a lot of difference between a state benefit and a state salary – both waste space and both drain money from those who actually do a day’s work!

Wilt

ps: There are more recent articles since the above was drafted. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10519726.stm

And: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7874285/Civil-servants-redundancy-pay-to-be-capped-as-soon-as-possible.html

The gloves are off – a big scrap in Whitehall is pending.

Next: the quango, local authorities and, possibly, MPs!

Perhaps the nice civil servants can develop an Iphone application for calculating the difference between what they could have expected to get and what they will get in redundancy payouts. See http://regulatorwatch.co.uk/2010/07/iphone/

You see, Gove has not forgotten us – not just yet anyway: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/06/03/114637/gove-promises-support-for-taskforce-recommendations.htm

I aint too sure however that Community Care can be so assertive as they are in this advice: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/06/03/114638/q-and-a-what-does-the-national-college-mean-for-social-workers.htm that the Social Work College could not become the Regulator to replace the GSCC (http://www.gscc.org.uk/Home/).

The article was written before the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England (http://www.gtce.org.uk/ ) by Mr Gove and as set out by the GTCE in their press release: http://www.gtce.org.uk/media_parliament/news_comment/gtcabolition0610/

The Regulation and Registration function of the GTCE will be assumed by some other body, so the General Social Care Council is not yet in the clear. If the teaching council can be abolished, so can the social work equivalent.

It is not true that all professions have a separate “college” or membership group from the regulatory and disciplinary functions. What exactly is the conflict in one single organisation promoting and supporting professionals whilst also investigating serious complaints? In my mind the two fit together snugly.

The options are however wide open – albeit to be fair the GSCC of late (under new leadership) appears to be getting its act together a bit more. However the trail of absolute disasters it has left behind through utter incompetence (and having been placed under special measures) has left few if any believing that the organisation is anything other an embarrassment.

My prediction – they will go too and their function of Registration will go somewhere else. There are too many of these Regulators and there is both an economy of scale and similar role and function argument in favour of mergers.

Time will tell……………

Wilt

ps: The same arguments and observations go for the SSSC, CCW and NISCC – however they are outside of the English jurisdiction and will determine their own futures.

Quangoland is today looking over its shoulder to see if Michael Gove or one of his colleagues is approaching them with an axe. See BBC article here:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10221877.stm

Blooming brilliant – the General Teaching Council for England is as good as gone, although the GTCE seem to want to fight it. Fucking Dorks.

Who next, we wonder? The General Social Care Council must be on the hit list although of course that comes under the Department of Health. Here are a list of ministers: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/MinistersandDepartmentLeaders/Ministers/index.htm

Paul Burstow looks like the kind of man that could have an axe or three tucked up his sleeve. And then of course there are those nice people at Ofsted and indeed that utter mess Cafcass. Ofsted will not disappear but they certainly will be cut back in a way the term “cuts” has never before been used. After all with “people power” and parents running schools, who needs Ofsted inspectors.

Cafcass on the other hand would never be missed, by anyone – least of all children’s guardians and the Courts. Guardians are not needed in every case – indeed in some cases Guardians are simply an obstacle. Actually, some Guardians (like some social workers) are utter fucking Dorks and would not know one end of a child from the other – not unlike some Ofsted inspectors.

Get rid of Cafcass and a huge amount of dosh could be saved – allocate a budget to the Courts and they can determine if a Guardian is needed above and beyond a child’s solicitor. In fact, one could spot purchase the work of a Guardian in the same way as “expert” reports are purchased to address a particular set of questions. That is far more economical and will sort out the wheat from the chaff. They will live or die (professionally) on the basis of competence and not simply because the law says a Guardian must always be appointed or because have to have an overview of the complete case.

Talking of chaff, there are several more quango Wilt would add to the list, but Gove has made an excellent start. Example – the ISA.

Wilt

This was an interesting find: http://www.neumansllp.com/legal_support/social_workers/index.html

This firm of solicitors are offering specific services to social workers and in particular dealings with the GSCC – I like them already. We will add them to our recommended list of helpful websites.

They claim to be a UK wide service and I guess out there will be a customer base to serve the frontline social workers. For certain the traffic to Regulator Watch (based on search terms) indicates there is continued anxiety among GSCC and other social care Registrants about the GSCC and others. Here are some exam-le search terms from the month so far:

mike wardle

ofsted reports sandwell social service

interim suspension order draconian

robin weekes gscc

mike wardle sacked

michael wardle ofsted

gscc south Africa

falsifying qualifications social work

suspension of the gscc’s chief executive mike wardle peter

eleni cordingley

gscc incompetent

gscc fail

sssc sites

social worker poor record keeping

can cafcass request crb checks

gscc hearings

go straight to the care standards tribunal

sssc register

gscc legal cases

sssc cases won at appeal

disband the gscc

gscc notice of decision

the power to dismiss gscc committee members

gscc fucked

social workers under investigation by the gscc

what happened before gscc

gscc investigation process

regulator mrs c

gscc bullying

gscc special measures

shirley o malley social worker

robin conduct manager gscc

gscc panel members vacancies

gscc regulator

mike-wardle

poor record keeping by social workers

hate gscc

westberkshire council tribunal

The full list of search terms which lead to Regulator Watch can be found here: webstats 21 may

What is quite remarkable is that the search term “the power to dismiss gscc committee members” was made by a well known London firm of solicitors who have frequently and regularly represented the GSCC in conduct cases, at investigation stage (conducting investigations), in prosecuting misconduct and in defending (not very successfully always) appeals to the first tier Care Standards Tribunal.

We wonder which committee member they are trying to get rid of?

This Robin Weekes fella at the GSCC seems to get a regular search on the internet – he is or was the head of conduct at the GSCC who thought he had confidentially disclosed that Mrs C (her of the Hovel) as “actually being vexatious.”  On that much he was certainly right.

Mrs C remains the most frequent visitor to Regulator Watch – bless her, the poor twat.

We will report further at the end of the month on the full access to Regulator Watch with a particular emphasis on Mrs C and her declining number of enforced and unwilling supporters.

Wilt

An Irish perspective……….

Wilt has had a helpful suggestion from a colleague via email:

Hi – I have been enjoying your site for some time now and fully agree with your take on the role of the great and the good who regulate our working lives and if we step out of the narrow line, our personal lives which can be drawn into the mix for the worthies to pontificate about.

Somehow you have managed not to include the latest regional regulator of social care, the above which came into being in 2001 but didn’t seem to do much with anyone until 2005.  Based closely on the model of the GSCC, they pretty well follow the same well worn path, extracting vast total sums from the NI social care workforce so that they can park their well upholstered asses in their plush city centre offices in Belfast and regale us with all that they are allegedly doing to support us and our standards of practice. They can be found at www.niscc.info.

Their latest newsletter on the site makes a big fuss of telling us how they are making the codes of practice work for us by providing all registrants with a bookmark with a printed summary of the codes on it. That should make bedtime reading lead to restful sleep – not.  Page 6 has a wonderful spread about how the NISCC has performed against its business objectives with a heartwarming Objective 2 display listing the number of the hapless among us who have fallen into their clutches and survived or not as the case may be. Nowhere in the article about making the codes work for us or in the objectives spread is there any mention of how registrants can use the codes to deal with poor and ineffective managers who fail to follow the employer code of practice nor indeed any sign that the NISCC is interested in doing so. Plus ca change plus c’est la meme. C’est la vie. How come it is always french phrases that seem to be most applicable to our weird and wonderful regulators?

Anyway I started out just to ask you to include the NI worthies in your site and then got some angst off my chest while I had the chance. You know how it is.

And of course the correspondent is right – the NISCC (Northern Ireland Social Care Council) http://www.niscc.info/ is not listed as a category but is now.

It seems according to their history of hearings they have been busy boys and girls, see here: http://niscc.info/decisions_from_hearings-104.aspx

And so, let’s hear more views about them, or the Scottish or Welsh versions as well as our friends at the GSCC.

We like the idea of the NISCC “bookmark” listing the codes – I must get a copy. No doubt it was designed by the prince of horror books, Stephen King (http://www.stephenking.co.uk/home) – indeed nice bedtime reading.

You see there are those that do, and those that teach (or regulate, or inspect). It’s awfully easy to sit back and form an opinion on best practice, but less easy to put it into action and a nice earner to criticise as a bureaucrat that which one could not even begin to understand, let alone judge.

Anyway, our sincere gratitude to our correspondent for bringing this matter to our attention, and welcome to Regulator Watch – have fun. We hope you contribute to the Blog – your anonymity is assured as are your comments whether we agree with them or not.

Wilt

It seems the GSCC are becoming a little more thoughtful and considered in their judgements as is evidenced in this case, http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/03/09/114008/lancashire-family-support-agency-worker-admonished.htm which is further encouraging of their newly found proportional response. It is in contrast of course to more historical cases, not least in relation to Arthurworrey as one example, where clearly they were out to earn their spurs and prove to the Government that they were worthy of their existence – a history littered with despicable and outrageous attitudes.

Whilst there are signs of improvement we have not yet removed them from the Dork List and of course we must not let them become complacent. They are of course fighting for their existence at the moment and are effectively still under special measures.

We are still watching.

Wilt

Gone it seems are the talks of BASW (British Association of Social Workers) becoming a trade union (as distinct from a professional body) and their role in the forming of the Social Work College (Royal or not) is fraught with tensions – or more to the point fraught with competition.  Added to this there are now further tensions between BASW and Unison (the primary local authority trade union.)

Personally, I had some hope for BASW http://www.basw.co.uk/) under the leadership of Hilton Dawson but I am beginning to wonder if even he can drag the organisation out of the utter mess his predecessors created. BASW could never become the organisation to run the Social Work College as they are simply too unsophisticated.

Although BASW claim a massive increase in membership (not yet Wilt) they represent still a small minority, and the term “represent” even has some uncertainty, especially if it comes to dealing with the GSCC et al. Somehow, I do not think this is Hilton’s fault, he probably has as many challenges within BASW as he does external – the BASW committees are a bit of a wet rag, believe me.

They need to bring Dr Ray Jones back on board, although even he (who is very competent) struggled with BASW – or at least its previous head that was an utter disaster.

And so BASW fight this corner, as in this article: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/02/26/113926/basw-ditches-plan-for-joint-membership-scheme-with-unison.htm but fails to win agreement, but somehow one tends to think that perhaps it is not unrelated to this other tussle: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/02/26/113924/basw-and-unison-split-over-independent-practices.htm

On the latter matter, Wilt supports Dawson and agrees with the unstated but underlying belief that Unison are only out to serve themselves, a bit like Arthur Scargill did with the miners – you know, him with the odd hair style http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Scargill and otherwise a total fucking twat!

An independent social work workforce is the answer, but unfortunately BASW is not the vehicle to lead that progress, nor sadly are some of the voluntary agencies such as the NSPCC (total twats) – it needs a competent mixture of direct service delivery from the private and voluntary sectors with local authorities acting as commissioning agents. In time, that is what will happen, and bit by bit it is, even under the Brown/Balls leadership much to the chagrin of Unison Stalinists.

When it does come in to final fruition, and it is not if but when, it will certainly sort out the men from the boys and it will ensure that there is a proper agreement between Government and social care providers on what are the priorities – not like now that everything is a priority whether or not there is funding. And, those who are incompetent, and that includes you Mrs C, will find themselves in the wilderness.

So it is less that Hilton Dawson is failing, it is simply he is in the wrong place and has committed himself to a defunct organisation which needs a complete overhaul and shake up – indeed wake up!

I remain confident in Hilton, for now, but Gawd he has a job and more than a half to do. Step back Hilton and think on my man.

We will monitor his progress here on Regulator Watch.

Wilt

As if Sandwell is bad enough, Birmingham (or at least parts of it) is an accident waiting to happen. Community Care also pointed to this article in the Birmingham Post: http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2010/02/24/birmingham-mother-and-children-found-hanged-were-known-to-social-services-65233-25899633/

A friend of Wilt once did some interim management in Birmingham and said he felt utterly unsafe and deskilled simply because of the impossibility to manage the vast workload. He came across some excellent workers there and was amazed at their dedication and resilience under what were really impossible demands.

Managers are quite used to “fighting fires” (metaphorically speaking) and revising priorities of workload throughout the working day (or week if they are lucky), but tackling outbreaks of fire combined with a force 9 gale, earthquake and a volcano erupting has a tendency to drive one a bit scatty. Rather than go scatty he, only having been begged not to, decided he would take up an easier living of being a car crash test dummy!

Like the GSCC and their ilk, Birmingham City Council needs to be dismantled and very carefully put back together – in its present state (and size) it is simply unmanageable.

And the good people of Brum (not that I visit the city unless forced) deserve a more coherent and fit for purpose conglomerate of smaller fiefdoms.

Until such time there will be more stories of disaster and more crash test dummies!

Wilt

I suppose the lady was lucky not to be a social worker – I suspect none of the Regulators (e.g. the GSCC) would have allowed her to continue to practice. See the BBC report here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8486936.stm

Why are there such differences in how Regulators dispose of cases? Quite remarkable really!

Wilt