OPINION Move to voluntary sector has given me my life back A fter 10 years as a social worker in local authority adult care, exhausted and ground down, I took my skills to a not-for-profit organisation. Financial cuts had taken their toll on staff health and morale in the council. And, as workloads started to increase, senior management became more autocratic, imposing unrealistic restrictions, such as refusing flexible working and preventing us working from home. Now, in the voluntary sector, I feel I am in a more humane environment in terms of workload, stress, and expectation; there is a respect and nurturing of staff. Even the targets are realistic. The beauty is that I can work outside a statutory framework and am no longer bound by onerous rules and regulations. It is responsibility without the burden. I have freedom to use my knowledge and experience and can therefore act creatively for the service user rather than be constrained by conventional practice. Moreover, I am not weighed down by caseloads. I work more ad hoc and according to what turns up, and I have more time to spend with service users. As a consequence I see positive results more quickly. By contrast, in the public sector, targets were out of reach, paperwork was relentless and IT systems were unnecessarily complicated. Safeguarding is a vital area of adults social work but, because this has rigid time frames for each stage of the process, you prioritise these to the detriment of other work. Less experienced social workers find this difficult to manage and soon you find yourself surrounded by experienced colleagues who are exhausted, dejected and stressed out. I was one of them. I work alone now and do miss the camaraderie of my old job. But, set against this, I am now functioning without the stress that ate away at me and resulted in periods of sick leave. In short, I have my life back. LAURA I am no longer bound by onerous rules and regulations. It is responsibility without the burden Laura (not her real name) used to work in a big city adults services department BLOG LOG - Thoughts from the College blog Events in Rotherham bring to the fore once again how we must continually make sure that we do not become inured to the unfathomably distressing nature of all forms of abuse. As [Louise] Caseys report demonstrates, institutions and systems can deny, deflect and be distracted from the reality of abuse and its consequences. something which can be experienced by and committed by all races. JIM GREER [ON ROTHERHAM] I feel [Annie Hudsons Rotherham blog] has highlighted significant issues and shows the complexity of applying the PCF domains, as well as knowledge and skills to practice in reality. ANNIE HUDSON JODIE NEWSOME We must have more sophisticated teaching of racism which acknowledges that it is not all caused by or located within the legacy of colonialism and is Many local authorities have not woken up to the fact some [social] workers are only locums in name. They would prefer the stability of a permanent role, but feel drawn to the extra income. By not providing any training, or negotiating arrangements for leave or flexible working, families are feeling the strain of frequent changes of social worker as locums seek greener grass, compounding the general retention crisis in the profession. WINSTON MORSON As a senior social work manager in local authorities I can assure you that the only people raising these issues and willing to confront the challenge to us all were social work professionals. ANDREW [ON CHILD SExUAL ExPLOITATION]