Year: 2011

Birmingham city council workers, including social workers and social care staff, took strike action on 21st September 2011 in protest at a cuts contract being imposed on November 1st. A new contract introduces savage pay cuts to some of the lowest paid workers and an ultra-flexible “any time, any place” clause which will help the council implement further cuts in the future by amalgamating and deleting posts. There were militant mass pickets at many workplaces and following this workers protested outside the Lib Dem conference. This lobby was well publicised and featured on national TV news on the day of Nick Clegg’s keynote speech. There will be further lobbying at the October, November and December council meetings.

Key to the success of this dispute will be getting workplaces organised and the UNISON branch is launching a campaign of workplace meetings and encouraging members and stewards to organise their own lobbies of local councillors. In November a Birmingham Petition will be launched and following this a pledge, asking councillors to support re-negotiation of the contract if elected.

The one-day action follows a similar strike on 30th June which was coordinated with teachers, lecturers and civil service workers. The next day of strike action will take place at the same time as the November 30th national pensions strike alongside 17 national trade unions. SWAN is asking its members to write to their councillors asking  their support and to join the lobbies of the council.

There is something happening in Southampton that should inspire social workers everywhere. A wave of anger has swept north from the Middle East to hit the Solent and awoken a group of workers that seemed before to have forgotten their collective voice. Social care workers in the city have not only been caught up in a bitter dispute with a vicious Tory council, they are now at the forefront of the struggle against austerity. After a slow burning start they have burst into action. The fuel has been emotional blackmail from bosses and councillors.

Problems started with expectations we work ever more hours for free with high and complex caseloads, laborious paperwork systems and little support from a senior management that has lost touch with its workforce. In the Protection and Court teams (PACT) there is a massive turnover of staff, with service users bewildered by constantly changing social workers, often 6 or more a year. Some teams have dangerously high numbers of unallocated child protection cases visited by a number of duty workers resulting in obvious risks. One social worker died at her desk last year with stress levels a major factor. The next day another social worker collapsed with a heart attack in the same building.

High sickness levels continue and much needed experienced social workers have left in protest at planned attacks on our salary and conditions. The proposals by the council involve a 5% pay cut and indefinite pay freeze meaning workers lose at least £200 each month. On top, living costs are rising by 5% and the Government’s proposed pension contributions increase will eat further into pay. Meanwhile very high numbers of agency workers have been employed. Some are earning around £65k p.a. making a mockery of the Council’s insistence that cuts are part of austerity measures. Many of us believe it is Tory ideology to smash the public sector and open it up to the free market. Southampton also recruited American social workers who were excellent but felt they had been cheated. Nearly all have now returned home, disaffected and drained. One told me that the Bronx was an easier option.
 
We have been forced to take this pay cut after being sacked and reinstated on an amended contract that will open us up to increased exploitation. To many the pay cut, and increased pension contributions has made people feel close to burnout by their 30s. There is a growing feeling that the reality of today`s social work is far removed from the ideals we all trained for, and that a tipping point has been reached. As a social worker with over 20 years experience I have long been frustrated that while there are individual expressions of anger at these conditions in many social work offices across the country, no one seemed to have the energy or motivation to do something about it collectively. In Southampton, that has now begun to change.
 
Social care staff have taken a stand alongside refuse workers, librarians and youth workers, all groups among the 4000 council workforce affected by pay cuts. There have been lunchtime marches of over a 1000, packed union meetings and strong and effective industrial action. On two occasions now workers have spilled into councillors meetings and disrupted them. There have been many excellent actions across sectors. Social workers showed great solidarity when bosses recently tried to divide and rule. Children and families social workers were offered a market supplement of £1400 to offset the 5% pay cut. Colleagues in the adult sector and many others were not included. A mass meeting was called across social care and children and families workers unanimously voted to reject the offer. Workers anger was palpable and they demanded 6 days of strike action supported by union leaders.  Various teams went on 6-day strike action and others on two-day action. We could claim 70% pay from the union but many chose not to. We have been heartened by amazing support from across the UK and internationally: trade unionists, anti cuts groups and members of the public. At a packed union meeting the overwhelming message was that the divide and rule tactic had increased our anger and strengthened our resolve; the message to councillors and our bosses was no cuts to pay – refuse workers or social care workers we all stand together.
 
After the most recent action the mood remains strong. In mid-August we came to the end of the 12-week period of dispute where strike action is legal. Any further action has been threatened with sackings by the Tory council. However, workers are meeting with Unite and Unison trade unions and more strikes have been promised.  
 
It had been a difficult environment to work in but the dispute has greatly raised the consciousness of workers involved. Social workers are once more talking about class and there is a feeling that we can win this. We know we have to, not just for ourselves but for all the other public sector workers whose bosses are eagerly watching the outcome in Southampton as they try to push though cuts.
 
The key outcomes sought under Every Child Matters seem a mockery when thousands of young people explode into riots because they don’t feel safe, included or any sense of achievement – they feel unheard and forgotten. With no employment, no chance of getting into social housing or onto the property ladder, education coming at a price they cant afford and with the only role models they are offered in the upper echelons of our society the corrupt and morally bankrupt bankers, expense cheating politicians, corrupt police, scumbag billionaires and News International and media hackers.
 
This dispute and the principled actions of social workers and care staff within it destroys the myth that social workers harm the vulnerable when they take strike action. The truth is that striking is a vital option. When standing up for those in need we cannot let our profession be run into the ground and overwhelmed. Once again we need to become agents of social change.    

Southampton social workers continued their action in October.  For latest news: http://www.soton-unison-office.org.uk.

Email messages of support to m.tucker@unison.co.uk and markwood366@btinternet.com.

The first session looked at The Social Work Reform Board (SWRB), its recent report and proposals.  Hilary Burgess, Social Policy and Social Work Subject Centre and a member of the SWRB talked about the proposed Professional Capabilities Framework.   Roger Kline, ASPECT, the professional association and trade union representing professionals working in education and children’s services and a member of the SWRB talked about the proposed Employers Standards in the context of the current climate.  He gave examples of how cuts could be challenged in the workplace and emphasised the point that ‘professionalism’ and trade unionism should not be counter posed to each other.  A response from the seminar was sent into the consultation process which included a statement of the SWAN national position.

 In the second half of the day Roger Kline gave an overview of persistent racism within the social services structure. He also drew attention to the GSCC website public ‘disciplinary hearings’ section which, in contrast, has an over-representation of ethnic minorities.

We then had Lee Jasper from BARAC (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts – look them up, they are booming!) to energise and inspire us into action.  Lee outlined some of the effects that the disproportionate cuts will have on BME groups. Lee argued for an active alliance with black social workers and suggested BARAC and SWAN work together to mobilise social workers to highlight and campaign against the long and short term affects of these cuts.  We ended by debating the ethics of civil disobedience and direct action as legitimate forms of protest… it was suggested that the violence of poverty is perhaps the most dangerous form of violence and can paralyse communities for generations… debate and action to be continued! 

‘All in this Together? Defending Welfare Services, Defending Human Rights’ was the title of an open forum organised by SWAN Scotland on 19th February 2011. Around 20 SWAN supporters –  frontline workers, UNISON activists, students and academics –  met in Glasgow to discuss ways in which SWAN could be part of the fightback against cuts and also be involved in defending the rights of asylum seekers.

Speakers in the cuts session included Professor Greg Philo of the Glasgow University Media Unit; Brian Smith, Convenor of Defend Glasgow Services; and John McCardle from the Black Triangle Campaign.

Those present agreed to prioritise building for the TUC 26th March demonstration in London and also for the SWAN Conference in Birmingham on 15/16 April at which Jon Mcardle will be a plenary speaker.

SWAN nationally affiliated to the Autistic Rights Movement last year and set a precedent for doing the same with other service user groups and self-advocacy networks. Roderick Cobley from the London Autistic Rights Movement (LARM) was a guest speaker at the London SWAN monthly meeting in June. He provided an introduction to the concept of neurodiversity and its place in the social model of disability and how ignorance and discrimination against the ‘differently brained’ affects the lives of autistic people. The Autistic Rights Movement are campaigning against the medicalisation of autism and in favour of independent living.

In kind, LARM invited London SWAN to speak at their equivalent meeting this September. I went along and gave a background to SWAN, our anti-cuts activity and some of the highlights from our recent national conference. I didn’t discuss social work and autism, with sparse personal knowledge, but rather identified areas of potential relevance to both SWAN and autistic people: DLA medical testing, slashing access to Employment Support Allowance and the disgrace of £15bn saved by 2015 in welfare cuts overall against a projected £10bn via the banking levy. I went on to mention the radical tradition in social work and how collective action is poignant now, not just to fight cuts, but as a vehicle for denuding professional power differentials between workers and service users.

From this point, the meeting was a lesson for me! I was given a swift introduction to including people in our network and discourse via technology. One of the LARM members, for instance, was participating in the meeting by phone.  SWAN could not only be more inclusive, but might widen its membership significantly with the use of Skype, telephones and various Web 2.0 technology.  

As the conversation developed around inclusion we began to discuss appropriate communication for those with autism. Members shared with me their frustration at the depth of ignorance about autism shown by Department of Health officials over the recent Autism Strategy. If this wasn’t incredible enough, others suggested this was frequently an issue for the pan-disability movement – often basic matters such as failing to provide literature in appropriate formats. It appears the hierarchy of impairments is alive, well and does not favour those with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

As we discussed changes to benefit testing, the direct impact of such changes became apparent. Those with ‘non-visible’ disabilities have raised concerns about how a medical assessment might miss fluctuating conditions and leave them in dire straits. One or two members were visibly nervous while we discussed this.

However, the sober mood of our discussion lightened as one of the members suggested that social workers refer to autistic people as the ‘service excluded’ rather than service users. How many social care service users will be able to identify with this over the approaching months and years? Another LARM representative said that while she was intimidated by news of cuts, she felt like chucking eggs at the government. We unanimously agreed that was the right kind of response.

LARM members indicated that radical social work could be common ground for dialogue between autistic people and social workers. With this in mind LARM plan to send delegates to forthcoming local and national SWAN events. They must be able to count on us to support their campaigning. Here emerges a wider network.

The seminar included speakers such as Mark Lymbery (University of Nottingham) who introduced the discussion on personalisation. He pointed out the challenges facing social workers required to introduce this new way of funding social care for adults. There was a strong and energetic debate about how social workers can promote social work values in the face of enormous demands on their time through extra paper work involved in the new funding regime. Many social workers expressed their fears about the possible sidelining of social workers who are being replaced by (cheaper) unqualified assessors in some Local Authorities.

At the same time, Mark pointed out the opportunity for social workers to use the personalisation agenda to forge links with service users to demand adequate resources so that service users’ lives are truly enhanced by more control and improved care from care staff (whose terms and conditions are fully protected and are offered union membership!). Only then will social workers truly help empower service users.
 
Surinder Guru (University of Birmingham), June Sadd (Equalities Consultant and SWAN National Chair) and Weyman Bennett (Unite Against Fascism) spoke about Racism and how it can be challenged both in social work practice and in the wider community. Weyman spoke about the campaign to stop the BNP leader Nick Griffin getting elected in Barking and linked it to the need to challenge racist stereotypes in the wider society.
 
The next London SWAN half-day meeting on 30th October will be on the theme of ‘Resisting cuts to social work services’ (see Events Diary).

At the end of last year I was shocked to hear of plans to close the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department at my local hospital, the Whittington in north London. Not only is it a vital service that I have used as a local resident, but I used to work there as a mental health social worker.

It all started when our local MP received a leaked document describing plans to ‘reconfigure’ (i.e. close) the hospital’s A&E Department and replace it with a privately run urgent care centre. A public meeting was hastily organised and attended by three hundred people who angrily heckled the NHS Islington Chief Executive who had come to defend the plans! It was decided there to launch a campaign against the proposals.

An activists’ meeting was held the following week and the small community centre room booked was barely big enough for the 70 plus people who turned up. This included local campaigners, trade unionists, political party activists, hospital workers, community and patients groups and residents. At this stage some political parties had set up their own campaigns, but central to our eventual success was the decision to join these together to form a united cross-party coalition. Another key factor was making clear the link between NHS cuts and privatisation.

We decided to organise a demonstration giving ourselves two months to publicise the proposals and build the campaign. A range of activities were planned including cavalcades, letter writing, leafleting of neighbourhoods and regular stalls with petitions, posters and leaflets at busy locations such as the shopping centre. We were aided by good publicity from the local press but the key was getting out on the streets and talking to countless local people (we eventually collected 16,000 signatures on our petition).

We also developed strong links with local trade union branches which raised the profile of the campaign amongst workers. Though some Whittington hospital trade unionists were involved from the start, we also leafleted the hospital regularly to strengthen links with hospital workers and build their confidence to challenge the proposals from the inside. This eventually led to the biggest union meeting at the hospital in years. Overall momentum was sustained through fortnightly planning meetings to co-ordinate these diverse activities.

Our march, attended by 5,000 people, was a great success and with extensive press and TV coverage proved to be a major turning point. In the run-up to the general election the popularity of the campaign made it a hot local issue that all mainstream political parties wanted to be identified with. To capitalise on this, one week before the general election we organised a ‘Day of Action’ and rally. All sorts of stunts and activities took place including patients attending their GP surgery dressed in Whittington cat costumes and bus workers at a local depot holding a ballot over the A&E proposals. At the lunchtime rally outside the hospital the announcement via a local MP that the New Labour Health Secretary was scrapping the reconfiguration forced his Conservative counterpart to declare his own moratorium on the plans. We celebrated a great victory for what the local newspaper headline called ‘people power’, but our coalition remains vigilant in case the new Government tries to renege on its promise.

For more info about the campaign: http://dwhc.org.uk/

This is the biggest demonstration we have had in Scotland since the Make Poverty History protest in 2005. There were solid trade union contingents from all the major unions on the protest, including from the Unison public sector union, alongside large numbers of students, disability rights activists, pensioners and other campaigners. People were incredibly buoyed by the size of the protest.

But there was also a debate taking place throughout the demo about where we go from here—what we need to do to actually stop the cuts. The idea of a one-day general strike went down well. It fitted with the mood of anger people feel at being made to pay for the crisis.

One protester commented: “the Tory cuts are just too much for the country to bear. I’ve been very ill and am still in recovery. I was training to be a teacher but had to defer my place when I got sick. The welfare state caught me at a really important time—I relied on it and I can see how important it was for me. I believe it should be there for other people too. I don’t think a lot of people cheat on benefits—it is exaggerated by the media. People are just trying to get by in this life.”

Another commented: “we are facing the most pernicious government since Thatcher. The sooner that Scotland can take French lessons the better! Hopefully today has given us the chance to launch a bigger campaign—it cannot just be a one off protest.”

Initially, I found the start of the demo to be frustrating. The more I listened to the speakers, the more I heard the voices of those whose lives hang in the balance because of our government’s complete disregard of their services and of their humanity. This ignited my desire to march and the frustration of having to wait grew unbearable. I did not want to march to make up numbers, I did not march for a day out. I wanted to march in the coldness, in the wet and in the wind because it was important to sacrifice comforts, to be able to share, to empathise and to unite with and on behalf of all those people who are kept at the bottom of our so called meritocratic ‘big society’.

Being at the demonstration meant I was part of the truth and not part of the government spin. Whilst I am privileged to be studying on a degree course, I believe the best teaching comes from those whose social status often prevents their voices being heard because they are never given a platform from which to speak. The demonstration was that platform and I listened, I really listened to what was being said.

As I marched I was witness to anger from some, frustration from others and acknowledged a sense of loss, worry and an inherent desperation from those whose work in the public sector hangs in the balance, along with the support of those most in need in our country. The march may not yet have changed the government’s perspective, however, it made me think about those in history who have fought to change the consciousness of the oppressors. Their fights have been long, their battles painful, but they kept on marching. I am determined to carry those same principles. I march with my head high, my eyes forward and my voice heard, because my actions are for those who are being made voiceless. In my opinion, that is the heart and the true value of social work. I would even go as far to say that is the real vocation of every social worker.

Catherine writes: As a student social worker, you feel invincible; when in class or when working alongside colleagues and service users. However, this feeling suddenly disappears when the reality of “the cuts” kick in. I have been left wondering what will happen to the occupation I have trained in, and what my role will be as a social worker under the coalition government.

In order not to be passive or accepting of future plans and to protect valued services I, along with 7,000 others, took to the streets of Birmingham. This was to demonstrate that we, as a collective, will resist the potentially disabling measures illustrated in the recent spending review.

The demonstration was an exciting and meaningful event. Those in attendance reflected the wide impact that the drastic economic measures will have on our communities. I felt I was part of something that is actively working towards the protection of our services and the most vulnerable in society. I was inspired by the range of speakers and it added to my own ever-increasing sense of hope that something could come from this.

However, beyond the speeches and imaginative chants from the crowd, I cannot help but think towards my own future as a qualified social worker. What is it that I can do, within the constraints imposed my potential employers, to resist the cuts? How can social workers facilitate change? Is it time for general strike action? These were some of the issues raised during the demonstration and only time will tell what will come from that day’s proceedings.

So, what was the result? Well as much as I would like to say dramatic changes have occurred, they have not. We still live in a country where the government’s actions will increase existing inequalities and where those on the margins of society will be negatively impacted on. What it did achieve, however, was to give individuals a sense of solidarity, a space to make their voice heard and discuss plans for further activism.