Just another manic Friday.....

It has been a fairly quiet and peaceful week, then today happened.

First off an urgent need to sort out watering the garden.

Now, our water system was still in it's emergency frost frozen pipes configuration so connections needed to be changed pipes moved round and connections re made.

This job had been started a few days back but paused when I tried to saw my thumb off.

This created a welcome pause filled with a meeting about child protection training for social work students. The recent baby P case has caused yet another panic about how social workers are trained.

Years ago social work was a diploma and you elected specialisms so if you were going into child work you did a module on child protection.

The new degree level qualification in social work is a degree in itself so it's set at a higher level but it's generic.

So, by the time students specialize they are at post graduate level.

Making this clearer for the non specialist.

Previously, people did a degree in say drama then added a bit of social work as a diploma.

Now they do a degree in social work, which is a solid foundation on which to build.

That is good.

But of course the social worker in the baby P case had done no Child and Family work before getting her job.

Something which might have meant she didn't really know what she was about.

Now of course if you were clever and indulging in some joined up thinking you might think this person needs training.

But I dare say there were no tick boxes for that....

So back to the drawing board everyone was sent.

Now we are looking at a generic degree but at what level does working with children slot into the degree.

Which causes me to wonder why single out children working in particular. Really should anyone graduate from a social work without a passing knowledge of learning disability, mental health, domestic violence and substance abuse as well?

It all smacks of political knee jerk driven by the daily mail and not of joined up thinking.

Whilst focus can be on individual practice and practices the big questions over funding and provision are not being asked.

It would help of course if someone came over all brave and centrally produced a specification for what should be taught, something the national council have successfully avoided doing.

There seems to be a notion that every social worker should complete a placement in children and family services which will in turn put a huge pressure on both degrees and services.

Very often it is assumed there are simple solutions when even the question can be damn complex....

But that was me being all academic earlier in the week.
We blitzed the back of the house, this is the thing, winter stops you working. spring Springs and you are thrown into catch up.

A whole area out the back had been cleared and that was going before I got home from the school run.

Lots of stuff has been moved and properly stored.

Then on to clear some space to move the caravan from the front of the house.

The boat has been laboriously drained. It's a small semi Rib thing and it turns out a lot of water had gotten inside one of the tubes. Ah yes, how do you get water out of the inside of a boat is not too complex, Rocket science it ain't, getting water out of the tubes of a rib is a branch of black magic requiring lots of effort and swearing.

Then of course I had to deal with taxing Tallies discovery which turned into a tour of the local post offices, our usual post office being closed for refit. The next one was staffed by people who have done a PHd in rude.

Then back to the house and.....

Move a caravan to the place we had laboriously cleared round the back leaving room for the dead land rover that had to be towed round the back and the boat we had manhandled out of the way and drained of water.

So, I could go up the field and tow the dead Green Goddess to the place the caravan used to be so we could get at it to change the fuel pump.

Finally, there was re making the connections on the water pipe which had started to leak.

Then retire in pain....

R