Climbié social worker wins right to go back to work
Posted on | March 10, 2010 | No Comments
From BASW:
Former Haringey social worker Lisa Arthurworrey has won her bid to be registered by the General Social Care Council (GSCC) after being turned down at her first attempt.
Ms Arthurworrey was sacked by Haringey following the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié in 2000 and has fought to clear her name ever since. She took her case to two Care Standards Tribunal hearings, both of which decided in her favour with support from BASW’s Advice and Representation Service.
“I am naturally pleased that this decision has finally come,” Ms Arthurworrey said after the private hearing of the GSCC Registration Committee on 26 February. “The last 10 years have been incredibly difficult ones and now I want to start rebuilding my career.”
BASW welcomed the decision as “long overdue” in light of the previous tribunal verdicts. But Roger Kline, social care official of the union Aspect, which represented Ms Arthurworrey at this final stage of her re-registration, said the result had not been a foregone conclusion despite the success of her previous appeals against the GSCC’s original refusal to register her. “The GSCC [Council] tried to argue that the stress she has undergone meant that she wasn’t fit to go on the register, but fortunately the Registration Committee asserted its independence,” Mr Kline said.
The Committee did set conditions on her registration, however, including that she must be assessed by the occupational health department of any prospective employer, submit to any training and supervision requirements and report to the GSCC on her progress every year.
“A ten-year injustice has been partly put to bed,” Kline said, “but we need to stop this happening again to other social workers. The blame culture is still out there.”
As Victoria’s allocated social worker Ms Arthurworrey would have to live with what happened all her life, Kline said, but added: “We support the findings of the Care Standards Tribunal that she is fit to work with children and that there is no evidence her practice was at fault. The real fault lies with the management and culture of Haringey at that time.
“It remains too easy for employers to try to blame individual social workers when things go wrong rather than scrutinise the decisions on staffing levels, workloads, training, management culture and changes in government child protection policy which are often the real reasons for tragedies.”
In her appeal hearing two years ago, at which Ms Arthurworrey was represented by BASW, the tribunal said the failings identified in her practice were “either as a result of medical advice which was effectively unchallengeable or as a result of a lack of supportive and competent managers.”
It added: “To blame everything on Ms Arthurworrey is, we believe, to make her a scapegoat for the failings of a number of people.” It said that she should undergo a psychiatric assessment, which is understood to have passed her as fit to practise as a social worker.
Mor Dioum, director of the Victoria Climbié Foundation, said in a statement put together in agreement with the girl’s parents: “We believe that this culture of blaming an individual social worker, or any frontline staff, must come to an end. Frontline staff, like Lisa, will continue to be singled out for blame if the agencies they work for fail to properly support them.”
In his inquiry report into the death of Victoria, whose carers Marie-Therese Kouao and Carl Manning were convicted of murder in 2001, Lord Laming said management had been insufficiently accountable for frontline social work.
Tags: blame > child abuse > investigation > lisa arthurworrey > social worker > unfair > victoria climbie
Snoop Dogg, a threat to Britain? Not very likely
Posted on | March 9, 2010 | No Comments
I don’t often agree with the views of Daily Mail readers, but even they have recognised that banning Snoop Dogg from entering Britain was ludicrous.
In typical Mail style, the paper chose to attack the rapper’s lawyers who successfully used the Human Rights Act to win him the right to apply for a visa to enter and perform in the UK in the future.
The ban on Snoop Dogg stemmed from a violent disorder charge following a ‘brawl’ at Heathrow Airport in May 2006.
However Snoop has not been, and is unlikely to be, the last foreign rapper/celebrity to be involved in a brawl in a public place. Its difficult to not view his banning as the overreaction to a famous rapper with an extraordinarily huge following. Yes, some of his fans may be violent thugs, but that can be said about nearly every rapper/singer/performer out there, not to mention some political parties…Moreover, his style in recent years has been very much down the sedate pop route, collaborating with the likes of the ’safe’ Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey.
This is a man who is nowadays more concerned with coaching a Little League baseball than gang rivalry. Overturning the ban is a sensible step.
CARIBBEAN WILL SUFFER FROM NURSE MIGRATION, SAYS WORLD BANK
Posted on | March 4, 2010 | No Comments
A new World Bank report has warned that the Caribbean region will face great difficulties in the future if it does not address the massive migration of nurses from the region.
Nursing shortages across the English-speaking Caribbean limit access and quality of health services and affect the region’s competitiveness, says the report.
According to ‘The Nurse Labor and Education Markets in the English-Speaking CARICOM’ (which includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago), the region is facing a rapidly growing shortage of nurses as demand for quality health care increases due to an aging population, and high numbers of nurses emigrate drawn by higher paying jobs in Canada, the UK and the US.
These shortages have tangible impacts that may compromise the ability of
English-speaking CARICOM countries to meet their key health care service needs, especially in the areas of disease prevention and care. In addition, the
shortage of highly trained nurses reduces the capacity of countries to offer
quality health care at a time when Caribbean countries aim to attract
businesses and retirees as an important pillar of growth.
The World Bank estimates that there are 7,800 nurses working in the
English-speaking CARICOM, or 1.25 nurses per 1,000 people, roughly one-tenth the concentration in some OECD countries. In addition, demand for nurses exceeds their supply throughout the region: 3,300 or 30 percent of all positions in the sector were vacant at the time of the study.
Nurses are the bedrock of highly functioning health systems in all countries,
said Evangeline Javier, Sector Director for Human Development in the World
Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean region.
In order to tackle the problem, English-speaking countries in the Caribbean need to adopt policies that would train more and at the same time retain quality nurses.
It is expected that in the coming years, demand for nurses in the English-speaking Caribbean will increase due to the health needs of the aging population. Under current education and labor market conditions, however, supply will slightly decrease.
The World Bank expects that unmet demand for nurses will more than triple
during the next 15 years from 3,300 nurses in 2006 to 10,700 nurses in 2025.
At the same time, data suggests that the number of English-speaking CARICOM trained nurses working in Canada, the UK and the US is about 21,500, that is, three times higher than the workforce in the English-speaking CARICOM. Between 2002 and 2006, more than 1,800 nurses left the region to work abroad. Analysis indicates that the recent decline in emigration is the result of changes in immigration policies abroad rather than lessened interest in working abroad.
The new World Bank report also points to high demand for nurse education but low completion rates (55 percent) as a challenge and opportunity in tackling nurse shortages. Having more nurse tutors available, maximizing completion rates and accepting more students into programs would significantly bolster the number of new nurses entering the health system.
The report highlights that the costs and benefits associated with training a
nurse in the English-speaking CARICOM are unfairly distributed among nurses, countries of origin, and countries where some nurses choose to live and practice their profession. Given current migration patterns, the report
estimates that for every nurse trained in Jamaica, for example, prime
destination countries reap benefits between US$3,800 (Canada) and US$26,000.
But a crisis can be averted, explained Christoph Kurowski, World Bank
Sector Leader for Human Development and lead author of the report. Ideally, countries in the region should adopt a joined approach that balances the rights and interests of nurses and governments, as well as poorer and richer countries within the broader framework of the Caribbean Single Market Economy.
To meet the demand for nurses in the English-speaking Caribbean, the report
suggests the following strategies:
1. Increase training capacity. With an average regional graduation rate of 55
percent, dropouts represent a tremendous loss. Establishing national systems to monitor retention, increasing the flexibility of the curriculum to accommodate different schedules and interests, creating smaller learning groups, and identifying peer mentors have all been shown to effectively address student retention. Cost estimates for increasing retention and doubling the number of graduates to meet demand fall into the order of US$30 million. The report also suggests assigning costs more fairly to those who benefit, including the nurses themselves who express the willingness to pay for their education.
2. Manage migration. Current approaches are limited to creating barriers to
migration, recruiting from abroad and mutual recognition agreements. In
addition, countries need to carefully consider policy options that range from
leveraging the expatriate community, mentoring, staff exchange, and codes of practice for international recruitment.
3. Strengthen data quality and availability. Information on the nurse labor and education markets remains scarce and sporadic. Given the current situation, it is critical that countries more closely monitor trends of key indicators such as vacancies, migration levels, and completion rates.
4. Adopt a regional approach. Given the size and the linkages of local nurse
labor markets, no country in the region is in a position to efficiently tackle
the challenges ahead on its own. Therefore, countries ideally join forces and
adopt a regional approach to increasing training capacity, managing migration and strengthening the evidence-base, if possible, with technical and financial support from countries where a large part of their nurse workforce will tend to migrate: Canada, the UK and the US.
SMITHSONIAN REJECTS OJ SUIT AS PART OF HISTORY
Posted on | March 4, 2010 | No Comments
From Dr Boyce Watkins – see the original post here
Remember the suit that O.J. Simpson wore when he was acquitted of murder in 1995? I’m sure you do. The images of O.J. breathing a sigh of relief after his acquittal were viewed all around the world. You probably remember exactly what you were doing at that precise moment, similar to the 911 attacks. Well, the Smithsonian Institute has announced that they do not want O.J.’s suit, claiming that it is “inappropriate for their collection.”
The announcement came after a 13-year legal fight over what to do with the suit. Since that time, it has been in the possession of Simpson’s former sports agent, Mike Gilbert. Fred Goldman, father of one of the men Simpson was accused of killing, has been fighting for the suit since the 1990s. Simpson told authorities that the suit was stolen from him.
Credit: AP
The suit was also part of the reason that Simpson is in prison right now. O.J. was arrested and convicted for an incident, where he robbed men in Las Vegas in order to reclaim memorabilia that he believed to be stolen. He’d been told that the suit was among the list of things being offered for sale.
The Smithsonian used these words on its website:
“The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will not be collecting O.J. Simpson’s suit. The decision was made by the museum’s curators together with the director.”
Gilbert, the man in possession of the suit, was disappointed by the decision of the Smithsonian:
“Whether we like it or not, it’s part of American history,” he said. “I’m disappointed that they didn’t wait to hear from me and consider my vision of how it should be displayed.”
Others weighed in on the decision, including Simpson’s attorney:
“I’m saddened by the fact that the foremost museum in America has refused this very important item in the history of American jurisprudence,” said Simpson’s attorney, Ronald P. Slates. “Regardless of one’s feelings about Mr. Simpson, his acquittal by a jury of his peers on Oct. 3, 1995, was of great significance and is widely talked about to this day.”
In this case, the Smithsonian may be wrong. There’s no denying that the O.J. Simpson case was arguably the most closely watched trial in American history. I can’t think of another trial that received this much attention, at least during the age of television. One can’t help but wonder if the Smithsonian is being unscholarly in its decision to pass up on the Simpson suit, since there is no denying Simpson’s relevance to American social, legal and racial history. This move reminds me of Time Magazine’s decision not to name Osama Bin Laden it’s Person of the Year, in spite of the fact that his attacks on the World Trade Center had such a dramatic impact on the global community. Instead, Time made the weak and easy choice of Rudolph Giuliani, shooting down its own journalistic integrity in the process.
The O.J. Simpson trial was yet another bellwether of American racial progress. The vast difference in perceptions between whites and blacks over this trial reminded us that we have a long way to go when it comes to achieving racial equity. What was most interesting about the trial was that even though Simpson was acquitted, America treated him like a guilty man: He was harassed everywhere he went, and people spoke about him as if he’d committed the crime. I would have sued the butts off of some of the major media outlets for their remarks.
Before the trial, Simpson was a regular in celebrity events and endorsements. Many felt that he’d abandoned the black community and most of us accepted that fact. But like Tiger Woods, America’s perception of Simpson as the dirty, evil black man with the audacity to hurt a beautiful white woman led to his fall from grace. Had Nicole Brown Simpson been black, the trial would not have made the news more than 3 or 4 times.
Remembering that little smiling girl
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | No Comments
It is ironic that on the same day that the Victoria Climbie Foundation was marking the 10 year anniversary of the death of eight year old Victoria at the hands of an abusive ‘aunt’, the verdict in the death of another little girl, Khyra Ishaq, starved to death by her mother, was being handed down.
I attended the VCF memorial in Parliament on 25 Feb. and saw the dedication of the Foundation to not only remembering Victoria, but working towards making a safer and better future for children. Despite all of their hard work however, children continue to be killed in truly horrible circumstances.
Khyra Ishaq should never have been allowed to starve to death; Baby Peter Connelly should never have been tragically physically abused; the Ogunkoya children did not deserve to be killed; neither did the Mullings children…the list, it seems, is endless.
Just what can be done?
While it seems an impossible task, steps can be taken: greater co-ordination between agencies; more support for the staff and the individuals in the system; and greater preventative steps towards ensuring that when alarm bells start ringing, we pay attention and don’t ignore them.
Why the NBH shouldn’t be completely vilified
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | No Comments
Being at the receiving end of bullying can be a truly horrible experience.
You feel demeaned, belittled, and drained of self confidence.
In the past, I have experienced bullying at work – and it wasn’t pleasant. I had friends who supported me, but it remained very difficult.
Bullying is one of those experiences that is easily denied by the bully. He or she defends their actions as ‘taking a hard line’; ‘being strong willed’; or showing ‘leadership’. Refuting those defences and trying to prove just how much you’ve been affected by the experience can be very difficult.
And that’s why I don’t think Christine Pratt was necessarily completely wrong to say that her helpline had received telephone calls from staff at Number 10 who claimed to have been bullied. In the face of very strong denials from Number 10, if there was anyone who could support the claims of those individuals, they should feel obligated to step forward.
What has made this entire situation difficult, however, is the absence of evidence from Ms Pratt and the NBH; the potential breach of confidentiality; and the allegations of Ms Pratt improperly benefiting from the NBH.
I completely agree that confidentiality of the callers is important, but if I was the one being bullied, and I was effectively being called a liar, I would welcome the intervention of someone that could support me. I would probably then seek a legal resolution, but not everyone is minded to do so.
What has made this row worse though, has been the cack-handed PR response from NBH to the resignations of its patrons.
What should have been a measured and calm reaction, became a mud slinging row which has unfortunately left the NBH, its patrons, and its competitors, looking all the worse for wear.
Seemingly forgotten, are the people who (allegedly) sought help from the NBH. What is to become of them?
Cornel West Questions Barack Obama’s Commitment to Black People
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | No Comments
Kathleen Wells did a recent interview with Dr. Cornel West, a Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. Dr. West is one of the most passionate, respected and progressive minds in the African American community. He doesn’t carry his ego on his shoulders, and he genuinely advocates for those who are most in need of a voice.
Dr. West has remained vocal in his concern over the Obama Administration’s lack of willingness to honestly and aggressively confront issues facing the African American community. West also makes no secret of his support for Tavis Smiley, another strong critic of Obama. In his interview with Wells, West honestly and poignantly lays out his concerns about the struggles of black America and what President Obama is and is not doing in this regard.
When it comes to Obama, West gives him a mixed grade on his performance:
“I think on a symbolic level I would give him an A in terms of uplifting the spirits and providing a sense of hope and possibility going into the inauguration and sustaining it up to a certain point, said Dr. West. “On a substantial level I would give him a C- when it comes to policy, when it comes to priority, when it comes to focusing on poor people and working people – which has to do with the vast majority of black people – that he has really not come through in any substantial and significant way.”
Professor West goes on to give the president poor grades on issues such as jobs, homes, education, and health care. He also argues that the president cannot take his base for granted.
One very interesting part of the interview is when Dr. West goes into the fact that President Obama has chosen an economic team (Lawrence Summers, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and others) who have put Wall Street at the center of their agenda and made job creation an afterthought. He also discusses the concept of a “black agenda,” which has been the subject of controversy this week.
“Frederick Douglass’ agenda was an agenda, not for black people to get out of slavery. It was for America to become a better democracy. And it spilt over for women’s rights; it spilled over for worker’s rights and so forth,” claims Dr. West. “Martin Luther King, Jr.’s agenda was not to help Negroes overcome American apartheid in the south. It was to make America democracy a better place, where everyday people, from poor people who were white and red and yellow and black and brown, would be able to live lives in decency and dignity.”
Whether black America agrees with him or not, Professor West makes incredibly valid points. Many of his concerns are laced with the fact that Obama spent the first year of his presidency ignoring the issues that mattered most to the American people. His miscalculation on unemployment rates led to his poor economic team being surprised when unemployment went higher than the 8% cap the president promised a year ago. Black unemployment has fared even worse, reaching a staggering 17.3% nation-wide.
What must be understood as well about the perspective of Dr. West, whose critiques should be considered by President Obama, is that West is in the difficult position of advocating for poor people in a capitalist society. To some extent, that is a losing battle, like keeping a bottomless bucket filled with water. But the truth is that without individuals like Cornel West, America would become an incredibly ugly nation, one that has allowed the drug of capitalism to eat away at its soul. So while Dr. West certainly has a thankless job, it is an important one. His challenge to the American power structure is both anti-war and anti-poverty, two very difficult battles to fight in an financially-driven society, where war and poverty serve as fuel for unjust and corrupt economic engines.
One additional point that must be considered when analyzing the words of Dr. West is that his strong affiliation with Tavis Smiley may serve to undermine the validity of his remarks toward President Obama. While one can argue that Dr. West comes with a relatively pure agenda, like a priest at a boxing match, Tavis has positioned himself as one of the boxers in the match, with his fist aimed squarely at Obama’s head. I encourage Dr. West, Smiley and other Obama critics to supplement their critiques with tangible, relevant policy solutions that can be presented to the president. This takes hard work, primarily because it is easy to attack the short-comings of the presidency, but incredibly difficult to understand the complications and limitations of the office.
http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/02/25/cornel-west-barack-obama/
Climbie Foundation calls for abuse openness
Posted on | February 24, 2010 | No Comments
The foundation set up in the memory of murdered eight-year-old Victoria Climbie is urging that findings of child abuse inquiries be made public.
The 10th anniversary of her death is to be marked with a memorial event in Westminster on Thursday.
The Victoria Climbie Foundation (VCF)said secrecy around investigations meant lessons were not being learned.
Victoria was tortured to death by her aunt, Marie-Theresa Kouao, and Ms Kouao’s partner, Carl Manning.
Dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers had seen Victoria in the run-up to her death in Haringey, north London, but failed to spot the abuse.
Foundation director Mor Dioum said Thursday would be the final memorial to Victoria, but work would continue to help other children facing mistreatment and neglect.
He called for all political parties to commit to publishing in full the serious case reviews (SCRs), which are investigations into the most severe cases of child abuse.
Under current rules the detailed findings of the reviews are confidential and only a summary is published.
Mr Dioum said: “Just how are agencies and social care staff expected to learn and implement better procedures if it is not publicly made clear just how and where they went wrong?
“VCF wholeheartedly agrees that the publication of SCRs must firstly be geared towards protecting the children involved, and secondly, not be a tool of recrimination.
“Publishing SCRs whilst preserving anonymity is not an impossible task and has been achieved in other sectors.
“All too often, vague executive summaries give the same vague recommendations and rarely properly identify where and how concrete changes can be made.”
Opposition MPs have said SCRs should be published in full after having names deleted.
But the government has rejected the calls, saying it could put vulnerable children and their families at greater risk, as well as making people more reluctant to take part in child abuse investigations.
From BBC News
A VERY WORTHY CAMPAIGN
Posted on | February 15, 2010 | No Comments
Black Mental Health (BMH) UK is concerned about the over representation of innocent people from African Caribbean communities who are profiled on the national criminal DNA database.
Disturbingly 42% of the entire black male population living in the UK, and 77% of all young black men, are profiled on the database even though the Home Office’s own research shows that people from this group are less likely to commit a crime than their white counterparts.
Proposals in the new ‘Crime and Security Bill‘ have not addressed this and will have far reaching implications for the future civil liberties of Britain’s black communities. Currently every black family can be traced through the database - and anyone profiled on it can be turned down for a visa or a job but there is very little information about this out there.
BHM UK has set up a 10 Downing Street Petition to kick start a campaign calling for the removal of innocent people from the criminal database and the full implementation of the European Rulining on the retention of innocent DNA.
Ethnic minority women facing ‘double discrimination’ in the criminal justice system
Posted on | February 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
Ethnic minority women facing ‘double discrimination’ in the Criminal Justice System, finds new report
A new report published by the Fawcett Society reveals how the needs of ethnic minority women are frequently rendered invisible in the Criminal Justice System as offenders, victims and workers in the justice sector, as they face double discrimination on the grounds of sex and race.
- Ethnic minority women, particularly foreign national women, are over-represented within the female offender population with nearly one third of women in prison in England from an ethnic minority background.
- Ethnic minority women are under-represented as workers within the criminal justice system particularly at senior levels. There is only one ethnic minority woman in the senior judiciary and only 0.2 percent of police officers at Chief Inspector grade and above are ethnic minority women.
- The needs of ethnic minority women who experience violence are frequently overlooked – nine out of ten local authorities have no specialist services for ethnic minority women who have experienced violence.
- Evidence on ethnic minority women’s experiences continues to be patchy and inconsistent. There is a lack of reliable statistics giving the full picture of the intersection of race and gender, let alone the experiences of women from different ethnic minority backgrounds.
- On many issues, such as ethnic minority women’s experience of sexual violence or the health needs of women offenders, there is a complete dearth of evidence, pointing to low prioritising of these women’s needs and experiences.
Commenting on the report, Sharon Smee, Justice Policy Officer at the Fawcett Society, said: “More than ten years on from the Stephen Lawrence enquiry and over five years since the appointment of the first ethnic minority female high court judge, the criminal justice system is still failing to respond to the realities of ethnic minority women’s lives. This is compounded by the limited number of ethnic minority women in senior positions in the justice sector.
“We need a justice system which is representative and responsive to the needs and experiences of all people in the UK and which draws on the talents of all women. It is time to listen to ethnic minority women and learn from their experiences and the best practice initiatives already in operation.”
Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, said:
“The Criminal Justice System continues to fail to consider the specific needs and skills of ethnic minority women. Whereas previous policies have targeted ‘women’ and ‘race,’ there has been little focus on the multiple discrimination faced by ethnic minority women, who have tended to fall between the gaps.
“Progress for ethnic minority victims of violence has also been frustratingly slow: nine out of ten local authorities still have no specialised ethnic minority service for women who have experienced domestic and sexual violence.
“This report demonstrates how important it is more broadly for equality law not to ‘box’ individuals into categories but to recognise the multiple discrimination which is often at play. The dual discrimination provision in the Equality Bill currently before parliament is crucial in this regard.
“Fawcett’s election campaign will be asking the parties how they will be addressing multiple discrimination in the justice system and within equality policy more generally.”
Key Statistics
Women offenders
- 29 percent of the female prison population is made up of ethnic minority women.
- 19 percent of female prisoners were foreign nationals in 2009.
- 26 percent of ethnic minority women reported victimisation by prison staff compared to 16 percent of white women.
- Ethnic minority women are more likely to be remanded into custody than white offenders.
Women Workers
- As of March 2009, only 0.2 percent of police officers at Chief inspector grade and above were ethnic minority women.
- At the end of 2008, ethnic minority women made up only 3.8 percent of the total number of self-employed barristers.
- Women working in private practice earned 28.9 percent less than men in 2008. This gap appeared unaffected by ethnic background.
- There is only one ethnic minority female High Court judge and none in the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court.
- There are 36 ethnic minority women judges as compared to 700 female judges and 2901 male judges. Ethnic minority women therefore make up just 1 percent of judges.
- Only 7 percent of women working in the prison service are from an ethnic minority background.
Female victims and survivors of violence
- Nine out of ten local authorities have no specialist ethnic minority service for women who have experienced violence.
- 1 in 4 ethnic minority women experience domestic violence during their lifetime.
- In 2008 the Forced Marriage Unit had over 1,600 reported cases of forced marriage.
- It has been estimated that nearly 66,000 women with female genital mutilation (FGM) were living in the UK in 2001, and over 20,000 girls could currently be at risk.
- 30 percent of gun crime victims are young females, compared to 2-5 percent of these crimes having female suspects.
- The cost to society of violence against ethnic minority women has been estimated to be at least £1.5 billion.