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ICHA Weekly Bulletin 15th April 2011

ICHA PO Box 99 Hebden Bridge HX7 9AA Email: admin@icha.org.uk: Web: www.icha.org.uk Tel: 07794779893

ICHA Weekly Bulletin 15th April 2011

ICHA Strategic Development Plan 2011 This document can now be viewed on the ICHA Website. Go to: www.icha.org.uk log into the members’ area/papers of interest/misc ICHA: Yorkshire & Humberside Meeting Several ICHA Members met in Yorkshire this week to discuss ‘fee reduction’ letters received from Local Authorities from within the Yorkshire & Humberside Consortium. A response from ICHA is in the process of being finalized and will be available for members to view soon.
ICHA: Denmark visit with MPs ICHA Co-Chair Jim Sullivan and Committee Member Alison Trainor were in Denmark this week alongside Gary Kent, ICHA Political Lobbyist, Jonathan Stanley, Earl of Listowel and MPs Jessica Lee and Toby Perkins. The purpose of the visit was fact-finding and to speak to professional colleagues in the country to learn about their experiences of providing residential care to children and young people. A full account of the visit will be available soon. In the Press Children's home budget cuts could trigger fresh abuse scandals Guardian, Monday 11 April 2011 One of the first actions of the coalition government was to cancel a £300,000 contract for improving standards in children’s homes.

A fresh wave of scandals threatens children’s homes, care leaders are warning, after the government cut annual training funds for staff to just 69p a head. Only £25,000 has been set aside for work in children's homes in England out of an overall training budget of £113m for the children and young people's workforce over the coming 12 months. The bulk of the budget has been set aside for training social workers who operate in the community, considered the priority since the Baby Peter affair. But some 12,000 children, including between 10% and 15% of those in care, are looked after in residential homes. The Social Care Association (SCA), which promotes good practice in the sector, has written to the education secretary, Michael Gove, who is responsible for child welfare, warning that he risks a return to the scandals of abuse in children's homes. "It is a sector still recovering from a series of scandals going back to the 1970s and our concern is that this is letting that recovery slip and sowing the seeds of future scandals," said Nick Johnson, the SCA chief executive. Gove has authorised £113.4m of spending by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) in 2011-12, of which just £25,000 has been earmarked for "completion of a test and trial of professional practice standards for residential care". A £6m training pot previously available for residential care has been exhausted. In addition, one of the first actions of the coalition government was to cancel a £300,000 contract for improving standards in children's homes that Labour had awarded to the Tribal consultancy. Although there are no accurate figures for numbers of children or staff in residential homes, the SCA's estimate of 36,000 workers equates to an individual share…

New NMS

The New national Minimum Standard comes into effect 1st April 2011. Abronah Care staff implements strategies to align their care provision and practices to reflect the changes.

The National Minimum Standards (NMS) is applicable to providers of children’s homes. The NMS together with the regulations such as the Children Homes Regulations 2001 as amended form the basis of the regulatory framework under the Care Standards Act 2000 (CSA) for the conduct of children’s home providers.

The National Minimum Standards for Children’s Homes are issued by the Secretary of State under section 23 of the Care Standards Act 2000. The Secretary of State will keep the standards under review and may publish amended standards as appropriate.

This is a link to the new standard:

http://www.minimumstandards.org/contents.html

Children's home budget cuts 'sow seeds of new abuse scandals'

Children's home budget cuts 'sow seeds of new abuse scandals'

Staff training budget – slashed to just 69p a head – could put already vulnerable children at risk, say care leaders

One of the first actions of the coalition government was to cancel a £300,000 contract for improving standards in children’s homes

A fresh wave of scandals threatens children's homes, care leaders are warning, after the government cut annual training funds for staff to just 69p a head.

Only £25,000 has been set aside for work in children's homes in England out of an overall training budget of £113m for the children and young people's workforce for the next 12 months.

The bulk of the budget has been set aside for training social workers who operate in the community, considered the priority since the Baby P affair. But some 12,000 children, including between 10% and 15% of those in care, are looked after in residential homes.

The Social Care Association (SCA), which promotes good practice in the sector, has written to the education secretary, Michael Gove, who is responsible for child welfare, warning that he risks a return to the scandals of abuse in children's homes.

"It is a sector still recovering from a series of scandals going back to the 1970s and our concern is that this is letting that recovery slip and sowing the seeds of future scandals," said Nick Johnson, the SCA chief executive.

Gove has authorised £113.4m of spending by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) in 2011-12, of which just £25,000 has been earmarked for "completion of a test and trial of professional practice standards for residential care".

A £6m training pot previously available for residential care has been exhausted. In addition, one of the first actions of the coalition government was to cancel a £300,000 contract for improving standards in children's homes that Labour had awarded to the Tribal consultancy.

Although there are no exact figures for numbers of children or staff in residential homes, the SCA's estimate of 36,000 workers equates to an individual share of the £25,000 amounting to 69p.

Johnson said there seemed to be an assumption that the sector, now dominated by private care providers, should fund its own training. But the state sent some of society's most vulnerable children to private homes and could not absolve itself of responsibility for their treatment, he said.

"Scotland is funding a nine-year investment programme to support the workforce in its children's homes," said Johnson. "My message to Michael Gove is that if you don't act on this, it will come back and bite you."

Successive governments were forced to intervene in children's homes in the 1980s and 1990s in response to revelations of endemic physical and sexual abuse in Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Islington in north London, and elsewhere.

Minimum standards for children's home workers specify that they must undergo formal induction and hold, or work towards, a workforce diploma qualification. But many are paid only the minimum wage and turnover is high.

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Second draft of Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Age Provisions) Regulations 2011 laid before Parliament

A revised second draft of the Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Age Provisions) Regulations 2011, which abolish the default retirement age (DRA) of 65, have now been published and laid before Parliament and will come into force on 6 April 2011. The amended version now corrects the drafting anomaly in the transitional provisions …

Second draft of Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Age Provisions) Regulations 2011 laid before Parliament A revised second draft of the Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Age Provisions) Regulations 2011, which abolish the default retirement age (DRA) of 65, have now been published and laid before Parliament and will come into force on 6 April 2011. The amended version now corrects the drafting anomaly in the transitional provisions and makes it clear that the transitional arrangements will apply regardless of whether an employee’s 65th birthday is before or after 6 April 2011 (provided always that it is before 1 October 2011).

The last date for issuing a notice of intended retirement date under the current regime is 5 April 2011 (and this is now clarified in the amended draft regulations) and the employer can set the retirement date at any time up to 12 months later, provided six to 12 months’ notice of intended retirement is given, the statutory retirement procedure is followed correctly and the employee has attained or will attain the age of 65 (or, if higher, the employer’s normal retirement age) on or before 30 September 2011.

The amended draft regulations also now contain a longstop date of 5 January 2012 for an employee to exercise his right to request to work beyond retirement. This enables an employee who is given 12 months’ notice of retirement on 5 April 2011 to exercise his right to request on the last day available (which is three months before the employer’s notice runs out).

A note from the Government states that an extension of employment of up to six months can still be agreed during the transitional period through the statutory retirement procedure.

Any purported retirement dismissal notified from 6 April 2011 onwards will, if not objectively justified, amount to unlawful age discrimination under section 13 of the Equality Act 2010. It is also likely to constitute an unfair dismissal.

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Worker Registration Scheme for Eastern European workers to close

The Accession State Worker Registration Scheme is to close on 30 April 2011 and therefore the restrictions on workers who come to the UK from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will cease to apply with effect from 1 May 2011 …

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Government details plans for a…