Social (Mis)care

Was introduced to Rob Fisher's blog today via Samzdata to this article; I would like to say this surprises me but it does not and I'll explain why.

In my adventures in temp-land I have had some odd jobs; perhaps one of the oddest was that working for an Adult Social Care unit; these are those groups tasked with providing care to those with learning difficulties who's parents are unable (and in a few rare but very sad cases unwilling) to care for their full-grown children. They are run by local authorities (Lord knows what would happen had Brown ever realised his National Social Service idea - *shudders*) on a relatively small budget.

My boss managed a clutch of independant living sites where the mentally handicapped could garner some semblance of dignity; I say "managed" because what was the predominant focus of each day was the damage control presented to him by his supervisor.

Every day was a battle to get reliable levels of staffing, the bottom 2 tiers in particular letting the side down massively; an example would be a member of staff calling in sick on the grounds of "not been mentally prepared for work" - no illness, no disabilities themselves; just an insane non-excuse.

Other junior staff accused senior management of using service restructuring (as in staff and their charges being moved to newer, better facilities) as a means of "harming their friendships and 'rights'" rather than merely trying to make sure people with genuine needs for constant supervision were supervised.

From my viewpoint I saw whining junior staff who were always on the fiddle whenever they could; it is unsurprising that this attitude was more widespread in other staff.

It will not surprise anyone reading that the predominant decade many of these staff gained an education was through the late 90s to noughties; when there were junior staff with a good work ethic they were either immigrants or promoted or both! Zanu New Labour have enriched an entitlement culture that will hit it's victims hard when reality bites hard.

The fish rots from the head; time to throwthe whole rotting carcass in the bin.