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8 J. Soc. Welfare & Fam. L. 1 (1986)

handle is hein.journals/jnlosclwl8 and id is 1 raw text is: Points of View Visit or inspection A Government circular letter to all Directors of Social Services this summer urged that visits made to children in care allowed to live at home with their parents should not be less frequent than those to children boarded-out with foster-parents. The faith that foster children continue to be visited as prescribed by Regulation 21 of the 1955 Regulations is touching. Familiarity with the Regu- lations is not conspicuous, as research has shown. Social workers are now being urged to transfer these requirements voluntarily to the supervision of children in their parental homes. What constitutes an effective home visit? How do we assess the demeanour of parents? How do we observe the condition of the child? Are the sleeping arrangements inspected? Do we speak alone with a child? What is our understanding of our rights as inspector? Is parental cooperation bought at too high a price? Supervision is an extremely difficult art for student social workers to acquire. Not every student has first hand experience of chil- dren or knows what lies within the normal range of development and what is clearly aberrant. A group of social workers, asked to give examples of behaviour described in a social work report as maladjusted cited every type of conduct from bedwetting to arson. Governmental exhortations about the frequency of visits won't go very far in equipping our staff for the task of discovering what goes on in the average British family. DHSS Letter C1(85)1 from Chief Inspector, Social Services Inspectorate to all Directors of Social Services. April 1985 Computerised paperchase One of the aims of the Fowler Review of Social Security which attracted wide- spread approval was the intention to apply modern techniques and abolish the D.H.S.S. Staff hunt for files in a Dickensian paper-chase. I.C.L. is to be invited to tender. The Local Office Project, shortened rather unfortunately to L.O.P. will deal with 500 local D.H.S.S. offices and 19,000 terminals. Benefit entitlement will be worked out rapidly and payments automatically arranged. D.H.S.S. staff will have a modern, efficient working environment. Claimants will have to develop new ways of coping. They may not altogether be convinced that computerised bureaucracy is an improvement on the familiar variety. There is little satisfaction in arguing with a machine. Let us hope that the staff, freed from routine chores, may have more time to spend on humanising the service. Are you sure you are supported? Chief officers in local government have been in the habit (described as the belt and braces principle) of joining more than one Trade Union. At one time, the leading local government officers' union prided itself on its ability to represent the interests of all levels of staff. Recent history has not been so happy. I recall a branch meeting in which a member inquired how a resolution being proposed would affect members in senior management. The response was that it was a pity that such people were members. Since then industrial disputes, in which senior staff are faced with the choice of dismissal for failure to carry out their 1

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