SERTUC Day of Action

The South and Eastern Region Trades Union Congress Executive Committee is calling for your active support for street level action in every community on Saturday 15 January – organised by you!

The challenge is to counter the government’s lies about the economy, spending on public services, the falsehood that deep cuts to public services are essential, and that cuts are somehow fair.

Millions of media pounds and constant political repetition has given the public a diet of lies and half truths – so the Executive Committee believes we have to use our considerable human resources (our members and our commitment) to talk to our communities and win an understanding about the depth of the government’s political attack on working people.

The invitation is to all affiliates, trade union branches and trades councils is to make your voice heard locally on Saturday 15 January.

Can you organise a street meeting, workplace activity, a street stall, a demonstration, a media-worthy stunt, community leafleting, press release, street theatre – or any kind of event that will attract people to talk to you, that will attract local media coverage, and that will ensure that our neighbours understand that cuts are not the answer – and we can make a difference.

We are leafleting against the cuts at Norwich City Football Ground this Saturday, 15th January as part of the TUC day of action. Anyone wishing to help should meet outside the Riverside Leisure Centre (opposite Carrow Road football ground), Norwich at 1.45pm – leafleting supporters until 3pm.

There are other events planned in towns and villages all over the Eastern Region - see the SERTUC website for more info.

North Norfolk Against the Cuts call for Lamb to resign

'There is a small but significant change of mood. We were out leafleting in December in Cromer.

'We had a petition on our stall calling on Norman Lamb (Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk) to resign. We had a placard advertising this petition. In the first few minutes, before we had even finished setting the stall up, people were queuing up to sign. We collected 82 signatures in about 90 minutes.

'People were more argumentative than in previous weeks. They expressed support or opposition much more vociferously. I think the student protests and the police brutality of the last week have begun to polarise society. There were a lot of words about the local MP that I would not want to repeat in respectable company! There were parents extremely angry and worried that their children would never be able to go to university. There were others denouncing students for being hooligans.

'I remember this happened during the events of France '68 as well. When the movement first started many people did not have a strong opinion. But as the revolution in France began to pose more fundamental questions about how society should be run, then people both supporters and opponents started to argue. This is the way people learn. Opinions change.

'Of course in Britain right now we are still at a very early stage. The youth are on the streets but the workers, held back by the union leadership, are still watching. Many are inspired by the students. But many don’t dare step over the Rubicon into industrial action. Not yet anyway...'

- Ed Bober, UNISON and Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts activist

The Unthank Centre

Family Support is due to lose 50% of its budget starting in April this year. This is the stream of funding which pays for the Unthank Family Centre amongst other services. The precise proposals for what is cut are not published, but I would like to share the following thoughts regarding the Unthank Family Centre as they are clearly vulnerable.

This is a frontline service in safeguarding the well-being of the most vulnerable children in Norfolk, in line with current child protection procedures and legislative responsibilities. They work with families with the most complex needs, with work commissioned from child protection conferences, the looked-after children processes or as part of court proceedings. The referral route is via frontline social workers, the Centre is central to forwarding child protection plans and informing decisions in care proceedings. It is a unique and essential service for which there is an enormous demand - the requirement for this work is unquestionable, and the current potential for it to be replicated by the voluntary or private sector is non-existent.

Children are not protected by the fact that risk has been identified and a child protection conference has been convened. Children are not protected by a meeting. Protection rests in the subsequent plan around the child, in which family support services are crucial. The absence of skilled direct work with children and their carers would have enormous implications for the potential for children to remain in or return to their families (thus increasing the legal requirement to provide accommodation, and the consequent expense.) The therapeutic intervention provided for children who have experienced unimaginable levels of abuse (sexual, emotional and physical) mitigates against future pressure on adult mental health services and the consequences of anti-social behaviour.

David White, Norfolk’s Chief Executive, recently noted "the 12% increase in the safeguarding referrals of children over the last year (more than 6,800) resulting in a staggering 60% increase - now up to 500 children and young people subject to formal child protection plans." It is hard to comprehend a suggestion to reduce family support services in the light of these statistics.

County Councillors need to be fully informed regarding the nature of the cuts they are being asked to sanction, something UNISON is not convinced is happening. A sophisticated understanding of the nature of child protection is required. Do not be misled into thinking that ‘frontline services’ are purely embodied in the investigating social workers identifying a problem.

There is a substantial risk that the vital, frontline nature of this work is misunderstood by assumptions about what family centres in general offer. They offer direct work to children who would not receive a service elsewhere, advice and support to our colleagues in frontline services, sophisticated parenting assessments to inform decision making in care proceedings and have been required to comment on expensive local authority commissioned reports in the court arena. Intervention has frequently been directed by the Judiciary, and sought by legal representation. In addition to this, the Centre has provided training and staff development, with regard to recent developments in understanding about infant mental health and the cost-saving necessity of early intervention.

The people of Norfolk have a highly skilled and committed workforce, who have evolved throughout multiple restructurings and have been informed by recent research and enquiries into child deaths. It would be irresponsible to disregard this source of expertise - valuable time and resources will inevitably be spent in trying to recoup it. This is not a random projection of future outcomes, but an informed professional certainty should current proposals to reduce family support be sanctioned. The potential future impact on looked-after children, adult mental health and prison services far outweighs any immediate short-term saving.

Michael Gove expresses a desire to "strengthen the profession so social workers are in a better position to make well-informed judgements, based on up to date evidence, in the best interests of children...I want social workers to be clear about their responsibilities and to be accountable in the way they protect children." The above responses are based on many years of experience in child protection, and upon an understanding of the most recent research including infant mental health and serious case reviews. It would be professionally irresponsible to support the removal of vital support services which are the very foundation of the child protection system.

UNISON fear the lack of debate on vital services such as this demonstrate a 'head in the sand' approach adopted by County Councillors who would prefer not to know the real implications of the decisions they are about to be asked to make.

David Lambert
Senior UNISON Steward – Children`s Services