Blew my Top..oh dear!

For the first time in my life, I lost it at work. Someone from my agency, (I am a locum) rang to badger me about getting a CRB check done for tomorrow. At least they want to have the form so that they can say it is in process when they are audited.


I blew my top, when she said that if I don't, I might not get paid etc etc. The thing is I don't have right on my side, I suppose, since as she said it is the Government's rules. Yes, the Government, that is all those MPs who have been making fraudulent and inflated expenses claims...No wonder they are so quick to jump on any sin of ommission or commission by anyone else!

The Government, which has in its wisdom created a society where box ticking, conveyor belt style social work has squeezed out the time to do anything other than strain your wrist writing reams of stuff which will most likely only be read if something goes horribly wrong. The Government, whose rules mean that social workers with families and children of their own have to neglect them, in order to write these turgid reports which serve very little useful purpose.

But when the Government says jump, we have to say, how high? So we have to fill in a CRB check for each agency we sign up with. It takes weeks to return, costs someone somewhere money and irritates Locum Social Workers who are barely coping anyway. Does the Government know that I spend possibly 20 minutes a week alone with children, that is about 5 minutes per child?

Of course there is a rationale for it. And just yesterday, the arrest of Vanessa George and the goings on at Little Ted's Nursery, bring that sharply into focus. Once again, rules and procedures will be tested, examined, tightened up, and mud, or blame, will be slung. Pressure will be brought to bear and the whole social care world will become that much grimmer and joyless for everybody, in the name of Child Protection.


I have always been a bit of a Quiet Maverick, never one to rock the boat but also very much my own person. I am so glad about that now, as the profession I have to work in for the time being would otherwise be such a soul destroying experience. But I don't think I can hide my Maverick tendencies for much longer, as there is too much that is just plain WRONG in social work and I feel that a passionate response is required.

But I know that getting angry with a young employee of a huge Agency is not the answer, and I will probably apologize, do the right thing, submit the form and wonder, when do I cross the line from quiet putting up with nonsense for the sake of a quiet life and a basic pittance, and when do I stand up and say, this is Anti life, oppressive, joyless slavery, which serves no useful purpose?

Perhaps when I know that I myself am guilty of bullying someone who is just doing her job, and who is younger, less well educated and possibly even less well paid....It is really time to think how much longer am I going to tolerate this system which sucks my life out of me, with little advantage to the clients. The Vanessa Greens of the world will occasionally slip through the net. Does that mean everybody else has to be treated as something of a criminal, because they want to work with children?