PPlog

If the NHS is safe in Tory hands—words that we shall never let the Prime Minister forget—how come that more than 160 hospitals and 11,000 beds have been  478 closed since the Tories came to power? How come that more than 2,000 doctors and 10,000 nurses and midwives are now on the dole? How come that an unprecedented number of senior members of the medical profession—the vast majority of them by no means Socialists—have gone public in the outcry against the cuts? And how come that the chairman of the BMA... issued a public warning only two days ago saying:  The gap between what we can do for patients and what we actually do is steadily widening"?  That has been reinforced by the TUC policy statement, "The Growing Gap", issued today, which highlights the £0.5 billion gap between needs and resources in the NHS. The Tories have never believed in the NHS. Indeed, from the start of their Administration they have gone out of their way to express outright hostility to it. The P

This will upset many people. Since I was at college in 1970 doing my training for a social work qualification, I have had a special interest in professional social work standards, values and ethics. Throughout 30years +' social work practice I pursued this interest, contributing to the development of the original British Association of Social Work (BASW) Code of Ethics, researching and comparing this with the International Federation of Social Work Code, and other like activities including battling with social work managers about the general disregard of professional standards, values and ethics by managers and too many working practitioners. It is clear that one of the problems here is the disillusion for newly qualified social workers around the standards, values and ethics they have carefully but enthusiatically absorbed from their training being jettisoned when they start work proper - especially in local authority employment. Some protest but soon realise their career pa