October Question of the Month
SASW is YOUR organisation, and can only represent you when we get your views on the issues of the day quickly. With this in mind, we are launching our "Question of the Month" to find our more about issues that affect you and the people you work with.
This will be one simple question with a box for you to tell us more. Our October question relates to the Scottish Human Rights Commission article below.
The pandemic and human rights
Further to this Scottish Human Rights Commission Report. We attended the launch earlier in October and note that there is much discussion about the focus of the interviews and what the findings mean. Whatever the case, a significant number of people in Scotland have clearly experienced reduction or loss of social care and have real fears about the likelihood of regaining the support they need in the future. SASW has a clear position:
- We recognise the impact the pandemic has had on individuals, families, and the social services workforce and the challenges around getting the right support to people in this complex and changing environment whilst managing risks to supported people and workers.
- We support the principles of choice and control that enable people using services to make informed choices about how to manage their level of exposure to the virus and to review that as their circumstances, wishes and levels of risk change.
- We will continue to raise the profile of social work to ensure that we are able to get the right support, PPE, testing, technology and so on to enable us to do our work effectively.
- We support our members working to promote these principles and ensure that the most vulnerable people in our society are not further marginalized and disadvantaged.
The SHRC report raises some very serious questions about whether our members (particularly in local authorities) during the pandemic have been experiencing additional pressure to reduce, stop or avoid restarting care packages where this is not the preference of the supported person. We need to hear your experiences so we can begin to address the issues informed by your experiences and ensure your voice is heard.
If you are a social worker with responsibility for arranging social care and support, please respond to this very short questionnaire by 9 November 2020
If you have any ideas for future questions of the month, please email them to scotland@basw.co.uk