Another day, another inspection

Interesting difference of views over the Social Work inspectors report for Edinburgh published yesterday.

Talk107 was upbeat although acknowledging there were issues, or at least that was the case when I was being interviewed, but the Scotsman focuses on the overspend which, the report says, didn’t produce improvements whilst the BBC focused on “low morale” though interestingly it also identified comments that suggested there was also a mood of optimism for the future which does seem to contradict the previous comment,

There are many reasons for this variations on focus, not least of which is the huge breadth of activity that is covered by the report covering all types of social work and social care. It is good that so much of what we did and what has happened since then has been affirmed by this report.

We did a huge amount in bringing about change, not least of which was the creation of the two new, integrated departments, (Health and Social Care and Children and Families), decisions which were controversial at the time but have stood the test of inspection at least. I hoe that, whatever teh present SNP/Libdem administration decided to do, (if that is a concept they understand), they don’t go for more structural change. Instead they focus on supporting staff who do an amazing job under often very difficult circumstances.