“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” — B.B. King
Welcome to Issue 84 of Quest News. We have 11 hours of off-the-job training for apprentices in care and education to read and learn.
Events of the week
National Share A Story Month 2023 May 1 - May 31
It is a celebration that takes place every year throughout the month of May. It has proved to be an excellent way to celebrate storytelling and how powerful it can be. Children and stories are brought together with a variety of different events that take place across the UK. A different theme is used for each year and this year’s theme is “Sail Away In A Story”.
Approx. 60 mins
Video
National Treasure National Disgrace
They were Britain's top TV entertainers. They were abusers. How did they get away with it?
Approx. 120 mins
Legislation of the week
Mental Capacity Act 2005
From time to time we all have problems making decisions. This may be due to illness, tiredness or indecision. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is designed to go beyond these situations and was specifically devised to empower and protect individuals who may be unable to make a decision because of the way their mind or brain is affected by illness or disability, or the effects of drugs or alcohol.
It should always be assumed a person has capacity to make their own decisions however if they may lack mental capacity if they can’t: understand information about a decision, remember this information, use this information to make a decision, or communicate their decision – including using sign language or even blinking.
It is essential we understand that: being unwell or having a mental illness does not mean you lack mental capacity. making unwise or poor decisions in itself doesn’t mean that you lack mental capacity, a person may simply be eccentric. being detained in hospital under the MHA doesn’t mean in itself that you lack mental capacity.
Lack of capacity may not be a permanent condition. Assessments of capacity should be time- and decision-specific, for example someone may be able to decide what they want eat for lunch but not how to manage their finances. Anyone caring for or supporting a person can be involved in assessing their capacity so long as they have the ‘best interests’ of the individual at heart.
Approx. 60 mins
Safeguarding and ED & I
Identifying Extreme Misogyny - Safeguarding Voice
Evie Gibson co-founder of Peony Education services, an independent researcher and educator with a passion for understanding and combatting gendered extremism.
Approx. 40 mins
Thousands of families being forced to share beds due to overcrowding
More than 310,000 children (313,244) in England are forced to share beds with other family members, due to severe overcrowding, caused by a critical shortage of affordable homes. This is according to a new report published today by the National Housing Federation.
Approx. 30 mins
Reports of abuse and neglect of elderly rising in care homes across England
Adults requiring care and support may not be able to protect themselves from abuse or neglect. Any adult can suffer abuse or neglect from anyone in their lives. Abuse can include physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse and neglect.
For older adults, abuse can include coercive control, neglect or acts of omission, discrimination, modern slavery, domestic abuse and cuckooing. Within a care setting they may also experience organisational abuse.
There were an estimated 541,535 concerns of abuse on adults raised during 2021-22, an increase of 9% on the previous year. The number of enquiries that commenced under Section 42 of the Care Act 2014 during the year increased by 6% to an estimated 161,925. A disturbing new inspection of care homes from April 2023 has found that 230 across England are “inadequate” according to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
At one care home an Inspector stated residents were not treated “dignity and respect” and they were “at risk of neglect due to unsafe or inappropriate care or treatment”. At another “those living with dementia, were not always safe and were placed at risk of harm” due to poor infection control, medication management, and fire safety measures.
The CQC, the independent regulator of health and social care in England found that the highest number of inadequate care homes was in the South East with 42. At the other end of the scale London only had 17. The majority of care homes rated as inadequate are operated by private companies who make up 84% of the sector. In addition to the number of care homes rated by the CQC as “inadequate”, there were also 2,500 that were found to “require improvement” at their latest inspection.
Approx. 30 mins
Raising awareness of Sextortion
Not long ago, making prank calls was about the worst trouble children and young people could get into with a phone. But today, perpetrators often target people through dating apps, social media, webcams or pornography sites, stalking and blackmailing their victims.
The majority of cases involve individuals meeting via social media or dating websites and forming a relationship through conversation. The perpetrator will then often, after gaining the victim's trust, quickly persuade them to send intimate images or videos or will record sexual content without the victim’s knowledge or consent…
Approx. 30 mins
The National Crime Agency’s Virtual Global taskforce has published a news story on child sexual abuse calling on technology companies to address potentially concerning system design decisions. The taskforce is urging companies to ensure encryption plans are balanced with the importance of safeguarding children online.
Approx. 30 mins
Four care staff convicted of mistreating people with learning disabilities at hospital
Five workers cleared following trial into abuse uncovered by BBC Panorama at now-closed Whorlton Hall hospital in Durham
Approx. 30 mins
#WakeUpWednesday: 10 Top Tips for Safely Using Smartwatches
Health – our ability to monitor it, and motivation to improve it – is a major selling point for smartwatches. A recent survey found, for example, that smartwatch owners tend to exercise at least one day more every week than people who don’t have a smartwatch. It’s unlikely that the device causes this increase, but it almost unquestionably encourages the additional workouts.
Factor in the facility to store potentially life-saving medical information and to contact emergency services instantly, and it’s clear that smartwatches have plenty to recommend them. As our #WakeUpWednesday guide discovers, however, possible hazards including hidden costs and night-time use interfering with sleep mean that it’s not universally good news for parents.
Approx. 30 mins
Why language matters: domestic abuse
NSPCC Learning has published a blog post on the term “domestic abuse” and “domestic violence” as part of the Why language matters blog series. The blog looks at how the term “domestic violence” can be limiting and explores the impacts of this on: professionals and family support services; people experiencing domestic abuse; and the perceptions of the general public.
Approx. 30 mins
Serious youth violence
Human rights organisation Liberty and eight other grassroots groups and campaigning organisations have published a report on policing and serious youth violence in the UK. The report sets out new approaches to youth violence which include: investment in trauma-informed and racially literate support for young people to prevent harm; changes to policing; and suggestions around the education system.
Approx. 30 mins
Non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents
The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) has published its latest podcast episode focusing on non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents. The episode looks at the usual treatment options and discusses internet-based emotion regulation individual therapy for adolescents.
https://is.gd/LFroXh
Approx. 30 mins
Health & Safety
NHS failing to treat 250,000 children with urgent mental health concerns due to surging cases
A quarter of a million children in the UK with mental health problems have been denied help by the NHS as it struggles to manage surging caseloads against a backdrop of a crisis in child mental health.
Previous studies have shown that many of the NHS’s mental health trusts in England have raised the threshold of how ill under-18s actually have to be before they get treatment, in response to the major and ongoing increase in demand for care.
That has generated significant complaints from the young people, their families and GPs who have referred children to CAMHS who are deemed “not ill enough” when they have already self-harmed or attempted suicide.
• Waiting lists have risen by two thirds
• ¾ of children have been on a waiting list for over a year and 2/5 have been waiting over 2 years
• Only 12% of trusts are meeting the target time for first appointments
• The average wait across all NHS trusts is 87 weeks
Olly Parker from YoungMinds has stated “This is not children saying ‘I’m unhappy.’ They are ill, they are desperate and they need urgent help.”
Approx. 30 mins
Wider Curriculum
Social Work Recap: Finley Boden’s death and Fatima Whitbread’s journey from care to the medal rostrum
Our review of the week in social work
Approx. 40 mins
Readers’ Take: how much does negative media coverage affect social workers?
Amid the renewed focus on the public portrayal of practitioners, we take a look at how social workers are affected by the negative press.
Approx. 30 mins
Unaccompanied children to be treated as adults – and detained – if they refuse scientific age checks
Government amendment to Illegal Migration Bill runs counter to views of its own scientific advisers that no assumptions should be made from a refusal to consent given trauma asylum seekers may have gone through
Approx. 30 mins
