I have a publication from the Social Care Institute for Excellence, giving advice for older people on how to get through a hospital stay. And I wonder why. This is the organisation, the equivalent of NICE, that is supposed to be identifying useful knowledge for and about social work, and promoting the knowledge base of social care generally.

This booklet is a full-colour freebie for patients. It’s about healthcare, and barely mentions social work and social care. It claims to be ‘Advice from older people’, and apparently there was an advisory committee, but it does not directly use older people’s knowledge by quoting what they say, following a coherent research project; that’s what I would expect and want from SCIE. Instead, it’s professionals telling you what to think, with some fairly asinine information and lots of colour photos.

Although it claims to tell you what you can expect from professionals, there is really very little information about their roles. Coming from a social care knowledge organisation, it contains a totally unambitious explanation of what social workers do: ‘Social workers work together with the individual and their family as well as other relevant professionals to assess a person’s needs and determine what services might be helpful.’ Only if they are following the ignorant and inadequate British government-inspired view of very limited social work roles in pursuit of rationing services, instead of the very rich and imaginative international knowledge base on working with older people that SCIE should know about.

SCIE should not be wasting money on this. If they got a government grant, they should send it back so that it can be given to some organisation likfe Age Concern or Counsel and Care that should be carrying out this role. And then they should promote research with older people to express what they want from social care (not health) services). There’s too much money being spent on healthcare as it is and not enough on helping older people make the most of social care and informing social workers to do the job of meeting their needs imaginatively.

I’m not going to give the reference to the booklet because I think it’s so wrongheaded.

I have been redoing the Hospice’s policy on confidentiality, and this means I have looked at loads of codes of ethics and practice that might be relevant to palliative care and social work. So here is a listing of British ones; often these websites have extensive additional documentation as well as the codes. Any palliative care and social work agency ought to keep up to date on the codes that are relevant to their work; most of these have been updated within the last five years. You could also compare them, to see how they differ on points of interest.

Professional regulators
Care Councils
There are different councils, covering at the moment social workers, but eventually all social care employees, for each UK nation, but they have an agreed Code of Practice (which is currently being revised); the Code also covers social care employers, who have specific duties (which hospices should ensure that they comply with if they employ social workers)

http://www.gscc.org.uk/codes

General Medical Council
Guidance on Good Medical Practice; there are other more detailed documents on this website

http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/good_medical_practice/index.asp

Health Professions Council
This will be taking in psychologists and counsellors, but currently covers arts therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists/podiatrists, clinical scientists, dietitians, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, prosthetists & orthotists, radiographers, speech & language therapists.
Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics May 2008

http://www.hpc-uk.org/aboutregistration/standards/standardsofconductperformanceandethics/

Nursing and Midwifery Council
The Code: Standards of Conduct, Performace and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives; adopted 1st May 2008

http://www.nmc-uk.org/aArticle.aspx?ArticleID=3056

Professional organisations
British Association of Social Workers
Code of Ethics; last revised in 2002

http://www.basw.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=64

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy; the most recent revision is dated January 2009.

http://www.bacp.co.uk/admin/structure/files/pdf/566_ethical%20framework%20revised%202009.pdf

British Medical Association
Medical Ethics Today: The BMA’s Handbook of Ethics and Law is a substantial book, the second edition of which was published in 2004, and there are updates dated 2007.

http://www.bma.org.uk/ethics/MET2004.jsp

British Psychological Society
Code of Conduct and Ethical Guidelines; last republished in 2006

http://www.bps.org.uk/the-society/code-of-conduct/code-of-conduct_home.cfm

International Federation of Social Workers
Ethics in Social Work: Statement of Principles, is designed to be a framework within which national members of the Federation can devise their own guidelines. Their website also has links to national codes of ethics throughout the world

http://www.ifsw.org/en/f38000032.html

Someone comments on yesterday’s post that one page for a leaflet on moving to a care home is very brief.

What I would want to say is that, of course, it depends on how you print it, and the very stylish format of St Christopher’s leaflets is, I suspect, rather hard to read for many older people (the Chief Executive and I who are both sight-challenged, as they say, have to read them close to the face). I do think that’s a bad point about many information leaflets, although St C’s does agree to blow them up if you need it, size-wise, not bang-wise.

The second point is that I don’t think we should rely on any leaflet for the full caboodle; information is always best given by a professional and backed up by a leaflet, or vice versa. I’ve written enough in this life to know that you can’t write anything without being misunderstood and some mixed media is always good for important information

I’m really quite proud of myself. I was asked to provide an explanation of choosing and paying for a care home for patients and their families at St Christopher’s and amazingly I managed to get it all on one side of printed paper and a bit over for the back of the leaflet – you can get a copy of the leaflet and filch the bits you like (with a credit to us of course) from a.herbert at stchristophers.org.uk. I think it’s nice and user-friendly, but of course it credits Age Concern England and Counsel and Care for their factsheets, which are much more comprehensive:

Websites: www.ageconcern.org.uk/factsheets/
www.counselandcare.org.uk/helping-you/careguides/

The outcomes of the Help the Hospices survey about the effects of the credit crunch was mainly relaxed – bit of an effect, not to worry sort of approach. This may be true for 2008/9, even 2009/10. But economists will tell you that public sector cuts come after the economy starts to go up, because as we see from present government policy, governments tend to increase or maintain spending in a downturn, and then are forced to cut back as the economy turns up. Another issue may be that more of their money goes on social security, so other things get cut.

Also, this looks like a spectacular example of recession, so it may be longer and harder, and therefore more difficult to struggle through for any organisation, even the government. Being careful now seems like the only option. But for charities, being careful now seems like the only option most of the time.

For social workers, it might be that they will come to be seen as more marginal to a primarily healthcare service in a downturn, when, in fact, the help families need will often be greater.

The survey: http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/enewsletter/documents/help_the_hospices_financial_crisis_survey_results.pdf