Tuesday 28 February 2012
Why I'm blogging about being a greying person
I suppose I should say something about why I'm writing this blog.
My aim is first to keep a record of my experience as I move towards the end-stage of life, on retiring, getting older. And then reflecting on how my views on the world are changing possibly as a result (although possibly not).
Second, I'm doing it as someone who will always be a social worker, so I plan to reflect on the greying stage of my life (I'm not actually totally grey yet) from 40 years of experience in the social work world, a good deal of which has been involved with older people.
Third, and also drawing on academic stuff on older people because I've also been a social work academic. And on the end-of-life world because I've been involved in that, too.
An aspect of that, fourth, is looking at current events and policy from the point of view of a greying social worker.
So far, it's been reporting greying experiences and a couple of comments on current affairs. It will develop, and I'll post again about how it's developing.
But I'm continuing with some of my other blogs. So how I share out material between them will also develop.
For the record, that's my self-positioning blog (a photo and a gentle question that might encourage you to look at yourself), my big society, community and social work blog (focused on community policy) and my social work around the world blog (which celebrates all the different social works around the world).
You can visit these here: Self-positioning
Big society, community and social work
Social work around the world
You may know that I've been writing a blog on end-of-life and palliative care and social care policy and practice for St Christopher's Hospice: you can find that here: Social care/palliative care. This will stop when I retire, and I may, but with a reduced frequency, start up a personal blog on these topics. I'll let you know.
My aim is first to keep a record of my experience as I move towards the end-stage of life, on retiring, getting older. And then reflecting on how my views on the world are changing possibly as a result (although possibly not).
Second, I'm doing it as someone who will always be a social worker, so I plan to reflect on the greying stage of my life (I'm not actually totally grey yet) from 40 years of experience in the social work world, a good deal of which has been involved with older people.
Third, and also drawing on academic stuff on older people because I've also been a social work academic. And on the end-of-life world because I've been involved in that, too.
An aspect of that, fourth, is looking at current events and policy from the point of view of a greying social worker.
So far, it's been reporting greying experiences and a couple of comments on current affairs. It will develop, and I'll post again about how it's developing.
But I'm continuing with some of my other blogs. So how I share out material between them will also develop.
For the record, that's my self-positioning blog (a photo and a gentle question that might encourage you to look at yourself), my big society, community and social work blog (focused on community policy) and my social work around the world blog (which celebrates all the different social works around the world).
You can visit these here: Self-positioning
Big society, community and social work
Social work around the world
You may know that I've been writing a blog on end-of-life and palliative care and social care policy and practice for St Christopher's Hospice: you can find that here: Social care/palliative care. This will stop when I retire, and I may, but with a reduced frequency, start up a personal blog on these topics. I'll let you know.
Couldn't care less gimme the money bankers
I see this morning in the paper that yet another bank CEO has got a multimill payout. This time it's HSBC, last week it was Lloyds (which includes Halifax, who look after some of my scrawny savings). Reports claim that nevertheless the multimills are a bit less multi because they have been reduced as punishment for the banks' payouts to people who have got compensation for the misselling in the past of payment protection insurance (PPI), that is, insurance to cover you if you can't make repayments on a loan. The evidence was that many of these arrangements were inappropriate for the people who were manipulated into paying the charges; hence the compensation.
What I want to know is: who has gone to jail? And if they can't tell me it's a lot of people, why not? Whenever I was offered one of these PPI things over the years, they accepted my refusal instantly. It seems to me therefore that they knew when they offered PPI that they were on rocky ground, and had been told not to press the point with anyone who seemed to know what they were doing. So the people who did the offering were all-but-frauds and the people who set up the system and collected the spondoolicks were all-but-frauds.
So why have a lot of them not gone to jail? If as a social worker (registered and regulated) I had been found out doing something like this, I would have lost my livelihood. Which of these bankers has lost their livelihood? And why not? Presumably because they were all doing it, so they can't all be kaboomed. I want to know why the guy last week is getting any payout at all from the profits they are making on my bank account. I don't regard a multimill payment as punishment. I regard hard labour for no return as punishment and frankly I don't care if they all leave the country. They wouldn't hesitate to do it to a lot of criminal teenagers, so why not a lot of (at the very least) couldn't-care-less-gimme-the-money bankers?
What I want to know is: who has gone to jail? And if they can't tell me it's a lot of people, why not? Whenever I was offered one of these PPI things over the years, they accepted my refusal instantly. It seems to me therefore that they knew when they offered PPI that they were on rocky ground, and had been told not to press the point with anyone who seemed to know what they were doing. So the people who did the offering were all-but-frauds and the people who set up the system and collected the spondoolicks were all-but-frauds.
So why have a lot of them not gone to jail? If as a social worker (registered and regulated) I had been found out doing something like this, I would have lost my livelihood. Which of these bankers has lost their livelihood? And why not? Presumably because they were all doing it, so they can't all be kaboomed. I want to know why the guy last week is getting any payout at all from the profits they are making on my bank account. I don't regard a multimill payment as punishment. I regard hard labour for no return as punishment and frankly I don't care if they all leave the country. They wouldn't hesitate to do it to a lot of criminal teenagers, so why not a lot of (at the very least) couldn't-care-less-gimme-the-money bankers?
Monday 27 February 2012
The state retirement pension
Today I have the invitation to claim my state pension. Another retirement rite de passage.
Sunday 26 February 2012
Emma Harrison, a4e boss: not enough humility to be a true community leader
A generation ago, when I was involved in trying to do something about the unemployment of the 80s in Liverpool, a4e, the controversial company with so many government contracts to help place unemployeed people in work, would have been a community organisation. It looks from the info we have about boss Emma Harrison, although I don't know her, that she is lacking something as a community leader that unemployed people might have confidence in. Steve Burghardt, in his recent book about community work says that community workers have to have a combination of chutzpah and humility. They need the chutzpah to get people who may not have a lot to aim for to see the possibilities and to sell their proposed solutions to politicians and funders. But they don't empower people unless they have the humility to enable people to get alongside them and learn from them.
The problem is that politicians like David Cameron like the chutzpah and latch on to people like Emma Harrison, it seems inspiring, but they don't look past it. People who have chutzpah without humility can't truly help people who are excluded from power. That's why so many apparently inspiring people in the end come a cropper; like Ms Harrison. But perhaps they also learn humility from their fall. Let's hope so.
Emma Harrison stepped down, saying: 'I don't want the media focus on me to be a distraction for A4e'.The Guardian on a4e boss leaving her day job
Steve Burghardt's book on macro social work
The problem is that politicians like David Cameron like the chutzpah and latch on to people like Emma Harrison, it seems inspiring, but they don't look past it. People who have chutzpah without humility can't truly help people who are excluded from power. That's why so many apparently inspiring people in the end come a cropper; like Ms Harrison. But perhaps they also learn humility from their fall. Let's hope so.
Emma Harrison stepped down, saying: 'I don't want the media focus on me to be a distraction for A4e'.The Guardian on a4e boss leaving her day job
Steve Burghardt's book on macro social work
Saturday 25 February 2012
The retirement letter
I have written the letter - I give notice of my intention to retire from my employment with St Christopher's Hospice on 30th June 2012. It's going to happen. Now what do I do?
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