Best of the frontline bloggers (week ending 14th September 2012)

We’ve written before about our love of public and voluntary service bloggers, and how we’d almost always rather read a dispatch from the frontline than largely warmed-over opinion from a Westminster-centric commentator. At their best, frontline bloggers capture the day-to-day reality of public services in a way that others can’t – including the dirty, difficult, and sometimes dangerous experiences that make for real expertise and the insights we need to improve social policy. So here’s our selection of the best frontline blogs we’ve read this week. Do send us your suggestions for great posts we’ve missed – and those frontline bloggers we should follow in the future.

Policing

Dishonor Among Ranks

From The Custody Record

Posted on September 10, 2012

“The actions of such officers tarnish us all and transcend through time to today. As an honest cop I am fed up of holding up my principles and morals for inspection only to have them cast to the ground and shattered by individuals intent on giving the police a bad name. There was no room for you then and there is no room for you now. Get out of the job.”

In the wake of the release of the Hillsborough report, one copper reflects on the divided loyalties that are sometimes provoked by working at the frontline of policing.

Suicide prevention

From Mental Health Cop

Posted on September 10, 2012

“The Government will today publish a new 10-year strategy for suicide prevention.  …what we can already say is that it will need to re-address gaps which we have existed for years and which we know are spoken of, time and again. I also fear that it will be unable to address the underlying political, social and economic issues which we know contribute to suicide levels, alongside medical and psychological factors.”

On World Suicide Prevention Day, Mental Health Cop explains why the police are often put in the position of responding when personal crisis becomes a public emergency.

Social care

In the shoes of Karen (2)… a daughter’s insights into life in a care home

From Whose Shoes

Posted on September 11, 2012

“In order to safeguard vulnerable adults, I have felt the need to share this with the management at [this care home], but this is addressed to you directly so you might develop some understanding of the impact of your words and your attitude on people’s lives. It seems only fair to tell you myself.”

Here’s a moving and challenging post from ‘Karen’ (who tweets as DazeinourLives). Karen’s mother has dementia. Here Karen shares a letter she wrote complaining about an incident she witnessed in the care home whilst visiting her late father.

Education

How is it possible that no-one in England knows what a C-grade answer looks like?

From LKM

Posted on September 11, 2012

“Somewhere Gove is sitting waiting to pounce on this to make a reform announcement and I am sure we will rake over his changes time and again. But among all that analysis I hope that someone asks him this: How will the new reform help teachers know what C (or B, or A) grade quality is? Because if teachers don’t know then we are the blind leading the blind, and no matter how ‘rigorous’, or dull, or comparable-to-Singapore our new qualifications are, there is still the same risk of this happening all over again.”

After it was revealed that OFQUAL did in fact ask at least one exam board to reconsider their GCSE boundaries, many questions can be asked, including: How is it possible that no-one in England can agree what a C grade English GCSE answer looks like?

Probation

Smoke and mirrors

From On Probation

Posted on September 11, 2012

“Payment by Results is the coalition government’s new wonder answer to everything, in fact just like the Private Finance Initiative was to the last Labour administration. Of course the latter has proved to be an utter disaster… But so attractive is the idea proving to politicians as being the next ‘magic bullet’ that the idea is being rapidly promoted everywhere and before any research as to its effectiveness is concluded.”

Welcome to the personal thoughts of Jim Brown, an ‘ordinary probation officer’ struggling to come to terms with constant change, whilst trying to do a useful job for society. In this post, Jim explains why Payment by Results is just a new ‘smoke and mirrors’ way to run public services – yet another futile attempt to get more for less.

---