Why are the airways rolling out Wilshaw & Spielman to give their options re Ofsted gradings? Wilshaw was the man who said that if the staff is unhappy the HT is doing a good job. Spielman refused to acknowledge that Ruth Perry’s death was anything to do with her or her regime.

If academia is going to survive it's going to have to decouple productivity from merit. insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/…

Check out our upcoming event from SocWkHistoryNetwork on 24th September: "History shows that social work can too easily be co-opted to implement policies which override human rights of vulnerable groups. But social workers have also challenged and overcome..." kcl.ac.uk/events/social-…

New: Make children with SEND central to all education policy and end “blame” culture, psychologists advise new government educationuncovered.co.uk/news/171566/ma… Association of Educational Psychologists among 16 groups signing open letter to Bridget Phillipson on “crisis” facing SEND provision.

Hands/paws down, absolutely the greatest television programme ever made. Glorious. RIP Brian. theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/a…

Strong tabloid vibes from the Guardian here. It's not a 'secret diagnosis' if someone chooses not to share details of their health troubles and personal and private life with the media and public. It's a human right. theguardian.com/society/articl…

Organisations that talk about AI in social work aren’t really interested in helping people. It’s a mask for filtering, denying, sifting out, redirecting, referring on and ultimately avoiding the human contact that they are funded to provide.

Lots of continuities, here, with approach under the previous government, in terms of these advisory groups with familiar names. (Any outright critics/sceptics, I wonder, re Conservatives' approach to behaviour management, to hear alongside, eg, TB?) schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-names-n…

So the sum total of the argument for AI in social work practice appears to be: ‘It’s coming so we better get on board whether we like it or not.’ These are not conditions conducive to good decision-making.

Further thoughts from director of BASW England and chair of JUSWA on the debate about social work education and training prompted by a recent BBC piece… Certainly in line with my own thinking…. communitycare.co.uk/2024/09/04/not…

What's worst with this attitude is that Social Work could be made easier with assistive technologies which already exist, yet those aren't adopted with the same laissez-faire attitude. So the reason must be in the darker recesses of this argument, if not relating to efficiency.

The fungus walk among us 🙃😆 "Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body" archive.ph/0FP3k #GenesisOfTheDaleks #TheLastOfUs

Sydney Opera House in toast. You’re welcome :-)

New: “Brutal”: how Harris changed school’s name and uniform and even dismantled its trophy cabinet within weeks of academy’s approval by new government educationuncovered.co.uk/news/171601/br…

I was staggered to find out that not only had the new government approved during the summer holidays this school’s academisation under the Harris Federation despite a 2,000-signature petition against it, but that it actually academised on Wednesday.

That is, staff and pupils who left the school in July with the belief that it might remain with the local authority, returned on September 4th with the LA school "Byron Court" no longer existing.