Z2K is short for Zacchaeus 2000, the justice for vulnerable debtors charity that was set up by Kwug's friend and activist Revd Paul Nicolson. It has had more years of giving advice services to vulnerable people than KUWG and its caseworkers and we have frequently referred service users with cases outside of our expertise areas to Z2K.
Yet just as KUWG has had to go through assessment of its processes in making funding applications, so to has Z2K with its advice services. You can read Z2K Chief Executive Officer Joanne Kennedy's blogged assessment of that assessment procedure at http://z2k.org/2016/08/assessing-our-casework-service/
Funders increasingly demand such audits of organisations that apply for extra funds to help sort out the problems caused by government systems. Would it not be great if the devisers of government systems that cause enormous problems for vulnerable people and their case workers could be subjected to nearly so much scrutiny?
Self-help support vs ravages of 'welfare reform'. Never attend anywhere official alone!
This blog currently focuses on national policy matters that impact upon KUWG members.
Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group as a group focuses primarily on combating benefits injustices locally through advocacy in individuals' benefit claims, and demonstrations that emphasise that there is hope when we come together. We are more angry than frightened.
Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Monday, 6 June 2016
The slippery slope to satirising standards regulators
By Dude Swheatie of Kwug
Satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer famously took the awarding of a Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger as his cue for retirement from writing satirical songs. He said that that choice of Nobel Peace Prize winner betokened the death of satire, as satire had become reality.
Tom Paxton who had recognised Lehrer as a model in his own path toward writing satirical songs took that Peace Prize award for Kissinger as his cue to write a hard-hitting song about just some of Kissinger's 'accomplishments' in a song called The White Bones of Allende.(1)
I was reminded of that Tom Lehrer story by my discovery over the weekend of who the current Conservative Government had chosen to operate as commissioners of the Care Quality Commission that is supposed to help regulate services dedicated to the well-being of vulnerable people in care homes, etc.
A big difference between the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize for 'Dr K' and the Conservative Government's choice of Care Quality Commissioners has been the level of publicity given to those two events. I would argue that my discovery via the Disability News Service website of the fact that the Care Quality Commission has in effect been privatised serves to emphasise for me the enormous need for the Disability News Service in publicising what we the public would otherwise be largely ignorant of.
I already knew from discussion at a Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group meeting that the current Conservative Government had sold the previously State-owned Remploy to Maximus, the company that took over from Atos Healthcare in administering Work Capability Assessments for the Department for Work & Pensions. For further information, go to Disability News Service article Cancelled inspections by care watchdog rise 360 per cent in one year.
Links
- http://www.funtrivia.com/en/Music/Paxton-Tom-18070_2.html
- http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/cancelled-inspections-by-care-watchdog-rise-360-per-cent-in-one-year/
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