tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52243776691641353292012-01-19T05:57:19.148-08:00Winston Smith-Working with the UnderclassWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.comBlogger611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-59652873400424611352011-08-17T06:07:00.000-07:002011-09-28T14:22:00.403-07:00

Since the riots have subsided the excuse makers have been busy trying to find justification for the feral mobs that burned working and middle class families out of their homes as well as laying destruction to local businesses and people's workplaces. Wednesday's Guardian gives a few of them a platform in which to try and rationalise mob rule.Last Thursday's edition of Young Voters Question Time

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-78948009165208856402011-08-11T13:04:00.000-07:002011-08-11T13:20:03.906-07:00

I was on BBC Radio 5 Live with Shelagh Fogarty yesterday talking about the riots in my monotone voice with a clued up lady from Manchester. I wish they had given me an hour after my rant to play some seventies soul and jazz to soothe my mind after talking about social breakdown and the urban underclass. Click on the show for the 10th August it's roughly an hour in to the programme. I am in the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-43309653041727816172011-08-09T04:01:00.000-07:002011-08-09T11:51:58.095-07:00

The underclass are rising up. No longer content with simply burglaring and mugging the decent law abiding working classes that have the misfortune to dwell amongst them, they have now decided to torch and terrorise the very communities they come from. What we are witnessing in London and in other cities across Britain at the moment is an attack upon the decent and law abiding citizenry of the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com76tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-54445433783809168152011-07-21T11:09:00.000-07:002011-07-23T17:27:44.522-07:00

A few months ago a female colleague at the Youth Offending Service, Chrissy, asked me to sit in with her and a young male offender of seventeen. She hoped I could be a positive male role model in getting him to do something constructive with his time rather than burgle his neighbours."Hi I'm Winston. You must be Noel. Nice to meet you."Chrissy then asked him what had he been doing since she last

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com64tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-16681333632667840892011-06-13T14:56:00.000-07:002011-06-13T15:56:30.725-07:00

A few weeks ago I accompanied an assortment of teenage rogues to a youth club where we punished them by means of video games, snooker, take away food and supervising them in a music studio where they had access to records that extoled the virtues of misogyny, gangsterism and drug abuse. However, there was no structure to the activities and even in the DJ studio they were left to their own devices

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-85558318863987081602011-06-02T09:52:00.000-07:002011-06-03T07:26:53.051-07:00

A few weeks ago at our local Youth Offending Office we hired an ex-offender to read poetry to our assorted crew of delinquents on the Intensive Surveillance and Supervision Programme (ISSP) before we took them out in the afternoon to play basketball. The reasoning behind this initiative was well intentioned. Here was an ex-convict who whilst in prison had learned to read and write and discovered

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-49464297055270758832011-05-12T08:15:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:29:52.816-07:00

A few times now I have accompanied some prolific young offenders on the Intensive Supervision and Support Program to one of their daily leisure activities at an indoor rock climbing facility. If leisure is really an antidote to crime then surely instead of calling for more prisons to be built we should be lobbying politicians to construct amusement parks within the slum estates that bedevil

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-43246907766228967442011-04-26T07:27:00.000-07:002011-04-26T08:08:09.876-07:00

Lately, I have been working with the Offensive Youth Service or as they prefer to call themselves the Youth Offending Service. One of my duties is to escort male teenagers on Intensive Supervision and Support Programmes on their daily outings to gyms, boxing clubs, tennis courts, indoor football centres and to various other recreational activities. The ISSP is the most severe 'punishment' a young

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-76044944684826883642011-03-31T12:39:00.000-07:002011-03-31T16:42:18.390-07:00

Within the next two weeks my book Generation F will be available in all good bookshops and will also be available as an e-book on Amazon.co.ukIt contains lots of material that I haven't published on the blog. A few friends said they found the snippets I showed them shocking and incredulous. There was a time I would have responded to its contents in a similar manner, but now I expect nothing short

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-65631445347514566762011-03-11T14:37:00.000-08:002011-03-13T16:37:56.788-07:00

When Gerry, the project manager, was informed of Jim’s attempted assault and verbal abuse of an elderly woman he decided to issue Jim with one week’s notice to vacate the premises. I would have also liked to have issued him with a size ten boot up the arse, but I bet if I checked with the policy department it would not be in line with our “anti-oppressive” policy. Gerry summoned Jim to the office

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-11854991726578331002011-02-27T09:07:00.000-08:002011-02-27T12:01:07.896-08:00

For every action there is a corresponding form seems to be the premise upon which many aspects of the public sector are founded. In the world of Supported Housing we deal with anti-social behaviour not by means of any real immediate consequences, but in the written form where as well as threatening you with future consequences we also advise you of your right to object, contest and appeal to the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-63692370878286921062011-01-22T04:47:00.000-08:002011-10-03T14:36:00.587-07:00

The Con-Dem coalition's Justice secretary Ken Clarke has abandoned the traditional Conservative view that prison works in favour of adopting more community sentencing. Now, whilst it might not function effectively as a means of rehabilitation the one thing that it does ensure is that dangerous people are taken off the streets and away from the communities that they terrorise. Ken Clarke, of

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-84033087868033749782010-12-14T05:35:00.000-08:002010-12-17T08:41:36.477-08:00

The last Housing Association that I worked for has several projects of various sizes dotted in towns throughout the county. These projects house a variety of young people aged sixteen to twenty five. There are those who are under eighteen whose parents fraudulently claim to the local authority they are estranged from their offspring but that then visit regularly. One resident in particular went

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-23132514066917791872010-10-31T08:45:00.000-07:002010-11-13T07:07:07.218-08:00

One of our residents, Mike, whom I have written about before, arrived the other day at the office door complete with gormless shuffle and his two hands placed firmly down the front of his tracksuit so as to remind the world that he has testicles and has already used them to pollute the planet with his gene pool. He has recently moved from the Housing Project in to a one bedroom flat provided by

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-43729591700296023792010-09-29T14:13:00.000-07:002010-09-29T14:29:17.835-07:00

Recently I received an email from a committed and responsible parent who through circumstances beyond their control and despite their best efforts had to put their teenage stepson in to care. They have kindly allowed me to publish the email here which I have edited only very slightly. Here is their story and their assessment of the care system:Winston, I've just found your Blog and I wanted to

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-68202375791701111452010-09-19T09:16:00.000-07:002010-09-19T09:44:53.239-07:00

The Supported Housing Project that I have been placed with for the last few weeks is undergoing a lot of late night disturbances from drunken young people. To make matters even more disruptive for their fellow residents, who don't drink themselves stupid at every available opportunity, the drunken contingent bring back late night revellers and strays they have picked up whilst out on the town.

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-87296824998197121352010-08-24T05:05:00.000-07:002010-08-25T04:32:16.318-07:00

One of the issues that I have had intense debate with other colleagues over is the issue of an open office door policy where a teenage resident can just walk in to the staff office uninvited to seek support, guidance or more often than not complain or make an unreasonable demand or hurl abuse at you if the mood takes them. The other day one of my colleagues, Nicola, decided to rebuke me for the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-9822456460902183382010-08-05T05:27:00.000-07:002010-08-05T07:46:25.810-07:00

One of the residents at the project I am currenty working at has just returned from a cruise around the Mediterranean with her family. Emily, 16, lives in Supported Housing and is therefore deemed to be both socially excluded and vulnerable to homelessness. Oh how times have changed, less than thirty years ago the socially excluded slept under newspapers in parks and lived off the generosity of

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-72471250507089073052010-07-16T03:30:00.000-07:002010-07-19T16:44:39.979-07:00

Once upon a time about a year ago at a care home for teenagers I had another run in with a disaffected youth or unsocialised brat as I prefer to call them. Which terminology you use will depend on where you live and what your life experience is. If you suffer from middle class guilt and live very far away from such youths in a nice neighbourhood you may probably make excuses for them based on the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-28219381073872982952010-07-01T03:55:00.000-07:002010-07-01T07:18:48.728-07:00

One day at the care home where I had the misfortune to be employed for a period of time, we were having another particularly difficult time with Liam the unfriendly giant.On this particular day, Liam was trying to climb out on to the roof of the three storey house in which he was being accomodated in and rewarded for his feral ways by the state. Allowing Liam to play on the roof was deemed to

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-39539434624201248052010-06-15T10:25:00.000-07:002010-06-15T13:39:03.289-07:00

Some months back I ceased working in Children's care homes due to the stress and unsafe nature of the job (I still work in Supported Housing though). I also couldn't bear working in an environment where teenagers with no boundaries or ability to regulate their behaviour seemed to have more rights than the staff charged with caring for them. Its not that I believe adults are above reproach or that

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-8837948879377296902010-05-28T09:23:00.000-07:002010-06-13T11:11:38.493-07:00

I have just returned to work in the Supported Housing project I currently work for after a few days away and have been informed that we need to do more work as a team to ensure that we can evidence that we are complying with the government’s Quality Assessment Framework. This explains the new posters around the building. One of which is trying to promote resident involvement in the running of the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-83806840507320720802010-05-20T04:10:00.000-07:002010-05-20T05:14:51.938-07:00

One day a few months ago I was sitting in the office on the telephone enquiring after the status of one of our resident's housing benefit (they wont do it themselves) when Jerry, 19, decided to turn up ten minutes late for his support work meeting with me. I jestured to Jerry, who was standing at the window looking in to the office, that I would be another three or four minutes. He shook his head

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-3442509952729145352010-05-09T06:11:00.000-07:002010-05-12T16:36:22.645-07:00

A few weeks back I was subjected to a day of training gobbledegook from one of our Senior Managers. I tried to get out of it by protesting to my immediate Manager (there are so many Managers)that as I am already well acquainted with the supported housing sector, having worked for years with other housing associations, that there was no need for me to go on a training day entitled "Introduction to

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-72482266061696223912010-04-30T05:44:00.000-07:002010-05-01T03:48:01.128-07:00

There are plenty of days where I just don't want to talk or write about any of these issues any longer. There is a thin line between the cathartic relief this blog provides me with and the negative reinforcement of seamlessly dysfunctional lives and the ludicrously insane policies and initiatives that purport to act as a solution. In short, writing about these issues and recalling certain

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-10933923426710231542010-04-21T11:19:00.000-07:002010-04-21T11:41:08.658-07:00

Many of my colleagues believe strongly that young people should be able to act and speak with little or no constraint without fear of judgement, censure or negative consequences. As one of my colleagues, a father of two teenagers under the age of eighteen, put it:"I buy my kids booze and let them get drunk at home. In fact my daughter (16) had a party in the house last week and I bought her a

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-82688486869879254972010-04-15T03:54:00.000-07:002010-04-15T06:09:30.448-07:00

There are fleeting moments of uplifting inspiration in the work I do, granted it's rare but it does happen from time to time. Earlier today, one of the girls I keywork was going on her first driving lesson. Catriona, 17, who left foster care last year is one of our success stories. Her Mother was an active alcoholic and from a young age Catriona had to play the role of parent to her two young

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-32419105421381810092010-04-09T12:21:00.000-07:002010-04-09T15:12:11.301-07:00

If the Tories get in I will be ending my blog. Why? Well, it’s because David Cameron has come up with one simple idea that will solve all the problems associated with British youth and thus my rantings will become obsolete. He has decided to send all 16 year olds to concentration camps for the summer where they will be shown T.V footage from days gone by of how tough the majority of teenagers

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-2812806604339577592010-03-31T07:44:00.000-07:002010-04-04T06:58:49.404-07:00

The brutal murder last week of Sofyen Belamouadden, 15, by other teenagers, in front of hundreds of adults at a packed commuter station is an extreme, but not uncommon, example of the complete breakdown of effective forms of adult authority to thwart criminal and anti-social behaviour in our young. Less extreme examples of the ineffectiveness of adults to guide and direct the young are on display

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-58760394252533771372010-03-25T02:14:00.000-07:002010-03-25T11:04:13.622-07:00

I've just had a call from the social care agency I work for trying to entice me in to doing a placement with some eighteen year old care leavers. The conversation deteriorated in to farce once the word 'funky' was used in trying to persuade me to undertake the placement. The conversation went something like this:"Hi Winston, we've just had a call from the leaving care team at the local social

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-51426135478554257022010-03-22T12:24:00.000-07:002010-03-25T02:07:34.617-07:00

I am in the office alone updating all of my Support Plans. I’m making sure I’ve signed each page of each Support Plan in the correct place; after all efficient bureaucracy is obviously the key to ensuring progress in our resident’s lives.All of a sudden, a slightly obese, uncouth twenty one year old female member of the underclass storms in to the office. It’s Kirsty, Kenny’s current girlfriend.

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-25737570508576272552010-03-10T02:42:00.000-08:002010-03-12T02:45:02.751-08:00

Last week I was back at one of the several care homes for teenagers I regularly attend in order to receive my weekly ration of verbal abuse, threats and perhaps an assault or two. I was to do the afternoon shift through until noon the following day when the local social services were due to do an inspection. I arrived on shift prepared for the possibility of little sleep due to the high pitched

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-11658746302844902132010-02-18T15:40:00.000-08:002010-02-21T17:37:14.153-08:00

You know that feeling you get when you turn on the news or open a paper and think to yourself, is it just me or is the country gone mad? Well, I get that feeling all the time at work but I mostly bite my lip as to speak too freely wouldn't be conducive to receiving my paycheck at the end of the month. Hence, the writing of this blog.I often tell myself that I have experienced the apogee of inane

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-87926392160664399642010-01-28T07:34:00.000-08:002010-01-28T12:18:13.041-08:00

A couple of weeks before the Christmas, one of our residents, Mike, 18, openly divulged to several staff that he had acquired some of his yuletide gifts for his family by stealing them. Although starved of intelligence and devoid of manners, Mike is in no ways cash hungry. He is on lucrative benefit payments and receives regular cash donations from his father who works abroad. However, much of

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-86902269469796979562010-01-20T08:35:00.000-08:002010-01-20T10:34:35.992-08:00

I read a lot about benefit fraudsters in the mainstream press but there is another cohort of individuals of whom most people have no awareness of and they are those young people that find accessing state benefits to be an almost insurmountable task. Today, I deal with two such individuals. Gavin, twenty three, is today being evicted, or in the jargon of the supported housing sector ‘having his

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-71524315039303672672009-12-12T07:39:00.000-08:002010-01-17T07:29:21.944-08:00

It was back to one of the children’s residential care home’s last week on top of the supported housing shenanigans. People ask me if I often work such long hours for the money or they mistakenly presume it must be rewarding on some level, but what motivates me in many instances is the adrenalin rush I often get to experience when working with wild and unruly adolescents as threats to your own

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-81696489114421002009-12-03T08:22:00.000-08:002009-12-03T16:52:31.034-08:00

Just the other day, I was sitting in the office at a Supported Housing project filling in evidence of the support I'd given a 'client'. I received an email last week from someone in the policy department instructing that from now on I refer to 'residents', as they were formerly known, as 'clients'. If the term resident is somehow now offensive or disempowering they should hear what I call some of

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-77679581884347769502009-11-12T06:37:00.000-08:002010-01-17T07:35:51.787-08:00

Last week whilst working with 16-25 year olds in Supported Housing I witnessed an act of such waste and profligacy that could only occur when it is other people’s money that is being spent. Let me explain, the thirty or so residents that live in this complex of small flats have to share four kitchens between them. That is, four or five residents share a considerably large kitchen. In each of

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-10232193888718005202009-10-22T02:58:00.000-07:002011-10-28T18:35:26.165-07:00

In each adolescent care home a daily log book must be kept. This is a statutory requirement. There are also separate daily logs kept for each individual adolescent. However, one can’t simply write what one experiences in a working day in these log books. This is because social services object to what they call ‘harsh’ or ‘judgmental’ language. Frontline staff are expected to write up daily

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-82351596177854441142009-09-11T07:06:00.000-07:002011-10-28T18:34:23.463-07:00

So Barnardo's chief Martin Narey thinks more children should be taken in to state care at birth. At a cost of five thousand pound a week to the taxpyer, for each child in care, is this really the sensible solution? Is extending the welfare state, which has contributed greatly to the ever expanding underclass, the correct remedy for feckless breeding? I think not. However, Mr Narey very bravely

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-67208906761703134802009-08-27T16:41:00.000-07:002009-09-03T09:37:38.683-07:00

A few weeks ago,an academic study revealed that the government's Intensive Surveillance and Supervision Programme to deal with young offenders is useless. Many of us working with young offenders in various contexts have known this for years. We see the proof of it every day. However, many working with the underclass in various contexts keep our mouths shut. To point out the obvious that the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-60965362902913105732009-08-11T02:54:00.000-07:002009-08-11T03:09:39.085-07:00

Having had a metal weight thrown at his head, which would enrage even the most passive person, Liam went in to an apoplectic frenzy. Edwin’s instincts quickly told him that were he to remain in the vicinity of Liam he would be the victim of grievous bodily harm. Edwin, for once, made the right choice and locked himself in his room. The pregnant Becky joined him, as did the two female members of

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-48062151718918091992009-08-06T05:54:00.000-07:002009-08-11T02:35:01.993-07:00

I haven’t been posting for a while as I had to take some time off work with stress and the last thing I wanted to do was regurgitate the facts regarding the stress I was under. Anyway, here is a snippet that illustrates why people working with feral youths and the underclass regularly take time off sick and also tend not to last more than a couple of years in the sector.A few weeks back, I was at

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-53003238632679544832009-07-09T14:21:00.000-07:002010-01-14T16:53:39.913-08:00

Lately, I've needed some extra money and I also felt the urge to be verbally abused and perhaps even assaulted by a feral teenager, so I asked my agency to get me some extra work with teenagers in care whilst still working in Supported Housing for young adults.I was sent to a home I've been to many times and where I'm not very popular with the girls that live there, on account of the fact that I

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-89992597169287409362009-06-25T07:23:00.000-07:002009-06-25T07:32:05.052-07:00

One of the issues that we discussed at this weeks staff meeting was complying with our QAF in relation to diversity and inclusion. Tessa, our manager, was quite concerned that we are currently not demonstrating a high enough standard of compliance with this QAF. In particular, she highlighted the fact that our project rarely has any people from an ethnic minority background. This is due to the

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-61908427092595051702009-06-05T06:14:00.000-07:002009-06-05T06:35:39.761-07:00

The Supported Housing sector like so many other spheres of the public sector has to demonstrate that we are secretly not a bunch of white supremacists. Supporting People’s Quality Assessment Framework assists government bureaucrats to measure the degree to which we are complying with regulations on diversity and anti discriminatory practice in the workplace. As the QAF states our organisation

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-74902353843665208972009-05-22T11:17:00.000-07:002009-05-22T12:07:23.379-07:00

I did my last couple of shifts this week at the Refuge Day Centre for Young Homeless People who are in fact not homeless. From now on, I will solely be subjected to abuse and ingratitude from the same ilk, but only in the state funded sector as opposed to the charity sector. Anyway, last Wednesday I penned the piece below to highlight how lucrative the welfare state can be for certain

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-8297789812261089032009-05-13T10:23:00.000-07:002009-05-14T03:43:27.733-07:00

In the past couple of years there have been numerous publicised cases of feral teenagers murdering adults. Last week there was the murder of a big issue seller, a few weeks earlier we read of this, and there was Gary Newlove. There have been other horrific murders that ddn't get as much media coverage. These are not isolated incidents but part of a trend of increased brutality and savagery

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-65059610852690476842009-05-01T19:20:00.000-07:002010-01-17T07:42:08.840-08:00

The country is now indebted to the tune of well over a trillion pound, an unprecedented level of debt, and an enormous burden on children yet to be born. Now, with all this borrowing one would like to think that the money is going to be used wisely and on services that most reasonable people would agree are worthy and essential to the functioning of society. I'll leave it to you, the reader, to

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-7089189301458349392009-04-24T16:32:00.000-07:002009-04-27T06:37:45.977-07:00

First of all, I would like to say that I like young people, certain contributors to this blog have suggested otherwise, simply because I don't subscribe to the wooly, namby-pamby policies they obviously espouse and which have contributed to the problems we have with our youth. All of them, from the kids in the care homes that verbally and physically abuse me and my colleagues, to the young adults

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-67568975441947031332009-04-18T18:36:00.000-07:002009-04-21T16:45:56.352-07:00

I have recently been on a day long course that was supposed to equip me with skills and techniques for dealing with aggressive and potentially violent individuals. Needless to say, none of these skills involved learning how to keep a chav in a headlock until the police arrive, that is the type of skills that would be useful. No, these skills are more of a touchy-feely variety, they try not to

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-71835493951298060762009-04-11T16:33:00.000-07:002009-04-11T19:28:30.404-07:00

I've just finished another shift where the deodorant can assault took place. One of the things I've observed here is that two of the girls, Rachel,17, and Sammie, 14, appear to be getting larger by the week. These girls are extremely over weight, unhealthily so. The younger behemoth is so fat that you can barely see her eyes as they are ensconsced behind a layer of chips and turkey twizzlers

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-68402095027621354512009-04-03T16:07:00.000-07:002009-04-03T17:59:40.836-07:00

Once again we read of another father kicked and beaten to death by feral youths. What is more shocking though is the fact that the man, who was under siege in his own home, and his neighbours rang the police six times for help only to be told that they were too busy.Some people might say fair enough the police only have so many resources and with the crumbling moral fibre of the country they

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-68690212547309213522009-03-31T17:19:00.000-07:002009-04-01T05:28:50.177-07:00

I got away from the Refuge for a few shifts in various children's care homes and supported housing units for 16-25 year olds over the last few days. At one care home I had to accompany a 13 year old boy to a special school for behavioural problems where just himself and one other boy attend. They have been deemed not ready to attend your average comprehensive. Personally, they would fit right in

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-63018162886542783962009-03-25T16:37:00.000-07:002009-03-25T17:57:55.403-07:00

Each service user at the Refuge has access to the “crisis fund”. It’s up to the discretion of the project worker and the manager to define if the service user is facing a crisis.One of the few astute and sensible project workers, Alice, has informed me that Arthur, one of the few heroin addicts that use our service, was recently taken out and bought a microwave for his newly acquired social

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-28780083530830467162009-03-10T16:51:00.000-07:002009-03-10T17:11:37.917-07:00

Meanwhile, back at the Refuge Day Centre for layabouts, things are not looking hopeful, in terms of me staying here for long, or in relation to any of the sloths that use here doing anything constructive.The Refuge has a very nice brochure that outlines our service to potential clients. They usually pick it up in some of the other advice or layabout centres around the city for young people. All

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-85599281832718637642009-03-03T17:39:00.000-08:002009-03-04T04:33:46.757-08:00

First, there was baby P, then this week we read of a foster family in Wales who had a teenager placed in their care who was a convicted sex offender. Social services failed to inform the foster parents of the boy's past and he then went on to sexually assault their daughter and sodomise their young son.Now, most people are shocked that something like this has happened and there are alarmed

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-37235868135239771072009-02-25T16:00:00.000-08:002009-02-26T18:47:06.629-08:00

Now, when most people hear the term Day Centre for young homeless people, they automatically picture a building with lots of dishevelled young people ensconced in tattered and frayed sleeping bags, shivering from exposure to the elements with elderly Christian ladies bringing them cups of tea and sandwiches. In this image, kindly, altruistic people give the poor wretches a minimum and basic level

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-11505278960263253462009-02-17T08:38:00.000-08:002010-03-25T03:20:07.097-07:00

Well, I’ve spent the weekend working in two different care homes for teenagers being accommodated and cared for by the state. To be honest, as far as I could see, they weren’t really being cared for but rather catered to. Here’s what I observed.The first place I went to was a large five bedroom house where three young girls lived. Two of them were fourteen and one of them was fifteen. The two

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-53669472982187653222009-02-12T17:33:00.000-08:002009-02-17T16:34:03.185-08:00

Anyway, perhaps I should tell you a little bit about the Refuge and my own responsibilities. The centre was initially set up in the late nineties after a retired military officer decided he wanted to do something to help rough sleepers in the city. However, it is becoming clear to me that the Captain’s vision has morphed into something he never envisaged. He will be visiting me in a few weeks to

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-20072500184180208142009-02-10T06:27:00.000-08:002009-02-10T06:39:01.752-08:00

My New Meaningful JobI’ve just arrived for my first day’s work as a Project Worker at the Refuge Day Centre for young homeless people aged 16-25. If you are looking for a similar type of job just buy the Guardian on a Wednesday. It's full of 'meaningful' jobs.I am really looking forward to working here. I mean I’m going to get an opportunity to assist some of the most disadvantaged people in

WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com1