Please get dressed first

Please Get Dressed before coming to your appointment (orange quirky news)

What is the world coming to when people think it is acceptable to attend welfare offices in their pyjamas?  Surely people should be treating their welfare appointments as if they are job interviews and wanting to make a good impression and show willingness.

I am under the impression that a condition of receiving welfare payments is to be actively seeking employment and not doing anything which could have a detrimental effect on being successful in gaining employment.  I also understand it that if someone fails to comply with the conditions that they have their welfare payments stopped.  Surely this scenario would come under the category of an action having a detrimental effect on gaining employment?  Should they then have their welfare payments stopped for not dressing in an appropriate way?

But where do we draw the line?  What is deemed acceptable?  I can remember a careers counsellor telling me that it wasn’t appropriate to wear blue jeans, as there is no place that you could work where it would be acceptable.  How wrong were they?!  When I worked in health care (adults with learning disabilities, mental health issues and challenging behaviour) we were actively encouraged to wear things like blue jeans so when we supported our service users in the community we wouldn’t draw attention to the fact that we were careers and they needed help.

Would we then have cases where people were told they couldn’t get their welfare payments if they wore blue jeans?  What would happen if a woman went in showing parts of her body and the interviewer was from a religion/ culture that expected women to cover up. (I’m not talking obscene, maybe just an ankle/ knee, or arms and low-cut tops) 

So what is the answer?  I honestly don’t know what the answer is, but I think it is very sad that notices like this are having to be put up in places and that people have so little respect for themselves that they really cannot be bothered.

OFSTED School Inspections

O.F.S.T.E.D tricked by schools

I really cannot say that this surprises me!

A year ago, the primary school my 3 boys went to was placed into special measures.  The O.F.S.T.E.D report slammed everything about the school, and especially for those children who were gifted and talented.

Well the school has continued to plod along, and from where I stand, as a parent of 2 boys there now, I have not seen enough improvement to consider keeping my children in the school.  The eldest there is off to senior school in September and I don’t believe that any change in school would be 100% beneficial to him at this time, especially considering the fact the school have started to challenge his learning, and in any case he is self motivated and would spend hours reading reference books and learning in his own time.

Anyway, back to O.F.S.T.E.D being tricked by the school.  When they had their last inspection, every single child with S.E.N and challenging behaviour was sent to the neighbouring secondary school so they wouldn’t be observed in the class room.  The great teachers from the secondary school were pulled over to the primary school and took specialist lessons to give the inspectors a false representation of the school environment.  Those of us parents who had negative things to say about the school were not given questionnaires to fill out, and therefore our voices were not heard.

Admittedly, in this situation, although the school was taken out of special measures by this inspection, the report constantly references the ‘soft federation’ with the secondary school, and how the improvements noted have been due to the expertise and specialism brought by the staff of the secondary school.  O.F.S.T.E.D do appear to have seen through this, to a point.  The ‘soft federation’ will never be able to become more solid, neither school wants to lose their budget nor their narrow view of independence.  And when it comes to subsequent O.F.S.T.E.D inspections they can merely repeat the procedure and move staff and children around to suit their own agenda of deception.

Ultimately though, it is only our children who are going to suffer when sub-standard schools are judged to be good.  We are merely teaching our children that it’s ok to bend the rules and move things around to make a better impression, even if that impression is false.

Our children are going to be left behind, left to coast through their primary years and this will have a knock-on effect when it comes to them going to secondary schools and on the world of work and higher education.

Assisted suicide

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16410118

Well it’s something I think everyone knew would come about at some point.  There have been many people who have sought clarification of the current laws regarding assisted suicide and the possibility for criminal prosecution for those who have aided loved ones, either by supporting them at home or by helping them to travel to the countries where it is legal.

Fundamentally I disagree with a form of killing, including abortion and euthanasia, however, I am moved by the stories of people who wish to end their life with dignity and to lessen the suffering that their illnesses/ conditions will inevitably bring as they progress.  I belive that people should be given the choice, but that it should be an informed, rational and reasonable given their prognosis.

There is a very strong argument that we show more compassion for animals and that when they are suffering we humanely put them to sleep for them to suffer no more.  I am not in any way trying to equate human life with animals.  However, we do get attached to our pets and class them as part of our families, we mourn them in just the same way that we would mourn the passing of a parent, spouse, sibling, child or friend.

My biggest worry about assisted suicide is the rules and regulations that will be made to govern the whole issue.  I think we are heading on the right track to limit it to people with only 1 year left to live and I also think that it’s great that there is the proposal that 2 doctors would have to be convinced of the state of mind of the person requesting assisted suicide.

Another worry is regarding who decides there is only 1 year left to live?  Sometimes the medical profession simply gets things wrong.  Take the example of the Lockerbie bomber for instance; released on compassionate grounds due to having incurable cancer that would take his life within 1 year, some 2+ years later (although still very ill) he is very much alive.  And what about medical/ scientific advances? What if a cure was found that would reverse the illness or have given the person suffering a new lease of life?

Whatever your view on assisted suicide, it looks like we are a step closer to it happening.  All we can do is pray for those people who will be affected by this, pray that no person feels compelled to it out of a feeling of ‘duty’ and fear of being a burden.  But most of all pray for the people who are going to be debating and writing these laws and for the minds of the medical professionals who will ultimately be responsible for ending the life of another person.

Stephen Lawrence – Justice 18 years on

Stephen Lawrence killers found guilty after 18 years.

I cannot begin to imagine how hard the last 18 years have been for this family.