Compassion and Humanity

I've been meaning to write something for a while now and have been reflecting on why I have procrastinated. I realise I was hesitant to commit to writing since I thought it might come over purely as an angry rant, so reflected on that too. The events in Ukraine have also, obviously, bought things into sharper focus.

I was watching "We Are Black & British" (BBC2 Feb 23rd and 24th) and found myself wondering why some of the people involved seemed very ready, in my view, to accept and almost excuse racism and oppression. I won't say too much more about that at this stage, since I think I need to watch the programmes again in order to really formulate my thoughts. What they did make me think about is how black history remains so poorly taught in this country's education system, and the Political Impartiality in Schools Guidance (published February 17th 2022) is unlikely to assist this.

This is, however, about so much more than race. I've titled this blog Compassion and Humanity since they are two words I find myself using increasingly of late - sadly in the context of the absence of them in so many places. Our current government and the impact of twelve years of austerity is the obvious place to start. Daria Kaleniuk's questioning of the PM @BorisJohnson showed his total inability to demonstrate either of these two traits. The woeful response in relation to welcoming Ukrainian refugees further highlights the government's failings. This is even more bizarre given both @pritipatel and @DominicRaab are the children of people who successfully found refuge in this country. Given this is the country's leader and other key people in the government (I'm trying to ignore all of the photo opportunities @trussliz is putting out there) I find a very worrying tone is being set.

Former PM @GordonBrown wrote about bedding banks in the Guardian, ("First food banks now bedding banks: in my time in politics this is the worst poverty I've seen", 01/03/2022) highlighting these are increasingly becoming the norm, alongside food banks and baby banks, which seem to have established themselves as acceptable in an allegedly developed and "world beating" country. I do some voluntary work and service users are regularly moved to tears due to gratitude for what is a basic human right. We know many households would not survive without such assistance, and their situations are likely to become more acute with the increasing energy costs. Place those issues alongside the 2.7% pay rise for MPs announced yesterday and I can't help but be left with a bad taste in my mouth. I'm pleased to see some MPs such as @zarahsultana and @NadiaWhittomeMP state they will not be accepting the pay rise but donating to local causes instead. Indeed, the latter only takes £35k of her salary, and donates the rest to such causes as a matter of course. In the interests of balance, I have also read today of two Conservatives who are doing the same, but they have remained nameless. If all MPs did not accept, imagine the impact that money could have. Whilst both @Keir_Starmer and the PM voiced their views that MPs salaries should be frozen, I've yet to see either of them confirm they will be donating their increase - I would love to be corrected if anyone else has seen such a statement from either of them.

Moving away from the government, we saw last week the collapse of the trial of four men in connection with the shooting of Sasha Johnson last year. They denied conspiracy to murder. Following this, Sasha's family shared information about her condition, and made a plea for anyone who has information to come forward. Given what is known about the circumstances of the attack I wonder what is preventing those who do have information from sharing this - lack of trust in the police is an obvious response, but I'd hope it is more nuanced than simply that. My concern is, having lived with a Conservative government for twelve years, and now having an almost morally bankrupt government, has set the tone for many to feel ok about looking the other way and not addressing the injustices faced by other parts of our society.

This leads me to question what this means for social workers and the future of our profession. I have previously written of my belief in the need for us to be activists in order to promote social justice. For many local authority practitioners I know this can feel almost unachievable, with a drive to get tasks done on time rather than taking the time to work with families at their pace to help them bring about change. Local authority practitioners I have been speaking to often feel utterly helpless to advocate for more time to do what I consider to be "real" social work when faced by demands from those above. This applies to many professions, many of which will not have the level of job security that social work can often provide.

With the leaders of the country readily acting without compassion and humanity, it seems inevitable to me that leaders of other organisations would think that such behaviour is acceptable. If this doesn't change, how will the PM's agenda of "levelling up" ever come to fruition? - for clarity, I believe there is no substance to that but, it is still something the government would like us to believe so think it important to reference it.

The way we treat each other has such an impact, regardless of background, social standing, and position within the workplace. Taking the time to be compassionate and humane human beings need not have any financial cost. If we all lose those characteristics, what society are we creating?