8 July 2001

The links page is like the Forth Bridge! New additions just added also here:-

Looking for a job? An excellent site for the purpose is Care and Health.com . It is also a useful resource site for the kind of service range which its name implies.

If you need to know about the Human Rights Act try this government site.

And another addition to the Voluntary Organisations: Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus

1 February 2001
We have added a lot of new information about the SSSP recruitment and retention of staff initiative. You'll find the details on our Recruitment and Retention page. You'll also find a downloadable benchmarking tool which you can access from there and two downloadable presentation packs one discussing the problem and some solutions in general. Tthe other outlines the SSSP strategy in rather more detail.

13 November 2000
You'll know, if you've visited us before, that the site changes regularly but every now and then we undertake a more radical shake up to give you a better, more interesting visit. This is one of those times.

We have been listening to what you tell us:- there's a lot of useful information on this site but  some of it is rather indigestible. That's because most of it is produced originally for the printed page and this information environment is very different. We are doing two things about it.

We will leave the HTML (web-page) documents on as before so that you can see them on the screen if you want but, over the next few months, we will be offering a Microsoft Word version of the longer pieces of text so you can download them to your PC if you want.

Secondly we have changed the structure of the site to a more logical and (we hope) more user friendly format. Some of the self denying ordinances we imposed on ourselves nearly three years ago like few graphics and no java bits (so that even people with slow modems and browsers could load our site quickly) are not so important now. We still don't intend to become Disneyland for social services but information is always better absorbed if it's entertaining so watch out for some changes.

But this won't happen overnight! Work on this site always has to take second place to our first responsibility which is to give you the best possible service in our (and your) field. Not only is that more important but, in the end, it gives us the information which enables us to provide you with a useful web-site. Thank you for coming to visit us; we hope to welcome you back again and again.

13 October 2000
The links page now has several new additions for many of which I am grateful to contributors to the UK Social Work discussion list. I hope others won't mind if I single out Conny Carnuth and her Virtual Social Work site. She is a mine of valuable information.

12 October 2000
We have now added two completely new pages about the best value considerations in reviewing child protection services and services for elderly people. We have also added the autumn newsletter SSSP Update. We would welcome feedback about this in particular. We stick as closely as the different medium will allow to the newsletter format - but perhaps it just isn't right for a web page. What do you think?

6 September 2000
We have now completely revised the page on negotiation to reflect the programmes we are re-introducing as a result of the implications of Best Value. We have also rationalised our publications page to include a summary of all the books by Keith Fletcher.

17 August 2000
We have just combined mission and value statements with a (revised) quality assurance statement and put it up on this site so clients have in in black and white just what to expect of us.

7 August 2000
We have just updated our main page on social inclusion. It gives a better insight into some of the work we have been doing and some of the conclusions we have drawn than the page it replaces.

We have also added some useful new links for your benefit and removed one or two old ones which have died.

19 July 2000
Visitors interested in social inclusion and related matters will be interested in this report we produced in June for Gloucester City Council and the Gloucester Anti-Poverty Alliance.

13 July 2000
Latest update on our major new initiative "Best Value People". If you're concerned about staff and service delivery you should read this.

11 July 2000
Latest "Community Care" article on Social Inclusion and Social Services just added.

10 July 2000
Latest edition of the (hard copy) quarterly newsletter we distribute to clients and colleagues now posted: Update

4 July 2000
Best Value Services page now updated. If you want to see the services we offer go here.

1 July 2000
Another update: the two day Best Value/Quality Assurance course.

27 June 2000
Our one day Best Value course has been changing to take account of participants' changing needs. The course had changed but not the flier for it! Now it has.

21 April 2000

The Best Value section of the site has undergone a substantial revision to take account of recent learning. You won't find the format significantly different from before but the content has changed and developed.

We have just posted a new "Community Care" article by Keith Fletcher on the image of social services entitled "Polishing the Image".

We have upgraded our telecommunications system recently. As a result our old phone and fax numbers have been replaced by a single number 029 20 88 68 94. The old numbers will gradually disappear from the site as pages are revised but, if you do come across them, just ignore them!

On a similar subject if you still have any of our e-mail addresses as ***@sssp.demon.co.uk please replace them in your address book by ***@sssp.co.uk (i.e. just leave out "demon.").

20 March 2000
We have at last been able to add a raft of links, most of which have been recommended on the UK Social Work list at some time in the recent past. To find out how to get onto that list, and much, much more have a look at our links page.

12 March 2000
We have introduced some more formatting features which we hope will make your life easier (and quicker!). And we have added the latest edition of Update for your delectation. Finally Keith's CV has been updated to take account of recent events.

8 March 2000
Regular visitors will see a complete revamp affecting almost all pages. Hope you like the new look! There are a few substantive changes included but most of them will follow during the course of the next few weeks.

There is one completely new page added about the associates who work with Social Services Strategic Planning: follow the link on the home page.

13 February 2000
Staff Care:- announcing a major new service from Social Services Strategic Planning.
Early in October last year, having seen what we believed to be a general problem which we thought we could help resolve, we pulled together some ideas about the sort of package we could offer. The result was the leading article which appeared in the December edition of Update.
From that point we believed it was but a short step towards a fully worked out and costed package. After all the components were simply extensions of our existing core business. We would be offering to do nothing we hadn’t done many times before under a different main heading. Well, as it turned out, yes and no. Yes, the components are all tasks we have performed in one way or another in different contexts. No, it was not a short and simple step to assemble them to form what is, in effect, a completely new service. It has taken a further three months to get it right (we hope) and we have still to market test it systematically.
Is this a service you would find helpful to resolve what is beyond doubt a real and growing problem? If it is give us a call and let’s discuss the kind of brief you have in mind. If it isn’t a brief e-mail to describe the kind of service you do want would be very helpful.
We hope to hear from you.

22 January 2000
New to the web-site rather than new material are a report and responses published in 1997 and 1998 on a social exclusion survey. The material still has some relevant ideas in it.

5 December 1999
We have at last decided to post the current edition of our hard copy newsletter "Update" on the web-site. Let us know what you think.

An article about best value and the voluntary and private sector providers which appeared in "Community Care" on 11 November 1999, now reproduced here.

© SSSP Ltd., September 2003