Politically In-Correct Children's Books and Films and other matters

Has anyone thought how so many children's books and films have things in them that contravene all sorts of things like health and safety, child protection and a lot of other things society throws at us? Would you, in all honesty, employ a nanny who flies on an umbrella and carries things around in a hold-all that is bottomless and she keeps things like a lamp-stand and then takes the children she's in charge of to see a crazy uncle who eats his tea FLOATING ON THE CEILING? Also, encouraging those two children, Jane and Michael to slide up or down the bannisters in the Banks' home?  Did Mr and Mrs Banks do a Criminal Records Bureau check on Mary Poppins or even ask for any references from past employees? Then, she has a male friend called Bert who has a predilection for dancing all over the rooftops of London with a weird gang of chimney sweeps? And, how dangerous is it to be up on the roof in the first place? What health and safety concerns did either Bert or Mary have for those children? First, falling off the roof, then, climbing all the way up a STAIRCASE made out of SMOKE? Did they consider the health-hazards of breathing in all that smoke and soot? Then, when they go through the chalk drawings that Bert has scrawled all over the pavements (did he have a licence to do this? Was he allowed to do graffiti in such a callous and unseemly manner in Edwardian London? I think not.) When they get into the animated land, did they consider they were thrown into a world of fox-hunting (banned by law in Great Britain now. Tush! Not P.C. to do so.) Then, gallivanting all over the countryside and eventually getting involved in horse-racing and allowing, no doubt, for those minors to BET on the outcome of the race? No moral responsibility at all. 

Then, we go to other books and films. Who would trust a weird man who runs a chocolate factory with the care of your children (I refer to Willy Wonka. Don't go into the name which has all sorts of peculiar connotations which I won't go into on this post.) Also, ENCOURAGING CHILDREN TO EAT SWEETS!! it's definitely a no, no. Just get them to eat sensibly, five pieces of fruit and veg a day for a start.

Peter Pan. A bit of an odd-ball, to say the least. Flies in through the bedroom window. I don't expect he had a C.R.B. check. Left alone with those children. THEN he expected them to believe in Never-Never land (connotations with things like 'payments in instalments' for example, but that's another matter.) What about getting them to FLY? Well, all very clever, how ever it was done, but did Mr Pan have any health and safety procedures in place? I doubt it (come to that, did Mary Poppins, with her umbrella? What happened if she was to crash-land? How many attempts did she make before she got her flying licence?)

It's interesting, on a different subject, how many children's books and films feature a character or something that flies or at least has the ability to fly. Not just Mary Poppins and Peter Pan, but how about Dumbo (featured in the classic Disney animated cartoon) or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I seem to remember that Disney also made another film in the '60's about a mad professor who invents a substance which makes things gravity-free, called flubber I think, and is put on the tyres of a car which then flies. I think it might have been remade and called 'Flubber.' The original was called the 'Absent-Minded Professor, I think. Have to check it out on I.M.D.B.  Of course, there's Mary Poppins, who needs the aid of her umbrella to fly. I am wondering, though, how long she could stay aloft, with her hand holding onto the handle of that umbrella (which, if I remember correctly, is shaped like a parrot WHICH TALKS? does it actually LIVE, this parrot? Weird and wonderful.) I'm also reminded of what a teacher said when I was at school, at about the time Mary Poppins was released, regarding being able to see Mary's underwear as she flew. I won't make any further allusions to this, but I think you'll get what I mean about this if you think about it. Sorry to bring this up, but on reflection it's fairly obvious. 

I shall continue with this discussion as and when I have more to add, so keep an eye-out for further instalments.

Working In Care- Part 2

I have mentioned in an earlier post my time working in care (hence this post being labelled 'working in care- part 2).

I will discuss here the earlier stage of my carework career. 

I did some voluntary work for Macintyre care in the late '80's, at their school in Westoning, near Flitwick, Bedfordshire. I worked mainly in the workshops, supporting some of the residents, making masks, puppets etc and sometimes taking them out into the communtiy, for example, swimming. It seems amazing looking back that they didn't appear to run any sort of criminal checks, although they might have done a Police check on me (now superceded by C.R.B., Criminal Records Bureau).  I also did a job working in an old people's home to increase my income, at a home in Bedford called Hextle House in Linden Road, doing the odd weekend shift, so I had quite a bit of experience of care work,  so by the late 90's, having done a lot of industrial  temp work, I decided to get a full-time care job working with people with learning disabilities. I applied for several N.H.S. jobs, and in one particular week I had three job interviews, one for  the job of support worker at a home run my the N.H.S. in Merton Road in Bedford, another for the Sensory Department at Bromham Hospital and the last for a support worker role at Vincent House, which I eventually got. The interviews were held at Bromham Hospital, and as the interviews were over the same week I met several of the same people who interviewed me over the three days. I was sure I was going to get one of the jobs, but not the Vincent House job. Having got the job, I didn't immediately start work as the manager, had to attend her mother's funeral in Ireland so the induction for the job was delayed by around six weeks (this was in 1996). 

Vincent House is/was (I'm not certain whether it is still open.) an assessment and treatment unit for people with learning disabilities who presented extreme challenging behaviours. The house, which is on the outskirts of Bromham,  a village just outside Bedford and on the road to Northampton, had been shut down for refurbishment and some of the original staff were re-employed for the re-opening, but I joined just as they were taking on new staff members. Bromham Hospital had been the home of a quite large number of people with learning disabilities and this was about to close, with the residents being moved out of the hospital setting and into houses within the community around various villages and towns around Bedfordshire, under the government's 'Care In The Community' policy. I did quite a few shifts for the N.H.S. on their Carebank register as a sort of 'warm-up' for work at Vincent house and worked in several of those homes between Luton and North Bedfordshire which gave me quite a bit of experience. Most shifts began at around 7 a.m and ran until 2 p.m. and late shifts from 2-2.30 p.m. until around 9-10 p.m. So being in care you have to accept that you are going to have to work unsocial hours and also work weekends. At Vincent House we had also to do nights, which I found very difficult as I am a day sort of person. I will mention this more as I continue writing this.
We did eventually start the induction process, which ran for several weeks. It was a period spent at Twinwoods, which had formerly been Clapham Hospital, and now run as the headquarters for the learning disability department of what was then Bedfordshire and Luton N.H.S. Trust, who was my employer and ran not only Vincent House but all the other learning disabilities homes which had been opened to house the residents of Bromham Hospital which I have mentioned earlier was being closed down. The manor house had been used as the administrative centre for the N.H.S. learniing disabilities service and was where I went for my inital interview. There were several houses built for the learning disabilities department at The Glades, but the rest of the Bromham Hospital site was sold for housing and the mansion became a private dwelling. Vincent House was on the road running out of Bromham and around three miles from Bromham Hospital.
The purpose of Vincent House was for the assessment and treatment of clients of the learning diabilities service who presented challening behaviours that the staff in the homes couldn't cope with and where they used various techniques to try and deal with the behaviours, different medications and care procedures, then the clients were returned to their respective homes in the community.
Amongst my jobs was to be a key worker for a number of the clients in our care, looking after their day to day care, buying their clothes, reviewing their medication and generally building up a relationship with them so as to care for them successfully.

Trip to Aylesbury

I answered an advertisement in the Milton Keynes Citizen for work for a care agency a week or two ago. They sent me an information pack, application form and so on. Well, in truth the application form and so on never turned up. How long does it take a letter to get from Aylesbury to Milton Keynes? A couple of days? I rang back, and got an apology and a promise that they'd send out another application. A few days later this application form turned up. I rang to make an appointment and then  drive to Aylesbury for the appointment, which was yesterday at 10 a.m. I managed to park in a multi-storey car park (I don't know Aylesbury very well. I have driven through several times and Carol and I have been to Stoke Mandeville Hospital for appointments, but as regards the parking arrangements, I'm not familiar.)

The address I was given was in the Market Square, but the actual office building wasn't actually IN the market square, which was somewhat crazy. The building wasn't market in any way, no notice saying 'Phoenix Healthcare' so that I could pick it out. I was wandering around the streets and I had to go into a solicitors office eventually and ask. A lady there pointed the right building out to me, so I was somewhat relieved to find the right door, although I had to look down a long line of doorbells and find the right one. It was one of those security systems where you press a button and a voice speaks through a grille and then they let you in. A post lady was about to enter the building so she came in with me. The office was supposed to be on the third floor, and we had to spend ages wandering about trying to find the right office and the right floor, and even looking for the stairs to get there! If Phoenix had only put up some sort of sign to say where they were, there wouldn't have been all the problems in finding them!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had to do yet anothert C.R.B. form (Criminal Records Bureau) which cost £35, although they tell me I will get half of the cost back once I start working.  I'm somewhat annoyed that you have to keep on forking out £35 for a C.R.B. check. I realise that the whole idea of a C.R.B. is to prevent those with criminal intent from working with vulnerable people, but to have to have one for EACH company or agency you work for is really too much. It is rather like an M.O.T. in that it's only good for the actual time they look to see whether a person has a criminal record. I have also applied for another company and they want £47 for the C.R.B. So is part of that for 'administration costs' or are they merely making a quick profit out of this? If that's the case, it's totally wrong and someone should put a stop to it immediately. There is so much paperwork that you have to provide to just prove your identity. I have a birth certificate, but I have to have a full one, as the one I have doesn't give enough information, so it looks as if I'll have to find around £10 to get one. I'm going back on Thursday to start doing induction, as, again, you can't work until you've done the basic training. The C.R.B. check will take around 4-6 weeks, so I may as well get the induction out of the way first.

The roads are getting really bad. They are full of pot-holes. I noticed this on my drive over to Ayslesbury yesterday. This must be due to the recent ice and snow we've had. You have to take your life into your own hands, as you drive around Milton Keynes. You have to dodge the potholes, and in so doing run the risk of running into other vehicles on the road. It is really about time the local authority around here got it's act together and started repairing the roads, certainly before there is a serious accident.