GRRRRRR!!!! RAGE AND FURY!

I accept that I have a problem: I tend to lose it when people in power or with specific responsibilities don't live up to their roles. It has dogged my working career and most professional relationships. I think it might stem from my first job: My first boss was amazing, inspiring, challenging and never had time for micro-management- just results. Sadly NONE of my subsequent bosses including Boards of Trustees etc have come close.

One of my lodgers arrived in UK from Albania when he was 16 seeking asylum and not speaking English. By the time I met him, it seemed clear to me that as he wasn't gay or in iminent danger in Albania, he had come here to seek better prospects etc which, in my opinion could see him branded "An Economic Migrant" and his application for asylum would be refused. I said as much when he was first suggested to me and I have registered my concern that little seemed to be happening in his case ever since and as recently as last week. Today, he received a message from the council's solicitor, informing him that his application has been rejected.

What really BOILS MY PISS is the polite fucking middle-class public-sector-worker response which can be summarised as "I did my job". "My Job" in this instance appears to have been to fill in some forms, submit them and wait. There is little more the social workers could do perhaps (though I would have made myself a nuisance with the solicitor if I had the responsibility), but when I spoke to the (no doubt obscenely-highly-paid) solicitor, she had done pretty much the same and was affronted that I would ask what she had been doing.

I am SO angry and I have made that known to the social workers. They are so used to being forgiven for shortcomings I sense their shock. The more they try to be "professional" the more infuriating it becomes. I know that the issue is about not taking personal responsibility for anything and relying on proceedure/"the system", none of them seem to accept that this lad's LIFE is in the balance. And if I could foresee a problem with his application, why didn't they?

The horror stories my other lodger has shared of his long time in care have hardened my thoughts about the whole "service". This young man (and his older sister by all accounts) is simply unprepared for adult life. In my opinon, that is a damning indictment of the system and the thousands of pounds that have been put into his care. I am depressed almost whenever I speak with him, it  is clear that he has been so controlled that he has lost any individual agency. One of his common refrains is "nobody's ever told me that before"- but that can be for anything as varied as how to cut an unsliced loaf of bread to the difference between a provisional and full driving licence- he thought it was an issue of choice... I asked him why he wanted a driving licence and it transpired he had no interest in learning to drive, but saw the licence as a piece of ID.

My Albanian lodger by contrast is the most able and positive of the lads I've had here despite being the youngest. He has drive and motivation and direction and ambition which has been lacking in the English kids I've hosted. He is understandably crushed by today's news and has gone for a walk. The next step is to appeal, but... it has to be said that because his life won't be in iminent danger if he is returned to Albania, he may not have much hope. Again: I am annoyed they let him think he might succeed- hey!- he still might. All I think we can do now is to string it on as long as possible.

I KNOW social work is hard, poorly paid and on the frontline for criticism... Nevertheless, I feel my fury to be justified if only because they didn't seem to take seriously the concerns I raised and for me to be proved right.