In case you didn’t know, Channel 4 aired an undercover documentary from inside Birmingham’s children’s services last night. There were concerns about Dispatches before it aired, and plenty more during and after. The general feeling is that an opportunity to showcase the pressures facing frontline services across the country – and the reasons why – was missed.
Read social workers’ and viewers’ opinions below.
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The two self-appointed experts who sought to serenade the viewers with their knowledge, opinion and insights failed miserably last night. Whilst my views may be soured by direct experience of having worked with one of them, the pair would have been far more purposefully occupied had they both undertaken a Section 47 investigation or two, thereby modelling their yummy, wholesome practice for us lesser mortals to gasp at in admiration. This may at least have given the ‘shock horror revelations’ some bearing in a world of imperfections and disappointments. Instead, no gravitas whatsoever. Rather we were subjected to the usual stone age ranting of two ‘experts’ who both conveyed a sense of ‘it will be alright now because we are here and we have all the answers’. Most of the ‘critique’ comprised simply a catalogue of truisms, where context was anathema to the exposition. Bit like an Ofsted inspection, I guess. Let’s hope that we have now seen and heard the very last of these particular dinosaurs.