Social workers need to use specialist media experts to improve their public image rather than doing the job themselves, public relations guru Max Clifford told Community Care LIVE yesterday.
Speaking to a packed auditorium, Clifford warned that tabloid journalists were looking for a similar scandal to Baby P, and that members of the public may be looking for one too.
He said: “You can pontificate all you want about the rights and the wrongs [of media coverage]. But the best thing you can do is get someone who knows the media, who specialises in it.”
Noting that social workers do a “difficult job“, he added: “Your organisation, your professional body, whoever runs this show, and pardon my ignorance but I don’t know who that is, have got to find a way of combating this.”
Not aware of GSCC
Clifford admitted that he had not heard of professional regulator for England the General Social Care Council “up until a few days ago”, and had not seen them mentioned once in coverage of the Baby P scandal.
He compared social workers to his former client Robert Murat, the man who was wrongly linked in the world's press to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, claiming both were “sacrificial lambs” for the press.
He said: “Image and reality are often a long, long way apart. Right now, apart from politicians, social workers are among the most unpopular people in the country.”
Confidentiality
In questions after the speech, a social worker from Dorset raised concerns that practitioners cannot respond to stories in the press because of confidentiality concerns.
Clifford advised that a PR expert handling the story could confidentially show case details to an editor to explain a situation to stop a damaging story being printed.
He also said that celebrities with friends or relatives who have been served by social workers were also needed to secure coverage in the tabloids, noting the focus that Madonna has placed on adoption.
Community Care campaign
Community Care's Stand Up Now for Social Work campaign is seeking to tackle negative coverage of social work in the press and promote coverage of positive stories. Sign our online petition calling on The Sun to back the profession.
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