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People who have blown the whistle on professional misconduct have often found themselves victimised. Linda Steele reports on how organisations may soon be compelled to support those who expose bad practice.

Heroes or outcasts? Surely no one could argue that whistleblowers - people who refuse to let wrong-doing at work go unchallenged - are anything other than the former? And yet, there are those who have had the courage to reject silence and complicity and have found themselves professionally ostracised. "My experience is that you get treated like a pariah," says Alison Taylor, a former social worker whose decision to speak out about abuse and corruption in North Wales children's homes led eventually to the Waterhouse inquiry.

Despite her vindication last year by the inquiry's report, Lost in Care, Taylor senses that she's still seen in some quarters as a "troublemaker" - someone social work employers wouldn't want to trust. (Taylor was sacked and has since become an author. She began a claim for unfair dismissal and her former employers settled out of court.) She refers to a relatively recent and hostile article in a national journal. "I naively thought the world would go away once Waterhouse happened. Some chance," she says. "You get branded."

It's a highly cautionary tale. Yet Taylor says she would do it again: "You have to live with yourself."

But it's highly likely that it will soon be a professional duty, and not only individual conscience or sense of professional ethics, that will drive people to expose unacceptable situations and practice. The forthcoming general social care council is likely to include an obligation to blow the whistle into its code of conduct for social care staff in England.

"There may be circumstances where professionals should have a responsibility to raise concerns," says Anna Myers, legal officer for Public Concern at Work (PCaW), a charity which offers advice and support to whistleblowers, as well as working with organisations to develop whistleblowing policies.

However, what's more important, says Myers, is encouraging a culture of openness and communication.

Her view is backed by the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS). "Every decent organisation wants to ensure that it discovers and deals with dishonesty, unprofessional practice, bullying, sexual and racial harassment," says Rob Hutchinson, chairperson of the ADSS children and families committee. "Every agency needs a whistleblowing policy, which is properly explained to staff, so that they can overcome the understandable fear that they might be penalised." Hutchinson acknowledges that there have been "many examples over the years" where malpractice has been hushed up. "But organisations need to make sure these things are properly investigated."

In so doing, employers don't even need to be altruistic, points out Myers. It's in an employer's self-interest to embrace a "whistleblowing culture". Things go wrong in every organisation and, if there is a system for staff to raise problems, they can be resolved before more serious harm is done. Also, Myers points out, while "people who complain maliciously are a tiny proportion, the more open an organisation is about communication, the more difficult it is for people to lie or withhold information that's useful to them." If knowledge is power, then openness helps ensure it can't be hoarded and misused, the argument goes.

But, fundamentally, the issue is one of recognising that whistleblowing isn't just about going public on a scandal. That's the very end of the line. Whistleblowing, argues Myers, should be an early warning system, which will help an employer put its house in order before disaster strikes.

That's why PCaW has produced a comprehensive policy pack for employers, which explains the issues and provides a practical guide to introducing a policy and training staff. It is also co-sponsoring a whistleblowing conference this autumn with Community Care and the National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations (NCVCCO).

"We're concerned that the level of awareness is low in the voluntary sector, says NCVCCO information officer Ian Vallender. "People may feel, if they've got child protection policies in place, they've done enough. But we think agencies will become more interested once they realise that it's important for child protection."

The conference will cover whistleblowing, its centrality in developing good employment practices and safe systems, and how this dovetails with current policies and programmes (including Quality Protects) aimed at safeguarding children, as well as the legislative context.

The law that underpins whistleblowers' rights in England, Scotland and Wales is the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and the Public Interest Disclosure Order in Northern Ireland. The act lays down procedures for would-be whistleblowers to follow. However bad the situation, the tabloid press should rarely be the first port of call. "If you think something is wrong, you ought to be able to raise it with the person concerned or your manager or employer," says Myers. "But if those routes are blocked, there are alternatives."

So, if an employee has a genuine suspicion that things are going very wrong and gets nowhere with their boss - or can't even approach them because of a very real fear that they'll be picked on or even sacked - they can take the matter elsewhere. Social care staff working for public authorities could also speak to the relevant government department, probably the Department of Health, and it would still legally be considered an internal disclosure.

The next step is to go to one of a number of "prescribed regulators" established by the act. They include the Audit Commission, Audit Scotland, the Charity Commission, the Register of Friendly Societies (and its Scottish counterpart), the Friendly Societies Commission and the Health and Safety Executive. The new inspection bodies, including the national care standards commission in England, are almost certain to be added to the list.

However, someone is protected by law if they go public - for example, to the media, police or MPs - so long as they haven't personally gained and if one of several criteria is met. The whistleblower must have good grounds to fear victimisation or a cover-up if they speak to managers (or to a prescribed regulator, if there is one) or they must have already tried that course of action to no avail.

An employment tribunal would judge matters such as how serious the concern was, whether the risk or danger remained and whether the employer or prescribed regulator responded reasonably when considering alleged unfair dismissal.

Myers hopes that anyone worried about possible impropriety or malpractice at work would give PCaW's helpline a ring and speak to one of the organisation's lawyers for advice. She also suggests seeking support from a trade union. "We have a right and duty to take things up," says Unison national officer Owen Davies. Depending on the severity of the case, he says, the union can offer the services of a shop steward or even a solicitor.

Myers says the law is working well and believes that views are changing. "There's increasingly an awareness that raising concerns isn't about being disloyal or sneaky." Ian Johnston, director of the British Association of Social Workers, agrees: "We've moved on a great deal." He also feels that social care's new regulatory framework should improve matters, so long as there's transparency and clarity. But, he adds: "People still say that, having blown the whistle, it's held against them. In very extreme cases, people are themselves investigated or sacked. More subtly, people don't get promotion."

Despite improved safeguards and a changing culture, then, whistleblowers are yet to be held in universal high esteem.

- Public Concern at Work www.pcaw.co.uk Helpline 020 7404 6609 or e-mail helpline@pcaw.co.uk PCaW policy pack costs £100 for voluntary and £200 for statutory child care providers.

- Safeguarding Children: Be Ready When the Whistle Blows Community Care and NCVCCO conference is on 14 November in London.

Working on the edge

Jane Horton (not her real name) was a member of a multi-professional child protection unit when she became aware that an employee of another agency was repeatedly withholding vital information from the team and parents.

"I didn't want it to be true. I wanted to find an explanation," she says. "I also felt fear and terror because I knew it had very serious implications - and I knew I wouldn't have a job at the end. I was in a well-paid position, I was a single parent and I loved my job."

She and several colleagues took the matter to senior management. It was a terrible time. "I really went to the edge," she says. But she did receive crucial support from her colleagues and her professional association. "BASW was a lifeline," she says. "It gave me professional support and kept me grounded in my code of ethics."

Over time, promises were made that something would be done. "And I'd been reassured by many people that my position would be safe." But her early intuition was correct. "There was a systematic cover-up and, while the person concerned had their practice restricted, they still practised in child protection. But the unit was closed and I was made redundant. I was the only one," she says.

Several years on, Horton's clearly still affected by her experience. "It was utterly shocking. I felt guilty - why didn't I know earlier what was going on? I didn't feel worthy of being a social worker."