Local authorities should do more to empower social workers and
service users to tell their stories in the media, according to
Social Care Institute for Excellence chief executive Julie
Jones.
Social workers often talk about their roles with passion and can
be very persuasive, which is valuable in the drive to get positive
stories about the profession into the media, she said.
Speaking at a special media-themed meeting of Scie’s
Partners’ Council, a group of its key
stakeholders, she said social workers must guard against blocking
service users from telling their stories. “Sometimes we are
appropriately reticent; sometimes we are defensively reticent,”
Jones said.
24-hour news
The social work profession must recognise the impact of
“24-hour, wallpaper” news on the media’s demand for stories.
“That doesn’t match our pace. They are in a tearing rush and we
want to slow down and explain properly,” Jones said.
Social workers also need to make more use of digital media, such
as blogs and videos, to publicise their work, she said. Scie is to
launch an online TV channel in the autumn to tell social
workers’ stories.
Following
concerns raised by the Social Work Task
Force about the lack of a strong national voice for the
profession in the media, Jones said Scie could provide this
role. “Scie’s trustees would like us to have a different voice
in the media, to be the first point of call for journalists,”
she said.
The event also included a session by Community Care on
our
Stand Up Now for Social Work campaign on
improving media coverage of social work.
Pledges roll in
Meanwhile, British Association of Social Workers head Hilton
Dawson, former Association of Directors of Adult Social Services
president John Dixon and Unison press chief Mary Maguire have all
made pledges to Stand Up Now for Social Work.
Dixon pledged to “encourage social workers to share their
successes”, Dawson pledged to listen to social workers and be their
national voice, and Maguire pledged to ensure that Unison’s press
office challenged any biased or ill-informed reports.
Make your own pledge and see examples of
others.
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