"Vindictive" social workers "not uncommon", says director?

Hi, I have a response to this that I would like to send to the telegraph:
I am writing regarding Heidi Blake’s article ‘They wanted to take away our child.’ I am wondering when the media in this country are ever going to move forward from their seemingly never ending desire to print highly emotive, highly sensational, one sides tales of child abuse investigations which the social workers involved in can never respond to due to confidentiality rules.

The tone of Heidi’s article filled with middle class mothers with bright sparkling eyes and lovely hair, and lovely cuddly fathers leaves no doubt that all guilt in these cases lies firmly with the shadowy figures of the social work world who can remove children from their parents on a whim, or if feeling particularly irritated by a difficult case. Social workers cannot remove children from their parents without going to Court and presenting clear evidence. The case has to be proven in law, but most people do not know this and the media do nothing to educate them on this matter.

I had hoped that more responsible newspapers such as the telegraph would have begun to recognise how unbalanced, wildly inaccurate reporting that whips up public fear and distrust of social workers is placing the most vulnerable children in our society at further risk because it stops children and families in difficulty from seeking the much needed help and support that social workers can and do provide everyday. It is also preventing the brightest recruits from joining the social work profession and making it virtually impossible for Councils to recruit skilled and experienced staff to deal with complex cases of abuse. Heidi’s article itself makes reference to the fact that the media and public vilification of social workers following the Baby Peter case, which placed more responsibility on the shoulders of workers trying to do a complex job than it did on the perpetrators of the crime, has led to system melt down as social workers who can’t do right for doing wrong try to do exactly what the public has been screaming out for them to do ‘protect more children by bringing them into care.’ However, Heidi’s article states that social workers should do the opposite ‘innocent families are suffering because children are being wrongly taken into care.’ So, if social workers respond and stop taking so many children into care and there is another tragic death, no doubt the following week Heidi, or some other journalist, will then be writing about how social workers are too naive and trusting of parents and should instead be taking more children into care. We are in a seemingly endless, destructive cycle of media reporting of this issue which has to stop if society really wants to be able to call on a profession of skilled people who are able to tackle child abuse in society on their behalf.

I have no idea if the stories in this article are correct, none of us can say. However, regardless of their accuracy there are thousands of stories of excellent social work practice that would have been just as amazing, and interesting for readers to hear about. If articles like this are to be printed then a much more responsible and grown up attitude is needed from the media to present the information in a balanced way to the public. If Heidi thinks that her article is enlightening, or contributing anything to the debate about child abuse, she is wrong. She is just another journalist taking a kick at an already battered profession who have no voice to answer. If she is really interested in tackling the complexities of the investigation of child abuse I suggest that she goes and spends some time shadowing a social work team to gain some understanding of the complexity of the issues she is reporting on. It is not simply a matter of taking what you hear at face value and typing up a sensational story.

I sincerely hope that this latest social worker bashing article will be followed up by a more balanced and responsible article about social work in an attempt by Heidi to undo some of the damage that she has undoubtedly done.
Lynne

I have not read the Telegraph article but I would wholly applaud Kim Bromley-Derry for her comments as reported above. It is about time there was more honesty as it is only when this happens that there can be genuine change for the better.