by Daniel Lombard
Following the conclusion of the trial of the carers of Baby P, The Sun led a major campaign against the social workers who worked with the child. In an open letter to the newspaper Daniel Lombard asks its editor, Rebekah Wade, to rethink its agenda on social work issues, which could ultimately damage child protection efforts and children's social work overall.
Sign our petition on the Downing Street website.
Dear Ms Wade,
Your recent speech at the annual Cudlipp lecture gave a fascinating insight into the thinking behind The Sun's Baby P campaign.
You said that the campaign was a fight for justice and that it sought to expose the lack of accountability and responsibility for his death. You went on to emphasise the importance of expressing public opinion.
This being the case, you will no doubt be interested to hear about some important omissions and biases in The Sun's reporting of this case.
The most important omission, given your crusade for accountability and responsibility, is The Sun's failure to mention the involvement of the General Social Care Council - social care's equivalent of the General Medical Council.
The GSCC regulates the social care workforce in England. It has a duty to investigate concerns about social workers and can remove or suspend them from the register or place an admonishment on their registration. The GSCC has barred 28 social workers from practising in England since its conduct system was launched in 2006. Six social workers have been struck off in Scotland and seven in Wales.*
The practitioners involved in the Baby P case are subject to the same scrutiny: the GSCC is currently investigating several of them. Your coverage has on numerous occasions referred to the General Medical Council but unfortunately made no mention of the General Social Care Council, giving the impression that there was no system for regulating the social care workforce.
Instead of telling your readers about the fair, balanced and evidence-based system in place to judge the social care practitioners involved, your coverage implied that The Sun's campaign was filling a void by demanding justice and accountability.
Meanwhile, you treated the other professions involved in the Baby P case quite differently. You almost entirely overlooked the police officers who twice arrested Baby P's mother on suspicion of child cruelty and released her without charge. You were content for the GMC to pass judgement on the medical professionals.
Your efforts were focused squarely on social workers to the exclusion of others: your petition asserts that "Baby P was allowed to die despite 60 visits from Haringey social services", when in fact he was seen 60 times by health and social work professionals.
Informed public opinion is undoubtedly important. Unfortunately, your coverage misinformed your readers. And in considering their views ahead of the facts and the informed opinions of the social workers who struggle with the realities at the frontline everyday, you have risked more children's safety and maybe their lives.
In 27 consecutive editions following the conclusion of the trial of Baby P's killers, you singled out Maria Ward, the social worker allocated to Baby P's case, over and above the other professionals involved. She was named 55 times, in 31 articles, editorials, opinion columns and readers' letters. Your editorials labelled her "lazy" and "useless", while one story speculated on her mental health.
This pursuit was unnecessary - Ward will be investigated in the usual way - and it marred the whole profession. It alienated talented social workers nationwide. Since your campaign, evidence has already begun to emerge from our readers and elsewhere that some social workers have decided to stop practising and vacancy rates in London are approaching crisis levels. It is also likely to discourage bright students from entering the profession, undermining efforts to recruit much-needed social workers into children's services.
Social work is one of the most high-pressure jobs and when there are not enough staff, team members are left to struggle with unreasonable workloads, leaving less time for each case. Ultimately, it is the children who will suffer.
By contrast, your newspaper holds police officers in high esteem - you sponsor the annual Police Bravery Awards and clearly strive to recognise the important and difficult job they do. It is about time that you acknowledge some of the success stories of England's 90,000 social workers - described by children's secretary Ed Balls as the country's "unsung heroes".
Operating on modest salaries, many of them dedicate their entire careers to supporting Britain's most problematic communities without thanks or praise. Child protection cases are among the most complex and challenging investigations any public servants undertake, yet social workers successfully intervene and secure the well-being of countless children at risk of abuse every year.
In the case of Baby P there were clearly failings. But as Lord Laming said in his report of the Climbié inquiry, the people who should be held personally accountable for the effectiveness of child protection services are managers and leaders of relevant authorities, because they are responsible for ensuring services are adequately financed and staffed, and that staff are properly trained and supported.
A second serious case review examining the actions of all the agencies involved with Baby P is under way, and GSCC officials are still investigating the conduct of the social workers in question.
On behalf of them, and the profession as a whole, I ask you to leave professional judgement on the careers of frontline workers to the experts and regulators. The appointment of your agony aunt, Deidre Sanders, to the national social work taskforce presents an unexpected opportunity for your newspaper to make amends. Future Baby P cases would be more likely avoided if The Sun's considerable influence was instead used to demand better staffing, resources, pay and training to create a world class frontline social care workforce in the UK.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Lombard, reporter, Community Care, and the editorial team
* The Scottish Social Services Council and the Care Council for Wales, the equivalent regulators for Scotland and Wales, authorised these removals.
Thank You Daniel
If you have thoughts or comments on the letter or any of the issues raised in it, join the debate at the CareSpace forum: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/forums/p/3202/11426.aspx#11426
Well said!
Thank you so much for this. I could ramble on about this being the voice of reason....about the damage being done by the Sun and The Mail but really, all I can say is thank you thank you thank you
My letter to the Sun 28 Jan 2009 entitled 'The Olive Branch' and their reply
Dear Editor
I have tried on several occasions to get the Sun interested in supporting the development of good social work.I am the Nameless social worker [ Rachel Bramble, Janus Publishing, 2004] who has been speaking out for years and in fact still has a complaint against this government on behalf of all service users and social workers [since Oct 2005]I followed up that complaint by saying that I expected a child death purely because the current systems are so ridiculous. So sad that one of them was Baby P.We have vast amounts of money wasted on un natural systems which just do not work.Since May 2006 I have been working for less than half my worth at Wolgarston High School in Penkridge Staffordshire as their social worker on a self employed basis and have developed a support model called AERO [ Aspirations, Encouragement, Realism and Openness] which is currently being evaluated by Prof Mark Doel [ Sheffield Hallam University]It is a simple model using trigger words and could be in every school in the country if adopted.I suppose I am not surprised by the Sun's approach to Baby P as when I last rang to try to get your paper interested in writing about what I was doing [ about 18 months ago] the response was ' we don't write stories like that'My response is why not?Why attack folk rather than work with them?I know some horrible social workers and don't want them doing the job that is precisely why I continue to speak out and build alliances with all sorts of people including Tim Loughton MP [ who visited me in December at my school and sat seeing my model in practice], John Hemming MP, David Kidney MP, Prof Sue White etc etc.including email support from Mark Steel [ Comedian] and Ken Loach [ film Director]Last September I spent my own money hiring the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre to try to get the public, service users, the media, politicians and social workers together. John, David and Sue were amongst those who were there supporting me with Grandparents and students from my school.etcSo I am glad that Deidre has joined the Social care task force but if I have ' Believe in me' 2 will Rebekah come along and join us.All I want is good, rather than competent social workers, the kind of people that I would want to work with me or any of my family or friends should we need some support.To achieve this we need simple systems not unmanageable complex ones.I shall write to all members of the task force having already contacted Sue. Please listen and publish what she has to say I got sunburnt in her back garden last summer just doing that and she listened to Me.Get in touch anytime I'll not hide away people matter too much to me.40 years ago in October I became a school phobic which lead me to social work. 40 years ago today I dreamed of being an actress, the very career my daughter is heading to university to do this autumnBest wishes to you allRachel Bramble
Dear Rachel Bramble,Thank you for your email to The Sun.I have forwarded it to our feature writers.Regards,Amanda GreenleyLetters Editor
its about time. all my fellow students have been put off going into child protection because of this.
As a student social worker, I am so pleased that our side has been aired.
Thank you for an excellent letter.
What a fantastic letter.
I hope that Ms Wade and the rest of her colleagues who sit in ivory towers pontificating over their pet hate subjects in broad brush strokes take note of professional criticism.
As you say, whipping up unnecessary and damaging hysteria will ultimately be to the detriment of those in need of social care.
I hope this letter niggles at the conscience of tabloids, such as the Sun, who frequently abuse their position of circulation at the expense of enlightenment for their readership.
Well said. A copy of that should be sent out with every sun newspaper for the readers to guage a better understanding of what happened and how it has been reported,
I am a fighter for REAL child protection. Too much money is wasted on the 'anonymous' report of 'mum drank 3 glasses of wine last night'. I have been told straight out by social workers, we now go after the middle class...the underclass are now too dangerous to deal with.
I will set my stall out...my husband was accused of the most horrible crime imaginable...it was ripping my family apart. Did I get support? Hell no...instead I was assessed to death. I had to prove stupid things like I could make a cup of tea and make toast...considering I have been a gourmet cook for 15 years...
I also had to do an IQ test...they didn't know what to do with me. I think the truth was the SW and GAL walking in and saying' Erm... we don't normally do this..your kids have clothes, and toys and...do people really own that many books?'I said, what can you do with a woman who is a company director with a MENSA IQ? I will tell you what they did...phone my employers and got me sacked and admitted they did it to try and make me homeless to keep my children.
I have now been banned from CareSpace..how ironic..because my job now involves bringing competency frameworks into the profession.
Daniel's letter is articulate but is a cover.
TC
Brilliantly put. Thank you very much. I just hope the public will see sight of this letter. It articulately attempts to redress some of the imbalances. The British public are not stupid but have a right to factual information as well as biased opinion.
Well said - the media need to be held accountable for the public hysteria they cause by starting these campaigns, and the long lasting detrimental effect this can have on public perceptions of incredibly challenging professions!
Thank you for your efforts Daniel - I guess there is no chance The Sun will print your letter as they seem to prefer to deal with the "facts" only as they see them and not the real world. We have similar issues with Adult Protection but I guess bad news sells papers whereas stories of how social workers did make like safer and better for people isn't interesting reading, often it isn't even interesting to those we serve and their families. We get few letters/comments of thanks from clients and families but they are very quick to complain when things don't go the way they think they should. I appreciate we are paid to do a job but it itsn't a job, it becomesa way of life and I, like many others I am sure, have lost count of the amount of sleepless nights I've had. Then again, I chose to do the job (for 25 years!) and I wouldn't change the work for anything in the world.......
Thank you for this, I hope the media start to listen. I long ago stopped buying the Mail because of their attitude.Unfortunately the Sun has an awful lot of influence and must be made to be more responsible and not just put headlines that sell newspapers. As in so many other sectors of this society greed has had a negative effect on life.
I am one of those Social Workers who decided enough was enough and took early retirement. I was lucky I could afford to get out. Any Local Authority in this country could have a Baby P.and I am so grateful to have been able to walk away.
Well said, well done! we need to bring about a radical shift in the mentality of those out there who castigate us so readily and unjustly due to their total ignorance. Problems in recruitment and retention of staff in safeguarding work are not new but have undoubtedly been exacerbated by the damage caused by the irresponsible press such as The Sun and put more pressure on those who work tirelessly to protect the vulnerable. It makes my blood boil!
Hi
I was so impressed to see a journalist talk about something other than how dreadful social workers are.
I am a social worker who is very proud of her profession but I am concerned that front line staff are being used as scapegoats when actually alot of the issues concerned with any child death can be linked to a reduction in resources and services, as well as inadequate supervision and by being overwhelmed by the sheer number of cases allocated to one individual social worker.
A helpful, balanced letter. Thanks for putting the case so clearly.
Thank you for your balanced and objective response to this approach, led by the sun,and other media outlets.
I am a 2nd yr Social Work student, having worked in Social Care for 15 years. I wholeheartedly endorse the article. Social Workers on the front line of difficult family situations should be supported, by management and better salaries, not hung out to dry by the media!
Truely said. It is crucial for the society to know that each time something happens it has always been easy for everyone to blame Social workers who despite of their hard work and commitment to their profession. Social Work ideally should be considered as a nobel work, and people who have shown their commitment to contribute to this work should be treated with respect. Instead majority of the population in the UK, so called 'well educated' people continue to show their biased attitude towards Social workers . Social workers are mostly treated with disrespect not only by their clients but also by people in the society who look down up on this profession.
It is essential for people to realise the gravity of various issues linked with social workers and Social work practice in the UK. It is extremely crucial for social workers to receive recognition, respect and a strong support system in every sense to continue providing high standard of service with passion.
Thankyou for your letter - I hope the Sun takes up the challenge and responsibility to redress the balance and,therefore,ultimately contribute to the protection of our children and future generations. We can all learn the lessons from the mistakes and now is the time for us all to work together to find a positive way forward and act on it. By all - I mean government, Directors, senior managers, social workers, police, education, health workers,other professionals and agencies, mums and dads and the general population. Each one of us in this country is responsible and accountable for the safety of children. I hope the Sun takes notice and begins to support social workers who may become a rare commodity otherwise.
Thank you Daniel for attempting to redress the balance a little
The problem with social workers is that we don't stand up for ourselves - we need more articulate people to advocate for the profession - where is the British Association for SW - I have not heard anyone speaking up from them in support, yes they might have written to Ed Balls - but we need high profile people on the news giving social work a real voice.
The medical and police professionals all have articulate spokespeople and it is about time the social work profession did too. Its about time social work stopped silently putting up with this time after time.
Excellent letter, look forward to the reply!
I am a social worker who is doing Child Protection and Children Looked After cases. I have a number of years of Overseas experience and 7 years of experience in the UK.
I dedicate my life and time for my clients and try my utmost to preserve family life taking into consideration the Human Rights Act, Every Child Matters, The Child's Rights to protection, keepsafe, health, education, making a positive contribution, etc. However, I always bear in mind and in my work with Children and Young Persons to put the Child/YP at the Centre, and that my duty is to protect the well-being of the child.
There are times where we have to make difficult decisions to protect the child as the child is considered at the Centre and hence, I have to ensure the child/YP(Young Person's) well-being.
I would like everyone to appreciate the demanding job that we have and with the current hard and stressful times, a lot of social workers do display dedication in working with Children, Young Persons and their families despite the enormity of their Caseloads and they strive to do their best for the Child, YP and their families.
I would like Social Work agencies to employ more competent, caring, and committed Managers to support their Team Members and for the Govt to honour the social workers by at least providing a better salary which is an incentive of recruiting and retaining the good social workers.
Daniel,
I will be starting my Social Work BSc in September & having read your letter, I just wanted to say that you are able to eloquently word the thoughts of so many with cogency & precision. Your letter only encourages me to continue striving towards working within the young children and families arena.
Thank you for showing us new starters that there are people out there to fight our corner as faceless societies can blend into the wallpaper and it is easy to forget that they are there.
Thank you once again.
I feel the response to the scare mongering and headline grabbing stirred up by 'news'papers such as the Sun and Mail will alas fall upon deaf ears. Mr Lombard's letter is articulate and attempts to persuade the Sun's editor to redress the unjust criticism aimed at those within the profession of social work. However until a fundamental change of outdated and institutional local authorities and councils occur I am afraid the 'gutter press' will continue to have a field day at the expense of social workers. The antiquated bureaucracy that is held together with quick fit solutions will prevent frontline staff from spending 'quality' time with service users, and the performance related managerialism will continue to heap unreasonable case loads upon overworked staff.
Thankyou Daniel for your knowleagable and intelligent comments, your support is most welcome.
This makes utter sense to me and I hope that it paves the way to avoid future witch hunts. Very well written.
Great letter, which dear Ms. Wade will doubtless ignore. Reminds me of something Oscar Wilde said, namely that 'instead of monopolising the seat of judgement, the Press should itself be in the dock, apologising for its very existence'.
Well done Daniel and team. If the Sun don't print, perhaps you could send it to the Guardian or elsewhere!!
Hi Dan
When the Baby P case all erupted I contacted The Sun and asked them if they had any information as to weather Sharon Shoesmith was registered with the GSCC. I spoke to somebody at 11.30pm on the newsdesk and explained what the GSCC did and how each social worker should be registered and held responsible by the GSCC. The person I spoke to did not give me a name and we were on the phone for about 20 minutes. In the end he asked me to hold for 'one sec' and I was still waiting after 5 minutes. I hung up and thought that no-one was interested in my call and that nobody at The Sun had any idea the pressure placed on all social workers who work with different service users when such statements are used in the national press, that social workers are to blame.
What a brilliant letter I have just been speaking to a potential Social Work Student who has been put off by Media rhetoric and the other publicity following Baby P I will email her your letter and together with my views on Social Work as a career I hope she will reconsider
Thank you Daniel for your letter, I'm so pleased that you have spent time raising an awareness of the difficult job front line social workers do. I'm also pleased that you also highlighted the fact that there were other professionals involved in the Baby P case but yet again, were rarely mentioned and definitely not blamed. As a social worker, I'm fed up with the lack of professional representatives who will fight and support the cause of those social workers who are unable to raise their voices and be heard when things go wrong.
This is a good letter. It made some excellent points. However my concern is that its not The Sun and social work critics in general that we should fear, rather its our friends in the GSCC.
The GSCC will ultimately let the profession down over this issue. In the immediate aftermath of the death of Baby P they were so eager to inform the waiting press that social work heads would roll for this. The GMC and Police Complaints Commission held a respectful silence until all the facts were gleaned.
Social Workers now know the GSCC for what they are. They are not quite the all encompassing 'profession body' that Reg told us they would be.
At least we know what we are getting with The Sun. Its those who thrust one arm over our shoulder to show their 'support' of us in order that they can stick the knife deeper into our backs that are the real concern.
what a good incisive letter- I just hope Rebekkah Wade has the decency to respond- to expect her to print it in the Sun is maybe asking for too much!!
I worked in child protection for over 8 years before moving to my current post with Adult Services. Why do people think that putting a child's name on the register offers any real form of protection? There are plenty of parents wise to the system who take an injured child to another hospital just outside their local council's area for treatment and this is seldom if ever flagged up. In my experience teachers and health professionals often saw the register as a panacea, and wanted to keep children on it without proper evidence of abuse/ neglect just in case! Also some professionals, mostly headteachers, used the children's presence on the register as an excuse to persecute families, immediately ringing social workers about even the slightest concerns whilst at the same time NOT reporting signs of abuse in other children in their schools which were more glaring and obvious. There then became 2 classes of pupil; "the great unwashed" as it were, and the deserving families who "wouldn't ever harm their children."
In my opinion a more subtle and all-encompasing system needs to be derived which needs as a prerequisite an extensive knowledge for all professionals involved, which can only come about by specialist training about the type, variety, and general spectrum of abuse. It is too easy for all to bury their heads in the sand, and blame social workers when things go wrong and children are killed by parents and carers. So, for the sake of all our children and yp we need to start changing this system.
i am just amum and grand mum. i think your letter is very good and personally found the sun to only be interested in how many papers it sells instead of producing news that we all need to read. i organized the justice march for baby p and a protest at haringey over shoesmith. can i just say that we never set out to witch hunt social workers at all and have been calling for all professionals who let baby p down to be brought before the courts on corporate manslaughter charges. this is aimed at the police and dr too. i have met many a really good social worker as well as some bad ones, as in all professions you get good and bad. i hope potential social workers are not put off because of the sun. we need many more social workers and should invest in training support and lowering their case loads instead of villifying them.
i am now in the process of setting up the a.b.c foundation which stands for abused babies and children.we also want to help adult survivors,but we do know that we will need a good working relationship with social workers,health visitors police counsellors etc and will not tolerate people putting such professions down.
A most appropriate way of putting the case of Social Workers across. We deserve more respect and understanding.
Thank you Daniel for your comments. If Sun don't print it, you could send it to other newspapers.
Such a good, clear and succint response. I fear that the media will be too arrogant to print it though. But if this can help create a bigger workforce then lets go!
Thank you Daniel for a voice of reason in relation to (yet again) an otherwise destructive response by the Sun newspaper regarding the tragedy of the murder of baby P.
As social workers we know only too well, the issues of underfunding, shortages of staff and the failure of other key agency staff to identify abuse.
With tedious regualarity, the press undermines the skills and the care shown by social workers on a daily basis, with little or no recognition of their valuable work in relation to both child protection and family support. Nor is there any recognition of the personal risks, that at times, have to be managed by Social Workers.
The truth is, social work only gets press when there is a tragedy. Because of the sensitivity and confidentiality that is necessary when working with service users, the sucesses in social work practice are rarely if ever, shared with the public and certainly not by the press generally.
Regretably, there will always be children who need protection and it is my opnion that everyone has a duty to protect those who are vulnerable. It is not just the role of the social worker; the teacher; the GP. It is also the duty of extended family members, friends, neighbours and even strangers in the street. We all have a duty to protect children.
To conclude, I guess instead of waiting around for the Social Work profession to get a 'good press' social work as a profession could, through the media, advocate with more vigour, issues relatimg to poverty, abuse, neglect and begin to raise the consciousness of a society, that at times, unless there is a tragedy, doesn't seem to care.
At last someone has dared to write something ‘as it is’ and spoken up for social workers instead of being part of the witch hunt that is currently demonising the profession, well done Daniel and team for the recognition. I am a newly qualified social worker in child protection, people are calling for better training, what they do not understand is that the training is there; it takes three years to gain the degree to become a social worker which is extremely hard work.
Universities across the United Kingdom are turning out some excellent social workers but what then... they then go out into the working arena where the level of staffing is low along with the moral of many teams, they face deception from parents every day along with damming reports in the tabloids and still they are expected to work miracles.
People do not know about the hours of unpaid work a social worker puts in ‘the service is run on good will’ and if all that good will was withdrawn by social workers the service would be near to collapse. The pay, level of staffing and recognition should be in line with other professionals because as you stated being a ‘social worker on the front line in child protection is as stressful a job as you could get’.
The ordinary public (which I myself used to be) do not know or understand the demands of the job; they only know what is reported in the news papers. I hope and pray your letter is the start of understanding information for the general public (I myself used to be one of the syncs before I really understood what being a social worker meant). SO ONCE AGAIN ON BEHALF OF ALL CHILD PROTECTION SOCIAL WORKERS ‘THANK YOU...).
Daniel,
Thank you for standing up for all of us. It is really much appreciated! When you work with risk day in and day out and are then told that you are basically rubbish in how you do it, makes me angry. It is great to see that there are still advocates out there for Social Workers. As you rightly said: it is a very stressful job, but one we chose in order to make a difference and is very rarely thanked for our efforts, if at all.
Second the thank you daniel comment - my sentiments exactly, why should social workers be totally blamed - the death off Baby P was the responsibility off all professionals involved who on many occassions failed to protect such a vulnerable child and I have no doubt that it is only a matter off time before it happens again.
Thank you for your letter Daniel, it is very encouraging.
Its nice to hear a balanced and well thought response from someone with experience of front line social workers.
Anyone interested in this issue should sign our online petition calling on The Sun to back social workers at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Backsocialwork/
I think we all felt speechless at this tragic case but realise that any blame is systemic across all agencies. I think you covered this superbly, lets hope the petition gets the support it deserves.
I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has commented on our letter so far. It is so encouraging to realise that our efforts to stand up for social workers and the difficult job you do haven't gone unnoticed - that is after all what we are here for.
For your information we have sent a copy of the letter to Rebekah Wade and to the Sun's letters page, and still awaiting a response.
Please could you ask all your friends and colleagues to sign the petition, which Simeon has copied above.
Hear! Hear! My sentiments exactly. As a Senior Practitioner with 37 years in the profession, I am heartily sick of the scapegoating of Social Workers. The public are misled by the press, though it is no surprise to me that the Sun has again got it wrong.
When the opportunity arises for government to focus on public sector workers- the police, nurses, teachers are all mentioned without a thought for Social Workers. Blair missed his opportunities- I hope Brown will grasp the nettle.
Thanks for your letter- it summed up the situation perfectly
Daniel, thanks for this campaign! I heard Barry Shearman, MP, Chair of the Loked After Children select committee on the radio recently. He did seem to have taken on board BASW's plea for a better press for Social workers and was doing his bit with John Humphreys!
Thank you for trying to irradicate the hysteria around child protection. I am a year 1 student on the Social Work programme and found the letter to be balanced and informative in the unwelcome negative press against the social work profession.
This gives me hope for the future and not a feeling of "what am I doing", which was how I was feeling.
I have a place on an MA in social work due to start in September with all the bad press and stress about the proffesion I am thinking of not attending the course it seems to me to be a very difficult area.
A one time child care worker.
I wholeheartedly agree with your letter, if only it could be printed in all newspapers. the big issues for me are that Social Workers have to spend too much time in front of computers, why cannot they have clerical assistance?.I also believe that there is a need for supervised appropriate physical contact with children who are at risk.
There is no point in writing letters to the Sun. The paper is only interested in its sales figures and profit margins. Look what happened a few years ago with their campaign against paedophiles, that led to innocent people being harrassed and attacked. The paper then disclaimed any responsibility for their actions. Again when children are taken into care for their own protection the media vilify social workers for doing this. Let's face it- the media do not like social workers and will always target us as the scapegoat for society's ills.
I'm not in the UK, but I have followed the fallout of Baby P's ordeal in the media. I too, had a kneejerk reaction of thinking everyone involved should be sacked, but what good would that do? A few months on and after reading many sides of the issue, I've decided front line SWs in child protection (in any country, not just the UK) need our support more than anyone else. The one thing that has come up time and again is how much time SWs spend filling out paper work. And thus it seems that front line SWs absolutely need *admin support* so they can be where they need to be - out on the front line.
I want to know how can the lay person, not in SW, help the SWs who need to be able to do their job to the best of their ability? How can *I* help?
Hats off to you folks who do a tough job every day.
Well said....hope it makes the media think before they print!
Worded excentley
Maybe they should consult the people who know before they what they think is hot is not!
I feel that Social Work in general is politically bias. I work in this field and I read the Sun the Mail and the Express. I'm not a right wing fascist or a Burberry wearing, tattooed, foul mouthed, uneducated ignorant thug. I just like reading the paper. It becomes annoying when it's them and us situation that arises and this is typical of that. The Guardian readers, (good paper by the way, don't like the format though), with their gaurd up totally disregarding the voice of the public when they should be listening. Nearly one and a half million signatures waved aside as mass hysteria. I do feel that there were terrible unforgiveable mistakes at Haringay and I and many others also feel that left wing politics and box ticking played a role in the demise of Baby P. People are afraid to go near babies now in fear of being accused of something untoward...I could go on. I feel that the witch hunt should stop but I also feel that Social Work should stop being so political. Until this stops you will always be sterotyped as a cardigan wearing, scarf wearing, middle class type, who looks down on people and is about 22, with no experience and no children of thier own. Let us all build positive images of Social Work. Make it more inviting for all people to join. I work with many Social workers in my job and only a few have actually made a positive impact on me. The rest were inexperienced and overworked. Forgetting appointments, cancelling reviews and visits not appearing at court when promised which makes my job much harder and upsets the young people I work with. I hope we all learn from this tragedy and it does not churn out another box to tick and another form to fill in thus pinning us all down to our desks.
Thank you Daniel. I have passed on the petition to most of my colleagues at Ealing Borough.
Natalino
Well said Dave I salute you!!!