It's good to see one national newspaper running an online comment piece in defence of child protection social workers, in the light of the Nottingham baby case.
The piece, by the London Metropolitan University social work senior lecturer Liz Davies, unpicks the misrepresentations in media reporting of the case and defends the conduct of the practitioners involved - albeit on the proviso that the full facts are not in the public domain.
She ends all too poignantly: "The social workers had to implement a decision that will remain with them for the rest of their lives and for this difficult professional task they have been vilified through the distortions of the media and public prejudice. It is no wonder that only 3% of my social work students choose to pursue child protection work."
The piece, you'll be unsurprised to hear, was published by The Guardian. What chance its competitors doing the same?
There's nothing the media like better than an easy target and social workers are a very easy target. What they do is little understood, most people will never have contact with them and they are often prevented from standing up for themselves. Much of the media in this country is very simple-minded and lazy and reaches for easy stereotype, prejudice and cliche and any account that will paint a story in terms of black and white rather than trying to come to a full understanding of an issue. Its distorted coverage of crime is another good example of this, as Keith Hassell described in his recent blog.
I sometimes read US newspapers and their broadsheets are far higher quality than ours in terms of responsible, accurate journalism. Having said that their TV journalism is infinitely worse than ours, although ours is heading in that direction. I don't know enough about the European media to comment much on that but I would be interested to hear from people who do.
there was an interesting piece of research a while back about how young offenders were viewed in Finland - which has one of the lowest numbers of kids in custody anywhere in the world. this was linked to the lack of media hysteria ie the stuff about yobs we are always bombared with. apparently in finland the media host proper informed discussions about youth crime using people that know what they are talking about. and newspapers are mainly subscription based which means they dont have to compete to be sold on the back of the most lurid headline. the UK government always deny they make policy on the basis of "what the Daily Mail is thinking" but of course they do....the correlation between public hysteria-mongering in the press and policy-making is as old as the hills.
on the subject of social workers in the media, they need to represent themselves in a more effective way. councils spend shedloads of money on their PR departments, why not have some that know the real ins and outs of social work and can contribute something balanced?
The thing is, the general public are less likely to come into contact with a social worker than say a doctor or nurse and as a result son't have a clue what the profession does. They believe the "child snatching" stories splashed across the tabloids and the negative way in which social workers are portrayed in soap operas. We've had Doctors, Flying Doctors, The Bill, Holby City, Casualty - is it not time for a drama around social work showing the profession as it really is?
It is strange that there is no soap set in a social services department as it is full of human drama at the highest level. Something like a cross between Holby City and Shameless would be fantastic
It's just the age-old issue that most people don't ever come into contact with social workers, so programme makers might consider it would not have a very wide audience. Also, if you look at the other professions commonly turned into TV programmes - law, medicine, fire service, police - they all have a certain glamour about them which social work probably never will!
I don't know. If they shoved a few good looknig actors in the lead roles I think glamour can be injected into most things!
I think grit is the selling point of a drama to do with social work, not glamour. I would be intrigued to know if anything was being commissioned. why dont a few community care journos put together a script and see what happens? A child protection drama would go down fantastically, looking at the intense moral dilemmas that face social workers....dont know if you recall the ken loach film Ladybird, Ladybird, which is a graphic and painful portrayal of the experiences of a mother whose children are repeatedly taken away by social workers...I seem to remember though this was very much from the perspective of the mother. I would assume that for social workers taking children away must be one of the hardest parts of the job, and I dont think there has been any media portrayal of this from their point of view. Now there's a challenge. over to you, Channel 4 commissioners!
I actually studies script writing as part of my media course at university so you never know Muriel! I just think it might put across the REAL social work - not the poor excuse of a portrayal of social work we get once in a while on soap operas!
Bizarrely, there was a drama about a probation officer a few years ago on BBC1, Jack of Hearts, starring Keith Allen of all people, which might be the nearest equivalent to a social work drama in recent times. However, I don't think the Beeb commissioned a second series (correct me if I'm wrong) so that may tell its own tale.
On the grit versus glamour question, each seems to work in other public service areas. I guess Holby City and Casualty are on the gritty side, and Teachers and No Angels were more glamorous (well, sort of).
well what you need is a hard-hitting gritty script with lots of black humour and glamourous actors. I think Kate Winslet and Jude law as the rookie social workers chucked in the deep end, and of course got to get one of them to fall madly in love with a service users (Frank Gallagher of Shameless springs to mind) and get struck off the register...
there was a US sit-com called the Norm Show about a social worker (i think he was forced into doing it) but it was at about 2am.
a serious drama would be good. ten episodes with a few overarching themes and
There was of course, the portrayal of the child psychologist by Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense - psychologists have never looked so cool!
Of course, the general public understands what psychologists do (albeit sometimes confusing it with psychiatrists) but they are less clear about social workers. The problem is, are we clear about what social workers actually do? Would the TV series involve lots of people filling in forms and being "care navigators"? I've switched off already!
I seem to have lost a post somewhere - was sure I'd already mentioned Jeremy Kyle and Tricia for storylines!
Unfortunately, I can't see any TV series taking off where the main protagonist is either sat in front of a computer filling in forms or at home with a stress related illness.
Right on, Grinch!!!
There was this BBC documentary on Bristol social services a few years ago which seemed to try and show children and families social work in all its complexity, though was hamstrung by the fact that it wasn't able to get permission to film the hardest cases.
Well, if we lose the Guardian to the dark side of the media we really will be in trouble! Preaching to the converted though, isn't it? In reality we'll never see an accurate or positive representation of child protection in the likes of the Daily Mail so let's not even hope for it. What we need, though, are organisations willing to more robustly defend social workers when they are maligned. Where are BASW and the GSCC in all this? On the rare occasions that health professionals are unfairly criticised in the media their representative bodies are there standing up for them in the letters pages and elsewhere. Don't social workers deserve the same?
Great point snorky.
The British Medical Association is always a massive presence in debates around health policy and doctors' terms and conditions and the government seems to have no option but to listen.
The GSCC's view is that it regulates the profession, with a primary duty to service users and the public, so it would be a conflict of interest in a sense for it to be a cheerleader at the same time, but the same of course does not apply to BASW.
However, BASW would have more of a voice if it didn't only represent 11,000 odd of the 80,000 plus social workers. Is everyone on the forum in BASW out of interest?
The GSCC argument that it regulates the profession with a responsibility to the public is such a shame - I would have thought the BMA had a responsibility to the public as well as representing it's members - is that what we wanted: someone to regulate social workers, a kind of big brother figure in Orwell's vision rather than a protective figure able to defend as well as reprimand?
Speaking as a BASW member it would be helpful if more social workers were willing to become members. Maybe then they could do more. Rather the chicken and egg situation.
Yes, it's definitely a chicken and egg situation - maybe BASW needs to do more at student level, actively recruiting from university campuses, so that newly-qualified social workers just take it as read that they join BASW (along with a union of course).
Obviously were BASW to represent 90% of social workers, it could provide a solid line of defence against the media's denigration of the profession, though changing hearts and minds more broadly will be difficult, as well as getting a seat at the government's table.
Thanks Mithran for alerting me to this discussion - I am an academic with a long standing interest in how media messages are produced by journalists and programme makers and the impact of this on different audiences- I published a study in the Journal of Social Work 'Sad Not Bad' (August 2007) which is the first time that portrayals of social care workers in UK popular TV drama were analysed systematically - the results will not be surprising to many on this forum- it was social workers that were mostly portrayed and of these most were involved in child protection issues- notably none of these characters were regular characters and part of the fictional soap community but were brought in to add social realism - often they did not even speak but simply sat in the background - those who did speak talked of bureaucracy and procedures and were frequently criticised by the other popular established characters in the programme- none of this helps public understanding of the role of these professionals and they are indeed marginalised in comparison to other groups-especially doctors and police- other research I have done (published in a book- 2007, Social Issues in Television Fiction, Edinburgh University Press) has highlighted the incredible potential for tv drama to challenge misconceptions about social issues and indeed professional groups but this happens only with a proactive effort on the part of the profession- e.g. scientists who also complain about negative and sensational coverage in the media have invested in workshops where they nurture links with script writers and gain an understanding of media values- it is possible to find 'spaces' to get your message across but requires working in a framework that suits tv personnel- In my view the constraints on reporting factual cases mean that it is difficult for social workers to challenge negative reporting- tv drama is the place to do this-
sorry this is a long message - I would be interested in your views
I haven't noticed that anyone has yet mentioned Radio 4's Clare in the Community starring the excellent Sally Phillips. Or is that a red rag to a bull?
Here's the abstract for Lesley's article if anyone wants to have a look (sorry, hope that's ok, Lesley).
Given the importance of television drama, I just wondered how you thought social workers, or indeed BASW or possibly even us as a magazine, could go about making the links that you talk about with television script writers or commissioning editors?
Maybe it's even something for a public or publicly-funded agency (GSCC or Scie, for instance) to take on as I'm sure it would be a worthwhile investment.
Maybe there should be a documentary regarding the everyday life of a Child Protection Social Worker, but lets face who would believe the truth. People like to pull the workers down because they are easy targets and they are not allowed to fight back and answer the media. The real truth is that all workers are very hard working. They have very little support from senior management who are always ready to pull their practice to bits if they make a mistake but never praise them for all their hard work and long hours.
All I ever hear in the press is that another Social Worker has made a mistake, whne the truth is that it was their managers made the mistakes. Social Workers dont close cases or sign off Section 47 reports its their managers. Its time we answered back and looked at what really does happen in our departments.
Lins: All I ever hear in the press is that another Social Worker has made a mistake, whne the truth is that it was their managers made the mistakes. Social Workers dont close cases or sign off Section 47 reports its their managers. Its time we answered back and looked at what really does happen in our departments.
Lins, I think you're being a bit unfair here. Why should it be anyone's fault? Social work doesn't operate in the realm of certainties, mistakes are inevitable, not to mention blaming individuals neglects the wider systemic issues and how they impact on practice and decision-making.
Good point Grinch, but I suppose the unfortunate thing is that individual blame is always newsworthy in a way that systemic failings will not be.
Interesting point about managers, Lins. Got me thinking about starting a new thread...
I found the reference to Shameless extremely funny. How about frank gallagher as a social worker ........Id watch that. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) JUst to add fuel to the fire...what about all these nurses getting done for murder and theft and such ? Dont see anybody tarring all nurses with the same brush there do we? You are right Mithran, for every social worker who makes a mistake ( or alleged mistake) there is a manager who sanctions it.
What about that well known social worker in chitty chitty bang bang? The child catcher............:)
Yes it is unfair to blame every manager and I do take the point. However, is it not also fair to say that neither should we be blaming to social worker. I have experienced deatsh within my own team and have to say that it was upper management who signed off reports for potentially explosive cases without asking further questions. This may be put down to lack of time due to their own workload or not availing themselves of the first hand knowledge of the Social Worker who may be uncertain of the families situation but had a sense that there were underlying issues that could not be proved. The other side of this of course is supervision and the lack of consistent supervision for practitioners due to the high level of staff turnover or high case loads. Also in Health the workers have clinical supervision which we dont have. I feel this would potentially allow the worker to look more analytical and reflective at their practice which would hopefully hilight early burnout as well as help prevent hopefully mistakes from happening as frequently as they are.
I like the idea of clinical supervision. I didn't know exactly what it entailed so I checked on wikepedia and found this definition:
It consists of the practitioner meeting regularly with another professional, not necessarily more senior, but normally with training in the skills of supervision, to discuss casework and other professional issues in a structured way. This is often known as clinical or counselling supervision or consultation. The purpose is to assist the practitioner to learn from his or her experience and progress in expertise, as well as to ensure good service to the client or patient.
Do social workers really not have this kind of supervision? Surely it would be invaluable?
CareSpace support
Hi Lins, I think you make some good points.
I absolutely think that we shouldn't play the blame game, either with practitioners or their managers. As Mithran points out, it's inevitable that the media will want to find someone to scapegoat (it makes a better story) and this ignores the context in which social work operates. This is not to say that managers and social workers don't make bad judgements or are just plain careless and sometimes it is right to apportion 'blame' but looking for reasons why things went 'wrong' and stopping at the person rarely identifies contributing factors or, indeed, the often infinite number of variables in any given case. Here's an article you might find interesting , some food for thought at least:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/348/1/Avoidable_and_unavoidable_mistakes_96.pdf
I agree with your point about about clinical supervision (or lack of). Parts of the health service do seem to put us to shame when it comes to creative ways to use supervision to support their staff. My own authority has a system whereby social workers can access clinical supervision but very few frontline practicitioners avail themselves of it, usually citing lack of time and too much work as reasons not to. I think it should be mandatory for everyone but that's just me....
I would agree - I think clinical supervision should be mandatory for social workers too. Maybe if it was mandatory than time would have to be built in to allow it to happen
This topic has been coming up for about twenty years. The way to go about getting something on TV is to make friends with some production companies because now both BBC and Independent TV go through production companies.
I have been trying for years to get a series on TV like Holby city or the Bill but its a hard slog.
On 25 Sept 2008 I am having an event at the Stafford Gatehouse theatre where I am getting the public, members of the media and social workers together whether it will work or not who knows but at least i will have tried and maybe from there we can get that TV series.
You have to do rather than just say. Try writing the script and sending it to some production companies.
It's hard I know ...but you have to try.....go on
Hi justme, the event sounds interesting - please let us know how it goes. I dabble a little bit with scriptwriting, although I've not tried writing about social work. How did you get the event together? Do you have lots of contacts in TV?
Hi Simeon
I asked community care if they wanted to be involved and was told that it wasn't their kind of thing.
I am working on momentum in other words get a few people there and more will get interested.
If it fails well at least i will have tried and I can hand the task over to that being called "someone else".
At the mo I'm trying to find an interesting media person as a pull. Tried Gordon Ramsay but he's too tied up.
I like his straight talking approach we do far too much bullshitting in social work.
btw the forum rejected me the first few times I tried to get on but suddenly it seems that I can get on.
Oh and I am Rachel Mulcahy who was on the previous one lots of times also Rachel Bramble.
So I continue to plod away at things goodness knows why because sometimes it all seems pretty pointless.
Simeon come and join me on 25 Sept its free.