Social Skirmishes

Rosie Warlock, a senior practitioner in children’s social services, tells us what’s on her mind in her weekly column

I went to a pantomime recently with Mr Warlock and some friends and their children. The Warlock brood claimed they are too old.

So we sat down and for a couple of hours laughed our socks off. The jokes may have been old and the plot even older but the little contemporary touches went down well and although the double entendres could be seen miles off, they were delivered with panache. It was great to see so many children enjoying themselves.

Back in the office we discussed who would be in a social work pantomime, after all the profession is often called theCinderella service. Denise Platt was the fairy godmother, the media were the ugly sisters, the beanstalk giant after our blood was the GSCC, Baron Hardup was the council’s finance committee, Aladdin and his genie was our dear director of services who can make our dreams come true. The social work taskforce reacted to its remit with cries of “Oh no, here we go again”, met with “Oh no we don’t”, by practitioners. It kept us amused for a whole week.

Now, however, the job losses have started rising in our area and the number of clients increasing and revealing ever greaterproblems. Plus, there is the news from Doncaster.

The adage about laughter being the best medicine now seems trite; it’s going to be one tough year.

E-mail your anecdotes to rosie.warlock@yahoo.co.uk