Community Care petition tops 1,000 signature mark

Community Care’s petition urging prime minister Gordon Brown to call on The Sun to back the social work profession has topped the 1,000-signature mark.

The milestone, which coincides with the chair of the General Social Care Council, Rosie Varley, endorsing our campaign, comes less than a week after it was posted on the Number 10 website.

The petition follows a letter from Community Care to The Sun’s editor, Rebekah Wade, calling on her to rethink the paper’s negative attitude towards social work.

The petition begins: “We the undersigned petition the prime minister to call on The Sun newspaper to back the social work profession.” It points out that The Sun decided to place all blame in relation to the Baby P case on the heads of social workers and calls on the paper to highlight the positive work social workers do.

GSCC chair backs our campaign

Rosie Varley welcomed the letter, which highlights The Sun’s failure to recognise the GSCC’s important role in holding social workers to account for poor practice through its conduct system.

She said it was regrettable that recent media coverage of high-profile cases had “called into question the quality of all social workers”.

“It has undermined the efforts of professionals tackling the most difficult and complex issues and, moreover, the prospects of attracting able candidates into a career in social work.”

Varley added: “We welcome Community Care ‘s robust defence of the profession and indeed its highlighting of the GSCC’s regulatory function within the sector. The public has a right to expect that social workers are accountable for their actions, and it is critical for public protection that they are aware of the regulatory framework in place.”

Parliamentary motion

Following the launch of our petition, Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming tabled a House of Commons motion backing our campaign to support social work.

Show the government and The Sun how strongly you feel about this issue by signing the petition now and getting your friends and colleagues to sign it too.

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