Baby P film and adult social work TV series among BAFTA nominations

A hard-hitting documentary examining the political and media fallout that followed the death of Peter Connelly in 2007 is among a host of social care-related films nominated for the 2015 BAFTA television awards.

‘Baby P: The Untold Story’, which screened on BBC One last October, is one of four films nominated for the best single documentary award.

Two social care-themed programmes are also nominated in the ‘best factual series’ category. They are ‘Protecting our Parents’, a three part series screened on BBC Two that followed older adults social work teams in Birmingham, and ‘15,000 kids and counting’, a Channel 4 show that filmed adoption social workers in Wigan, Warrington and St Helen’s.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in central London on Sunday 10 May.

Wigan social worker Annette Hope, who featured in ‘15,000 kids and counting’, said: “It was strange being filmed at first but we were so used to them being with us you genuinely forget they are there.

“The outcome was far better than I could have imagined, with thousands of calls to adoption services from prospective adopters.”

James Winterbottom, Wigan council’s acting director of children’s services, said he was “thrilled” the series had been nominated.

“When the programme was aired last year we got lots of positive feedback from viewers and other councils – its success was phenomenal, but I never expected this. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed,” he said.

In a blog post Alan Lotinga, Birmingham council’s director of health and wellbeing, said that ‘Protecting our Parents’ succeeded in shining a light on adult social care “in a truthful, non-sensational way’.

“It really was excellently done and I’m proud of Birmingham council’s involvement in a TV documentary series which accurately portrayed a situation where health and social care systems, designed for a different era, are attempting to support people in the face of rapidly growing demands,” he wrote.

“In the main, the reality [of social care] is what we saw in Protecting Our Parents. A challenging situation where everyone involved is trying to do what’s best for vulnerable older people”.