According to 'experts' (not named or referenced) the profession of Social Work is in a 'state of crisis'. That statement allows me to write a word which has long been my favourite, but I have never had the chance to actually use before... Verisimilitude*. Verisimilitude means 'having the appearance of being true', which is exactly what the 'experts' comment has, the appearance of being true. I do not wish to debate that matter though, what concerns me is the way we (Social Workers) are portrayed in the press.
I can hardly be bothered to detail the popular concept created by the press, but I suppose I should mention 'child snatchers' and 'incompetent' just in case someone reading this is in any doubt. Who am I kidding? Everyone knows what people think of us.
I have listened to countless phone-in's on the radio where parents are allowed to put their views across about the way their children were removed for reasons as seemingly trivial as 'they missed a bit of school when I was ill' or 'I'm epileptic'. They often go on to criticise Social Workers for their heavy handedness in dealing with them, without any fear of being challenged about their criticism of Children's Services. They know that we never have a right to reply, they never mention that we are backed by the courts and that we alone do not have the right to forcibly remove their children.
I do not believe this is a problem which can be resolved, we as a profession, will have to continue to 'suck it up'. We cannot, and should not, be dragged into debate in the media, our debates take place in court and that is the right place for this to happen.
So what about Max Clifford** you ask? Where does he come in? Firstly he clearly cannot manage the situation for every Local Authority in the country. But he can advise BASW/UNISON on how we might deal with our portrayal in the media. When he spoke at Comm Care Live in 2009 it seems his main thought was that we needed to get the good news out there. Award ceremonies and the such, to spread the word of the good work that is done. That would be possibly have some effect, but if you'll forgive me, it brings to mind the phrase 'pissing in the wind'. We need more help than this, we need to understand how the press works and to try and manage the relentless tide of bad news stories. Sadly a child's death will always make more news than an award ceremony, so we need to be able to react in a manner which shows respect to the tragedy, but does not see us laying on our back and exposing our underbellies like a scolded pet. I am not suggesting for one moment that we become defensive, important lessons could be lost if we were. But we do not need to be slaughtered in press in order to learn lessons from a tragedy.
I do not know how to achieve this is, which is why I would suggest that a good use of the fees we pay each month to BASW and/or UNISON would be to find someone like Max Clifford to advise us.
As a footnote, whenever I tell people what I do, they almost always respond positively. Now of course some of that is politeness, but not all, and even the polite ones seem to understand that we're not as portrayed in the media. Surely that's something we can build on?
*I got the word from a song title by the fantastic Teenage Fanclub.
**Other PR Guru's are available.
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