A recent survey by Social Work England found that, of 2,120 respondents, 75% disagreed that social workers were valued by society.

This is despite previous research for the regulator finding that 74% of around 3,000 adults in England believed social workers wanted the best for people. Of those, 62% felt social workers also made a big difference in people’s lives.

So how accurate is the profession’s view of its public image?

A Community Care poll with close to 800 responses found that most practitioners believed that the majority social work opinion was accurate and the profession really was unvalued by society.

Only 4% said this was not true.

Media portrayals ‘biggest contributor to profession’s image’

This section on Social Work England’s survey also attracted the most free-text responses – 1,462 – the overwhelming majority (88%) of which were negative.

Most respondents also said that the main reason behind society’s low opinion of social work was media portrayals of the profession.

“I think that people grossly misunderstand what social workers do,” said one respondent. 

“Social work definitely has an image problem, which makes our already difficult job much harder. I do blame media representations for this. I have never seen a remotely accurate portrayal of social workers in the media.”

Last year, Social Work England launched a campaign urging TV and film producers to ‘change the script’ on how they depict the profession on the screen.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Just one-third of social workers (34%) would recommend the profession as a career, Social Work England has found.

A greater proportion – 42% – would not recommend social work, with the remainder being neutral on the issue, according to the regulator’s first annual survey of the profession.

The online survey, carried out in spring 2024, received 2,120 responses, equivalent to 2% of the registered population in England.

Social Work England quizzed practitioners on their confidence in the regulator, their views on its professional standards, how society valued the profession and whether they would recommend it as a career.

Analysis of free text responses identified that poor pay, overwork and a lack of resources for public services were among key themes behind the relatively low proportion of respondents recommending social work as a career.

‘An amazing job but the workload is too much’

One practitioner said: “Social care is not well resourced, and the work is stressful. It is an amazing job, but the workload is too much. If there were more social workers to meet the demands, it would be a fantastic job. It is not possible to do the work in contracted hours and I don’t get paid for overtime. It’s always difficult to take the time back…”

The regulator also found that those who were less experienced provided more positive comments about social work than more experienced colleagues, while the same was true of those working in adults’ services when compared to children’s services counterparts.

Social Work England also identified that those who felt that society valued social workers were also likely to recommend social work as a career. However, 75% of respondents disagreed that social workers were valued by society, with just 9% agreeing.

This is despite previous research for the regulator finding that 74% of people believed social workers wanted the best for people and 62% felt social workers made a big difference in people’s lives.

‘Social work definitely has an image problem’

This question attracted the most free text responses – 1,462 – the overwhelming majority (88%) of which were negative about society’s valuation of social work, with the biggest perceived contributor being media portrayals of the profession.

“I think that people grossly misunderstand what social workers do,” said one respondent. “Social work definitely has an image problem, which makes our already difficult job much harder. I do blame media representations for this. I have never seen a remotely accurate portrayal of social workers in the media.”

Other respondents, however, said that they did feel valued when working directly with people in a supportive and positive way, but that social workers were less appreciated when they were engaged in safeguarding work.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

We’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Split views on Social Work England

Respondents were split on Social Work England’s impact, with 40% agreeing that it was an effective regulator, 35% responding neutrally and 25% disagreeing.

Neutral or negative responses referenced issues such as the timeliness of fitness to practise cases, for which there is a significant backlog currently due to the regulator lacking the budget to hold sufficient final hearings.

However, the regulator said some responses linked views about Social Work England to wider issues in the profession, such as the insufficiency of practitioners, or revealed a misunderstanding about its role.

For example, some respondents asked for more information on the services, benefits and support it provided to social workers, contrary to its role as a regulator whose fundamental objective is public protection.

Support for professional standards

Social Work England found broad-based support for its professional standards, to which all registered practitioners must adhere. Eighty six per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the standards were important to them, while 90% said they understood how the standards applied to their work as a social worker.

However, practitioners reported challenges in applying the standards due to working conditions and said they needed more support from employers to put them into effect.

“[The standards] are embedded in everything I do day to day,” said one respondent. “Sadly, this is often at odds with the day to day pressures on practice, policies, procedures.”

In response to the results, Social Work England’s executive director of professional practice and external engagement, Sarah Blackmore, said: “It is clear that sometimes there are differing expectations of our role, together with discrepancies as to how social work is viewed by the public and the profession itself.

“The insight of the survey is invaluable for us to learn and keep moving our work forward, while remaining responsive to the sentiment of the profession we regulate.”

Most social workers believe that improving public perception of social work requires enhanced media representation, a Community Care poll has found.

This follows the report of a recent survey by YouGov, for Social Work England, that revealed that just 44% of members of the public thought the profession was well-respected within society, far lower than was the case for doctors (90%) or nurses (86%).

In further qualitative research by YouGov, practitioners linked negative perceptions to a lack of understanding of social work’s role, which they attributed to the media.

This included entertainment TV often showing social workers arriving at a family’s home to take away their children, which was “not an accurate representation of the purpose of social workers”, they told the polling company.

‘Realistic portrayal of social work’

On the back of the results, Social Work England has launched a campaign urging the entertainment industry to ‘change the script’ on how it portrays practitioners on TV.

A Community Care’s poll, which amassed almost 1,000 votes, found that most readers supported this ambition.

Two-thirds of respondents that said ‘realistic TV and film portrayals of social work’ would be an efficient way to improve public perceptions of the profession, while 59% called for less negative news coverage (readers could vote for more than one option).

Almost half (48%) supported educational government campaigns on the role of social work, while 39% backed making social workers more visible, for example, by placing them in schools. 

Media training for social workers

One social work lecturer, in the comments section of the related article, suggested social workers receive media training to become “public ambassadors for the profession”.

“Social workers have an incredible amount of knowledge and experience and many of us have first degrees in other subjects,” said Jim Greer. “We can combine our social work experience with enough background knowledge to speak on a range of social issues.

“When local authorities are asked about social work issues they should put forward social workers or managers rather than PR people. Of course, we cannot comment on confidential aspects of individual cases but we can explain in general terms how and why social services make certain types of decisions.”

Would you welcome media training and opportunities to speak to the media?

Social Work England has launched its first annual survey of the profession.

The regulator is asking England’s just over 100,000 practitioners to tell it what they think of its own effectiveness, the value of its professional standards, the perceived standing of social work in society and whether they would recommend the profession.

Its chief executive, Colum Conway, said the annual research would allow Social Work England to “refine, adapt, and improve” how it engages with registered practitioners each year.

“By recording comparable data year on year about social workers’ perceptions, we expect to also gather valuable insight into the context of professional practice,” he added.

What Social Work England is asking

The anonymous survey, which is open to registered social workers in England only, asks practitioners to indicate how far they agree or disagree with the following statements:

• “I am confident that Social Work England effectively regulates the social work profession.”
• “The professional standards are important to me.”
• “I understand how the professional standards apply to my work as a social worker.”
• “I feel that social workers are valued by society.”
• “I would recommend social work as a career.”

The question regarding social work’s perceived value in society comes after research for the regulator with 110 practitioners found just 11% thought the profession was well-respected within society. The generally negative outlook appeared driven by the perceived impact of negative media coverage on public perceptions of the profession.

On the back of this, Social Work England has launched a campaign, Change the Script, urging the entertainment industry to change how it depicts social work, including by moving away from a focus on showing practitioners taking people’s children away.

Meanwhile, separate research carried out for the regulator last year found that just 16% would recommend the profession to friends or family, down from 26% in 2020.

You can answer Social Work England’s survey here. It is open until 12pm on Monday 24 May.

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Social Work England has urged the entertainment industry to ‘change the script’ on how it depicts the profession after commissioning research that linked negative media portrayals to social work having a poor public image.

The regulator launched a campaign on the issue today after releasing research showing that just 11% of social workers, and 44% of members of the public, thought that the profession was well-respected within society.

The views of the public, as surveyed by YouGov, on whether social workers were respected lagged well behind those for comparable professionals, including doctors (90%), nurses (86%), pharmacists (85%), physiotherapists (82%), lawyers (69%) and teachers (67%).

And though 74% of 3,032 adults in England polled last spring felt that social workers wanted the best for people they worked with and 62% thought they made a big difference to improving people’s lives, 39% felt practitioners often got things wrong and a quarter were fairly or not at all confident in practitioners’ ability to do their jobs.

Social workers link poor standing to media representation

Qualitative research with social workers – 110 of whom were also surveyed by YouGov for the regulator – found they linked negative perceptions of the profession to a lack of understanding of its role, which they attributed to the media.

Practitioners felt that the news media “focuses on the failings of social workers while ignoring the cases in which social workers succeed in supporting vulnerable individuals and families”, said YouGov’s report on public perceptions of the profession.

“Likewise, some social workers commented that entertainment featuring social workers is often called inaccurate, as some mention that in these portrayals social workers would arrive to a family’s home to take away their children, which is not an accurate representation of the purpose of social workers and the authority they hold.”

In a separate report on the views of the workforce, YouGov reported that many social workers felt that people were deterred from joining the profession because of it having a poor reputation, “particularly due to the messages portrayed in the media, such as social workers taking children away”.

Research findings on TV portrayals of social work

Previous research into TV plot summaries from the 1950s to the 2010s, by linguistics academic Dr Maria Leedham, found that social workers rarely featured in programmes. When they did, they almost always worked in child protection and were described as either judgmental bureaucrats or child snatchers.

Launching its Change the Script campaign today, Social Work England said many social workers “frequently play roles which might appear intrusive and neglectful, which leads to perceived negative outcomes for the people they’re supporting”.

“These portrayals are often inaccurate, and many social workers believe the storylines are contributing to mounting recruitment and retention challenges in the profession,” it added.

Although 71% of members of the public responding to the YouGov research said social workers rarely (33%) or sometimes (37%) separated children from their families, 11% said they did this often and 2% always.

Regulator looking ‘to tell the real story of social work’

The regulator said it was aiming to “raise awareness of the consequences that negative depictions of social workers have on society and seeks to tell the real story of social work in an effort to transform opinions of the profession”.

To highlight the profession’s positive impact, it has released a film featuring two young men talking about the transformative impact their social workers had had on their lives.

One of them, who is in care, said his social worker was the “person waiting for you at the finish line” after you had run a race. The other, who had received bereavement support from a practitioner after his mother went into a hospice, said the practitioner “listens, she understands, she makes me feel like everything’s going to be all right”.

Alongside the film, the regulator is urging people and organisations to share the campaign’s messages and imagery through social media channels and in press statements.

Community Care’s Choose Social Work campaign

Change the Script’s aims chime with those of Community Care’s Choose Social Work campaign, which we ran last year and whose aims included challenging negative media representations of social work.

A survey of 151 social workers for our campaign found that two-thirds had been influenced by fear of adverse media coverage when approaching cases.

In addition, most (84%) considered the coverage of social work by UK mainstream outlets to be ‘generally inaccurate’.

Society places an enormous onus on social work, expects it to do a very difficult job in almost impossible conditions and then screams hysterically when things go wrong.”

You would be forgiven for thinking this was written a few years – or even a few days – ago. It is, in fact, a quote from the editorial in the first ever edition of Community Care magazine, published on 3 April 1974.

As I was skimming through the musty book containing all the editions from Community Care’s first year, I was struck by two things: how much the salaries have changed – in cash terms, at least – and how little the reputation of social work has.

Social work’s negative press

Since the 1970s, social work has hit the national press time and time again, especially when a child known to social services has died.

At the same time, its successes have often gone unnoticed. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, among the – deserved – praise for medical staff, delivery drivers and care workers, there was little mention of the social workers, who continued carrying out in-person visits to children and adults at risk of harm.

It was into this context of suspicion, hostility and ignorance about social work that Community Care launched our Choose Social Work campaign, in June 2023.

Showing the difference social work makes

We wanted to show the side of social work that you rarely see in the media: of people like you, our readers, working alongside families and adults, supporting them to make changes to their lives; sometimes having to make difficult decisions, but not making them alone.

We wanted to challenge that common misconception, beloved by TV dramas, that social workers can swoop in by themselves and take a child away.

Instead, we have shown the reality: that social workers are part of multi-agency teams and arrangements, with schools, police, health and mental health all playing their part and sharing decision making.

As part of the campaign, four journalists from the Community Care team went to Wandsworth children’s services to shadow social workers for a day:

The day ended with me being in absolute awe of the social workers I met. The decisions, the effort, the planning that goes into their work is phenomenal and cannot be understated. We only hear of the bad stories in the mainstream news but we never hear about the children and families social workers help.”

Giving voice to those with lived experience

Another hugely important aspect of Choose Social Work was ensuring that we involved people with lived experience of services. While we did hear about poor practice and how the care system as a whole often fails children and young people, we also featured some very moving stories about times when social workers formed meaningful and long-lasting relationships with the children they worked with.

In one video that we specially commissioned for the campaign, care-experienced author and campaigner Jenny Molloy interviewed a young person, Lizzie, and her social worker, Janet, about the relationship they had built and why it was so important to both of their lives.

Dear Future Social Worker

Throughout the campaign, we have asked you to share advice with the next generation of social workers. Given the negative media coverage of the profession, it must be difficult for any sixth-former or university student, or someone considering a career change in later life, to understand what the social work role involves and how to prepare themselves for the challenges they might encounter.

We’ve been so pleased with the response to this series: three of the letters are the most-viewed pieces of the entire campaign, and they’ve been shared across social media and have caused lively discussions in the comments section. Here’s some advice from two of my favourite letters:

Yewande (centre) speaking at Community Care Live

“Being a child protection social worker taught me that reward will come from seeing positive outcomes, and that you need to celebrate the small wins. Praise comes in different forms, and job satisfaction helps you to have a long lasting social work career.”
Yewande, manager and practice supervisor

Your views on Choose Social Work

The comments sections of news websites are often fairly horrifying places: I try my best never to stray ‘below the line’ on most sites.

But your comments under Choose Social Work articles have been so heartening, both for us and for the social workers and writers you have been responding to. These are some of the comments that have stayed with me:

The campaign’s future

Lyn Romeo (second right), chief social worker for adults, flanked by past, present and future chairs of the Adults PSW Network. Photo courtesy of the Adults PSW network.

Over the last seven-and-a-bit months since Choose Social Work was launched, we have published more than 40 pieces of content, including written articles, podcast episodes, videos, letters and galleries.

I would love to be able to share all of them here, but it would make this already long article more like a novel. Please do take a look at the Choose Social Work page, where you can see everything we have published as part of the campaign.

In 2024, we will still be championing Choose Social Work – and we hope you will too. Please contact me on ruth.hardy-mullings@markallengroup.com if you have any questions about supporting the campaign.

Community Care’s big Five-Oh

The first edition of Community Care magazine was published in 1974 – making this year our 50^th anniversary.

In the editorial in our first magazine, our then editor, Mark Allen, wrote that, “Community Care, with your co-operation, will do all it can to ensure that social workers are not made society’s universal scapegoats.”

This is as true now as it was 50 years ago. We hope that you will continue supporting us, so that Community Care is still going strong in another 50 years.

And our promise to you is that we will continue being the voice for and of social workers and champion the issues that matter to you.

In June, Community Care launched our Choose Social Work campaign to champion the profession and inspire the next generation of social workers.

As part of this, we are exploring how the often negative media coverage of the profession affects social workers – and how it can be improved.

In this episode of our Learn on the Go podcast series, from Community Care Inform, two expert guests discuss media coverage, blame and shame of social workers.

The guests are Dr Liz Frost, associate professor of social work at the University of the West of England, and Dr Maria Leedham, senior lecturer in applied linguistics at the Open University.

They discuss Maria’s research into mentions of social workers in UK newspapers and TV dramas, why media coverage almost entirely focuses on child protection, and whether there are signs that this negative bias might be changing.

The podcast is available on most podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or you can find it by putting ‘Learn on the Go’ into your search engine.

You can view a written transcript of the podcast here.

Almost two-thirds of social workers have been influenced by fear of adverse media coverage when approaching cases, a Community Care survey has found.

Of 151 respondents, almost 28% said they or a colleague had been influenced many times by the thought of the media catching wind of something going wrong with a case, while 35% said this had happened a few times.

Many reported feeling anxious and constantly second-guessing themselves when working on cases out of fear of being targeted by the media if something went wrong.

The survey, a majority of whose participants worked with children and families, also found that 70% had ‘often’ or ‘occasionally’ contemplated leaving the profession because of the negative media portrayal of social work.

Negative media coverage

Photo by iQoncept/AdobeStock

Social work has long endured negative media attention. A 2022 study of over 700 UK national newspaper articles that mentioned ‘social worker’ in a three-month period during 2019 found four times as many negative mentions as positive ones.

In the survey, practitioners criticised the media for sensationalist headlines on articles concerning child deaths and a lack of knowledge of family court processes. Most (84%) also considered the coverage of social work by UK mainstream outlets to be ‘generally inaccurate’.

One social worker commented that the stories they had encountered in mainstream media had entailed “gross stereotypes [of practitioners] who take children without any process followed”.

“[Children’s deaths] are seen [by the public] as [something that could have been] predicted by some social workers,” said another. “And [those practitioners] are then treated worse than those who actually caused the harm.”

The case of Finley Boden

In recent years, social workers have been a major focus of the reporting on child death cases such as those of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Finley Boden and Star Hobson.

Survey respondents particularly highlighted the case of Finley, who was murdered by his parents on Christmas Day, 2020, just 39 days after he had been returned to their care.

The most quoted example was of the BBC initially headlining its story, ‘Parents murdered baby returned by social services’.

However, as its story explained, Finley had been returned in accordance with a court order involving an eight-week transition from care, despite social workers’ recommendation that the move take six months. The BBC subsequently changed its headline to, ‘Parents murdered baby placed back in their care’.

“The headline on BBC implied social services had returned a child to be murdered,” said one respondent. “However, the article clearly stated the social workers were arguing to prevent the return or at least to slow it down.”

Another respondent, referring to this and other articles, said that “[there was] no context of how the law works or the limits of what social workers can do, when other professions have a responsibility as well”.

The BBC has been approached for comment.

‘The stress affects decisions on right and wrong’

Photo: NDABCREATIVITY/Adobe Stock

However, the survey also highlighted the ongoing impact of negative media coverage after reporting of cases had ended.

More than half (58%) of social workers said that high-profile cases like Finley’s had had a very negative impact on public attitudes to the profession in their area. A further 28% said they had had a slightly negative impact.

Following Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’ death and his parents’ trial, the then chief executive of Solihull Council, Nick Page, revealed that social workers in the borough had faced such abuse that some had had to leave their homes.

Survey respondents’ comments described a resulting culture of fear, self-preservation and practitioners second-guessing themselves, scared they would one day find their photo on the front pages.

‘Social workers are always fearful’

“Social workers in the UK are always fearful and have a saying about not being on the Daily Mail,” said one respondent.

“The stress affects decisions on right and wrong and eventually health. I developed high blood pressure after joining [the sector]. No one wants to talk about social workers being affected mentally, no one assesses the effect.”

In one example, a social worker described taking extreme measures to protect their and their family’s anonymity.

It terrifies me that the job I do might lead to my family being impacted.”

“I have had to take measures to not share my address. I’m not able to just go and pick up a prescription as they want your address.

“I have taken myself off the electoral, I have chosen to work outside of the area I live in, which means more travelling and time away from my family. My social media is private and I don’t check in locally.”

Another spoke of keeping a notepad on their nightstand for nights when they woke up from stress, worried they would forget to do something for a case.

“You constantly work under the pressure of always ‘covering yourself’. This pressure leads many, myself included, to wake up during the night thinking, ‘I must do this, that’. I and others I know have had notepads by our beds so if we wake up we can write down these things.”

Defensive practice

The influence of the media has also manifested in social workers’ relationships with parents.

“Families have no trust in social workers or the service,” said a practitioner. “So social workers have to work harder to try and support them. [Families] are often suspicious of us, [there is a lot of] fear when meeting a social worker for the first time.”

Comments also indicated a trend of “defensive practice”: social workers becoming excessively cautious due to a fear of being blamed.

“Our systems and processes often feel like they are designed around this, rather than what is best for a family, whether the individual worker recognises this or not,” said a respondent.

“I feel it has made us more risk-averse in deprivation of liberty cases,” said another. “Professionals are so worried about managing the risk to themselves if something happens that the impact on the child gets lost.”

Seeking to change media coverage

In the past year, the British Association of Social Workers and the Social Workers Union (SWU) have been actively trying to counteract negative media coverage of social work.

Last year, BASW launched its own journalism awards to promote good reporting of social work, while SWU has developed media reporting guidelines in collaboration with regulator the Independent Monitor for the Press (Impress).

However, Anthony Dhadwal, BASW’s senior press officer, said some mainstream media organisations “do not care for balance, but look to scapegoat”.

“While we always challenge these outlets through media law, the problem is that damage has already been done by the time they retract or amend their damaging articles.”

“Social workers are on the front line of helping the most vulnerable in society and we have to accept that our role will come under scrutiny,” added SWU general secretary John McGowan.

“However, unlike colleagues in other public services, social workers tend not to receive balanced coverage in the media,” he said.

“Our media guidelines developed with regulators have made a start in trying to ensure social workers are treated more fairly by the media, but addressing the wider media landscape is a much bigger issue.”

Do you want to share how negative media coverage of social work has affected you? Email our community journalist at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

In July, as part of our Choose Social Work campaign, we published an interview with Sharon Shoesmith, director of education and children’s services at Haringey Council when the Peter Connelly case (known at the time as Baby P) hit the headlines.

Shoesmith discussed why social workers are so often the focus of media and public blame when a child who is known to children’s services dies, and gave some practical advice about what social workers could do to speak out and improve the perception of the profession.

Here we expand on the ways social workers can take action with an edited extract from Shoesmith’s book, Learning from Baby P: The politics of blame, fear and denial, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers:

Talk about what you do

• Be proactive about being a social worker – speak up and tell people you meet socially and be proud of your profession.
• Get together more often with police and health colleagues to share learning and to ensure that the social work role is understood.
• Contribute to local forums that the council may already run or seek other local groups where contributions could be made.
• Attend community events and give information about social work at events where services such as the Red Cross, RNLI, the fire service have a presence.

Photo: Icons-Studio/AdobeStock

• Find out how social work is portrayed in careers lessons (is it featured at all?), and go and speak to year 10 students and sixth formers who are thinking about career choices – go back to your old school and to local schools.
• Put information about children into the general information that councils give to residents, eg we have x number of children, x % attend early years, x% primary schools, x% secondary schools and x% go to university/college. We look after x% of our children who cannot be supported in their own families and we have the services of x foster carers and x qualified social workers.

Influence the media

• Encourage and support the British Association of Social Workers to speak out against misleading stories about social workers – you don’t need to know the facts but simply lobby for a ‘fair hearing’ for social workers.
• Be proactive in correcting items in the media when they get it wrong.
• Approach local press and arrange for positive material about the work of social workers, for example, ‘A day in the life of…’.

Photo: Daniel/AdobeStock

• Improve and encourage media coverage of events such as Foster Care Fortnight, ideally co-ordinated across the country.
• Ensure a steady supply of press releases to local newspapers; also use social media to communicate successes.
• Support those using services to link with the local media to tell their story.
• Consider a ‘supporting parents with parenting’ column in a local newspaper with different weekly contributors – approach the local paper and discuss how this might work. Also think about some more serious pieces, for example, the stress about missing a child being harmed, and develop this on the theme of looking out for children is everyone’s business.
• Research how to influence TV scripts to improve the portrayal of social workers.
• Think about taking part in high profile documentary (fly-on-the-wall) programmes.
• Think about writing children’s books (My social worker; My foster mum) and find local authors and illustrators or approach art/literature university departments for their help.

Think big

Photo: jozefmicic/AdobeStock

• Explore how social work might have a better professional footing, for example, ‘the Royal College of…’ as in the medical profession.
• Finally, find the right context and develop the courage to speak about what is unspoken.

The Social Work Community Podcast is a new offering from Community Care.

It will focus on career and workplace-related issues that affect students, newly qualified social workers and more experienced practitioners.

In June, Community Care launched our Choose Social Work campaign to champion the social work profession and inspire the next generation of social workers.

As part of this, we are exploring how the often negative media coverage of the profession affects social workers – and how it can be improved.

This is the subject of the first episode of The Social Work Community Podcast, which features experienced social worker Alasdair Kennedy, and Becky Salter, who retrained as a social worker during the pandemic.

They discuss how high-profile cases, where children have died, have affected their practice, how TV soaps get it wrong and what less experienced social workers can do to cope with negativity towards the profession.

Listen to “What is the impact of negative media coverage on social workers?” on Spreaker.

Read the transcript here.

The podcast is available on most podcast platforms such as Spotify and Audible (Amazon), or you can find it by putting ‘the social work community podcast’ into your search engine.

It will also be part of our new community site, The Social Work Community, which will be launching soon, offering you a safe, positive space to share careers guidance, network with peers, and exchange experiences of social work.

Sign up for free to our Community Care Daily newsletter to be the first to know about the new community.