Why can't social workers share success stories with the media?

All my working life I’ve watched my profession defend itself in the face of media criticism. When you’re starting out, there is some strength gained from an excess of idealism and enthusiasm and the hope that, in helping the vulnerable, we would illustrate inequality and public opinion would slowly change.

In social work we all know inspirational people who command respect and can speak with clarity and understanding about what we do and why we are needed. However, I’ve seen only a few who have been recognised outside the profession on the national stage.

I’ve seen the different levels of respect and engagement with social work in other industrialised countries. I could never fully understand the reasons why this wasn’t the case in the UK. Was it that acknowledging mass poverty and deprivation was unthinkable? Could it be some residual Victorian construct, sweeping the troubled and vulnerable under the carpet and including those who support them, with vague murmuring about charities being better placed to do the work?

Or was it the seductive atmosphere of blame? A public stoning was considered far more exciting than well-earned praise. In 40 years I’ve never seen a headline saying “Social worker does good job”.

Communities tend to believe much of what they read in the media. With few outlets that offer true balance, it’s understandable that the population will form opinions accordingly.

Why do we hear so few voices talking about the success stories emanating from the professionalism of the UK’s 100,000 social workers? All the good work seems to be hidden from a wider audience. Why so much anonymity about all the social work that’s not child protection? Only the narrowest of material is on display. Too many employers confuse confidentiality with secrecy.

The voices are there. It’s just that they’re silenced.

On a local level, free newspapers, commercial radio stations and journalists could be given interviews about success stories.

On a national level, we need credible and well informed spokespeople, managing the agenda more and not just playing constant defence.

How people communicate is changing at a rapid pace and social media has put so much more power in people’s hands. We must also be strong participants.

We’re always going to have detractors, whether driven by ideology, ignorance or superficial understanding of the world we work in. We need to offer more by way of education, information and showcasing our profession. A more positive image helps trust, which underpins all we do.

Our shop window should be full of education, examples of good practice, strong arguments and fewer apologies. Show that the starvation of resources through austerity is counterproductive to the nation’s health. We know the pressure points, such as child poverty, the ageing population and the gross under-resourcing of mental health services. We have a workforce trained to support but with hands tied, grossly inflated caseloads and a blame culture that beggars belief. There exists a paralysis of hope.

There are ways forward. We can demonstrate that skilled work brings change and improves the quality of life.

Some time ago I gave a lecture to postgraduate journalism students about what social workers can and can’t do. Social-work courses could offer similar opportunities to journalists.

I’m determined to pass on the experience I gained in working with the media when I was elected chair of the British Association of Social Workers. The need for senior staff in the public sector to be prepared to manage the media in a crisis is constant – and I’ll continue to work with them – but frontline social workers could talk about the thousands of good-news stories that emerge every week and I want to develop this too.

There are many more good, honest journalists than not. With that in mind we should look at the vast amount of work we do that has no need to be confidential and let it see the light. Then the court of media opinion will be better illuminated and I’ll cautiously move from hope to optimism.

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