New Integrity is quoted in The Guardian today, responding to a BBC
documentary about the satanic abuse case in Rochdale in the 1990s, in
which several children were wrongly taken from their families.
We said: "There were at least four contributing factors to the Rochdale [case]: (1) the capacity and willingness of the social workers to discern reality; (2) the framework of social work practice, which suggested specific actions; (3) the broader culture within which these actions can be credible and supported by others, particularly the media; and (4) the legal system and structures which can uphold the actions of the social worker, in the face of absence of evidence and the families' persistent claims of innocence. Ever more thorough checking and conferring among social workers is constantly being legislated for, and accepted as an obligation, within the profession. However, stigmatising social work must be avoided. Distrust from the public and the media is a hugely inhibiting factor in a social workers' ability to care properly. The deaths from abuse of Victoria Climbié and other children were partly due to decisions not to interfere in clearly dysfunctional families. This points to the need to free social workers from huge caseloads and unreasonable pressures".
The full text of the quote can be found here:
There were at least four contributing factors to the Rochdale satanic abuse atrocity: 1) the capacity and willingness of the social workers to discern reality; 2) the framework of social work practice which suggested specific courses of action; 3) the broader culture within which these actions can be credible and supported by others, particularly the media; and 4) the legal system and structures which can uphold the actions of the social worker, in the face of absence of evidence and the whole family’s persistent claim of innocence.
Changes to the practice and structures within which social work can operate - the external factors in the case – are constantly being addressed by social work itself. Yet development of the internal factors - individual capacity and the broader culture - are more difficult to control. Satanic abuse was a highly profiled fear at the time of Rochdale so the press were quick to seize on it, prejudicing the likelihood of a fair trial for the parents. In addition the social workers might have perceived themselves as heroes, challenging this abuse on behalf of all of us. Our unwillingness to perceive the human rights of those accused – but not proven to be guilty – of terrorism post 7/7 is a similar phenomenon.
Ever more thorough checking and conferring amongst social workers is constantly being legislated for, and accepted as an obligation, within the profession. However, stigmatising social work itself must be avoided. As our project “Re-imagining social work” constantly revealed, distrust from the public and the media, giving rise to the too familiar adage “damned if they do, damned if they don’t”, is a hugely inhibiting factor in a social workers ability to care properly.
The daily fear that they experience arises not just from unreasonable personal dangers that they are exposed to (far more, for example, than compared with the police force), but also the opprobrium from onlookers for inappropriate interventions. The deaths from abuse of Victoria Climbie and other children were partly due to decisions not to interfere in clearly dysfunctional families. In that case, social workers lack of “presence of mind” was cited as a major factor in the offical report. This points up the need, at the very least, to free social workers from huge case loads and unreasonable pressures.
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