Social affairs
As a journalist writing on social affairs I often wonder if my articles make any difference or whether this kind of journalism is essentially exploitative. Here’s the dilemma (It’s not original. Journalists and photographers struggle with it all the time. Mostly I ignore it. But it niggles.).
I'm commissioned by a children’s charity to interview a single mum they’ve been working with. She’s got five kids; black mould spreads thickly across her kitchen ceiling and down the back wall. One of her daughters, a little girl with asthma, sleeps in a pink bedroom so icily cold I feel my skin shrink when we look in. A single photograph of a baby lost to cot death is unobtrusively placed among the many pictures of her other children displayed in the front room.
There’s a housing association building site at the end of the little terraced row, but this woman can’t get hold of the £400 she needs to secure one of the warm, dry family houses that will soon be available. I write my piece feeling angry and hopeless. My fee for this work is more than the money she needs for that deposit. I wrestle with the thought that I should give it to her. I don't. A year on I still wonder if I should have done. This is hardly war reporting, but these are people living on a front line. Does this kind of journalism change anything about this woman's life? I don’t know. It’s what I do, what I can do, what I have time to do. It’s not enough.
Is early intervention under threat from spending cuts?
The Guardian 3 November 2010Addressing families' difficulties before they grow unmanageable can save money in the long term. But will this approach survive as council budgets are slashed?
Some dysfunctional families cost society a king's ransom to support. Finding ways to reduce their drain on the public purse is exercising politicians and managers of services across the country and it's clear that great store is being set by "early intervention".
Bearing witness
Community Care 9 April 2010Appearing in court is part of the job for social workers, yet many are uncomfortable with presenting evidence.
Social worker evidence to family courts has come under scrutiny lately. A report from Loughborough University, commissioned by the Local Government Association, found councils were convinced that the low status of social workers in court meant some necessary applications for care orders were being refused and children put at risk.
Young people in care assess
looked-after services
Community Care 11 February 2010Young people with experience of looked-after services are now assessing them in a programme piloted by charity A National Voice.
Over the years there has been a constant message from central government to local government that young people in care should be involved in decision making.
Are unsuitable social work students allowed to pass?
Community Care 01 February 2010
Universities are being accused of pushing poorly performing students through social work degree courses for financial reasons. Louise Tickle reports
"Over the past three years I have assessed about 30 students and have often been dismayed at the standard," says one practice assessor, posting anonymously on Community Care's online discussion forum CareSpace.
Save our Villages
BBC Countryfile January 2010As John Craven reported on Countryfile last month, 1,200 country pubs and shops are closing every year.
We meet the valiant villagers who are fighting to keep their communities alive.
Helping prisoners through the gate
Community Care 25 September 2009For some inmates who have completed their jail term the short walk to freedom through the prison gates can mark the start of a new sentence. One project tries to smooth the transition for those without support
Each morning, hundreds of offenders who have served their time are released to walk through the prison gate and out to freedom. The luckiest will be met and whisked away by a partner, a son or a daughter.
Recipe for success: Food and fostering
Community Care 3 August 2009There has been little research done about food in fostering, but it is being recognised as an easy way to put children at ease.
When a child is taken into foster care, their social worker can take it as a given that they're going to be fed decent food at regular intervals. But other than some basic information around nutrition and healthy eating, very little discussion of what food means in family life is entered into during the training undertaken by prospective foster parents.
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