Back Page: Social Claire - Laughing at children's expense

I have been accused of being a bit of a right-on kind of a gal in my time. Social inequalities make for a bit of a leftie view on life, and I abhor bigotry in all its forms. I have worked for a national children's charity where anti-discriminatory practice was deeply ingrained in the project ethos - you did practice what you preached, and it felt good.

I therefore entered the local world of children and families fully expecting to encounter the same culture. How wrong I was. On my first day, looking across the desks at the sea of tabloid newspapers I realised I had entered another world. I have never seen so many bare breasts staring up from among the case conference files in my life. Over the years, Big Brother and Beckham's love life are subjects given as much air-time as the need to carry out child protection inquiries or find family support packages.