Managing the Media: Social workers speak up

14 July 2010 6 mins read Tom De Castella Social Care

Social workers have been unfairly vilified in many sections of the press, but some are fighting back and learning to talk to journalists on their own terms, writes Tom de Castella.

Paul Child's mobile rings. It's the police. Can he come and pick up a boy he works with? When the social worker arrives he's shocked by what he finds.

Thirteen-year-old Callum* is at the top of a high bridge above the A3 dual carriageway and all traffic has been diverted onto another road. Callum says he is about to jump. The boy has climbed under the railing and warned people to keep away.

He is extremely upset and says he can't bear living with his foster carer any longer. Child asks what he wants, all the time trying to calm him using the rapport they have built up over the years.

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