'Heads Must Roll'? Emotional Politics, the Press and the Death of Baby P

Portrayals of Child Abuse Scandals in the Media in Australia and England: Impacts on Practice, Policy, and Systems

“…He not only attacked the failures in relation to the protection of children from severe abuse, but used the case, and the others that quickly followed in its wake, as clear examples of the failures of the Labour government more generally, particularly in relation to its social policies for children and families (Warner, 2013a;2013b). Parton has recently argued that child abuse scandals had become something of a proxy for a whole variety of debates about a range of political issues concerned with the efficacy of health and welfare professionals, and arguments about the nature and direction of social policy provision and the state of society more generally, and the media played a central role in this.…”

Shape-shifter and Agenda Setter: The Influence of Emotion in Social Work Practice and Practice Education

“…Partly emanating from initial feelings associated with threats to professional status and professional identity, these emotions were seen to be expressed through 'irony, critique and ignoring of competences ' (2008, p. 203). Once again, the significance of the social and relational context within which emotion manifests is on stark display and we see to the emergence of power and resentment as forces that can propel and twist emotional responses; both intimately associated with wider political systems which too exert influence on the production and expression of emotions in others (see Hoggett, Wilkinson & Beedell, 2013;Warner, 2014;Warner, 2015), at times replicating and reinforcing limited understandings, funnelling emotional expression by virtue of hegemonic authority.…”

“…From the immediacy of the home visit, where, for example, fears of contamination can lead workers to actually distance themselves from the very children they are working to protect (Ferguson, 2005;Ferguson, 2011), to institutions at the centre of power. In the United Kingdom (UK), social workers, acting predominantly as public servants, can find themselves subject to heightened levels of political scrutiny, both from politicians directly and from a media not always charitable to their cause (for example Warner, 2014;Warner, 2015). The unfortunate and limiting impact of this has been the erosion of public trust and a sense of the profession as one coming under attack.…”

“…Yet, social work is not a master of its own destiny, buffeted by politicians and a media seemingly conjoined to create moral panics on the basis of moralistic fervour presented as shock and outrage towards events (see Warner, 2014Warner, , 2015 which, inescapably, are part of what happens in everyday life. These responses feed unrealistic expectations and increase the anxiety surrounding risk (Warner, 2014), where fears about the 'worst case scenario' (Parton, 2010, p. 869), create blind spots encased in negative affect, opening the door to distortion and shifting priorities. Anxiety and anger, mobilised in part by politicians (Warner, 2014), become cogs that steer the wheel of practice.…”

The Changing Politics and Practice of Child Protection and Safeguarding in England

“…The media response was immediate and very critical of the services, particularly the local authority (Jones, 2012;Warner, 2013). The largest selling daily tabloid newspaper,…”