PM criticised for 'offensive' comments about social workers

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 5 April, 2023

Social workers have criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after he claimed victims of child sexual abuse were ignored by the profession.

Sunak made the comments during an interview with The London Economic in the wake of the government’s announcement to make reporting of child sexual abuse mandatory.

Speaking about historic cases where children were sexually exploited by gangs of largely Pakistani men in places like Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford, he said: “When victims and other whistleblowers came forward their claims were often ignored by social workers, local politicians or even the police.

“The reason they were ignored was due to cultural sensitivity and political correctness.”

But Pauline Jones, a child protection social worker based in London, said the comments were irresponsible, misrepresentative and damaged the profession’s reputation.

“I was really cross,” she said. “It was a really unhelpful statement because he was talking about the past.

“Most local authorities have contextual safeguarding teams and have increased protection for children at risk of child sexual exploitation.

“His implication is social workers ignored them then, and this is still the case without giving any credit to how things have moved forward since.

“It just hit a raw nerve with me. Social work has quite a dim reputation with the public and it doesn’t help having the PM of the country saying something like this – it almost endorses what many people would be thinking and I found it really offensive.”

Jones said the PM could have balanced his comments by recognising how hard social workers work to protect children.

“We are committed to improving things for children. Social work is an honourable profession. We work very hard. The safeguarding of children is prioritised by local authorities, despite shrinking budgets.

“So the implication that we have ignored children is wrong. I will be working over the weekend writing up reports to have a clean sheet on Monday.

“We all work above our hours, it’s just the way it is, but that one statement coming from someone with such authority can reinforce a very negative stereotype.”

Speaking on LBC Radio, BASW England professional officer Denise Monks said: "Listening to the comments from our Prime Minister it's totally demoralising for the profession to hear, along with all the other comments that have been made by politicians over the last ten days.

"The complexity of the work that's undertaken, the level of crisis that we're working with on a constant basis is unprecedented. And so that kind of rhetoric really doesn't help."

A spokeperson for Number 10 said: "The Prime Minister's words are factually accurate and stand as they are."

On the same day Sunak made the comment, another Conservative MP also criticised social workers during a radio interview.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World at One show during a debate about teachers’ strikes, Meon Valley MP Flick Drummond said: “I think Covid showed very clearly that social workers stayed at home and teachers had to go out and knock on doors to see where all their pupils were.”

But Jones added this was blatantly untrue. “We were still visiting children at home – safeguarding didn’t stop during the pandemic. We had PPE and stood on doorsteps, people brought their children to the bottom of the stairs so we could see them. We worked flat out.”

Another social worker said: “It is such a slur on social work - on national radio - and though I'm sure some teachers may have reached out, I also know that social workers donned PPE and worked throughout the pandemic.”

Katy Jackson, an adults social worker in Derbyshire, also criticised the MP.

She said: “These comments are disappointing and highlight a broader concern of how social workers are perceived by government and wider society.

“My colleagues and I were deeply distressed being left without appropriate PPE and resources to keep adults at risk safe.

“We had to be creative, undertaking window visits and garden visits just to ensure that some of the most vulnerable in our society were safe.”

Drummond was contacted for a response.

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