So you do have to deal with the media then?

CPP: Yes but we are still respected by them. It does not happen often and we are able to talk to the media about the case, we have a publication in the papers. We also have information in the papers about how we progress annually. We also have all this information on our website34_{. But our main reason for doing this is so that families} know that Kind en Gezin is there for everyone, it shows how we are involved with every family so there is no difference between anyone. There is no stigma to use it, it is like school, for everyone. We do have a media representative and she has to read everything in the papers and she has to react or give information to the newspapers. For example on the 25th _{of November it was the Day Against Violence for Women. So I} wrote something on the website and she addressed it with the papers.

(Interview, Day 13).

This interview extract demonstrates that the CPPs in Flanders do still have to respond to media pressure when a child abuse tragedy makes the headlines. They also appear

34 _{Reports are accessible in different languages- they include demographic information and perspective on}

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to face the kind of situation which is often referred to in the UK social work discourse as ‘you are damned if you do, damned if you don’t’, a dilemma first recognised by Dingwall et al. (1983) and which succinctly describes the quandary social workers often find themselves in when making decisions about how, or if, to intervene into the private lives of families where they face criticism for not doing enough or doing too much. Yet there is a difference between the UK and Flanders in the way this is handled.

Rather than this CPP feeling stigmatised by her professional status, she instead believes that she, her colleagues and her agency are still respected by the media. The agency she works for is not silenced by confidentiality, even though they are very aware of professional secrecy, instead they are proactive and talk to the media

through their organisation’s spokesperson and they are able to give their side of what happened, explain the position they took and the reasons why. As a result, the

‘special discrepancy between virtual and actual social identity’, that leads to stigma (Goffman, 1963:12), does not exist in this scenario. For these child protection professionals are able to record information about the work they have carried out with families on their website. Instead of ‘being’ stigmatised by the media their main aim is to not stigmatise families; they do this by making the information they hold accessible for everyone to see.

4.2.5 Summary

In this section we see how social workers in England once again refer to society as their client as they attempt to navigate the treacherous terrain between the needs of the court and the needs of society. By not being able to speak out when a story breaks, their absence is noticeable, but it is a gap which is easily filled by the media. With no

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one present to defend the profession, or the professional, the media is able to take centre stage and create sensationalist stories that lead to episodes of moral panic. This form of reportage has, subsequently, had a negative impact on the social worker as they, in turn, start to adopt defensive behaviours, ones which are, are promoted as common cultural practice and used to protect themselves should they, one day, find they are in the limelight.

In contrast, the Flemish CPPs rarely talk about the media in their interviews and as a result the media appears to have little impact upon their practice. There are instances when these CPPs have had to respond to media coverage about child abuse tragedies but they are not demonised or stigmatised as the social workers in England are. Instead they are provided with the time and space to explain their position, to clarify the actions they have taken in a way that demonstrates that their voices are heard, are valued and are respected. They show how their practice can take place

without being defensive as there is no need for these professionals to protect

themselves from the media. Instead their main aim is to not isolate families who they hope will still be able to access their service and trust in the support they seek to provide.

Burr (2003: 109) often talks about there being an array of diverse circulating discourses, each presenting an alternative vision of what identity means for certain people. In this situation, we can see from the data how two dissimilar discourses have emerged around child protection settings in two different countries. These prevailing discourses produce entirely different professional identities for the child protection professionals working within each realm, ‘a realm where people swim in a sea of language and other signs’.

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The defensive behaviours I have referred to above in relation to the English professionals are, as we shall see, not primarily reserved for the social worker. In the next section we will see how the UK Government also finds it needs to defend itself when a child abuse tragedy hits the news and the media demand immediate action is taken.

4.3. The role the Government plays

In the UK the Government really plays three roles within social work: funding the local authority where the statutory social worker practises, creating legislation and policies to shape practice and finally, responding to the public when an issue with one of its agencies has been raised (see section 1.2). Normally this is done within the formal context of an inquiry but sometimes it can be done less formally by discussing future plans with the media. In this context, I begin by considering the latter and the impact our leading body can have on social work practice, and social workers within the Fenton department.

4.3.1 Mr Macho and his Kangaroo Courting (England)

I open this section with this extract which is from a conversation with a social worker who had just been telling me how he thought it was fair that senior managers in child protection were considered just as vulnerable as the frontline social worker, when it came to finding a scapegoat.

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