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Research aims• Provide an historical perspective of social work, child protection, children and families at risk

in UK and Spanish film and television drama. • Explore the assumptions and discourses at work in representations of social work, child

protection, children and families at risk in film and television.• Inform contemporary debates about the purpose and future of social work and welfare

provision in the context of public service cuts in Europe.

An exploration of representations of social work, child protection and families at risk in UK and Spanish film and television drama since the 1960s David Edmondson , Dr Martin King (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) and Professor Emilio José Gómez Ciriano (University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)

The 3rd European Conference for Social Work Research 2013 - Jyväskylä, Finland

Facultad de Trabajo Social

Spain- Some background

Though the first school of ‘social assistants’ in Spain was established in Barcelona in 1932 (in the period of the 2nd Spanish Republic), its role as an educative institution for social work could not be fully developed as its progressive ideas clashed with the programmes that Franco´s regime were going to implement at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

A very decisive role in the assistance policy of Franco´s regime was played by Pilar Primo de Rivera. According to Primo de Rivera´s perspective, Spanish women should be good wives, good christians and good mothers, all this with an acute feeling of piety. Women, as part of their formative curriculum were obliged to do “social service” which included compulsory placements in orphans, hospitals and other social care institutions. It would be as late as in 1967 - still under Franco´s regime- when the first official school of social assistants opened its doors in Madrid. When democracy was restored and the 1978 Constitution adopted, a new social policy was implemented on behalf of the regional governments. The development of the social services systems, the creation of numerous non-profit organisations and the proliferation of schools of social work (now offering university degrees) favoured that social workers were less and less perceived as “rara avis” and their presence became familiar in some locations (like rural areas) where they had never been seen.

Films in Spain from the 1960´s and 1970´s did not depict social assistants and neither did the official propaganda of the regime. The depiction of social workers in Spanish films coincides with the moment when their presence as professionals is more visible and citizens become more familiar with them and their roles.

UK - Some backgroundSocial work is rarely out of the news. Surveys and commentaries on public perceptions of social work in the UK have consistently evidenced the periodically difficult relationship between social work, the media and the public (Aldridge, 1994; Galilee, 2005). Social workers are: ’routinely vilified in sections of the national press’ (Brody, 2009: online) and frequently described or characterised in the media generally as either lazy incompetent bureaucrats who are culpable in most welfare cases where things go wrong or, at best, well-meaning do-gooders.

At the same time, social workers are becoming and increasing presence in UK film and television drama. Frequently such portrayals focus on child protection issues, typically leading to the removal of children from families and interference in and disruption of families and family life. A recent and notable high profile example of this was a storyline on EastEnders first broadcast in October 2012, in which, ‘teenage mum Lola and her baby, Lexi, who has just been taken into temporary care by her concerned social worker’ (BBC, 2012: online) featured. As the BBC publicity trumpeted: ‘The plot's been causing quite a stir - especially amongst real-life social workers, who claim their profession's being shown in a bad light.’ (BBC, 2012, online)

A key task of The College of Social Work, recently established in 2012, includes improving the public profile and relevance of social work.

Edmondson and King (2013) argue that portrayals of social work through film and television drama, increasingly serve to encourage and reinforce an increasingly hostile and negative impression of social work and endorse particular neo liberal ideologies and discourses about welfare, social work and welfare in England (Carey and Foster, 2012; Garrett, 2012). However, we also suggest such depictions and representations offer a genuine opportunity to explore not only ideas of social work and social workers in the twenty-first century but also serve to prompt a wider debate about the idea and purpose of social work. We suggest this debate is not merely about re-imaging social work as suggested in recent UK social work reform but more challengingly and important the need to re-imagine and re-state social work.

Methods The research innovatively utilised a qualitative multi-method approach combining documentary/ visual research methods with primary data collection via focus groups of social workers located in UK and Spain.

A purposive sampling recruitment strategy was used to recruit participants. Focus groups were chosen as the primary means of data collection as these offer an opportunity for participants to discuss research questions with others and are useful in producing concentrated information about a specific topic of interest (Morgan 1997). Participants were able to hear about and respond to each other’s experiences and explore common themes from across differing contexts of practice (Patton 2002). This setting also allowed for the detailed exploration of complex issues where ambiguity and disagreement were present and offered a setting within which to examine views that were both convergent and divergent (Kitzinger 1994, 1995). Further, the use of focus groups in this research allowed the participants the potential to have some influence over the interpretation and construction of meanings in the research (Krueger and Casey 2009) and thereby contribute to improving its rigour.

The methodology was informed by documentary analysis (May, 2003; Pérez Corsin & Bueno Abad, 2005); textual analysis within discourse analysis (van Dijk, 1993; Fairclough, 1995; McKee, 2003; García & Ramirez, 2003). It draws on ideas of representation (Foucault, 1972; Dyer, 1993; Hall, 1997), stigma (Goffman 1963; Levin & Laar, 2004) and identity (Dyer, 1993; Gripsrud, 2002).

UK Focus Group & Films

Oranges and

Sunshine

(UK, 2011)

Happy Go Lucky

(UK, 2008) Ladybird, Ladybird (UK, 1994)

Cathy Come Home

(UK, 1966)

Spain Focus Group & Films

El Elefante blanco (Argentina, 2012)

La Verguenza (Spain, 2009)

Raquel Busac su Sitio (Spain, 2000)

This research (part of the SWIFT network - see below) sought to investigate and compare portrayals and representations of social work, child protection and families at risk in UK and Spanish film and television drama from the 1960’s to the present day. Interim results suggest:

A number of themes can be identified within both UK and Spanish drama’s which depict social work and social workers. These locate children and families at risk and those in need or using welfare services within discourses of deserving/undeserving, poverty/welfare, care/control and frequently tend to endorse demonization, discrimination, stigma and social exclusion.

In both the UK and Spanish film and TV, social workers are typically portrayed as being white and female. Few portrayals are positive and where this is the case, workers are shown as at best well-meaning but generally intrusive do-gooders with a desire to ‘save’ rather than support and help those in need.

Social workers are frequently shown to be professionally distant and superior in manner and attitude, or as lazy incompetent bureaucrats. These findings are consistent with the broader findings of Valentine and Freeman (2002, 2004) and Murdoch (2006) which looked at social work portrayals in the USA and also with Henderson and Franklin’s UK analysis (2007).

We argue, film and television depictions of social work in both UK and Spain are strongly influenced by prescriptive discourses about the child/childhood, parenting/family, care/protection of children at risk, the role of the state. These reinforce/encourage a negative public image of social work and reflect partial narratives and discourses about welfare provision and the needs of marginalized, excluded groups.

Results and discussion