The Sun... in praise of social workers

The Sun, which came under fire from Community Care magazine for "undermining" social workers with its coverage of the Baby 'P' case, says in a leader today that it is backing the campaign to recruit more people into the profession.
The Sun leader today says: "SOCIAL workers must sometimes wonder why they bother getting out of bed some days... it sure ain't for the money.
"They are vilified for horrific cases like Baby Peter - where criticism is justified. But for every case of child cruelty there are many more where timely intervention has brought hope without headlines.
"The fact is there are too few trained social workers - many risking danger on doorsteps where even the police fear to tread.
"So The Sun is backing movie and pop stars like Samantha Morton and Goldie in their campaign to recruit 5,000 new staff.
"If we want to help vulnerable children, we need the right people to do the job."
Community Care started an e-petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister to urge the Sun newspaper to back the social work profession.The petition followed a letter sent by Community Care to the Sun's then editor Rebekah Wade, now succeeded by Dominic Mohan, calling on her to rethink the newspaper's "negative attitude" to social workers.
The Sun robustly defended itself. Managing editor Graham Dudman responded: "We are proud to have campaigned successfully to have those responsible held accountable, especially as they continue to refuse to apologise. I agree social work is a difficult job at the best of times but make no apologies for the way we highlighted the appalling catalogue of mistakes that led to Baby P’s death."