SOCIAL CARE

Social workers mad at a TV drama need to relax

Channel 4’s social work-centred drama Kiri has been swept up in a Twitterstorm, with social workers decrying the apparent misrepresentation of their profession. Claire Fox’s response: get over yourselves.

So far, I have really enjoyed Kiri, Jack Thorne's latest drama for Channel 4. 

It portrays a social worker at the centre of the abduction of a nine-year-old black child called Kiri, about to be adopted by her white foster family. It has it all: brilliant acting; nuance; whodunit; human interest; surprising plot and character twists. Better still, it features one of those gritty, flawed, maverick anti-heroines we all love, played by the marvelous Sarah Lancashire. And for those of us interested in social issues, it addresses meaty, contentious themes such as cultural identity, inter-racial adoption, the rights of birth grandparents, the scapegoating of social workers when tragedies happen. 

Claire Fox

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