This has been pretty horrible week for anyone interested in children’s services and family justice, what with the closure of BAAF and the controversy around Kids Company. And yet more criticism of social workers…

Although I’m all for transparency, I’m not personally very keen on social workers being named in judgments so I don’t want to add to the negative publicity the ISW in Re A and K-F has received. However the judge has raised a really important point here. Until now, the ISW thought that was what the courts wanted to read in her reports.  Suddenly, she is ‘named and shamed’ for her somewhat woolly language. There’s a good piece on it in Community Care, with some thoughtful comments below.

So, why do social workers, and others, develop this idea that this is the right style in which to write? And what can we do about it? Thoughts welcome.

(I did have to look up the spelling of opprobrium.)