Social workers outraged by EastEnders storyline about baby Lexi

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is engaged in a battle with the BBC over a storyline in EastEnders.

Last Friday, the TV soap featured a social worker removing a baby from a teenage mother, Lola, apparently without sufficient grounds to do so.

The BASW immediately condemned the plot. It accused BBC producers of being “too lazy and arrogant” to get their portrayal of the child protection process right.

Many social workers took to Twitter and Facebook to say the episode made a mockery of their profession.

Bridget Robb, acting chief of the BASW, called the storyline “shabby” and said it had provoked “real anger among a profession well used to a less than accurate public and media perception of their jobs”.

You can see the episode here on iPlayer. Go to 26.50 minutes in to see the full scene. Robb said:

    “It is disgraceful to see a publicly funded broadcaster deliberately spreading misinformation about the child protection process because it is too lazy and arrogant to get it right.

    We regularly give advice to programmes about social work storylines; we would like to know who advised EastEnders so badly.

    Social workers have a difficult enough job as it is. Unlike the writers and actors on EastEnders, they have to step through those front doors that no one else wants to step through, and they do it on a daily basis, to protect children, not to target families.

    EastEnders’ shabby portrayal of an entire profession has made a tough job even tougher.”

And the BASW was completely underwhelmed by what it called the “generic excuse” given by the BBC after a complaint from one of social workers. Here it is:

    “We understand you’re unhappy with the current storyline concerning Lexi and Lola as you feel it portrays social workers inaccurately.

    We consulted with the programme’s production team in writing our response and we’d like to assure you our intention is not to portray social workers in a negative light.

    Whilst the audience has seen how much Lola loves Lexi and how responsible she can be with her baby, we were careful to ensure that when the social worker was visiting, she generally saw only more worrying behaviour.

    Lola was often abrasive when speaking to the social worker and casual – sometimes even flippant in her responses to the social worker’s suggestions.

    Given that Lola is a young mother, who has been, until this episode, wearing an electronic tag (for criminal damage to the car lot), with a history of getting into trouble with the police, and is known to have had a difficult childhood herself (indeed, three generations of the family have been through the care system), it was clearly important for social services to be involved with the family in order to ensure that Lola could cope with having a baby.

    In the last few weeks the social worker witnessed a series of unfortunate incidents, including Lexi wearing a tea-towel as a makeshift nappy, reports of Lola not taking Lexi to the mother and baby group, a messy and unclean flat, and the discovery that Billy had lied to her about having a job.

    Under the circumstances, we believe the audience will have understood why she had to act to remove Lexi quickly when the allegation of assault is made against Lola by Alexa.

    There was no suggestion that the social worker’s actions were anything other than a genuine desire to protect Lexi, or that her concerns about Lola were unreasonable, given the picture she and the previous social worker had formed over a substantial period of time.

    There was certainly no inference that her actions were anything personal against Lola or her family.”

A social worker who received that statement from the BBC commented: “I don’t think I need to spell out the ridiculousness of this response from the BBC and whether the grounds they claim, such as wearing a tea towel as a nappy, would constitute grounds for emergency removal in real life.

“I work in a long-term care team and take great offence at the suggestion that because Lola was in care there is an assumption that social services should be involved in her care of her child.

“Not that I am suggesting she doesn’t need some support, but where is her aftercare worker?

“I am always disappointed at how social workers are portrayed in EastEnders, but this was the last resort. I do not agree that the public will think that this was reasonable and it just makes our job harder.”