The image of care

Where does morality end and news begin? The News of the World’s expose of alleged corruption among the Pakistan international team’s cricketers is an interesting scoop and if the content is found to be accurate then the newspaper has don a service to the sport in finding some serious breaches of conduct.

But what of the recent front page screaming headlines concerning Wayne Rooney?

Is this really such an interesting piece of news that we need to know the sordid details? One thing I have learned is that I do not go to footballers for moral guidance in the same way as I would not pay to watch the so-called moral custodians of our society (whoever they may be) playing football.

Prostitution is not illegal – if the woman in question wants to earn £1200 selling her services to Mr Rooney, as the paper alleges, then that is a private arrangement. But that is not good enough for the social commentator Bea Campbell whose rant in the Guardian shows how much the chattering classes are out of tune with society (a large proportion of the comments made by readers of the article are highly critical of Ms Campbell’s point of view.)

The same thing happened when David Beckham got married – the Guardianistas were out in force criticising the style and tone of the ceremony and party.

Why can’t we leave people alone to do what they want, provided it is within the law? Why do people criticise others’ lifestyles to ram home a point that their lifestyle does not meet some kind of lifestyle? In the case of the News of the World the answer is simple, they sell more papers by publishing this kind of tosh. But in the case of the Guardian?

Could it be that the answer, my friends, is blowing in the winds of jealousy?

As a keen amateur chess player (and not a very good one) I was interested in a new charity that is being launched to get youngsters from the inner cities interested in the sport. Chess in Communities and Schools is an initiative which is being administered by Malcolm Pein from the London Chess Centre and is loosely based on a similar model which was very successful in New York. The film Knights of the South Bronx was a TV adaptation of the story.

Chess is a sport which transcends boundaries of race, class and status and contrary to what many people believe, you do not need to be particularly intelligent to play it well. Once you have learned the rules (not complicated) and grasped basic theories of the openings your creativity and passion for the struggle on the board will see you through. At Care Images, we were delighted to do a shoot with Paul, a good club player who has a physical disability.

The objectives of the charity which has a snazzy operational name of Urban Chess is to encourage the teaching and playing of chess in state schools and inner city communities as well as highlight the social and educational benefits of the game. Already the charity is making inroads in Newham, Hackney, Barnet, Hammersmith, Birmingham Manchester, Liverpool, Teeside and Tower Hamlets in London and with two national fieldworkers in place there are further initiatives planned throughout the country.

Importantly, this kind of project can help raise the profile of our young people away from the negativity associated with knives, lack of discipline and general bad feeling which is all too prevalent in our media. There is no reason why one or two grandmasters of tomorrow cannot come from sink estates and Malcolm and his team are to be applauded in trying to unearth some hidden talent.

Further details on Urban Chess from Malcolm Pein: 020 7388 2404

Care Images had an interesting time at the Picture Buyers Fair at the Barbican Exhibition Halls last week. It’s always good to meet current clients and potential new ones, and as in many of these events, meeting unexpected leads over coffee. And yes, it is always good to meet photographers who wish to work with us so thanks to all who visited us.

One point of discussion that was well aired involved the types of models we work with. When we launched Care Images we set out to provide realistic UK-based images of social care and according to feedback at PBF and through the site, we are doing particularly well in this area. Time and again we hear comments like xyz library’s models are ‘American looking’ and that the older women featured look ‘too well and happy’. Our clients like the realism of our images, the way they reflect social care in the UK as experienced by service users, their carers and practitioners. In short, as our strapline says, they represent the community, a community made up of a myriad of ethnicities, cultures, lifestyles and life choices. And a community of images that is growing in size and stature thanks to our photographers models and clients.

Perhaps the most pleasing part of our job is being able to meet demand as it comes; so when a local authority phones us and asks for pictures of the travelling community for a brochure, we are able to publish such pictures within three days. We have a talented group of photographers and a raft of models we can call on, so please do get in touch if you have ideas for a shoot. And if you want to be part of this really interesting and fulfilling project as a photographer and or model, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

Care Images are exhibiting this week at the prestigious BAPLA Picture Buyers Fair which is taking place at the Barbican Exhibition Halls (Hall 1) in London on 19 and 20 May.

We look forward to welcoming everyone attending to our stand (130L).

Election fever has turned into a right old mess. Irrespective of what happens with the Clegg-Cameron-(Brown) negotiations it’s safe to assume we are in for a spot of belt-tightening and that means that crucial services to the most vulnerable could be compromised. It may not be at Greek proportions but with a deficit running into billions, there is clearly going to be some serious cutting.

And when this happens it will be interesting to see how local and health authorities – the providers of most of our services – decide how to ration. Having worked in social work for 15 years, I know how important the contributions are from everyone involved in social care; from the person enabling a disabled person to use a toilet in his or her own home, to child protection social worker to the director of social services. Every member of staff, whatever their status or salary, is crucial to ensuring the delivery of seamless and effective services (despite what the red-top press would have us believe).

So if you had to slash x million off a budget, what would you choose to go? There is no fairness or justice in such decisions. Is it fairer that the day centre for elderly people is closed in favour of an early years facility? Should adults with disabilities sponsored in a relatively expensive but excellent residential unit out of borough be recalled to an adequate, cheaper provision in the locality? What about ’soft’ targets like training; would it really matter if an authority did not invest so much money on sending its staff to courses?

The answer, of course, is that everything is important in health, education and social care. But the truth is this; since no politician is prepared to risk playing around with tax and missiles (the default ‘no-go’ areas for discussion) we are never going to be able to afford the services we provide and we will always be playing financial catch-up to keep them going. I don’t envy the political combo that is taking over, whatever the colour of their rosettes.

Last week I was at the launch of a much needed information book which deserves as much publicity as possible. Imagine having to cope with this scenario at the age of 70; You and your wife have the unenviable task of telling a seven-year-old granddaughter and later on her two-year-old brother that their father had murdered their mother. Or having to fly to the USA to tell a four year old that his dad (your son) is in Heaven having died in a car crash.

Grandparents caring for young children are being offered much needed advice on how to break difficult news and information to their grandchildren. The Grandparents’ Association have launched a guidance booklet called ‘Giving Difficult Messages to Children’, which is the result of an in-depth discussion with health and social workers and grandparents who need to communicate sensitive messages to grandchildren. Areas covered by the 16-page publication include what to say, when to say it and how much detail to go into. The booklet also covers bereavement, ill health, neglect and abuse within the family and draws on a number of studies, including one which shows that older children can appreciate more information than younger children. And such is the importance of the message that professionals, grandparents and children will benefit from its clear and concise approach to what is becoming a more common issue in our society.

Childhood is not all about good news and children are entitled to honesty from adults. From working with the Grandparents Association over a number of years, the overriding feeling is one of admiration for the grandparents who may well have been looking forward to afternoons of bridge and Scrabble and instead are thrust into school runs and standing on football pitch touchlines cheering grandson and daughter on.

‘Giving Difficult Messages to Children’ is available priced £5.99 (or £4.99 for members of The Grandparents’ Association). To order a copy please call 01279 428040 or visit www.grandparents-association.org.uk

Another chapter in the aftermath of the desperately sad case of Baby P was concluded today when the High Court in London found that Haringey Council was within its rights to dismiss Sharon Shoesmith from her post as the head of children’s services, in consequence.

I’m not going to debate the rights and wrongs of the case here, that’s what the courts are for. I am however going to note that this was a woman who was paid around £130,000 a year to do her job. An oft-used explanation for such extravagant salaries in public service is that these levels are needed to attract the quality of staff necessary to fill the posts. But that is, and always has been, a load of rubbish. High salaries are paid to people in senior positions by other people in senior positions to justify their own inflated self-worth and quite simply because they have the power to do so.

Now, depending on your point of view, your aspirations, and possibly your level in the pecking order, you might say there is nothing wrong with that, it’s merely the capitalist system at work, fuelled by human greed. But then something like the Baby P incident happens which shines a light on the ‘quality of staff’ aspect. There is a perception that the higher the salary, the higher the responsibility. In practical terms this perception is often misplaced, since the heavy burden of day-to-day responsibility more usually falls of the shoulders of the poorly paid at the bottom of the pile; the people with commitment and desire to do their best, but not enough hours in the day to tackle everything and starved of proper funding. However when the case is serious enough, as it was here, then the power brokers need to lose one of their own, if only to protect the rest of their positions.

So, to return to the beginning, I don’t have an opinion on whether Haringey Council was within its rights to dismiss Sharon Shoesmith. But I do believe that there is a whole tier of ‘public servants’ in this country above a certain salary level that should do the decent thing* and resign today, before the next inevitable tragedy.

*a fanciful concept which may only exist in the movies.

There is plenty right with cutting edge comedy that makes us look at how our world spins lies, distortion and half truths. Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle has made a huge success of poking fun of everything and everyone – nothing is off limits, Madeleine McCann and 9/11 are just two of many subjects covered in routines.

But maybe this time, the comedian has crossed the border without a visa. In the last gig of a recent tour the ubiquitous panelist of the BBC hit comedy show Mock the Week poked a very sharp finger into the chest of Down’s Syndrome and the content of the routine has caused offence to a member of the audience who happens to have a young daughter with the condition. Sharon Smith wrote about the incident on her blog.

I don’t have a problem with Boyle’s right to say what he wants on stage but there is an issue of him making money out of routines where vulnerable people do not have the intellectual rigour to fight back. In the gig that Sharon saw, Boyle parodied the so-called ‘accent’ of a person with Down’s Syndrome saying: ‘I’m looking forward to my birthday present this year, a pair of flared trousers.’ It is indeed funny that a person can fuel a lifestyle from such drivel.

But it works both ways, so on the basis that Careimages is all about accentuating the abilities of people with Down’s Syndrome and other groups marginalised first by society and further by Boyle cowering behind the ticket booth of free speech, here is a little joke:

Frankie Boyle was being led to the gallows by a fella with Down’s Syndrome and it was pouring down. ‘Not a very nice day for it.’ says Frankie. ‘It’s all right for you’, says the hangman, ‘I’ve got to walk back in this.’

Careimages is growing; month on month more people are visiting the site, registering and subscribing. And we’re reacting to what our clients want by doing new shoots. Next week, we are working on a shoot with a service user with mental health problems to portray the issues in his life; other shoots in the pipeline include vulnerable elderly at home and drug abuse.

We are very proud to launch a new and exciting aspect to the site in the form of illustrations. We have teamed up with a very talented painter/illustrator, David Fortune whose abstract work in his native Ireland is gaining critical acclaim. We gave David a brief to provide a range of illustrations depicting aspects of childhood along with concepts like fear and abuse. For a few of the sketches, such as the one on the left, he did a re-interpretation of a real-life photo that we already had. Not only does the stylisation often make an image like this more powerful, but it also offers flexibility in representing what can often be difficult subjects. We believe the illustrations we launch today reflect and represent our community and show art as powerful and emotive tools in helping us come to terms with our world.

We are looking for more ideas for our illustration category so please do tell us what you think and what you may like to see. if there are any specific illustrations you need, we would be pleased to arrange them as a custom service. For this or if you’d simply like advice as to how this type of art can be used in context with your publicity materials please contact us on 020 7254 1500 or by email to enquiries@careimages.com

Careimages will be on stand number 130L at the BAPLA Picture Buyers’ fair on the 19th and 20th May at the Barbican Centre in London, exhibition hall 1.

We look forward to seeing any clients, both old and new, there.

More information at the BAPLA site.