An Open University/BBC co-produced documentary series which looked at the challenging role of social workers has won three accolades in the Royal Television Society Awards, West of England.
The awards are for Best Documentary, Best Director and Editing.
The three-part documentary series Protecting Our Children, featured on BBC2 last year, was produced with the expert insight of three Open University academics.
Dr Barry Cooper and Dr Lucy Rai, both Senior Lecturers in Social Work in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, were consultants on the series and worked with the production team for over a year giving advice on social work practice and policy development.
In addition, Debbie Stringer, Senior Lecturer in Law provided support as part of the module team.
The series followed the work of Bristol’s child protection teams over the course of a year and observed their jobs first-hand, exploring how the crises of the last decade had impacted on their ability to safeguard children.
Commenting on the awards, Dr Rai said: “Working on Protecting Our Children was a fantastic opportunity to work closely with the BBC and social workers in Bristol to present the public with a rare insight into the everyday work of child protection social workers.
"The series created a challenging, emotive but very honest reflection on the profession and will be of great benefit to students learning about this area of work.”
Protecting Our Children also won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary in 2012.
Useful Links
- Protecting our Children on OpenLearn
- Experience a day in the life of a social worker
- Social Work at the OU
