Fostering talent

Guardian Labs – The Right Social Worker

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Agency Client Direct
Production Company Greatcoat Films
Director Claire Pinegar

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Credits

powered by

Agency Client Direct
Production Company Greatcoat Films
Director Claire Pinegar
Executive Producer Sandra Spethmann

Credits powered by

Being in care is not something that follows you round for one year – it’s for your entire life.”

Just one of the heart-rending comments from a young girl describing her experiences in this touching film, created by Guardian Labs and directed by Claire Pinegar, through Greatcoat Films.

A recruitment drive for the London borough’s social services, the film, titled The Right Social Worker, graphically illustrates the pain and frustrations of a young person in foster care.

It opens with depictions of her feeling trapped and depersonalised by the amount of paperwork around her. Adults are constantly writing about her; even her foster parents have to log her all her interactions – she increasingly feels she is just a ‘case’ not a child. How can she learn to trust an adult when she is living with strangers who she feels are just waiting to get rid of her?

Eventually, things begin to improve when a new education worker is hired who realises that the girl’s education and love of science needs to take priority.

Rearranging the exhausting schedule of meetings with social services, she clears space for the girl to focus on her studies, encouraging her and enabling her to reach a point where she can train to become a nurse.

Through finding someone she can really trust her potential is being realised – she can move from being 'in care' to joining a caring profession herself.