ABSTRACT
This chapter examines evidence about public perceptions of and attitudes towards social work. The most recent substantial study of public attitudes to social work was conducted by national opinion polls (NOP) in late 1989. A survey by the magazine Community Care suggested 93 per cent of social workers blamed the media for their declining public stock, and 58 per cent thought public opinion of them had worsened. In the lengthening wake of the Maria Colwell case MORI carried out what was described as the first ever national survey of public opinion of social work, in April 1981. The magazine Social Work Today, who commissioned the research, declared simply satisfied customers as their headline summary of the findings. The Daily Star opinion is that social workers 'have a dreadful reputation as muddle-headed do-gooders whose grip on reality is at best tenuous, and at worst non-existent'.
