PROTECTING our children is precisely the prime focus of all social workers.

This should not need pointing out – after all, does anyone question whether police officers want to do anything but protect the public or firefighters anything other than tackle fires?

But social workers are a misunderstood and unfairly maligned profession – and are also in many ways members of a vital emergency service.

That's why I welcome the BBC's excellent Protecting Our Children series, which follows the day-to-day challenges faced by social workers in Bristol. More often than not, cases are not clear cut – instead, delicate judgments are needed about potential risks to children, the best courses of action and the possible repercussions of intervening or not intervening.

Always, always at the heart of those decisions is the wellbeing of the child. If removing the child from its parents will protect it from harm, social workers will and do take that momentous and heart-breaking decision. If there are prospects for the child to remain and thrive with its parents, then this decision will also be taken by social workers.

For this, they should be praised. All too often, sadly, they are seen as intent on breaking families up, as having interfered too much or having shamefully done too little.

As the first episode of the programme said: "Damned if they do, damned if they don't."

We should all remind ourselves, before leaping to judgment of social workers, what a difficult job they do.

I'm pleased to say they are doing it better than ever in Nottingham, with Ofsted twice judging our Safeguarding and Looked After Children services "good" in the last year.

The city council and other agencies remain well prepared to continue to meet the challenge, with safeguarding a top priority and good training programmes for staff at all levels.

Protecting Our Children is on BBC2 at 9pm on Mondays and available on BBC iPlayer

Councillor David Mellen is Nottingham City Council's Portfolio Holder for Children's Services