Put simply, in social work there is no music. Think of the assessment process and the forms; think of the meetings involving children and young people; think of management; think of training and the lectures; think of the whole ethos including the administrative offices, and you immediately get the point. This is a world, a way of operating, in which music has no place.

Then think of foster and residential care, and the penny drops: there is music of all sorts: on TV, Ipads, Ipods, MP3s, radio, and still, against the odds, children and young people actually playing instruments or singing themselves. There is music being discussed, background music, concerts, dances, and film music. One is a world devoid of music: the other is replete with it.

If this sounds obvious to every reader, I am sorry that it has taken me so long to catch up. But, I hear you say: why does it matter? What might it mean or signify? And this is the point that struck me: if you are dealing with assessment, administration, planning, and with matters of the mind, then music is of little relevance. In fact it may get in the way. But if you are dealing with matters of the heart, and spirit: with feelings and the deep inner world of a person or a group, then music is vital. It is a sine qua non of creative relationships.

Let me give you a quotation on the matter and see how close you come to guessing who said it and when:

“I was deeply moved by the music….the sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart. This caused the feelings of devotion to overflow. Tears ran, and it was good for me to have that experience.”

The answer is Augustine of Hippo, and it was written in his Confessions some time between 370 and 450 AD!

There are, of course, many varieties of music: but what they all have in common is that the sounds cannot be explained by or contained within the mind. Music spills out of boxes and frameworks, and seeps into the recesses, conscious and unconscious, of the human heart or spirit.

We are moved by music: that is patently obvious in films. It communicates moods without us thinking about the process, or even being aware of it. And the range of emotions that it can express and convey is as varied as the number and extent of human feelings intra-personal and inter-personal expressed in human history.

So when we are seeking to understand and relate to a person (which I think we can all agree is at the heart of social work and residential/social care) we will never be connecting with their heart or spirit unless and until some form of music is at work.

What a blessing it is to live in a residential community where we can listen to and discuss each others’ preferred forms of music. I think of how a young person many years ago wanted me to listen to the music of Rollerball with him. He warned me that the music, like the film was dangerously violent. And he was right. What took me completely off guard was the fact that he particularly wanted me to listen to one track assuming that, because I hadn’t sent the film, it was new to me. It shocked me to discover that it was Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D minor. No disagreement about the intensity of the music: just about what we called it!

And then I recall the long evening travelling to North Wales when a young person talked to me about Rap music, and especially Eminem. Over the time I cannot recall any human emotion that wasn’t alluded to in one way or another. And this helped us to understand each other at a deeper level than hitherto. And it meant that we were able to discuss how he related to his younger siblings too.

Why do we listen to the music that we do? And why do we choose particular pieces at specific times? We probably aren’t able to explain, because it is unlikely that we even think about it very often. But I remember my own children telling me that they knew what I was feeling by the pieces I played on the piano, and the way I played them.

When we feel joy and elation there is music to help us express the feelings, even to nurture and encourage them. And when we experience loss and failure there is music that will provide succour, serenity and comfort.

Lullabies are sung or hummed worldwide to babies and little children to help them relax and sleep. And trumpet or bugle calls have been used since time immemorial to stir troops into battle. There may be words that accompany some of these sounds, but words are not necessary: the sounds convey their own meaning.

Many years ago I was teaching at what was then called the Social Care Practice Centre in Bangor University, North Wales. Great store was set by insisting that all social workers should speak Welsh, the first language of most of the residents in Gwynedd. Given that much of the social work literature and guidance was in English I asked why the Welsh language was so important in this context. The reply was simple: English is the language of commerce and administration, but when it comes to matters of the heart the people cannot communicate without Welsh. They may be fluent in English, but it is a fluency that fumbles in the home, and when emotions are to be expressed, and relationships and feeling to be described and shared.

And it occurs to me now that they could have been speaking of music as well as of Welsh. If we are trying to understand and connect with the rhythm and blues of life then we will need a language deeper and more personal than that used to do business and administration. We overlook music at the risk of functioning on a different level from the person or group with whom we seek to communicate. And with all forms of music it requires the development of the art and skill of listening in order to hear what the other is thinking and feeling.

In the dead of night, at 13, I was taken to Stonepound House by the police.
As the car turned off the main road
and travelled seemingly in slow motion,
my heart started to thud alarmingly.
As though the little girl inside me instinctively knew
things would never be the same again.

Standing between the police officers and with no chance of escaping,
as I gazed up at the huge house covered in a blanket of darkness,
a feeling of foreboding came over me.
My spine chilled to the bone.
I felt myself trembling uncontrollably.
As I heard the rattle of keys and locks turning in the large oak door
I truly believed I had been brought to a prison.

And so the police left me there,
at the mercy of this paedophile child abuser dictator,
and as she led me to the bathroom my tears were in vain.
She proceeded to ’search’ me for drugs but she didn’t search:
she violated and abused my young body.
As I screamed out in pain she covered my mouth with her stinking hand
and warned me in no uncertain terms
what would happen if I made a sound.
I was defeated…I fought no more.

In 1972 this country knew about child abuse.
In 1966 the nation was shocked to the core by the Moors murders
and how anyone could be so evil, especially a woman.
In 1970 the case of Genie, the feral child
who spent the first thirteen years of her life locked in her bedroom
and suffered massive physical and emotional cruelty.

Meanwhile in remand homes, industrial schools and other institutions,
the same thing was happening
but no one breathed a word of it.
It was our fate, our punishment.
We kept the secret and we kept it for so many years
they were almost home and dry … but not quite.

It only took one complaint, one book, one account,
and now the floodgates are open, never to be closed again.
We should not think of the ages these paedophiles are today,
only remember the evil they did in their day
and make them accountable …

If you were in Stonepound House please join our Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/StonepoundHouse

The information is set out in an easy-to-read manner. There is no patronising terminology to induce anxiety. The information is matter of fact and relevant.
Section One of the book deals with the practicalities – what it is; how to recognise the condition and its severity; questions parents may ask; aspects of education and learning and help sourcing.

The second section offers first hand experiential accounts of raising children with autism. This is a positive method of giving optimistic and realistic information to prospective adopters.

The book itself is thin enough to ensure that no one will feel daunted by the content. It is easy to read and I actually read it through very quickly.

For me, the most important message captured within the first section is that the way to enable and empower a child who has autism is to love them as they are.

“One of the key factors that influences a child’s self-esteem and mental well-being is being accepted and loved for being himself. Parents are likely to experience a sense of loss or grief if their child has difficulties affecting his growth and development. If this grief remains unresolved for the parents, it can be equally unhelpful for the child.” Page 34 Section One

Chapter Six is very useful for seeking help and support. Often when a parent has a child with additional needs, they feel helpless and alone. The listed agencies and financial benefits will get them started on the road to seeking the most appropriate help for their child’s specific needs.

Section two contains a very personal account of one couple’s experience of adopting two siblings who eventually exhibited autistic tendencies. The second account gives a list of what the writer found helpful and unhelpful. There is always a lot of form-filling as with any child who has exceptional needs and challenges.

I think this is a book worth purchasing if you are or intend to be the parent of a child who has autism.

Carter, Paul (2013) Parenting a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
BAAF
ISBN: 978 1 907585 69 2

• Of children continuously Looked After for 12 months during the year to 31 March 2012, just 15.5 per cent achieved GCSEs graded A* to C in English and mathematics at Key Stage 4, compared to 58.7 per cent of children who were not Looked After.
• In Key Stage 2 tests, 50 per cent of Looked After children achieved level 4 or above in both English and maths, compared with 79 per cent of non-Looked After children.
• Looked After children and young people are four times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than their peers. The reasons for this vary from living in chaotic homes, to having learning difficulties or moving from one foster home to another, or being returned home on numerous occasions only to be removed again when problems arise.

The book is divided into chapters revealing one helpful hint or tip each.

Tip 1 – Learn the Child
Tip 2 – Assess the impact of the child’s history on her education
Tip 3 – Gather information about the child’s history
Tip 4 – Get to know the carers and work with them
Tip 5 – Find out as much as possible about the school
Tip 6 – Form a relationship with key school staff members
Tip 7 – Facilitate the links between the carers and the school
Tip 8 – Ensure the child has information that makes sense to her
Tip 9 – Support the child through transitions
Tip 10 – Assess the network for areas of positive impact

In each chapter the author(s) expand on their themes and present case studies to illustrate their points. The book is set out in good, simple language. It has suggestions and tasks to help with understanding and confidence. The list of useful organisations and useful resources make for a substantial amount of helplines and support networks to empower any foster carer or parent.

I would consider this book to be a valuable asset for any social worker and teacher where there will be children whose lives have been inevitably disrupted by changes and stresses that most of us do not have to face. We should be thankful that the authors have put together such a treasure.

Fursland, Eileen with Cairns, Kate and Stanway, Chris Ten Top Tips for Supporting Education
BAAF
ISBN: 9781907585715

So you can imagine may surprise and joy when on a visit to the Philippines recently I had the privilege of seeing a new home that had been designed from scratch, and whose outlines had been shared with me years before. It is the brainchild of a dear colleague and friend of mine, a psychologist, Dr Gundelina Velazco. The place is for girls who have been rescued from sexual trafficking in Manila. It is located at a safe distance in sight of the green, tree-clad volcanic hills that are a feature of so much of the landscape north of Manila.

The home has no sign to indicate its existence or nature, and it is surrounded by high walls topped by barbed wire fencing. The security at the gate is tight. I was made to sign an agreement on entering and my photo was taken as a precaution.
Inside these walls, and set in the middle of a lush garden of fruit, vegetables, flowers and shrubs is indeed, as it name implies, a modern one-storey round house.

To the left is a round chapel without walls. Its roof reminded me of the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, designed by Le Corbusier, with its simple allusions to times long past, and its invitation to enter it. After a quiet stroll around the garden, and between a collection of coconut trees, I took a seat in the chapel and paused for thought.

Prominent from where I sat was a large tree house, with a broad wooden staircase making it easily accessible to all the residents.

And as I was pondering all this, Dr Velazco walked quietly towards me, and sat beside me.

As we chatted it became clear that she had conceived everything on the basis of her psychological knowledge, her practical wisdom, and her huge store of relationships with street children and their families. Nothing had been left to chance.

There are no sharp corners in the house or the chapel. The colours of the house are all pastel shades: no primary colours. The reason will be clear to all who know the work of Rudolph Steiner. Primary colours, particularly red are too strident, too emotive. Meanwhile the garden around the chapel is monochrome: all green. This invites stillness and reflection. All the shrubs are single trees or plants, so that the girls can identify with them. Each shrub is surrounded by round stones: once again no sharp corners.

The tree house is one of the most substantial I have seen: with its sturdy staircase, thatched roof and open sides. It is one of the main places for therapy. Why? Usually counselling takes place in small, rather dingy rooms in the interests of guaranteeing the confidentiality of both what is said, and also the relationship. Such a setting can be confined to the point of feeling claustrophobic, especially for girls and women who have suffered chronically in confined spaces from which they could not escape. The tree house represents a striking alternative: because of it height and its separation from the round house and any other buildings, it is a place that is safe, and where conversation can be completely confidential.

Yet the person who is with the counsellor or therapist is in an open space, with clear views of the garden, and the green cone-shaped hills beyond the walls and the vilage. Others know she is there, but the enounter is private. What is more the height of the house means that the person involved looks down on the garden: she is in that sense in control of what she sees.

Thus every part of the home and its surroundings is designed with sensitivity and an awareness of the nature of safe space. The spacious garden is cultivated with a variety of trees, herbs, fruit and vegetables. It means that the home is self-sufficient in herbs and vegetables. Taken together as a whole it is, in my view, a creation of genius.

Each day, each week is carefully shaped, with private time, communal gatherings and group tasks, time for personal activities, and also for relaxation. The Rule of Benedict has been respected whether consciously or not.

There is a system of rewards for good behaviour which is carefully tailored to the nature of particular individuals and the dynamics of groups. Rewards include shopping trips and visits to special places.

Two of the girls living there during my visit each had a child of their own. Care of these was provided mostly by their mothers, but the whole group formed a caring community. The presence of these two little children had a substantial effect on the dynamics of the group. They were catalysts for responsible and reciprocal relationships.

And what of the pattern or shape of life for the girls who are resident? The period of their stay in the home is by agreement, and it is a stage of their lives, which is designed to prepare them for life beyond the walls. They have regular though not frequent contact with their families, and this is supported by social workers. The families of girls and young women who have been trafficked are usually supportive of them: wanting to help to rescue them from the oppressive, merciless, tyrannic and warped relationships in which they have been trapped. Most girls return to their families.

Meanwhile, back in the heart of Manila and near the red light district the project has also spawned a ‘Round Table’ at which children of those who are sexually exploited are welcomed and fed. (There is a Tagalog word: hapag, which embraces both food and hospitality.) Some of the residents of the Round Home help out there, and there is even an embryonic plan to set up a ‘Round Village’ in Manila which would be a home for mothers, children and families. All this means that those at the Round House have a range of options as they come to terms with their pasts, adapt to the present, and begin to work out possible future shapes for their lives.

The connections with the heart of Manila are of course very significant: it means that they may return to the scene of many of their traumas. And this is a very conscious part of the whole process. They have to know and learn how to cope with this place and the realities that it represents.

Over forty girls have lived at the Round Home so far and, as I understand it thus far, none have been drawn back into their old ways of life. It is not just a brilliant idea or plan, but a practical working model.

And I felt privileged and inspired to have been invited to spend time there.

In addition to the acknowledgements, foreword, introduction and conclusion, there are eight chapters entitled:

• Safe and secure: a sense of belonging
•  Nurtured: a sense of care
•  Healthy: a sense of well-being
•  Achieving and enjoying: education in its widest sense
•  Active: a sense of purpose
•  Respected and responsible: the idea of citizenship
•  Contributing: developing generosity
•  Included: a sense of community participation.

Anyone who is involved in residential child care will have spotted that all of these themes are key elements in working directly with children. Too often texts have been about the management of residential care, rather than the core task of working with children. In this book the focus is almost entirely on meeting the needs of children, with only a hint here and there about the implications for managing the services.

Each chapter starts with a realistic scenario, goes on to discuss the topic, and ends with a return to the scenario and suggestions for ways in which staff may follow up the theme with further reading or discussion.

There are (at least) nine reasons for reading this book.

1. As mentioned above, the book describes the realities of work with children and young people. It rings true, for example in the scenarios.
2. It does not duck the difficulties, such as restraining children, young people running away or drug-taking, but it discusses them level-headedly and in practical terms.
3. The book’s main focus is on relationships, as they are the key to positive outcomes for children and young people in residential care.
4. The authors address the damaging aspects of some recent social work thinking and of managerialism, both of which have undermined good quality residential care in recent years.
5. The style of writing makes for very easy reading. It is not jargonistic, though specialist terms are used and are carefully explained when necessary.
6. It is based on a very wide range of residential care literature, from the early classics to recent writing. The references do not overwhelm the reader, as in some academic texts, but there are plenty of pointers for further reading.
7. It incorporates the latest ideas, such as social pedagogy, restorative practice and salutogenesis (which I had not met before).
8. The book is positive and inspiring, focusing on what can be achieved. Residential establishments are in a sense the intensive care units of the social care world and they are expected to address major problems, but this is not something to get depressed about. It is a challenge which can be faced, and if the child or young person succeeds, it is a source of real job satisfaction.
9. It says a lot of the things which we have been trying to say in the Webmag over the last twelve years.

This book should become a standard text book for all residential child care workers - not only on training courses when there is time to read but also by using its chapters as sources for professional development in staff meetings.

It should also be read by all social workers working with children and families, so that they can develop a realistic view of the positives which good residential care has to offer, rather than the Goffman-based negative perceptions which have riddled social work qualifying courses for the last forty years.

Does the book have any drawbacks? There are two, in my opinion. Despite majoring on relationships and life space I do not think that the few references (e.g. p. 30) to the resident group sufficiently recognise the potential of the children and young people to set norms, offer support and create a positive culture. Of course groups can become destructive and damaging, but if a good atmosphere is developed it can work wonders in helping children and young people take a more creative and positive view of life. Because of the short-termism of much recent residential care this has been lost in the UK, and this book could have helped to retrieve it as a positive strength.

Secondly, the last chapter included some important points, but it did not carry the conviction of the earlier chapters and impressed as a collection of also-ran ideas. My comment may be unfair, but the chapter did not hold my attention in the same way as the rest of the book. These criticisms should in no way be seen as detracting from the value of the book as a whole.

Leon Fulcher and Mark Smith are established authors, but I had not come across Peter Doran before. The chapters are not attributed, and so general congratulations should be offered to all three for an excellent publication. And a feather in BASW’s cap for publishing it in their Social Work in Practice series.

Smith, Mark, Fulcher, Leon and Doran, Peter (2013) Residential Child Care in Practice: Making a Difference
The Policy Press, Bristol
ISBN 978 1 84742 310 8

• Patients were left in excrement in soiled bed clothes for lengthy periods.

• Assistance was not provided with feeding for patients who could not eat without help.

•  Water was left out of reach.

• In spite of persistent requests for help, patients were not assisted in their toileting.

• Wards and toilet facilities were left in a filthy condition.

•  Privacy and dignity, even in death, were denied.

• Staff treated patients and those close to them with what appeared to be callous indifference.

In short there is no doubt that within the health service of the UK, dignity, care and compassion are routinely absent. Some of the stories behind these conclusions make chilling reading: patients forced to drink water out of the vases that contained flowers because their cries for water from the staff went unheeded. In an Accident and Emergency Unit the staff were oblivious to the pain of the patients.

There have, of course, been many responses to this report, and the intention of this article is not to repeat them, but to ask a fundamental question and to see where it leads. The question is, “What is a Human Being?” Some readers will know of Primo Levi’s remarkable book, If This is a Man, based on his experiences of the Nazi concentration camps, and my question is phrased with an awareness of the associations it may beg.

We can talk of the type of training that staff of all levels in a hospital receive, or of targets set by the administrators, of systems of care and so on. But let us get to the very heart of the matter: what image of human being do these staff have in mind? In doing so we do well not to forget that this image is not just of the patients for whom they are supposed to care, but of all human beings, including themselves. The facts indicate that the image is of physical objects, rather than anything with dignity. It is only this surely that can explain how when a patient cries out for water, their cries are ignored hour by hour as their physical condition deteriorates, in some cases until they die of dehydration. They are objects, and the hospital staff are also objects, because there is nothing in them that is stirred by the suffering of another human being for whom they are employed to care.

And we cannot have it any other way: in relationships, the oppressor and the victim are locked into the same categories. If someone for whom you are supposed to care has no dignity in your eyes, then you, yourself, have no dignity. The finger of judgment is always pointing back at the one who judges. To use to words of Martin Buber, in hospitals there were “I – It” relationships, such as there might be between a human being and a tool, or item purchased. There was none of the reciprocity that comes from genuine human interaction, with its feelings of sympathy, empathy, compassion and the like.

So whence this image of human being? Surely from systems, or ways of reading the world that allow humans to become mere physical categories or objects. It is the sort of approach that guides the scientist as she observes physical phenomena. It is the sort of attitude that is used in marketing where statistics prevail over human feelings or stories. It is the sort of attitude that allows the Nazi commandant, or Stalinist guard, or Maoist prison warder to treat prisoners without any regard for the feelings, rights or dignity of the other.

This is not meant to be emotive language, but rather represents an attempt to get to the core of the matter dispassionately. If the other is a statistic then his or her feelings, suffering or cries of pain carry no meaning or significance.

And this leads us to consider a further question: what alternative understandings of human being are there? The answer is that philosophers and religious people have arrived at a quite different view: Christians and Jews would say that human being is in the image of God. Put in another way: each human being is of infinite worth, value and dignity, because they are created by and loved by God their Creator. It follows that we, as humans of such worth, will do all we can to respond to the suffering of another human being.

A story that illustrates this is one told by Jesus and sometimes known as the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the story a man is robbed, beaten up by robbers and left to die. A priest and a Levite each pass by him on the road, and neither takes any notice. They continue their journeys as if nothing has happened. But a Samaritan is moved with compassion. Jesus sees this as the essence of what it is to be a true neighbour: that is a human being in reciprocal and feeling relationship with another human being.

Now there are those who believe that it is possible to derive this idea of human beings as feeling creatures, without recourse to any religious source. If you spell out rights and standards of care, if you educate people properly, then you can deliver a professional and acceptable level of service. History does not confirm this. And it seems to me that humans need to derive an understanding of what it is to be human from a source outside themselves, so that it always transcends any single human being, group or system. If there is no outside reference point it is always possible to compromise standards until a dehydrated person crying out for water is of no consequence.

This is a quite different thing from saying that all religious people are compassionate and kind. Would that it were, and that child abuse had not been revealed as widespread in the churches worldwide. No, a religious commitment is no guarantee of love and compassion. But can we dispense with religious understandings of what it means to be human? I doubt it. If you look at the report you find that there were standards that staff signed up to; there was degree level training for staff. Certainly this did not result in compassionate care for all patients, and it is possible that it made things worse.

Imagine a trained nurse who is charged with gaining and recording information on a patient regularly day or night. She knows how important it is to have accurate records. Is it possible that this knowledge, coupled with the demands of the hospital as a whole for recorded data, means that she will be less inclined to respond to the cries of a patient for help? I have observed situations in wards myself, and the answer seems to be that it is. The reason I give is that non-trained family members visiting another patient seem much more inclined to respond to signs of suffering in other patients on a ward.

Now it could be argued that these family visitors are only there for a short time: the problem is that hospital staff are working week-in, week-out. But isn’t this one of the reasons for training and professionalism?

In China a new set of leaders has been appointed by the Communist Party, and they have made it clear that they are going to be vigorous in their pursuit of corruption. Yet they are simply repeating what all leaders say. The fact is that corruption is endemic in humans and human groups, and without opposition and a free press there is simply no way it can be dealt with. Corruption and one-party states go hand in hand. The slogans against it are merely window dressing.

Likewise there is no way of reinstating care and compassion in hospitals in my view without retrieving a respect for human beings whose source lies beyond rights and standards. It follows that this is true in every area of life, including schools, and social care.

If this sounds depressing, then let me suggest one or two thoughts about a way forward. In hospitals I suggest that there are volunteers appointed to sit in every ward with the sole responsibility of monitoring the quality of care and compassion shown by the staff to patients. They would in effect be advocates for the patients. The fact that they are untrained is of vital importance. Their primary qualification is that they are human beings. Meanwhile I recommend that matrons be reinstated in hospitals charged with raising and maintaining high and sensitive standards of patient care.

Strategically and in the longer term I believe that we will need to consider wherever we should turn again to religious groups to form hospitals, care homes, schools and the like. In times gone by religious beliefs and sensibilities found their way into such places directly or indirectly; now they don’t. So it is that radical change is required.

If it is pointed out that the priest and Levite, though devoutly religious, did not help the wounded man, I cannot but agree. But there is at least an outside and transcendent resource to challenge unacceptable standards of behaviour.

What we cannot do is to assume that this is simply an issue that can be dealt with politically or professionally. It goes to the very heart of what we mean by civilised society. Surely by any standards, a hospital that lets people die because of lack of water or poor cleanliness, is uncivilised. Radical problems call for radical solutions, and that is why I have suggested exactly this.

The Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry is an independent Inquiry set up to investigate abuse of children in residential institutions (but not schools) in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995. Abuse could be sexual or physical abuse, or emotional abuse or neglect. The Inquiry has an Acknowledgment Forum where you can come and tell experienced professionals in private, and in confidence, about abuse you experienced. Another part of the inquiry will investigate abuse, and then make recommendations to the Northern Ireland government. You can choose to talk to both parts, or to either part, of the Inquiry.

If you were abused in an institution, or saw others being abused, the Inquiry wants to talk to you. It hopes that as many people as possible who experienced abuse in institutions, or witnessed others being abused, will come forward to help the Inquiry investigate the way these children were treated, and what should be done about it. If you know someone who was abused encourage them to contact us.

If you want to contact us you can get more information on our website www.hiainquiry.org. If you live in the UK you can write to us at FREEPOST HIA Inquiry, or ring us at our FREEPHONE number 0800 068 4935. If you live outside the UK you can write to us at HIA Inquiry, PO Box 2080, Belfast, BT1 9QA, Northern Ireland.

Valerie Jackson has written about:

- the importance of the kindness of friends when under pressure, and

- the need to think carefully in planning to open a children’s home.

She has also contributed two book reviews:

- Safeguarding Babies and Very Young Children by Harriet Ward et al, and

- Toddler Adoption by Mary Hopkins-Best.

Sadly, we have carried two obituaries of outstanding figures in child care.

David Lane wrote about Haydn Davies Jones and Professor Carol Kelly has contributed an appreciation of the work of the late Martha Mattingly.

Niels Peter Rygaard has written a description of a promising international scheme to offer training for child care workers world-wide.

Noel Howard has written about the latest development in the Republic of Ireland - children’s rights being enshrined in the Constitution.

Also on the international front, Helga Stefanov has given a fascinating perspective as an observer of international child care developments over nearly forty years.

We have had a number of pieces referring to developments in the UK, such as:

- VOICE’s concern about the need to register child care workers (especially nannies),

- our Comment on the need for a new philosophy to underpin inspection,

- Tom Church’s article on internet safety,

- our Comment on Jimmy Savile’s legacy,

- Chris Durkin has written about the value of sport for all, as a legacy now that the Olympics are well and truly over,

- an idea from David Lane that survivors of abuse, even if unable to take other legal action, could make sworn statements,

- our Comment on the implications of the sad demise of the Social Care Association.

There is guidance from ICSE and ACAL on writing expert witness reports for Court.

David Lane has written a couple of book reviews:

- Bridging the Generation Gap by Hilary Robinson, and

- Steven Appleby’s delightful Collected Loomus Cartoons.

Finally, we have included a summary by Charles Sharpe of the contents of the latest goodenoughcaring journal, which we commend to you.

We hope you find these contributions interesting, useful, stimulating and/or entertaining, and we hope that you will think of sending in an article too.

Martha received numerous awards for her pioneering work. The Martha Mattingly Scholarship was established by the Association of Child and Youth Care Practitioners to support leadership development for early career professionals, a realm in which she had taught and mentored many local and national leaders in our profession. Should you wish to contribute to the Martha Mattingly Scholarship: Mattingly Scholarship Fund; c/o The Academy of Competent Youth Work; 1701 Southwest Parkway, suite 113; College Station, Texas 77840 or electronically: www.cyccb.org/support.

Martha lived what she professed. Her belief that we DO ETHICS in our profession reflects her commitment to applying theory to practice. She also clearly stated that those who are in child and youth care need to take care of self to be competent in caring for children, youth, and families. Martha was an avid learner. She continued to take short term courses on a wide range of topics until her health did not allow. Martha was involved in her community. She sang in her church choir and served on many community based boards. She modeled a balance of professional and personal life balancing.

Those who knew Martha knew a person of dignity with a wonderful wit and sense of humor. She cared deeply about her chosen profession. Her legacy to our profession and, thus, to making our world a better place for all children and youth is to be treasured. Join us in celebrating the incredible life of Martha Mattingly.

The author’s intention is to transform research in children without parents to organizations (governments, NGOs, local decision makers), by offering global non-profit online education in as many languages as possible. The program today has some 50,000 users and will be available online in 29 languages in 2014.The higher purpose is to set global standards for professional orphan care and support the development of local professional care cultures.

Abbreviations

UN: United Nations. LEA: Leadership Equity Assessment. RAD: reactive attachment disorder. ADHD: attention deficit/ hyperactive disorder. IA: Institutional autism (behaviors similar to autism symptoms due to severe deprivation).

Background –why was the program designed?

The global orphan population amounts to 143,000,000 children being at high risk for deprivation and subsequent developmental delays in physical, personality and social development. Prior to placement this population probably has increased rates of genetic and pregnancy/ birth problems.

Their professional caregivers worldwide often receive little support from their governments, they have a low socio-economic status, and they lack access to education facilities. Institutions often work from outdated care concepts and from organizational principles harmful to child development. The aim of the ongoing project is to develop free science-based internet education programs for orphan institutions and foster families, aimed at improving care for especially young children in public custody.
Methods for program development

Establishing a joint scientist/ decision maker/ practitioner network to design and test free e-learning development programs in local languages in Europe. Recommend common educational standards as requested by the European Union. The program combines basic attachment theory, the influence of stimulation on brain development, social interaction training and group identity formation. The setup is short 2-3 hour workplace learning sessions, combined with practice and leadership development and video production of new participant local practices. Program participation should only require access to the internet and the use of a projector. A two-day training program for trainers is optional.

Results

Results indicate high program efficiency in advancing care-giving practices and organizational development. A two-year European project in 2008-10 involving orphanages and foster care organizations tested the program in five countries (Romania, Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey), and the program was launched in English, German, Turkish, Spanish, Catalan, Greek and Turkish versions. Furthermore, a second EU project www.transfair-eu.com now spreads program use also in Bulgaria, Russia, Denmark, Poland and Latvia.

Conclusions

Results indicate improved child development and high motivation and involvement from users, indicating the relevance of further developing a global program version, www.fairstartglobal.com , aimed at 3rd World child care professional and foster family education programs.

Background – Children without parental care

The orphan population

According to UN reports 2004 (Children on the Brink) 143,000,000 children – equivalent to the total Russian population - are orphans. Parents are often alive (90%), but have no contact or parental function. The term “orphan” has several definitions: a child permanently bereaved of contact with and care from birth parents despite having living parents. In UN report terminology: one or both parents have died. The first definition is preferred in this text. (NB: only a fraction of orphans live in registered public custody).

In 2003 12.4 million lived in Latin America (stable), 87.6 million children were Asian (numbers decreasing due to increased wealth) while 43.4 million lived in Sub-Saharan Africa (numbers exploding due to AIDS and other events). Even though the percentage of orphan children has decreased in Asia, the absolute number of Asian orphan children is large due to the immense population size. China alone is estimated to have 100,000 orphanages.

Even in “rich” countries like the U.S.A., many children grow up at the bottom of society: 533,000 children were placed in foster care in 2003. Of these 116,000 were ready for adoption, but only 36,000 were in fact adopted, and they were usually below five years of age.

Orphan numbers in the US increased dramatically when crack (a malicious variant of heroine) suddenly flooded the market some years ago, disabling large numbers of parents. In Europe the estimate is 1,500,000 orphans, of which 46,000 children younger than three are placed in public custody. This number is increasing in spite of decreasing birth rates.

To these official statistics, an unknown number of non-registered children can be added. Regarding sex, 64 % of 3rd World orphans are girls, reflecting the low social status of girls in many societies. With respect to age, children are more likely to become orphans with increasing age: only 12 % of world orphans are aged five years or less, whereas 33 % are between six and eleven years, and 55 % are twelve to seventeen years.

Orphans and children placed outside home probably suffer from organic and genetic deficits more often than others although this area is poorly mapped (see Rygaard: psychopathic children: indicators of organic dysfunction), thus representing a challenge to staffs and foster parents.
The Fair Start e-learning program www.fairstart.net/training

Homepage site, handbook, roles, logistics, sessions design, contents and their theoretical rationale
Homepage and e-learning sites

Readers can use the program, for English please open www.fairstart.net/training and do not click any language flags – you are already in the English version. For all other languages, click the flag desired.

Handbook and professional work roles in the e-learning program

The e-learning site consists of a joint “handbook” (can be printed from the page as PDF) for the institution’s leader (or a foster family manager), and the person appointed by the leader as responsible for conducting staff sessions, the instructor. The instructor is responsible for conducting sessions and supporting staff/ foster families during the curriculum. The instructor can be a motivated and skilled staff member or an external person experienced in learning processes, such as a clinical psychologist or a school or university teacher. In small organizations, the leader/foster family manager may also take the instructor’s role; in large organizations a group of instructors can be in charge of a local staff group.

The handbook describes all joint tasks for leader and instructor, gives advice for ensuring staff motivation and conducting the tutorial sessions, how to use the homepage and digital equipment, and how to secure video recordings or written observations in ethically correct ways. This team design implies new kinds of cooperation since many leaders and staffs are not used to discussing and agreeing on practices. It is much based on supporting the development of dialogue-based leadership.

Logistics

The program is scheduled to be completed in one to two years, depending on local circumstances and care quality prior to program participation. It consists of 15 two-hour sessions performed at the workplace during working hours. Users may also decide to pick a set of sessions especially relevant for their training needs.

Prior to start, the leader applies the questionnaire “Secure Base Scorecard for Leaders”. This scorecard is a modified version of the Leadership Equity Assessment scale, linking product quality, user satisfaction and workplace milieu to the quality of social relations between staff members and relations between leader and staff. Background research by the Gallup Institute (2006) suggests close relations between degrees of efficient organizational performance and twelve aspects of social relations quality among staff/staff and staff/leader.

The scorecard purpose is to enable the leader in assessing the institutions readiness for education and decide three major co-operational improvement goals during the program. Also, the use of LEA in this program is based on the hypothesis that the quality of social relations between staff and children depend much on the quality of work relations between leader and staff and among staffs. If so, improving staff/ leader relations may improve caregiver/ child relations.

Simultaneously, the instructor(s) uses the “Secure Base Scorecard” to assess the qualities of daily child care practices regarding attachment possibilities, physical stimulation, staff/ child relations and social interaction between children. The degree of contact between staff/children and the local environment is also assessed. From this survey, the instructor decides three major goals for improving care practices during the program.

Leader and instructor present their organizational and care practice goals to each other and then present them to staffs in order to create ownership and awareness of focus points. At the end of the program, all parties evaluate progress from the original scorecards and goals by using them once more.

Sessions design
At the site, please click “sessions” and open the first one.

Each session is planned for two hours during work days conducted by the instructor in the workplace, and can be scheduled during extended staff meetings. The first part of a session describes in text and video what science recommends, in the second part of the session staffs and leader agree on how to practice until the next session.

In the second hour planning how to practice concepts is discussed and decided upon by leader, instructor and staff. Role responsibilities for practicing the methods are agreed upon. Practicing the new methods is recorded on video by staffs (the camera in a mobile phone is sufficient) until next session. Each consecutive session starts with an evaluation of success in the practical changes and reflections from work since the last session. The videos made by staff are reflected upon in the group. Any session can be repeated if necessary, and all texts are printable.

Session contents and their theoretical rationale

The content sequence works from ‘inside-out’, meaning that the first session focuses on staff member’s own childhood experiences, parental styles and personal experiences of loss and separation.

This is in order to let staff open up and understand the reactions of placed and traumatized children by recognizing separation reactions from their own lives. Also to understand that professional care-giver style stems from personal experience and is not only something to externally ‘learn’, rather something to become aware of and reflect on. This step is based on the attachment theory assumption that reflections on early experiences of attachment and loss can modify insecure care giver styles and promote secure attachment behavior (Dozier 1999, Bates 2004).
Present attachment research applies a transmission model of attachment patterns from parent to child, where the care-giver’s behavior reflects personal attachment concepts and causes the child to produce similar concepts and responsive behaviors (Berlin 2005). Attachment research has established a clear link between attachment patterns formed during the first years of parent/ child interactions and child behavior and development outcome. Based on Dozier and Juffer, basic attachment theory and secure care giver style is described and demonstrated in the following sessions, and the two professional aspects of practical care work combined with relations work is established.

In the sessions “The Hospital Model” and “Insecure attachment patterns in children placed outside home” the negative effects of depriving environments for brain development and social interaction behavior are demonstrated. Elements describe insecure attachment behaviors in children and relevant professional responses. Being able to respond to insecure behaviors is important since it is a challenging task to work with children where many have been exposed to aberrant parenting, maltreatment, abuse and deprivation. A considerable part of children (especially children older than 12 months prior to placement) can be expected to have developed abnormal responses to care. Training in this respect is inspired by Dozier (2002 a & b, 2004, 2006) Juffer (2008, 2009) and this author (Rygaard 2006).

One effect of deprivation seems to be lowered levels of brain activity, which probably account also for growth and brain development problems (Chugani 2001, Marshall 2004). In “Care giver style and brain development in babies and toddlers”, physical stimulation practices are demonstrated such as using hammocks or cradles instead of fixed beds, taking up children and interacting while feeding, giving baby massage, using the floor for group stimulation practices and interaction. This section relies on results from Zeanah (2002, 2005), Rutter (1998,1999), Hoksbergen and Rijk (2008) (Smyke 2002) and others concerning the effects of early deprivation.

Having concluded these sessions, staffs, leader and instructor evaluate half-way program progress and discuss cooperation adjustments and improvements.

In the following sessions more demanding organizational changes and issues are addressed. The “Secure Base Model” principles for group care is demonstrated and thoroughly discussed between staffs and leader. Work plans and schedules are negotiated and revised in order to provide small social units where children have continuous caregivers during the daytime for long periods, and the caregiver group becomes responsible for the development of social relations in a specific group of children. Restructuring work plans for relations continuity is opposed to many legal and other regulations where work shifts cause the children to experience random and superficial care giver contacts (one known factor in RAD development). The basic objective is to offer all children one adult with whom they can have a long-term relation and a peer group to give them a sense of belonging (Gauthier 2004, Vorria 2006 a & b).

In sessions 10-12 staffs plan activities for supporting children’s personal and group identity development, use practices for organizing long term peer relations, identify common learning problems following early deprivation and traumas, and suggest activities for supporting learning faculties and school performance preparation in daily activities. Breaking down social and physical barriers between placement and local society, and giving the children a social identity outside the institution completes the section on social development methods. Helping children to become active and visible members of local society is a means of facilitating integration after institutionalization. This section is inspired by group development psychologists and philosophers such as Kurt Lewin (1943), Foucault (1995), the London Tavistock tradition, William Schutz’ group development theory (1963), and others. The purpose is to inspire the organization to move from institutional orphanage/hospital concepts to open minded social institutions offering opportunities for positive social identity development and participation in society life.

In the two final sessions the participants repeat Scorecard evaluations for comparison with the original scorecards and first videos produced, assess results and plan for further development. Designs are suggested for the formation of extending professional local networks for care-givers and leaders in order to minimize eventual isolation and shame issues. This networking process is important since isolated social units have a higher frequency of sexual abuse and violence than units tending to interact much with other groups (Rygaard 1999).

Basic assumptions for orphan care-giver education projects

Having worked for 25 years as a psychologist, educator and researcher specialized in deprivation and attachment problems in orphans, adoptees and juvenile delinquents, the author wrote a book on the subject (Severe Attachment Disorder in Childhood), leading to visits to universities, orphanages and foster families globally 2005 - 2006. This overview produced some basic assumptions concerning the requisites for effective education programs for care-givers:

- The most important age span for effective intervention is from birth to age three. Many funded programs incorporate children from school age and up, but the most important neurological, personal and social foundations for later life depend on pregnancy and birth impacts and care quality during pre-school age. Interventions should target the preschool age span, as does the “Zero to three” (Graham 2003) and a number other intervention programs. The relevance of targeting this age span is well documented in deprivation literature.
- While cultural differences play a major role in child development and upbringing practices, there are many universal traits in early child care as demonstrated by Bowlby, Ainsworth and child neurology development studies. Programs should emphasize early care-giver attachment behavior competences, physical stimulation competences and social relations training competences.
- The target group for improving child care is front staffs and their daily managers in orphanages and foster families. These professional groups are often underpaid, have low socio-economic status and little access to professional education concerning care for babies and toddlers. Institutions and families are often isolated from society in general. Programs must support the formation of professional self-esteem, identity and practice, and if possible increase care-giver status in society.
- The trend in placement strategies favours foster families (Browne 2006, Johnson 2006). Since Rutter published studies comparing outcomes of institutionalization with adoption into families for Romanian children, this country has moved 90 % of institutionalized children into foster families (NAPCR 2006). While Rutter’s general conclusion – children thrive much better in foster families – is well documented, two problems remain unresolved: what to do with the large number of children who are and will be in institutions in the future in many countries, and how to educate and manage care quality in foster families that live spread over the country.
Romania now struggles to cope with the latter problems. Periods of drug flooding and sudden migration also tend to overwhelm social systems, forcing the use of institutional placement through lack of foster families as seen in the US when crack was introduced. Foster and adoptive families also experience major problems in containing children with severe handicaps, brain injury, RAD, ADHD and IA (O’Connor 1999, Rutter 1999). A program must embrace both institution and foster family care settings.
- Programs should not be limited to specific geographic areas, ideologies, institutions or periods. Many intervention and research programs start due to dramatic media exposure causing their instigation, but scientists and the public often lose interest after a while. Countless numbers of official and NGO organizations work without much coordination. However, the orphan problem seems to persist in time and space and requires a general long-term persisting intervention strategy.
- In many countries scientists, decision-makers and practitioners live in separate sub-cultural groups, a circumstance preventing the transmission of researched child care knowledge into daily practices. Developing an orphanage or a foster family unit’s modus operandi is not only an educational, but also a delicate cultural, religious, political and organizational challenge. An intervention program must equally involve the three groups in cooperation.
- Furthermore, a program should not ‘teach the ignorant’ in a top-down design, but involve participants, create resource awareness, and inspire users to design their own local models of improvements in child care, based on common principles for quality care. Participants should be co-developers of local program versions and organizational designs in order to secure the sense of ownership and self-development processes.
- Program participation must not stress user budgets more than absolutely necessary and should be free and highly accessible. This calls for quality rather than quantity improvements in daily practices, and e-learning versions on the internet in for local language versions. Since many child care staffs are unfamiliar with texts (some are illiterate), the video demonstrations of practices are essential. Programs should be practical, simple and hands-on, requiring that participants learn at the workplace and immediately start practicing and designing recommended elements. Producing videos for supervision and reflection further enhance implementation.
Using Denmark as a project base has some advantages: a small insignificant country is unlikely to be suspected of imperialistic intentions by users. Also, Denmark experienced massive migration of mothers into the workforce in the 1960s, which has created a large professional community producing knowledge in the field of baby and child care in institutional settings, day care and foster family management. A number of Danish child development and organizational leadership professionals have generously contributed to the program presented below.

A problem in designing early life professional care-giving is that most attachment research focuses on family or adoptive family settings, whereas minor attention has been given to professional settings where babies and toddlers are reared in groups by non-relatives, although this is the case for many children using public institutions or day care, children placed outside home, kibbutz children (Sagi -Schwartz 2005) and other group constructions. And - as pointed out by Groark, McCall and others (2005) - the exact qualities and variables of orphanage (and foster family) environments and their respective impacts on child development have not been described, isolated, and related to specific outcomes. This lends some uncertainty to terms such as ‘quality care’ and ‘positive interventions’. Practices recommended should therefore be based on a survey of orphan intervention research.

Orphan research has mainly been triggered by developmental problems in children adopted from orphanages, and recent studies of Eastern Europe orphanages following the decline of communist regimes.

Agents in the project – the project organization of FairStart

The basic assumptions mentioned were presented in 2006 to the Danish Psychologist Association, the Social and Health Care College in Aarhus (experienced in training staffs via e-media) and the Danish State Adoption Council. This resulted in the formation of a project group applying for an EU Leonardo Division grant of 200,000 Euro for a project period 2008-10. The grant purpose is based on a seven-step plan to develop, test and recommend future standards for educating people working in the EU with young children placed outside home. Partner countries testing the program design are Romania, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Crete. Swiss and Austrian partners from educating organizations contribute to program development and quality norm development.

Today the project group consists of a Danish project management group including the author, the EU country partners and their affiliated child institution and foster family leaders, a media production group, a quality norm group and local focus groups.

Institutional and foster family leaders have participated in a 4 + 2 day training in Denmark and have subsequently worked with program introduction in their respective organizations, giving valuable feedback on designs. At the same time the EU partners work to expand and disseminate the program politically and scientifically in their countries. In a concluding conference in September 2010, participants agreed on project recommendations for EU educational standards for professionals attending orphans and children placed in public custody.

Results

Participant’s evaluation and future developments

Participants report from testing sessions a high degree of staff engagement and find the material to be comprehensive and useful and improving the understanding of theory and tasks in professional role performance. The program elements are described as versatile and some have been used in public kindergartens and youth facilities. Some institution leaders report problems in maintaining new practices and a tendency to return to former routines. However, no institutions or foster family managers have yet completed more than three sessions. The project group and partners have applied for a second project to assess effects and diversify programs.

Examples from feedback:

Bulgaria: “This training session taught us to organize our work and to create an environment where we do not run around for the work and together with the children feel comfortable.”

Turkey: “This made us much more professional. We became a big family with our kids. The staff was like invisible before.”

Indonesia : “Babies’ reluctance for leaving us was causing stress on us. It was so difficult to stay positive while performing tiring work during their constant crying in order to be hugged. In this training, I noticed that this was our fault. As we changed, they started to be able to stay away from us and play and even to feel happy with this situation.”

Further scientific networking

The author is currently cooperating with researchers Robert McCall and Christine Groark from the Child Office unit at Pittsburgh University. This has spurred the preparation of a special issue of Infant Mental Health Journal and researchers from many countries are describing how their research is passed on to political systems and practical education/ intervention programs. The Danish Society for Intercultural Psychology is cooperating about program use, and pedagogue students have been trained in Denmark before their practice period in Third World countries. Negotiations have been undertaken to create an international master in pedagogic organizational development in cooperation between the author, VIAUniversity Denmark and a number of universities.
The program is now recognized and spread by the European Psychologist Association, the Danish Psychologist Association, the Adoption Board under the Danish Ministry of Welfare, and the following researchers have contributed to the further development of the program: Dr. René Hoksbergen & Katharina Rijk Un. of Tilburg & University of Utrecht the Netherlands, Faculty of Adoption studies. Pr. Rukhsana Kausar, Un. Of Punjab, Lahore. Charles Zeanah of Tulane University, U.S.A. (who conducted the Bucharest Intervention Study when moving children from ‘hospital’ orphanages to foster care families), Kamikado Kazuhiro Un. Of Nagano Japan, C. Hamilton-Giachritsis, Psychology at Birmingham Un., Robert McCall & Christine Groark, University of Pittsburgh, Office of Child Development. Mary Dozier, Delaware Un. (foster family attachment studies and training), Annika Melinder, Child Psychology Department, Un. of Oslo. Sheyla Blumen, Psychology Dpt. Of Universidad Pontifica Catolica in Lima, Peru, Jorge Barudy and Maryorie Dantagnan from Spain/ Chile (children exposed to violence), Michael Rutter group, Femmie Juffer, van Ijzendoorn, Dr. Ed Tronick, Boston, & many others.
Practical applications are: The program is now used in 12 EU countries by various child care organizations and government agencies. In the Third World, the program is used by Adoption Center Denmark for training orphanage staffs. In Indonesia a local language version is now government standard for all staffs in the 8000 Indonesian orphanages. The Spanish version of the program has been applied in Santiago de Chile and Peru.

Contact information

Readers interested in using the program can contact the author at npr@attachment.dk . Info video and other materials are available at www.fairstartgobal.com . At request, readers can be added to the newsletter list. For author CV and book, please see www.attachment-disorder.net .

References

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Wagner, R., Harter, J.K. (2006). 12 - The elements of great managing. NY: Gallup Press.

Niels Peter Rygaard is a clinical psychologist, private practitioner and program author in Denmark.

This article was first published in: Child and Youth Care Practice Vol 24 Issue 3 fall 2011, and thanks are due for permission to reprint.

They advised Ms Hodgson that:
• anyone can call him/herself a nanny;
• s/he is not subject to any regulation or inspection (other than the Voluntary Childcare Register); and
• there is still no mechanism in place to stop a nanny from working with children and young people if s/he is found to be unsuitable.

Tricia Pritchard, Chair of the Regulation Matters Campaign and Senior Professional Officer at Voice, the union for education professionals, which represents nannies and other childcare professionals, said:

“The fact that More Great Childcare does nothing to address the issue of home childcare is alarming. We hope that Children’s Minister Elizabeth Truss will be receptive to our campaign for all childcarers, including nannies, to be registered. We understand that she has employed a nanny to care for her own children.

“We are extremely concerned by the Government’s failure to listen to the childcare and early years sector. Nannies are no longer the preserve of the rich and famous. There are a growing number of parents looking for flexible, affordable, reliable childcare in their own homes – ordinary parents looking to combine a career with family life.

“These parents want all childcare provision to be delivered by highly trained professionals, but those who choose to employ a nanny heard nothing yesterday guaranteeing high standards across the board.

“Sharon Hodgson MP was extremely supportive and invited the Campaign to make a submission to the Labour Party’s Childcare Commission. She also expressed support for a national awareness campaign, alerting parents to the dangers of leaving their children with a person who could possibly be untrained and unregulated and, if found guilty of bad-practice, would not be subject to any inspection or investigation and would not, under current legislation, be prevented from working with children.”

Chris Lawrence, a member of the Regulation Matters Campaign and Principal of the Chiltern College, said:

“It is extremely disappointing that such a significant part of the early years workforce has again been ignored.”

Samantha Beere, Campaign member and Senior Partner at Morton Michel, said:

“We were encouraged by Sharon Hodgson, who demonstrated a quick grasp of the issues of the Regulation Matters campaign, and was concerned about the lack of awareness of nannies being the only unregulated members of the UK childcare workforce.”

This article takes a step back to consider a vital, but under-rated (and admittedly difficult to define) dimension of human life, being and relationships: “letting-be”. I first came across the term used in the way I understand it, when reading a book by Professor John Macquarrie. I will not give the title until later, for fear of putting anyone off reading further! (But before proceeding, I ought to assure intending readers that the term has little if anything to do with “laissez-faire”, a political approach often associated with foreign policy that involves standing aside and doing nothing.)

Macquarrie reminds us that the first recorded action of the Creator in the Bible once there was heaven and earth was to bring forth light: “Let there be light!” And we tend to assume that this is a description of God doing or making something (albeit by word, rather than the sweat of his brow). But Professor Macquarrie invites us to consider a rather different concept of what was going on: perhaps the Creator was making space and time for light to shine, rather like someone drawing back the curtains, holding a space open, or creating the right conditions?

And this is pivotal to Macquarrie’s whole theological approach: he sees God not simply as a maker, shaper, creator, first cause, but as one who is willing by His very nature and essence to draw aside, to hold back, to create the appropriate space and conditions for creation to thrive, to breathe, to grow, to explore, to become self-aware, to make mistakes, to rebel, and so on.

If we look for parallels we find them immediately in the creative arts. The painter who uses water colours and allows them to run into one another; the musical composer who allows harmonies and dissonances to travel into their own spaces and silence; the dramatist who allows characters to develop their own personalities beyond those that are scripted; the novelist who allows a world to grow in the mind of the reader. In each case the creator brings into being something which is then allowed to be (it is “let be”), rather than making something finished and static.

With this in mind what might “letting-be” entail in the practical world of Social Care, I wonder? Here are some of the examples from recent life at Mill Grove that have come to mind.

I think of allowing those beginning new tasks or roles to experiment and make mistakes as a way of learning and becoming richer, deeper human beings. I think of a new mother and her baby as she discovered some of the complexities of multiple tasks for her baby and herself. I think of the initial period when a young person buys a new device (an iPad, for example) and then makes any number of laughable errors when trying to understand how it responds to different touches and numbers of fingers on the surface. And I think of a child with cerebral palsy aged eight years who was at last beginning to gain the confidence to walk unaided. The helpers had to hold themselves back in order to allow the first, risky, faltering steps. I remember the way they held out their arms towards him, but deliberately left space for him to move.

And then I think of the ways in which relationships need space in which to grow. This is true of all relationships whether those between kin, therapists and clients, between peers, or between those of quite different categories and groups. D.W. Winnicott was good at articulating something of the essence of this when talking of transitional space and objects. They have to be allowed to be and to be valued because they are not completely predictable or programmed. And this is where Macquarrie writes in a way directly related to Social Care. Talking of the virtue of love he continues: “Love is letting-be, not of course in the sense of standing off from someone or something, but in the positive and active sense of enabling-to-be…Most typically, “letting-be” means helping a person into the full realisation of his (sic) potentialities for being; and the greatest love will be costly, since it will be accomplished by the spending of one’s own being.” (Principles of Christian Theology, pages 348/9)

Next I think of the space for creative exploration, beyond specified rules, tasks and objectives. It can be for some “simply messing about in boats” (to quote Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, Chapter One). It is the essence of real play, especially but not exclusively outdoors. It is integral to cooking which can proceed only on the back of some pretty awful mistakes. It can be part of painting and decorating, and this leads me to recall the time when I left a young person with the task of painting an outside toilet (ty bach) in North Wales, while I went off to address a conference. On my return there was a definite silence during my first meal when I enquired how it had gone. I was invited to see for myself in such a way that I knew I should fear for the worst. Nothing prepared me for the frenzied combination of paints and colours thrown at the walls and ceiling with obvious feelings of anger symbolised by the predominance of red. But over the years we became adjusted to it, so that now newly repainted it seems dull and bland.

This letting-be means allowing little children to discover that nettles sting (and that dock leaves soothe); that brambles prick; and that uprooted saplings cannot be replanted. It means finding out that snowballs in the face can hurt; that ice can be very slippery, and a fall most unpleasant; that waves can knock you over; and the sun and wind can burn. This is not a complete abandonment of adult responsibility, but rather recognition that there is an element of self-discovery at the heart of genuine human being and growth. For this to happen, that is, for a human to be (a human being) there must be a letting be.

And there must be opportunities to see if simmering tensions and differences can be resolved without intervention; to discover the latent, inner resources of individuals and groups.

This leads us to realise that letting be will result in projections on to the one who lets be; testing of the carer; answering back; questioning…For, once the process of letting be is underway, there is no sure way of knowing or controlling the end result.

I hope that you have got the gist of this. If so it will be possible for you to add your own examples from experience.

Now this sounds very well in theory, but in real life it is far more untidy and risky. That word risky is the key one. For letting be always involves risk. Let me give an obvious example from the realm of education. It has become the norm to set out lesson plans, with intended objectives, and learning outcomes. But do we really think a teacher knows what pupils will actually think or discover as a result of a given input? What of their imaginations? What of unintended connections and insights? What if an apple falls from a tree at the crucial moment, or a bath overflows with water? Surely the idea of sowing a seed is much nearer the truth. The teacher can sow the seed, but what happens to it in each and every mind and life, is another matter!

And in the realm of Social Care the mantra “health and safety” seems to rule supreme, the Big Brother of the 21st Century, a deity arising at the very time when belief in the traditional Creator God is deemed to be on the wane! The favoured tool of this god is “risk assessment” and the path to enlightenment is to eradicate risk. Stupid statements are made, such as: “the safety of our passengers is paramount”, when it is obvious that if this were so, all travel would be cancelled in order to achieve the objective. Health and safety is the enemy of letting be. It always seeks to narrow the possibilities of self-discovery, exploration and mistakes. It has no concern for creativity, beauty, imagination and learning by doing.

All this reminds us that the universe and its creation are far more risky by their nature than we care or dare to suppose.

Yet, despite the risks, there is in the very process of creation, a letting be that delights in the potential for discovery, and what it is to be fully human. This requires patience, love, wisdom, experience and maturity for situations need to be read deeply, and the space that is created has to be “good enough” for disasters to be averted.

And it also requires genuine joy in the discoveries and experiences, the achievement of others.

Letting be is characterised not by turning away, but in listening, noticing, approving, hoping, enduring, and appreciating.

These qualities are surely somewhere near the heart of what we really believe about Social Care, and far removed from the tick-box, outcome-driven culture in which we live and move and have our being. Perhaps we need to borrow Macquarrie’s term to bring us back to our roots.

This applies to the therapist working with a disturbed child, a foster carer settling a child removed from home, or a teacher getting over a new idea to a student. The nature of the relationships will vary from person to person - both child and professional - and upon the nature of the task, and there can be no precise rules to follow for success.

The professional needs the right equipment, resources, knowledge, skills and other attributes to achieve success, but a key factor often taken for granted is the right motivation. Furthermore, real success is only achieved when the child chooses to respond. The professional might do a brilliant job, but unless the child wants to learn or hear or participate, the performance will have been wasted. Developing the child’s motivation is therefore perhaps the main key to success.

Developing this motivation depends upon being aware of the child’s thoughts and feelings, understanding where they are, listening to them and respecting them as individuals. This is as true when they are being antisocial, obtuse and irritating as when they are being positive, attentive and charming company.

The next piece of logic is that if professionals are meant to be relating effectively with the children for whom they are providing services, they should work in a context which fosters these values. They should not have to defend themselves against bullying bosses if they are expected to be caring and warm to the children, for example. Jim Anglin wrote about the importance of congruence within children’s home staff teams, but the same is true of other groups such as army platoons and social work teams and hospital wards. Like the stick of Blackpool rock, the same values need to permeate the whole organisation. The values put over by the managers flavour the way that the organisation works. By corollary, if you are wanting caring services, concerned about children’s needs, that has to be reflected in management’s attitudes.

The smaller staff teams work within larger organisations, and the same goes for them. Without spelling out the detail of all the hierarchies affected, the buck rests with the Minister. The values a Minister holds will permeate the whole Department and in due course, the service. This means that if the Minister wants a quick impact for political reasons, the long-term commitment of the workforce risks being undermined. If there are frequent reorganisations, staff feel unappreciated, and they will be reduced to doing whatever good practice they can while having to look after their own interests as well.

To come to inspection, the type of system set up will affect the response of those being inspected. A degree of tension when under the pressure of inspection is not always a bad thing, but a continuous threat of downgrading and exposure saps morale. People spend their time building defences, rather than on the tasks of working with the children. A tick-box system will encourage workers to get the boxes filled, even if their clients suffer. Similarly if systems are too complex and time-consuming they eat into the workforce’s available time and detract from the care or education which the workers should be offering.

There is a finite amount of time that can be spent on inspection; the country has limits to its budget. The time therefore needs to be spent productively, to have maximum impact. This applies partly to the numbers of inspectors and the hours they have available, but it also applies to the thousands of frontline workers, administrators and managers who spend time preparing for inspections, enabling them and then responding to them. Because this time is concealed in various budgets it is hard to estimate how much of the services’ budgets are spent on the process.

One aim of inspection is obviously to root out unacceptable practice. The problem is that formal inspections rarely do uncover anything new. I am not denying an occasional serious find. The typical way that bad practice is identified is by listening to the complaints of disaffected staff, relatives and service users - if they are taken seriously. Furthermore, spending one’s career solely policing the bottom line must be soul-destroying for professionals.

A more useful aim of inspection is to encourage everyone to improve. If so, the process can be more collaborative and less confrontational. Most practice is above the line, and the experience of the inspectors who know the job can be of real help to managers and practitioners, helping to make good practice better.

What I am advocating, therefore, is a more supportive, warm, concerned approach to inspection. We need to make sure that inspectors are expert in the fields which they are inspecting. And it is time to return responsibility to the local authorities. This could, incidentally, cut out some of the duplicate work required by commissioners of services and inspectors, but the main point is that local people know their areas, the people served by the services. They want good local services themselves and often the inspectors need to be based locally if possible complainants are to trust them.

The reason why many services have come under massive centralised inspecting bodies has been to assert common standards. That can still be done from a local base, and having a centralised organisation does not prevent individual inspectors having different views in interpreting the rules.

I am not naïve enough to think that a sloppy warm approach will solve all problems. What I am arguing for is a shift in the fundamental values and attitudes to an approach which values people, rather than spends its time fault-finding.

We will still need to do a lot of the standard checking and so on. And there will still be times when things go wrong. A parent bringing up a child with love and affection may still need to lay the law down and say no. Similarly there will be times when a supportive localised inspectorate needs to be firm.

I suspect that a well trained sheep-dog probably gets real job satisfaction at getting the sheep in the right place, without hurting them. Because some sheep have wandered it does not mean that the government should hire Rottweilers.

The findings offer a valuable insight for how government, educators, families and the internet industry can work towards a safer internet future. They will be presented to government and industry stakeholders by children who took part in the survey at a Safer Internet Day Celebration event in London later today.

Key findings were:

1. Primary age children are highly engaged with digital technology:
- The majority of 7-11s[1] (86%) use some form of online communication tool[2].
- Most 7-11s (94%) say they have little trouble finding information for their school work on the internet.

2. Secondary age children are prolific online communicators:
- 96% of young people age 11-19 use some form of online communication tool[3].

3. Seeing unpleasant or hurtful things online affects a sizeable portion of this group:
- 27% of 7-11s and 41% of 11-19s came into contact with something online in the last twelve months that they deemed to be hurtful or unpleasant – examples cited include: scary videos, pictures and chainmail; ‘rude’ things and swearing; violent films or games.

4. Young people’s exposure to ‘mean comments’ hinders their enjoyment online:
- 31% of 7-11s and 23% of 11-19s cited gossip or mean comments being shared online as something that stopped them enjoying their time online.

5. Privacy settings are welcomed and used by young people, but knowledge could be improved:
- 58% of 7-11s and 74% of 11-19s using social networks said they changed their privacy settings from the default settings.
- However, over 4 in 10 (42%) primary age social network users and almost 1 in 10 (9%) secondary age social network users were not sure if they had changed the settings or didn’t know how to.

Edward Timpson, Minister for Children and Families said, “We know how important it is that young people are safe and supported while using the internet, and that parents are confident their children are protected from accessing harmful content.

“We have already taken great strides to make internet access more family friendly and we will continue to work with the industry, parents and young people to build an even safer internet in the future.”

Will Gardner, Chief Spokesperson for the UK Safer Internet Centre, said, “In our research young people clearly stated that they should have the right to feel safe online and they also recognise they have a responsibility in helping themselves and others be safe online, whether that’s behaving kindly towards others or helping friends who are experiencing problems.

“We are delighted that so many young people have taken the opportunity of the survey to get their voice heard, and we hope it will act as a catalyst for encouraging individuals, families and companies to think about their role in ensuring the Internet is a great and safe place for children.”

He continued, “Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity for everyone to take a moment and reflect on how they are using technology, and this year to see if they are ‘Connecting with Respect’. This year we can see a fantastically wide range of activities taking place and resources made available to support the Day by schools, companies, charities and more, all supporting the importance of helping children be safe online and helping those supporting children with this issue.“

This year’s Safer Internet Day which focuses on the theme Connect with Respect will bring together hundreds of high-profile partners to host free events and provide free resources and programmes, both on and offline. Partners include the BBC, CEOP, Facebook, Google, Disney, Mumsnet, Sky, Microsoft, the Industry Trust, BPI and many others. A full list of partners and what they are doing to support Safer Internet Day is available on the UK Safer Internet Centre website.

The UK Safer Internet Centre, which co-ordinates Safer Internet Day in the UK, has also launched a number of online resources for teachers, parents and carers, which are available to access for free from the UK Safer Internet Centre website.

1] There is a rapid increase in use of technology from 7 to 11 years, with just 5% of 11 year olds not engaging in any form of online communication (compared to 22% of 7 year olds).
[2] Primary: social networks and virtual worlds (56%), chat functions in online gaming (38%) or chatting over a webcam (28%)
[3] Secondary: social networks (74%), emails (72%), instant messaging (68%), webcams (52%), chat functions in online gaming (45%), chat rooms (17%) and blogs (14%).

Jimmy Savile was working in the pop industry, a scene where groupies threw themselves at pop stars and there was a much freer attitude to sex than in many other parts of the community. This does not excuse those who used positions of power and influence to abuse young people.

One of the results of the Jimmy Savile affair is that there has been a subsequent sharp increase in the number of people disclosing abuse generally. The high profile reports in the news have triggered memories, and survivors have concluded that it is time they spoke up.

Children Webmag’s starting point is that people making allegations should be enabled to speak out about their experiences. This does not mean that everything they write is necessarily true. The passage of time renders the memory shaky; for example, a victim may have a vivid memory of the smell of the abuser but not recall in what year the abuse took place. Standards of parenting and care have changed over the years; the use of corporal punishment was acceptable fifty years ago but is not today. The age and level of understanding of the victim at the time could lead to the misinterpretation of some events. Attempts to understand subsequent problems such as mental ill-health may lead adults to blame their misfortunes on to their earlier experiences as children when there may be multiple causes. And of course there may be some who are after the money in making allegations, but they are far fewer than the public think.

Our basic policy, nonetheless, has been to let readers use the correspondence column to speak of their experiences, and there have been many powerful and moving contributions, for instance about readers’ experience of residential care or of sociopathic partners. In publishing these contributions we are offering a platform; we are not endorsing them as true, though most have the ring of truth. We have turned down few for being incoherent or abusive.

What Children Webmag regrettably cannot do is to solve the problems described by correspondents. We have no magic wand. We have been able to point some readers to people or organisations who may be able to help them, but this is not a service we promise to offer; our resources and knowledge are too limited. We only hope that the sharing of the issues brings some comfort to those who find that others have had similar experiences, and that describing and analysing the problems helps to bring some greater understanding and maybe closure.

In particular we hope that the prominence given to Jimmy Savile’s abusive career will have made the subject less taboo and will have enabled many more survivors of abuse to speak out. That is the silver lining, but it would have been better if the dark clouds of abuse had not been there in the first place. Our wish is that the greater openness enables victims of abuse to speak out sooner, and that the knowledge that the abuse will be made public deters abusers from the start. That would be a really positive - if unintended - legacy.

Throughout this experience, she kept contact with her friends via social networking sites and the offers of help and support kept her going. Even to the point of filming her journey by ambulance from one hospital to another for emergency surgery. Her friends looked after my grand-daughter and two new puppies that we foolishly acquired before she became ill. Our neighbours kept an eye on the pups whilst I travelled backwards and forwards to hospital. A good friend of mine came just to be with me, even though I had not asked for help. I was touched by her concern.

By the time my daughter was allowed to come home we were both exhausted from our different experiences.

I had to quickly adjust my life to being out of the house for only an hour at a time so that I could be on hand for anything that was needed in terms of care. Friends of my daughter rallied round and came over when I had no option but to be away for longer periods for work, bringing food and fun for my granddaughter. They brought home cooked food and apparently were quite cross that I had already completed the housework before going out because they wanted to do more.

It is difficult to find words to thank people effectively for such overtures of concern and support and I have now decided that the only thing we can do is to welcome them into our home any time.

When this first happened I panicked about what I could do for the best. I couldn’t take my daughter to hospital because I had to look after her child – and the pups.

I struggled to visit within usual visiting hours due to the importance of routine for a child who struggles through life with severe dyspraxia and other autistic tendencies. It became even more of a logistic nightmare when my daughter was transferred to a specialist hospital over an hour further away. Many roads were flooded and therefore impassable, so the journey took on its own nightmare-ish quality. As a controlling individual it was a challenge for me to rely on others.

Hospital time is so much slower than normal time and we became frustrated by the numerous waits whilst she was sent for an MRi or other forms of treatment.

Anyway, we have since celebrated aspects of Christmas and birthday once she came home. We have yet to have a Christmas dinner or pull the crackers and the candles I lit on Christmas Eve morning so I could sing happy birthday to my grand daughter were so ferocious they almost burnt the house down, so we won’t repeat that for her Mum. We managed to fit in a pantomime but not the celebratory Italian meal - it wouldn’t have been the same with two of us instead of three.

Now we wait and see if sensation returns or if balance improves. In the meantime, I now run on a timetable designed to make even the sanest person scream. We will get through it. We are a strong unit but I am so thankful for friends.

Then he and his siblings came to live at Mill Grove. It was a huge upheaval and transition: from a rather chaotic household, to another which was far more orderly and disciplined; from an East End working class neighbourhood, to one much nearer the leafy suburbs; and from one culture to another. But he has never wavered in his view that it was this move that made all the difference in his life.

We laughed when we recalled the time we were on holiday in the West Country. It was the first time he had ever been to the coast. We were staying in a caravan that overlooked the sea. On our arrival the tide was in, and the calm sea could have been taken for a massive lake.

On Sunday morning, however, he woke me up with urgency to tell me, “It’s gone!” It took a moment or two to realise what exactly had gone missing, but when I looked out and saw the long stretch of white sand that had been covered by the sea hours before, I tried to reassure him. “It will come back”, I reassured him. “How do you know? Where has it gone?” he asked looking me straight in the eye.

At this point there came what Basil Bernstein in his work on language codes describes as a clash of cultures. I tried to explain that there was a pattern to the amount of water in any place at a given time, and told him of tides and tide tables. He did not look particularly convinced, but he could see that I was not half as worried by the absence of the sea as he was.

That was when I made what turned out to be a fundamental mistake. I told him that it was all to do with the moon. He thought I was joking. And he tried to get me to laugh with him at the ridiculous idea that the little silver object in the night sky could possibly have anything to do with the mysterious disappearance of the sea. When he realised that I was not party to a joke, he slowly moved away, convinced as far as I could see that he was just going to have to work this all out for himself.

By lunchtime the sea was indeed back and it was not long before we were paddling and splashing in it (he couldn’t swim). Of course day by day the tide ebbed and flowed, and he tried to make sense of what was happening, not least, where it all went to. Later in the week, at low tide, we had a barbecue on the beach by the light of the moon. But nothing could convince Samuel that there was any possible connection between the tiny crescent above us, and the black waters lapping nearby, on which it cast a silver ribbon.

All the same, over the months and years, he began to trust the place and the people at Mill Grove, especially my father, in many other things. Perhaps most important of all was the fact that you could rely on what he said, and that patterns of life were predictable. It was always for him about living in a different environment, rather than this new place becoming a substitute for his original home. But here was an alternative way of living that was to form a vital foundation in his future life.

It was not easy. School and study were always puzzling to him, and when I was talking with his older sister a while ago, she told me that she felt that he had learning difficulties that had gone undiagnosed. There was the challenge of how far to tell the truth about a situation, and how far to be loyal to kith and kin despite the evidence before your eyes. There was the riddle of how to live in a faith community when you had been taught to take life as it came without recourse to any hint of the transcendent (except of course folk religion). And all the time there were explanations given to questions (for example, about tides) quite unlike the abrupt responses he had received in his childhood.

And now here we were, looking back nearly fifty years with the benefit of hindsight, and quite a combined experience of the world. Neither of us will ever know how his life would have turned out had he not come to Mill Grove. Perhaps Samuel’s innate sense of fairness would have seen him through. And his siblings have remained connected and supportive over the decades, as well as over considerable geographical spaces.

He has known human tragedies, losses and anger-provoking frustrations, but year by year we find ourselves sitting down together over a mug of tea and chatting in just the same way. We smile now at times when he was white-hot with anger and intent on imposing his own rough and ready justice on someone whom he felt had betrayed him. We have paused to reflect on a death in his family. But always we get back to childhood memories and the place and people he is convinced saved him from a life of petty crime caused by an unequal struggle for survival.

His is not the story of everyone who lived at Mill Grove. Indeed it is different from that of his siblings. There are those who feel that they were not helped enough, perhaps not listened to, or understood. But it is his considered view, and it has shaped and inspired his journey through life ever since. I still hold to my view that the tides are caused largely by the moon, and he says that I am welcome to believe it as I may. We smile as we part, unaware of what the New Year holds for either of us, but pretty sure that at some stage in the next twelve months we will be chatting again. And that sustained conversation could just be a key to the whole process.

This note carries a warning. I am not a lawyer, and it is possible that there are good reasons why the idea I am putting forward is nonsense. But if the solution I propose is nonsense, are there better ways of solving the problem?

Reasons for Action

When people who have used social work and social care services seek to obtain redress for what they see as negligence, they look for one or more of a number of responses to their grievances.

They may simply seek an explanation of the services provided, to be reassured that everything was done properly and to be told if there were shortfalls. Such people may not wish to take court action, but it may only be by initiating the process that they obtain proper scrutiny of their records by lawyers and expert witnesses. Simply having sight of their records may be insufficient to obtain the understanding necessary to interpret what happened to them.

They may look for an apology, either from the agency or agencies involved or perhaps from the individual social workers or other professionals who cared for them. Such people may not seek monetary compensation, but may want to be reassured that they themselves had not caused the difficulties they had suffered through the acknowledgement by the agencies and professionals that they had been to blame.

In a few cases people may seek some form of retribution, such as disciplinary action against individual staff members who they feel wronged them and should no longer be practising. Or again, they may want the police to take action against people who had abused them.

The commonest goal is to obtain compensation. While no doubt the money is welcomed and can provide opportunities not otherwise available to the claimants, the payments are usually not large, but they symbolically represent public acknowledgement by society of the defendants’ negligence and possibly victory for the claimants over those they feel have wronged them. This may go some way to obtaining closure, drawing a line under the recollections of childhood suffering.

The Problem

Whether court action is a successful means of achieving the above objectives depends on a number of factors. In particular, the successful identification of negligence depends upon the availability of evidence. If inadequate records were kept or if records have been destroyed or lost it may be impossible to proceed. The defendant will properly argue that the evidence is not there for a case to be made out against them, and that it would not be just for the action to proceed. The available evidence is limited to the personal recollections of the claimant based on memories from childhood and witness statements of any surviving professionals involved in the case, and such memories are often shaky.

Similarly, many survivors of abuse only disclose what they have suffered many years later, perhaps when they feel able to talk about such things or because a trigger has reminded them of what they had gone through. This means that their abusers may be dead or infirm, ill or suffering dementia. In such cases, it is sometimes decided not to prosecute them, and the survivor is denied the opportunity to give evidence.

While it may unjust to the defendant if the action proceeds in such circumstances, it is equally unjust to the claimants if they are unable to state in court what they suffered, especially if this is because of the defendant’s failure to keep their records safe. They may be suffering twice over - from the negligence and from the failure of the justice system.

A Partial Solution?

The situation may be resolved if there is a legally constituted public inquiry where survivors of abuse can give evidence, but with the growing number of survivors disclosing abuse in the wake of Jimmy Saville it will become quite impossible to contemplate an inquiry which will encompass them all.

Clearly the legal system as it stands is unable to meet the needs of survivors in such circumstances. The question is whether it would be possible - and helpful - for survivors to be able to make sworn statements - affidavits? - stating their grievances and explaining what happened. If so, such statements could become public documents, open to challenge if the potential defendant or another party were to feel that there were inaccuracies. Indeed, the person making the statement could be liable to accusations of perjury or libel, depending upon the nature of the inaccuracies. Making such sworn statements would therefore not be taken lightly and care would need to be taken in their wording.

However, this process would give the survivors the opportunity to make matters public. In relation to the aims listed above, the analysis of the evidence available might help people to obtain an understanding of what had happened to them. It could encourage agencies or individuals to apologise, particularly if there were no monetary consequences. Those named in such statements, whether individuals or agencies, could endorse or challenge the statements, make their own sworn statements, issue apologies or simply ignore the process.

There would be the satisfaction for the survivors of having had their ‘day in court’ with the acknowledgement that their statement had been written into the public record.

Cynthia Cross provides us with an the opportunity to consider the balance between the personal and professional in the care of children and young people.

Noel Howard offers us a review of The Boy at the Gate, the memoirs of Danny Ellis.

A poem from Michael Mallows, The Casual Cruelty of Positive Intent considers the consequences of moral imperatives and verbal chastisement.

John Whitwell provides his reflections on the Cotswold Community following its closure.

John Stein presents a tale about the influence peers have through childhood and adulthood.

Mark Smith shares his thoughts about what lies behind the contagion of moral panic that follows in the aftermath of the exposure of child abuse

Tuhinul Islam writes about the key findings of his doctoral research - a wide exploration of the experiences of young people leaving residential child care in Bangladesh.

Mary Winters furnishes us with an essay which discusses her concerns about the issues relating to child care placements, ethnicity and cultural background.

What’s more, when people do accept our invitation to come and visit after hearing or reading about the place, they always say that it is nothing like what they had imagined: it is either bigger, or smaller, or more varied or more tight-knit than they had thought. Whatever we say, it seems that we just can’t get it right.

With that background it is as well to be reminded that the name of the house is simply ‘Mill Grove’. There is no more to the title or the description. That is our name: nothing more; nothing less. What happens behind the front door has to be experienced rather than categorised. Even so perhaps I could attempt a brief summary or description before sharing with you about a mother and baby who came to stay just before Christmas.

Our home is made up of two houses. They are large Victorian residences that have been added to and adapted over the years since 1901 when we first began living in one of them. They are set in quite spacious grounds (for this part of East London) and situated in a cul-de-sac two hundred yards from a large roundabout above which can be heard the incessant hum of the M11 and the A406.

Living here at the moment are two families each comprising four people, an elderly bachelor, several young adults, Ruth and myself, and a mother and baby. That does not really give much of the flavour of daily life, because children and parents stream into one end of the place throughout the day: some to a breakfast and after-school club, others to a pre-school nursery, and some to a school for children with cerebral palsy. Others come to join in a meal or game with us; and then there are members of what we call the ‘Mill Grove family’ which is made up of those who have lived here as children over the past century, together with their children and grandchildren. I’m sorry if that is not clear, but I am doing my best!

Why don’t I get on with the story, I wonder? Recently, one of those who had lived here as a young girl gave birth prematurely to a baby boy. The social services had concerns about the safety of the child, and so we were asked if the mother and baby could come and stay here rather than risk the mother and baby being separated. So it was that, after much form-filling and CRB checks, the day arrived; the mother and her diminutive little baby boy arrived. And immediately our lives, our patterns of behaviour, the dynamics of the place changed. Ruth, my wife moved to sleep in a room beside mother and baby so that she could be always on call. Mealtimes changed their character, and in the lounge there was the little boy, sleeping, or crying, or drinking. I will call him Daren.

A few days later the brother of the mother arrived together with his wife and son (the brother used to come regularly to Mill Grove, and joined us on summer holidays in North Wales on several occasions). It was an evening with its very specific dynamics. It had been about twelve years since we had seen each other and we had much to catch up on. The baby had worked his magic simply by being a baby and had drawn us together when all other arrangements or plans had failed.

There were many photos and memories shared. As it happens, I don’t know how many photos there are at Mill Grove, but would hazard a guess that there may be as many as 20 to 50 thousand, including slides. The photos produced their own associations, and were soon sparking off more thoughts and memories.

On Sunday morning the mother joined Ruth and myself for breakfast while little Daren slept in his carry-cot. His hands, big compared to his arms and face, but tiny in relation to anyone else’s, were positioned beside his sleepy head, as if he was thinking. (And perhaps he was). Over cereal, coffee and toast we went back to the time when we had first met, and then we began to recall people and events that were part of her life story. The baby’s presence meant that this conversation with its attention to historical details was especially apt, for the time would come when he would seek to know more about his own mother’s story, and hence make it part of his own.

His great-grandfather was in some ways a stereotypical Cockney, and no doubt Daren will hear more about him in the years to come: grumpy on the exterior, perhaps for effect, but warm-hearted, witty, and welcoming beneath. Then there were some of the facts (as distinct from memories) about Daren’s grandparents, one of whom he will never meet (for she died when his mother was young), and the other who does not seem to have been heard of for many years.

And all this was mixed with memories of pets, homework, days at a rabbit farm in North Wales, games, birthday parties, trips into the mountains or beside rivers, things made and things cooked. It was a wonderful cocktail of shared events, and memories.

All the time we chatted and reminisced, little Daren continued to sleep, with his hands occasionally changing position.

But it would not be an exaggeration to say that the mother and baby were changing the life of Mill Grove.

And as I write this article, I am aware that many readers will find my thoughts arriving on their computers in December. And I couldn’t help making the connection to another mother and baby who changed things. According to the biblical narratives they didn’t get much of a welcome at Bethlehem, and the extended family of the child had a very mixed relationship with him. But it could be argued that he changed the course of history. Some will say that it was because he was an exceptional man; others, no doubt, that he was divine.

What occurs to me is that simply by coming as a baby, and being a baby (that is without doing anything out of the ordinary) he changed the lives and relationships of those around him. For if a baby is to be welcomed in any meaningful way, that means change, often of a profound nature. Life simply cannot carry on as before.

When you put this the other way round you quickly see that if life carries on exactly as before, there is no way in which the baby can be said to have been received or welcomed.

It will not be long before we open our home to dozens of family and friends who are coming to celebrate Christmas with us. And this reminds me that the story of Mill Grove is one of receiving children, occasionally babies, month after month, year after year. The place is, when I think about it, a record of what happens if you are willing to receive children in the same home over a period of four generations, or a hundred years.

And maybe that is why it is so difficult to put what Mill Grove is into words. It is not like an institution that remains unchanged, and whose patterns, hierarchies and shifts continue unaltered, intake after intake. No, it is a place where subtly and perhaps unnoticed, there are a myriad cumulative changes that have gone into every individual welcome.

If so, perhaps as individuals, families and communities around the world have welcomed the One who came as a baby in Bethlehem there have likewise been cumulative changes to attitudes, even ways of life that go to shape what we call civilisation.

I wish you a very happy Christmas wherever you are, and however you may celebrate. As you do so, we will be celebrating in our own way, and my hunch is that this mother and baby will the somewhere near the very heart of things this year! Who knows, someone may even consider placing Daren in the manger for a while!

Please click here to download the Writing Report.

This month has seen the end of an organisation which has achieved a lot in the course of its existence - the Social Care Association - and the rebirth of another, the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care. The reasons for these changes tell us a lot about the current state of thinking about services for children and young people.

To deal with the SCA first, it was founded as the Houseparents Association in 1949, when the first batch of qualified residential child care workers decided to continue their links on completion of the Home Office course. The following year it was renamed the Residential Child Care Association (RCCA) and it retained that name until the early 1970s. At that point, with the introduction of the Seebohm Report and Social Services Department, the name was changed first to the Residential Care Association so that residential staff working with adults could join, and then to the Social Care Association, so that care workers in other settings could become members. The Association has therefore had a life of over 30 years as SCA.

In that time it has achieved a lot. At its peak it had several thousand members. It has provided training. It has developed professional policies and practice guidance. It has published books. It has represented members when facing employment problems. It has undertaken consultancies. It has represented the social care sector on quangos and in meetings with government.

Overall, perhaps partly because of the absence of other organisations but more importantly because of its members’ professional knowledge about the sector, it has had more influence than a body of its size and resources would usually have. It has boxed above its weight.

Why has the SCA gone under now?

The simple answer is that it ran out of money; membership fees and the income from consultancies was insufficient to pay for the staff, premises and so on. But underlying the gradual rundown of its resources were other problems.

The first is that many organisations have suffered loss of membership during this period. In the days of RCCA all its work was ground-breaking. Before the Castle Priory Report, for example, there were no accepted systems for calculating staff. By contrast, the work done in recent years by organisations such as the Children’s Workforce Development Council and the Social Care Institute for Excellence - well staffed and funded by the government - has been far beyond what the SCA could have undertaken.

The second is that with the growth of independent consultancies and, in the last few years, the cuts in budgets, there have been far fewer opportunities to achieve income. Yet the expenditure had to continue if services were to be provided to members.

The third is that the SCA emerged from the RCCA and RCA by a logical progression for very good reasons, but the outcome was an organisation with a much more nebulous identity. As the RCCA, there was a membership of just over 3,000 in one specialist field where the workforce must have been about 12,000, so that perhaps one in four residential child care workers were members. The broader remit of the SCA must have meant that over a million people could have joined - home helps, care assistants, day care staff and so on - so that the percentage who were members dropped dramatically. Furthermore, the broader identity was problematic; the potential members would not have described themselves as social care workers and may therefore not seen the SCA as being for them.

The fourth, linked with the third, is that as an umbrella organisation which had absorbed several specialist professional bodies, the SCA should have given greater priority to the specialist interests of sections of its membership, so that there should have been a group focusing on mental health social care, for example, another on work with young offenders and so on. Despite some efforts, this approach did not take off, and the SCA’s programme of professional activities was often very general, such that workers with specific interests did not see it as their home organisation.

The fifth is that people do not join organisations as much. Especially now that there is electronic networking it is not necessary to go to meetings, have AGMs, constitutions and offices with paid staff in order to get support and help; one just gets in touch. Over recent decades employers have provided more training, advice and support than in the days of the RCCA, when one had to turn to peers.

Whatever the reasons, the SCA has gone. Because of the need to sort out its finances, the SCA’s name cannot be easily used by a successor organisation. It is therefore finished (though there may be is a wake for the band of members who have made up the core of the SCA over the last few decades).

Where Next?

The fact that the SCA has gone does not mean that the sector no longer needs a professional lead. Where will it come from?

There are still the trades unions, but they do not represent professional thinking, and there are several smaller organisations working in the child care field, some with specific remits.

There is Children England (the former National Council for Voluntary Child Care Organisations) which has nearly a hundred and fifty voluntary bodies as members. It has a good track record for focusing on professional issues within the voluntary sector.

The Institute of Childcare and Social Education was set up a couple of decades ago to encourage the registration of child care workers, but the parliamentary support for the idea dwindled when the General Social Care Council was set up, and since then the ICSE has been fairly small. It could act as a focus for child care workers, and because it was acting in part as the SCA’s child care arm, it is now considering its future.

The Planned Environment Therapy Trust is active in its sphere - therapeutic care for children and adults. Because of the work it does with children it could play a bigger role in relation to residential child care. Under its Chief Executive, Richard Rollinson, it has been considering what role it should play and what should be the scale of its activities.

The Residential Forum straddles all four countries of the UK and all client groups in considering residential services. It has produced publications in the past but it now focuses on bi-annual workshops by invitation only.

The York Group has held occasional conferences by invitation, and one is planned on 17 December, but it seems unlikely that they will be frequent or lead to other activities.

The Independent Care Homes Association is active, and since private children’s homes are now in the majority, it is influential in the field, but it represents the proprietors’ viewpoint, not professionals as a whole.

The National ChildMinding Association has a very large membership, mainly of childminders but with a substantial minority of nannies, the common factor being home-based child care. It is looking to expand its membership across a broader section of child care workers. At the same time the Pre School Learning Alliance has announced that it is intending to recruit childminders. These are two large organisations which serve the early years sector.

The Child Care History Network has two main aims - to study child care history, as the name implies, and to see what lessons history can teach us for current practice. It is not likely to take on a broader role.

Finally, Jonathan Stanley has announced the re-establishment of the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care. This was originally government-funded and sited at the National Children’s Bureau, but when it lost funding, the NCB could no longer afford to provide the service and it was closed down. Its loss was felt keenly in the service, as it had developed a valuable network, providing information. It remains to be seen what sort of organisation Jonathan Stanley can establish.

What do you think?

Where should things go next? Does the workforce want any organised support beyond the organisations mentioned above, or do professionals no longer want to contribute to the development of the services? If something is wanted, should it have a broad identity across client groups, across different settings, and across the UK, or should it be narrowly focused, so that its members share a common identity and common interests?

If the demise of the SCA leaves professionals unmoved, the gap will close over and life will carry on. But if Jonathan Stanley’s wish to re-establish NCERCC strikes a chord, or if some other organisation adopts a more active role, maybe something new will arise from the ashes.

What are your views?

In aiming to help little children come to terms with death and ageing Hilary Robinson took on a difficult task.

The death of a young teacher is a terrible loss to the children, her colleagues and her family, especially now that we expect people to have long, fulfilled lives, but clearly the story had to be written in a way that little children could tolerate, so that it could help them to come to terms with loss and grief. I think it got the balance right.

Ageing can also be awful, with disabilities, illnesses, loneliness, incontinence, loss of memory and so on. Clearly one cannot throw all those problems at little children, but the only problem I found in the book was one lady who could no longer sing because she had forgotten the words. This book came over to me as erring on the side of niceness and I think it failed to point up to its readers sufficiently the problems which people requiring residential care may suffer.

It is, of course, easier for a reviewer to make such a comment than for the author to write the book in a way which hits the right balance, but if there are to be more in the series I think they will be more helpful if the problems are acknowledged more clearly than in this book. That said, it is a nice Christmas read.

Robinson, Hilary (2012) Christmas Surprise
Strauss House Publications
ISBN 978-0-9571245-1-6

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For those who know nothing of Steven Appleby’s work and wonder why Children Webmag should review a book of cartoons, I should explain that The Guardian has a family supplement on Saturdays, full of stories about the ways that families function - or dysfunction, as the case may be. And among these stories (usually at the top of the second page) are the Loomus cartoons.

Loomus is a small child of about primary school age. Although small, he is capable of using his computer and of putting his parents in their place. The parents seem at times to be together and at times to have separated. Steven Appleby’s cartoons show that he is a keen observer of the behaviour, mainly of children and their parents, but also of sundry other people and animals. He not only looks on the surface but at what people (and animals) are thinking underneath.

The cartoons are not just based on observation of family behaviour, though. There is a strong element of the zany, the improbable, the loony and the high fantastical, though the whimsies are often laced with a sharp undercurrent of unwelcome truths. Steven may lead you off into cloudcuckooland then bring you back to earth with a bump.

The book is called Steven Appleby’s Guide to Life and the cover shows his version of Shakespeare’s seven ages of man in the form of a clanking travelator that pushes you along from mewling and puking babyhood to piping and whistling dotage until you fall off the end. Although Loomus is a major focus, all the seven ages appear at some point in the book. At the end of the book there is a mini-autobiography in the form of why Steven Appleby draws cartoons, and how he does it. What this does not tell you is what makes him the creative person capable of thinking up new ideas every week. I only hope he can keep going. The question will be whether Loomus is a Peter Pan or an Adrian Mole: will he grow older?

The pages aren’t numbered, so I can’t point you to my favourites. You’ll just have to read the lot to find them - but actually it’s a book for dipping into, and I can recommend it as something to keep to hand for times when you are feeling bored or depressed and want a little lift.

Appleby, Steven (2012) Steven Appleby’s Guide to Life
Guardian Books
ISBN 978-0852 653777

PROPOSED NEW ARTICLE 42A

1 The State recognises and affirms the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and shall, as far as practicable, by its laws protect and vindicate those rights.

2 1° In exceptional cases, where the parents, regardless of their marital status, fail in their duty towards their children to such extent that the safety or welfare of any of their children is likely to be prejudicially affected, the State as guardian of the common good shall, by proportionate means as provided by law, endeavour to supply the place of the parents, but always with due regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of the child.

2° Provision shall be made by law for the adoption of any child where the parents have failed for such a period of time as may be prescribed by law in their duty towards the child and where the best interests of the child so require.

3 Provision shall be made by law for the voluntary placement for adoption and the adoption of any child.

4 1° Provision shall be made by law that in the resolution of all proceedings -

Calls for such an amendment had been made nearly 25 years ago after a notorious child abuse case (Kilkenny Incest Case). In view of numerous reports and scandals since, especially the Ryan Report (2009) and more recently the Roscommon Case (2011), those calls increased.
As a reading of the proposal will show, phrases like “as far as practicable,” “by proportionate means,” “best interests of the child,” “exceptional cases” became footballs in the debate, tossed back and forth in terms of what and by whom interpretations of those particular phrases might mean and be given.

On the YES side, uniquely, all political parties in the Dail (Irish Parliament) gave their backing to this amendment and numerous child advocacy groups and NGOs also supported it. The Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, herself a former social worker, was the most prominent face of government during the campaign. With such organised and specific support, it was surmised when the wording was published, that the eventual outcome would see over 90% of voters saying YES.

The NO side did not have an organised campaign as such but a small number of individuals emerged calling for the amendment to be rejected. These included, inter alia, a well known Irish journalist, John Waters, writing for years about the secrecy of Irish courts in family law cases, Kathy Sinnott a former MEP, a number of solicitors, a former High Court judge, a lecturer in social care and a number of pro-family lobby groups.

All argued that the rights of children were already implicitly recognised in another articles of the constitution which gives paramountcy to the family’s status. They also argued that current Irish child care legislation had adequate provision to allow the state to intervene where the abuse of children was evident and the proposed amendment would give the state too much power. The section about adoption in the wording was perhaps the least contentious element throughout the debate.

A number of references to the UK were referred to by the NO side and described by the YES side as mythical. One reference was to the “East Enders effect” where the threshold for state intervention will be so low that the authorities can come and take children at will. In a TV debate the journalist referred to above said we were going the “way of England” with police and social workers going into hospitals in the dead of night and taking children from their mothers! Strange as that may seem (has this happened in the UK?) the journalist got a resounding round of applause while the Minister for Children looked on in disbelief. Since becoming minister, Ms Fitzgerald has brought a certain conviction and passion to her job and this was evident throughout the campaign. She, among others, argued that the NO side was simply scaremongering and at times it was hard to disagree with her. The NO side on occasion gave the impression that social workers were waiting around every corner to take children away from families and give them over to the state. The Minister argued regularly as to why the state, in a dire economic climate, would want to take children away from families unless it was absolutely necessary. The NO side asserted that the government and pro amendment sides were putting a case that wrongly suggested a panacea for all the ills in the child care system.

One journalist, Dearbhaill McDonald suggested that the amendment did not go far enough in view of what has emerged otherwise around the concept of family in recent years. She wrote, while indicating she would be voting YES,

Part of the Government’s problem, I believe, is that the referendum campaign has been dismal, not because it is controversial, but because – despite all the handwringing and weeping and mourning in the wake of scandals – it is not radical enough. What about the children of unmarried dads and gay marriage? What about children in prison, children with special needs or those born by surrogacy or IVF? (Irish Independent 6 November 2012)

Two days before polling came a bombshell. A case, dismissed in the High Court but taken on appeal to the Supreme Court, elicited a judgement that left the government with egg on its face much to the delight of the NO campaign and opposition parties. The ruling said that the government was wrong to spend 1.1 million euro on an information campaign to gain a YES vote as this was prohibited by a previous Supreme Court ruling which said both sides in a referendum debate should have equality in putting their particular view. Significantly, however, but lost in the government’s discomfort as far as the public was concerned, was the Court’s view that the substantive issue of the proposed referendum, as laid out by the Referendum Commission, was valid. The NO side argued that the YES vote was being bought while the government said it had sought the legal advice of the Attorney General. A few opposition politicians argued that the referendum should be postponed for a few months but in the event voting went ahead.

The turnout on polling day (a Saturday) was abysmal. Only 33.5 % of the electorate voted and the outcome was far closer than anticipated. The amendment was carried by a vote of 58% to 42%. Since then, the significance of the low turnout and the close margin has given and will continue to give the government as well as political and social analysts much food for thought.
The next step in the process is that legislation giving effect to all aspects of the new amendment will have to be drafted and approved by the Dail and Senate - a necessary process but slow and agonising at the best of times. Then it will be down to the courts in specific cases and here the cynics have noted that the legal profession, not children, may well be the ultimate beneficiaries.

Overall, the placing of children’s rights in the Irish constitution is significant and symbolic. It means the rights of children, formerly argued about in the context of the child’s place in the family and the status in the constitution of parents’ rights, now stand alone. Some commentators note that in the current recession resources and staffing are being cut back to the extent that the constitutional amendment may become mere window dressing. A fair point perhaps?

The abysmally low voter turnout was seen by some as further evidence, as if needed, that after all the uncovering of abuses and scandals in Ireland (with more to come) people pay lip service to the rights of children and when given an opportunity to do something about it, over 65% are simply too lazy or uninterested.

The economic situation in the country has re-defined the concept of need, care and safeguarding. In short, a lot of funding has been pulled out from local authority reserves and this has affected what can be offered to children in those areas. Even where there is limited funding available, most providers have had to join the circus called ‘tendering’ where you put together a proposal, which may or may not be read, never mind added to the short list.

Then, from those selected, a more detailed investigation ensues which looks closely into finances and viability, staffing arrangements, restrictions and limits placed on the type of youngster that will be accommodated, insurance, employer record and history of similar provision. The bottom line here appears to be that if you are new to this industry, forget it. Even where there has been mediocre to poor provision, local authorities are reluctant to bite the bullet and try a new organisation.

In the past, provision was made for children and young people wherever it was considered their needs would be best met. If that was in a local care provision all the better. If the child was ‘troublesome’ then sometimes they were accommodated as far away from home as possible so that they could have a fresh start or, if I am being cynical, so that their families had to make real efforts to visit them.

Currently because of the specific lack of available funds, the child is either accommodated locally or kept at home with additional supervision and monitoring support. What we know in theory is that some children should be kept at home and others stand a better opportunity of attaining their potential if they are free from the fetters of family.

Whilst this may be dependent on the actual difficulty or problem that the child experiences it certainly feels like a step backwards for the Government to announce that children and young people are a priority and then pull the financial rug from under their feet.

For those of you who wish to set up a home for children, you need to be very clear what type of problems or challenges you would be willing to manage on their behalf. You must go into this with eyes wide open. Do not assume that just because you want it to happen it will. I have met many individuals who for different reasons wanted to do this; some have been altruistic and others have seen this as a tax dodge. The bottom line is you will have to re-think.

• There is no available funding for new providers unless you are extremely lucky in your local area.

• You must already have a property, as there are few benefactors who will fund such a venture.

• If you do have a property, make sure it is small – three or four bedrooms maximum.

• Carry out detailed research in your area to see what may be available in terms of financial support or funding.

• Read about the Southwark judgement. http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed36316
http://www.communities.gov.uk/youthhomelessness/

These articles will help you find the relevance of supporting fifteen, sixteen and seventeen-year-olds if that is what you wish to do. There is money here to help you.

• Look into supported lodgings for sixteen-plus youngsters who are leaving care or Youth Justice and who the local authority have a duty to care for. There is money here in the form of benefits and subsidies.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/makingadifference
http://resources.leavingcare.org/uploads/04cc737831d901cf6f6ac399614cc565.pdf
This may help you make your decision.

• Make contact with the local commissioner for children and young people and keep them on your side.

• Ask for advice and help from the different support and fostering agencies there are in your locality. Listen to what their needs are.

• Read articles by Jonathan Stanley. He is passionate about children and the care offered to them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jonathan-stanley/childrens-homes-eastenders_b_1884141.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/08/safeguarding-children-in-care

• Keep fighting to achieve what you wish to offer to the many children and young people who need your support and dedication.
If you require any further guidance or just someone to listen whilst you voice your plans, please contact me either through www.childrenwebmag.com or through my own website: www.valeriejacksonconsultancy.co.uk .

So I headed hastily to find a supermarket (more reliable on Sunday mornings than public houses, I tend to find). The first one was open and packed with people, but alas it had no toilet facilities. So I drove as expeditiously as I could to Morrisons, and was rewarded with a sign telling me that the male toilets were being cleaned! By now the need was such that I chose to use the baby changing room. And then I was able to relax and take in the ambience of the supermarket. The shelves were predictably stacked high with food and confectionary. What surprised me was the fact that early though it was, the aisles inside were as full of customers, as the parking area outside was full of vehicles. And it was obvious that this was a family occasion for many. There were children of all ages going shopping on a Sunday morning.

Mission accomplished, I headed back to the church, and by now the place was buzzing with activity, as people of all ages were arriving, many of them with produce to be displayed on the harvest table at the front of the chapel. The whole building was decorated with flowers, fruit and vegetables. And as the sun had now pierced the mist, its rays cast a golden hue on all the produce.

The service began and soon we were singing, “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above; then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all His love”. At some point in the hymn it suddenly struck me that here we were, just a short remove from the two supermarkets, and in another space full of families, and also unusually full of food. But whereas the supermarkets were places of acquisition, the church was a place of thanksgiving. I felt the irrational desire to return to the shops inviting the shoppers to join us at the church. Surely one Sunday in the year it might be appropriate to pause in the activity of life, and as human beings on this fertile planet earth to give thanks to the Creator for all the benefits of this life, with special reference to the harvest and the fruits of the earth.

Of course I didn’t and couldn’t return, and the mind boggles at what the reaction of the shoppers might have been to my invitation. But I pondered the contrast hard and long, and couldn’t help feeling that the children in the supermarkets had been short-changed.

As things turned out, a few weeks later on another Sunday morning I found myself on a Central Line train heading for a place of worship in central London. If you know the Central Line and where Mill Grove is situated, you will realise that the journey took me through Stratford, the venue of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, but most popular now for the Westfield Shopping Centre.

Although I am a sociologist, I always tend to use my underground journeys for reading rather than for social research, and this journey was no exception. I was in fact studying a book as part of the task of translating my PhD thesis into something more suitable for publication. The reason I mention this is that I was pretty engrossed in my task, busily making pencil notes in the margin. So it is that I wouldn’t be able to tell you who else was in the carriage or what they were doing…except, that is, for a group of three females immediately opposite me.

My guess is that they were a mother, auntie and daughter/niece. The lady whom I took to be the aunty of the little girl caught my attention because she was asking a repeated question, “What do you want to do, first? Eat an ice-cream, or have your lunch?” And each time the question was put there was a description of the freedom being conferred on the girl. “We don’t mind which you do first…”

As far as I could detect, the girl was unable to reach a decision by the time the little group had reached Stratford Station, and so I was left with a cliff-hanger, and will never know what she finally decided. Perhaps she never was able to choose between two such appealing options.

I continued my journey to the church, and found it packed to overflowing, with a host of families, with children of all ages and cultures. And, as you may already have guessed, my heart went out to the little girl I had left behind at Stratford. How I would have loved to have invited her (and her mother and aunt) to join us at this place of worship! “We thank thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life…” How could you possibly compare the two experiences: consumption on the one hand, and corporate worship on the other?

Yet the fact is that over the whole of my life the balance has been shifting steadily from corporate acts of thanksgiving (and Sunday School), towards the supermarkets, shopping centres and car boot sales. I am of course thankful that many families are together on Sunday mornings, but I grieve that children are being deprived of the experience of being together with others in order to praise their Creator God.

Now it possible that while some readers identify with my feelings, others may be wondering how this all relates to agnostic and atheist parents. I do not feel this is a column in which to try to convince readers of the veracity of a religious worldview over a rationalist, empirical one. But I simply can’t get out of my mind the words of the theologian Professor Frances Young in her book, Face to Face: Narrative Essay in the Theology of Suffering. After parenting a son who was profoundly mentally and physically disabled, she wrote this remarkably honest and revealing book. And somewhere along the way she explains why she is a Christian. She is clear that she is not trying to persuade anyone of the truth of her position, but simply to explain how she sees things. And the core of the matter is that she feels profoundly thankful for the blessings of this life, notably her marriage, and that she is convinced that there must be Someone who will receive her thanks.

And I could not have put it better. There is so much cause to give thanks in this astonishingly rich, diverse, and fertile world that I cannot imagine there being no One to thank. And that is why I have always encouraged my own children and those who live with me to join me not just in church, but before and after every meal in giving thanks for our food and drink, and all the blessing of this life.

Then just as this memorable month was coming to an end, I found myself standing beside a mother of three children who is spending a week with us at Mill Grove. We were looking out of the kitchen window at the autumn leaves covering the ground, and a creeper that was turning a deep shade of red. She said how thankful she was for God’s wonderful world. I agreed but then, given that the youngest of her children had just had an operation, and that she is suffering from a return of cancer, I told her how I admired her plucky attitude to life. You can imagine my astonishment when this young and recently baptised Christian replied calmly, “There is always someone worse of than me”. And before I could take another breath she continued, “And it was a lot worse for Jesus”.

There really was nothing more to be said. Yet I couldn’t help but think that times of worship, not least in thanksgiving, have a lot more to offer by way of preparation for all the vicissitudes of life, than childhood Sunday mornings spent shopping. Please understand that this line of thought would never have occurred to me had I not needed a toilet somewhere in Essex, or been travelling through Stratford to get to church on the Central Line. All the same when it comes to it, I will always side with Frances Young and this brave mother.

The fact is that, despite its disarmingly simple guise, this is a philosophical question. It goes beyond, and deeper than any science or any other academic or applied discipline. And whereas the French philosophers are happy to discuss it at length over Gitanes and café noir (or something stronger), the English simply ‘don’t do philosophy’.

Let me give one example before I come to the reason for this particular excursus. If you ask the English what education is for; or as I would want to put it, “what is their philosophy of education?” they cannot see the point of the question at all. This goes for many parents, teachers and the Secretary of State for Education. All their energy is consumed with the methodology, the delivery of school-based teaching, and getting children into the best schools. The government will want “to drive up standards”, and there is never-ending revision of the syllabus and exams, of favoured aspects of classroom technology, of forms of governance, or of responses to the challenges of what is seen as the latest social problem (obesity figures pretty highly as I write at the moment).

You will strive in vain to find someone who displays much interest in the question: what is it all for? And yet if we think about it for little more than a moment, we see immediately that there is no way you can assess methods and performance except against a statement of what the whole thing is about. If you take Rousseau, you find in his book Emile, a crystal clear philosophy of education: it is a process in which the natural ability of the child is allowed to thrive. And if you take Froebel you find that he sees the purpose of education as connecting the soul of each child with the whole universe. (I am not concerned at this point primarily with the correctness of such philosophies, as with their existence or non-existence.)

In England you can attend any number of meetings about the practicalities of schools and schooling, but you will not find any substantial conversation about what they are for. And so busy are we with re-organising and rethinking structures and methods that we never seem to realise the absence of the fundamentally important question: the rationale of the whole process. (If you think that school mission statements will provide such basic philosophies you will quickly discover on inspection, that they are usually either bland, or assume that someone knows the point of it all, so that they can stress one aspect of the reality.)

This brings me (perhaps rather belatedly) to the subject I wish to ponder: children’s homes. Recently I attended a day event organised by the Department for Education in London, part of a series concerned with the reform of children’s residential care. This particular group focussed on the workforce: knowledge, skills, qualifications and training, and professional and career matters. The agenda made no mention of the purpose of children’s homes, and I can testify that groups engaged in lively and informed discussion about types of training, and particular aspects of the work, without the slightest sense that reform of anything to do with such establishments was absurd and literally pointless, unless one agreed their purpose.

Now as C.S. Lewis reminds us, this sort of discussion is relevant to any matter or subject. But there is a very specific issue in this case. We all know what, say, corkscrews, hospitals, factories, football pitches are supposed to be for. But when it comes to children’s homes, there is the most basic of problems. As a society we have little or no idea what they are actually for. If you guess that they must be for the security and well-being of the residents, you quickly discover that the staff do not have the necessary authority to ensure that the residents are safe. There was a very sad court case recently in Rochdale concerning a gang that targeted girls from children’s homes and sexually abused them. But the staff of the homes do not have the right to restrain the girls to prevent them being on the streets at night.

So if children’s homes are not primarily about security and protection, then perhaps they are places where young people live because they are a positive choice. Not likely: however much this is commended (for example in the Wagner Report, HMSO, 1988), the reality is that the whole social work/social care agenda revolves around keeping children out of such homes at almost any price. The fact is that they are a last resort. And they are the Cinderella of the social care agenda.

It isn’t long before it becomes apparent that whatever reasons people had for setting up children’s homes in, say, the Victorian era, today children and young people live in them, and staff are responsible for them, without any agreement about what they are for.

I suggest that the French (and to a lesser extent the Scots, whom I mentioned earlier) might see the absurdity and potential tragedy of all this. But for some reason the English don’t get the point. We are seemingly content to discuss anything (roles, recruitment, career progression, support, identity…) except the raison d’être of the very thing we are trying to improve!

If it were not so important in the lives of so many children and young people, it would be as comically absurd as a Kafka novel.

So you might ask if I would venture some statement, however tentative, about the purpose of children/s homes. Yes, I would, and in doing so, I would like to encourage readers of Children Webmag to do the same. I suggest that children’s homes are part of a continuum of care ranging from family support to secure units that offer safe space in which children and young people know first of all that they are safe and secure. They provide appropriate boundaries understood and owned by the children, and are places where each child knows she is significant. They are communities where relationships are nurtured and enjoyed. And they are places full of creativity. This sounds like a description of qualities or activities, you say? A good point.

What I am trying to get at is this: children’s homes, if they are to exist at all, must surely be places where children and young people are loved and can love; where they are cared for, and can express care; where they can be real about their anxieties, rage, anger, pain, and creative gifts; where they can develop (with regression and pauses); where they can stay if they wish…

The key word is love. And you will not be surprised to learn that this was completely absent from the day in question: it felt as if this was a banned four-letter word. And the very term ‘workforce’, accompanied by the use of the word ‘industry’ in one session I attended, made it clear that there was essentially no room for love either in the day itself, or the children’s homes which were its focus.

Until we can come clean about this we will continue to be obsessed with the minutiae, seemingly oblivious that there is a gaping whole at the centre of the whole enterprise. And what is much more tragic and saddening, a hole at the centre of the lives of children and young people who land up in such places as a last resort.

Again and again children and young people have spoken about this, but their voices seem to count for nothing. Some countries that are able to describe the purpose and point of children’s homes use the term social pedagogy.

It is rooted in education (learning/discovery), not in finding a last resort; it is holistic so that words like love are appropriate; it is communal and actively social; it is based on relationship. But if it is to take root and grow it requires the agreement and commitment of society as a whole.
That means that a society must agree on the purpose of children’s homes and what they are for: in short, what their philosophy is. So you may begin to see the problem in England. Until we are prepared to accept the relevance of philosophy there is little chance of social pedagogy taking off here.

If that sounds rather depressing, then we should not pretend that there is an easy way forward. But I am one of those who happen to live in what some would label a children’s home, and who is willing to state what its philosophy is. It is located in England. And there are many others who live in a variety of such homes.

If Stoke Mandeville was the catalyst for a revolution in the way those with disabilities are seen, perhaps it will be one or more of these places that will do the same for those who end up in children’s homes. You will find the real point of things not in discussing them, but in places where everything is geared to an agreed philosophy, and where there is a sense of joy and wellbeing, of creativity, fun and growth at the very heart of things. And such places really do exist!

Throughout the great summer of sport the news of sporting achievement was so often tragically juxtaposed with news of famine, bombings, drought, flooding, poverty and financial problems. Sadly, I can still vividly remember watching in horror on
7 July 2005 as the news of the London bombings appeared on our screens.

Recalling the more tragic events is not to lose sight of the wonders of sporting achievement but to remember that we can get ‘caught in the moment’ and lose sight of the troubles going on in the world. I was reminded of this vividly on 11 September when we were celebrating Andy Murray’s win at the U.S. Tennis opening – in the same city they were remembering the loss of those who died at the twin towers eleven years ago.

Television and the media captured so well the achievements of the elite athletes at the Olympics and Paralympics– focusing on a microcosm of life. However, the Olympic village was only a stone’s throw away from one of the poorest parts of London.

The success of the regeneration of parts of the East End of London shows what can be done. However, the poverty within our midst is not going to go away by building large national infrastructure projects, something that was so graphically illustrated on a BBC Panorama programme on 11 September. The latter focused on a run down estate in Blackburn and was entitled Trouble on the Estate, a very troubling account of life for a significant number of people that will, sadly, be replicated across the country. What was so worrying was that for many people there was no hope and without hope there was despair. Yet some were coping and surviving; a few against the odds were able to survive develop and grow.

One of my abiding memories of the Olympics and Paralympics was not just the fantastic achievements of Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis, David Weir and Ellie Simmonds and the like but the stories behind some of these achievements. What we can see with so many of these athletes is their ability to get up after defeat, cope with the unexpected or recover from adversity that is crucial; elite athletes have to have not only supreme skills but also resilience, discipline and inner self-belief.

In a recent article the journalist Patrick Barkham writes about how the swimmer Michael Phelps, like a number of Olympic athletes, had Attention Deficit Disorder and how sport had provided him with an outlet for his energy and gave him discipline to be able to cope with the rigours of elite sport. I also stumbled on another article about this amazing swimmer which talked about how his coach used to make him “familiar with chaos” by arranging hurdles for him at smaller events, for instance, arranging for him to be picked up late or on another occasion cracking his goggles so that he could cope if they filled up with water, which they apparently did on one occasion during the Beijing Olympics when he went to win the race . I am still not sure about the ethics of that particular approach but there is something in the fact that we have to be able to learn how to cope with both uncertainty and failure. As Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire once sang in one of their movies, at times you need to be able to “pick yourself up; dust yourself off; start all over again”.

What has been extraordinary during the Olympics and Paralympics has been hearing the stories of immense courage and perseverance that would have caused most people to give up. Perhaps my most abiding memory of all will remain the courage shown by Martine Wright, who was caught up in the 7/7 bombings and competed for Paralympics GB in sitting volleyball. Unlike most of us she did not appear bitter but felt it was a journey she was “meant to make” .

I am more and more convinced that we need to teach children to learn resilience, providing them with skills to cope with the uncertainties of life and inner strength to be able to thrive in difficult situations; so often we focus on the problems rather than providing children and young people with skills and inner strengths to cope with adversity. What the summer of sport has shown me is that sport could play a significant part of this educational process because sport provides exercise, discipline, team work, achievement and on occasions failure. Sport, however, does not have to be merely about football, which still seems to be a national obsession - it could be handball, cycling, beach volleyball, or even wheelchair rugby. Equally, it is not just about elite sport or competitive school sport but working out your own goals and achieving your own level.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/01/athletes-with-adhd

http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2012/08/14/you-can-only-win-in-sports-or-anywhere-else-if-youre-ready-for-chaos/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/paralympic-sport/9507257/Paralympics-2012-sitting-volleyballer-Martine-Wright-will-realise-her-Games-dream-after-surviving-London-bombings.html

The children sampled coincidentally were all born in the same year as Peter Connelly (Baby P), a child who died whilst in the care of his mother and her boyfriend - a man who had been convicted of the rape of a two-year old. Peter was the latest in too long a line of children and babies who are not protected or safeguarded by those who belong the their birth family or those who are paid to protect them. The book is hard-hitting yet accurate. It details the pitfalls and restrictions as well as the inaccuracies of reporting and recording by professionals and sharing information across supporting disciplines.

Each chapter looks at aspects of these children:

- chapter two looks at the individual children and some of their common characteristics;
- chapter three looks at the parents of the children;
- chapter four unpicks decision making;
- chapter five follows the children over three years;
- chapter six identifies those children who were removed for safeguarding and those who remained at home at risk and looks at how some parents can overcome their own problems and become real parents whilst others fail.

The three chapters that I found most edifying were chapters seven, eight and nine. In these final chapters, the authors look at how decisions are made, bearing in mind the minefield of parental rights and empowerment as well as parental understanding of the decisions made by the professionals, The final chapter concludes with outcomes achieved by the study and what lessons these can offer.

Any book that identifies weaknesses in the safeguarding of babies and young children must be essential for any professional team. This is not easy to read but I do appreciate the statistics. It is the first time I have seen ethnicity and race identified in a study. When I carried out research for my book on sexual abuse of black children, there were no statistics I could use to identify the frequency of abuse in different ethnic and racial groups. The study looks at this without drawing any conclusions based on bias or prejudice.

This is a book worth buying.

Ward, Harriet, Brown, Rebecca, and Westlake, David Safeguarding Babies and Very Young Children from Abuse and Neglect
Jessica Kingsley Publishing
ISBN: 9781849052375

A word of warning – the book is written by an American, who still resides in America. She acknowledges that other countries may differ but the focus when reading this book is how the child feels and how the adoptive parents may feel, not where they live or what legislation governs their relationships. I would have to say here that children put up for adoption in the United Kingdom are frequently over twelve months by the time they are adopted and most usually they will be eighteen months or over. This is ensure that the parents and the wider family have had plenty of opportunity depending on the reasons for adoption, to state an interest or an intention to adopt or offer a home

The chapters offer insight into why toddlers are put up for adoption and why couples or singles would want a toddler as opposed to a baby. These chapters may be of little use in a practical sense to UK families. The ones to home in on are chapters five, six, seven eight and nine. They focus on understanding child development, including where there are genetic or other conditions such as those of being abused pre-removal into care.

It is important to be aware of the possibility that the toddler may grieve for the life they had to leave behind. It is not a question of whether that life or experience was healthy or valuable. It is what the child was used to. Most adoption agencies will warn about the possibility of grief-related behaviours. Some of these may be challenging whist other aspects may be depression or withdrawal. There is a detailed chapter on the attachment process and suggestions for strategies to help ease or hasten that evolution.

Chapter eight looks at the management and support of behaviour – bearing in mind a toddler is at the appropriate age to challenge authority and demand independence.
Chapter nine reminds all parents that their needs also have to be acknowledged and met within reason. There is no point in giving up all your energy and time and having nothing in reserve for yourself, your partner and other children who may be in your family.

I would recommend this book, especially the final chapters, for anyone contemplating adoption of younger children. It is well written and realistic. The subject may be emotive but the message is not.

Toddler Adoption: The Weaver’s Craft
(Revised edition based on 1997 article)
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 97781849058940

We have just come back from North Wales where 50 members of the extended family of Mill Grove joined in our annual summer holiday, and I would like to try and make sense of some of the healing that I witnessed while there. It’s not worked out in my mind, and so you may need to bear with me as I try to assemble the pieces of the jig-saw.

Among those who were with us were some who were bereaved, several from fragile families, and those who were lacking in confidence and self-esteem. My privilege was to be part of a process in and through which I observed the healing properties of the natural world, referred to by Coolidge, and also the therapeutic milieu which is human community.

There is healing and strength that comes from being in creative and responsive contact with the natural world, and Snowdonia is an area that provides virtually unlimited opportunities for this. Take water: I witnessed children and young people diving into rivers and the sea, jumping off a bridge into the River Glaslyn, swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, sailing, and playing for hours in a little bay near Borth-y-Gest. Does being so at home in water kindle unconscious associations of our months in the mother’s amniotic fluid, I wonder? Does it take us even further back in the collective unconscious of human history and development?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Beach cricket at Borth y Gest

As I was watching some of this water-play a retired person commented that it was a constant reminder of what she had missed in childhood. She would paddle in water, but never glide into it, or slide under the surface, surf in the waves, and strive against the current to reach the point in the mountain pool where the waterfall struck the surface.

And then there were the mountains: we climbed Moel y Gest, the local hill, Snowdon, Crib Goch and two of the Carneddau. Once again it was my privilege to watch young people scrambling on different kinds of rock, running to reach a summit cairn, looking down at the stone walls, tiny houses and villages far below. If swimming is innate, then all the evidence I have collected suggests that climbing up rock is also a reflex reaction of children.

We had two barbecues, one beside a river, and the second by the sea looking west towards Cricieth (the Welsh spelling of Criccieth) as the sun set. Once again I noticed how easily the children slipped into the routine of collecting driftwood, keeping the fire going, and enjoying the sausages, burgers and marshmallows cooked on the open fire. When the sun had dropped below the horizon, and the sky gradually darkened, we were all drawn to the light and the warmth of the fire.

The wind (or air) was ever present: sometimes a gentle breeze, but once or twice at sea and on the mountains, a challenging force to be reckoned with. Is there any child who does not feel drawn to try to lean into a strong wind, and to see if it will hold her up? Is kite flying universal? Are wind-flecked waves bound to draw children to jump into and over them?

It seems to me intuitively self-evident that this friendly engagement with one or more of the four elements is good for the soul as well as the body.

But I am aware that there was more to what was happening than individuals enjoying themselves in the created world. The other dimension to the healing was about life together: the positive effects of engaging with the community. Again and again I witnessed children and young people welcoming, accepting, encouraging and helping each other. This was not about a programme of instruction or learning, but rather informal and largely unstructured social interaction that was life-affirming. The context was mostly the natural world (although we did enjoy the occasional ice-cream and packet of chips).

Let me give a few examples that come to mind. Two young boys introduced a child to kayaking. I watched them from a reasonable distance help her into the kayak in a beach pool and show her how to hold the paddle. She kept her balance, but found the strength of the wind too much for her. Try as she might it kept on turning her off course and driving her back. The boys noticed this and so towed her into the wind thirty metres or so (they were of course wading in the water), where they encouraged her to paddle with the wind behind her. She glided across the sea water pool like one to the manner born.

A night or two later we had a competition that involved running up a steep incline from the promenade at Cricieth by torchlight. Nearly everyone had a go, and the times recorded on my stopwatch varied from six seconds to nearly a minute (it was slippery as well as steep). The winner? It was the little girl who had been in the kayak! Among those she beat were most of the rest of the group including her father, and a very sporting young man twice her age.

A group of children spent over an hour in the sea playing with some of the older boys: they had some swimming competitions, but were basically messing about in the water. Each one had complete confidence in their swimming, but also in all the others that they were with.

One day we had a Treasure Hunt: there were swims to do, a hill to climb, as well as information to collect. The climax to the day however was the creation of a model of the Olympic Park on the beach of Port Dinllaen, followed by an imaginary version of how the Olympics might look at Rio de Janeiro in four years’ time. The cooperation between the youngsters, their creative energy, and their determination, were quite remarkable, and what they created was worthy of the many plaudits they received. The four teams were locked in competition, but overriding this was a sense of belonging to a group involved in exploring the world of Snowdonia, while enjoying creative fun.

The memories are now flooding back into my mind, so let me bring the sequence to a close with reference to a trip across the estuary to the sands which we call Treasure Island. There were nine who set off, some swimming and others in the Mirror dinghy. Once on the sands there was a mile walk to the grass near the dunes on the other side. And all the way there are pools of every shape and size, warmed by the sun, and inviting splashing, diving and swimming. The three littlest ones were in wetsuits and they had a whale of a time, happy and absorbed in their play while the older ones kept an eye on the overall situation.

What I was seeing once again was the healing that there is in nature combined with the affirmation that there is in human recognition and acceptance. There is more to it than this, and we should not underestimate the planning, wisdom and experience that went into creating the environment for all this to take place. It was all done with painstaking attention to likely risks, ensuring that the adults were experienced and trained, and with extensive local knowledge.

  A view of Tryfan, the Glyders and Snowdon as we descend from the Carneddau

But it is at the very least a reminder that we should not rely on formal therapy, treatment, plans and statements at the expense of the stuff of spontaneous human relationships in the natural world. The art of this is the creation of the right space for all this to happen rather than the delivery of advice or professional assistance.

I cannot say how or when, but I do know that what I saw will contribute to the development of the personal, social and even spiritual growth of all those who were part of this whole experience. And it was, as you may have gathered, something which inspired me too. I am so grateful to have been there.

And by the way: on the summit of Snowdon we encountered Lord Coe, who had just walked up the mountain by another route to witness the lighting of one of the flames for the Paralympics. I don’t want to suggest that this meeting with him was more of less significant than the other examples I have given, but it will always help us to remember the year in which it all took place!

I soon learned that ‘children’s communities’ meant children’s homes, or children’s villages, that the children in question were not - as I had assumed – orphans, but didn’t live with their parents “for social or other reasons”.

After translating several documents and letters I first interpreted at a Federal Council (FC) meeting in February 1974 in Vienna. The Council members were, with rare exceptions, men. They wore dark suits and ties, were either government officials or directors of institutions, or both, and appeared to be a small circle of friends reaching out to each other across borders.

We were in the middle of the Cold War and as Othmar Roden relentlessly pointed out, FICE’s greatest asset was that it – as opposed to many other organisations – had among its members several Eastern Bloc countries. They were East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. Yugoslavia, a non-aligned country, was also a member. For many of these delegates taking part at FC meetings was their only opportunity to travel to the West, but for many westerners it was also a rare occasion to talk to someone from the other side or to travel to Eastern Europe and see what the situation was like.

Statements made by representatives from Eastern Europe at the meetings and for the record were totally in line with official policy, pointing out repeatedly that all children in their respective countries lived in sheer paradise and were perfectly cared for by the state. At meals, after meetings and at social events things were different. Both sides openly talked about their problems, lack of qualified staff, overcrowded huge homes, old buildings, children in care stigmatised at school, no information on the further lives of care leavers – the list was endless. It seemed to me that – leaving aside the political situation in the member countries – the professional problems at home were similar for all members.

Back then FICE had four Special Commissions, working groups that dedicated themselves to a particular topic. One of these Commissions consisted of care workers and architects trying to work out together the perfect building plans and layouts for residential institutions.

Big institutions, in some cases with several hundred children, were still the standard. In some member countries empty castles, hospital wings, and even barracks were used for this purpose. FICE tried to come up with models for improvement.

One effect of having big children’s homes (with many FC members being directors of such homes) was that FC meetings were for many years held in residential care institutions, with delegates staying in staff rooms given up for the guests, sometimes even in the children’s rooms when they were away on camps or exchange programmes. Children usually welcomed the international guests with songs and gave them small gifts they had prepared. This was not only the case in Eastern Europe, but also, for instance, in Switzerland. There was an ongoing discussion, though, whether this was correct and whether FC members shouldn’t stay somewhere else and “not walk through the homes like walking through a zoo.”

But a new trend had already begun. In 1975 at the Congress in Amsterdam “small living units” and their advantages for children and staff were described and discussed. The concept of simply providing an apartment somewhere in town and have staff and a handful of children live there ‘anonymously’ was widely discussed for its general feasibility. As we know from current care systems the idea has been successful.

For years there had been, sometimes highly emotional, discussions, usually sparked by the French, as to whether children with disabilities would also come under the remit of FICE. In 1978 FICE took the risk of putting the topic of working with disabled children on the agenda of a symposium at Graz. Although the conference was later on often quoted as having been extremely successful, FICE’s chief clientele remained “social orphans” as they were often referred to. There were sometimes children with disabilities among them, but their disability was not the chief reason for their being in care.

The three working languages of FICE, English, French, and German, were taken very seriously. There was interpretation at every meeting, at all social events and during excursions. Representatives of East European countries usually spoke German. With francophone Presidents, Louis François and Raoul Wetzburger, in the seventies and early eighties, French played a leading role. As many delegates spoke only one of the official languages interpretation was crucial. My colleague, Christine, who translated and interpreted from and into French, and I thoroughly enjoyed working at FICE meetings and also between meetings. We felt that our work permitted people to communicate who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to share their thoughts and ideas.

In the International Year of the Child, 1979, FICE held its first Conference in the Republic of Ireland. FICE Ireland mainly consisted of members of religious orders and the international delegates had an opportunity to get a first hand picture of the social situation in Dublin. Visits to residential institutions completed the picture and left a deep impression on the visitors.

One of the key publications of FICE The Socialpedagogue in Europe was compiled and published during those years. The terms ’social pedagogue’ - or ‘Sozialpädagoge’ in German - were chosen (not to say invented) as neutral terms to solve the terminological chaos prevailing in the field.

FICE Press, based at Zurich, was founded to facilitate the issuing of publications.

The early 1980s brought a change at the top. A newly elected Swiss President, Heinrich Tuggener, was soon joined by a Swiss Secretary General, Franz Züsli, who was employed and paid by the Pestalozzi Foundation.

As a very active and highly professional Secretary General Franz Züsli attempted to recruit new member countries for FICE and invited observers to FC meetings coming from, among others, the United States, the USSR, Jamaica and Norway. Lost sections, such as the UK, were brought back into the fold.

He also sent out quarterly circular letters in the three languages to all members. Considering that these were real letters on paper, typing, copying and mailing them was a significant cost factor, but it was considered worthwhile as it helped to make FICE a tightly-knit network of professionals (both front-line-workers and academics) who strove to move the profession forward.

These were the years of reforms in the child care sector in many countries. There was general agreement in the profession that big institutions with hundreds of children were a thing of the past and should be replaced. Still, the process was a slow one; bureaucracy and a lack of funds worked against speedy change. It also became clear that smaller, specialised units required better trained staff – again a matter of money and also goodwill on the part of providers.

Among the new trends was that parents should be included in working with their children in care. Children’s homes with guest rooms where parents could spend the weekend with their children, as in Denmark or the Netherlands, were viewed with great interest but also with doubt by some FICE members. Some doubted whether such contacts were in the best interest of the child, while others considered such methods too demanding on the staff as the parents would also require support.

There were heated debates at FC meetings trying to define FICE’s role in a changing market. On the one hand it was proudly pointed out that FICE was “the only organisation in the world speaking up for children and workers in homes”; on the other hand homes became fewer and their reputation dwindled (though it had been fairly low to begin with). Should FICE venture into non-residential forms of care?
What effect would this have on the training of care workers? Where would funding come from?

In the early 1980s the FC had decided to change the English name to ‘Federation of Educative Communities’, following a change of the French name, a move that aggravated the identity crisis.

An attempt to come to terms with all the uncertainties was made at the Congress in Malmö and the Malmö Declaration was passed, laying down FICE’s position.
In 1988 a history of the first 40 years of FICE was published and FICE tried to define its identity and the way forward at the Jubilee Congress in Switzerland in the same year. The conference proceedings were presented as a showcase of FICE’s work. Soon afterwards Residential Child Care” – An International Reader, edited by Meir Gottesmann from Israel was issued by FICE in association with the British Social Care Association as an attempt to size up the professional situation in twenty-two countries.

Training was seen as the key concept for the future and several meetings, in particular one in Hadassah Neurim in Israel, were devoted to this topic. David Lane from the UK recognized the importance of a code of ethics for the profession and among other documents worked out such a code which is still in use.

The times of inner uncertainty were paralleled by unimagined political changes in Europe. The fall of the Iron Curtain came widely unexpected and its effects touched FICE like so many people, organisations, and institutions, not only in central and eastern Europe but in fact throughout the world. In autumn 1989 the FC met in Budapest. While we were there streets were renamed and we watched the names of Communist leaders being taken down and replaced by new names.

Prague had been chosen as the venue for the 1990 FICE Congress several years before. Now participants came to see the ‘new’ Prague, to openly exchange views and experience with colleagues from Eastern Europe for the first time, and to discuss with other professionals what the role and standing of (residential) care would be in this new world. Representatives of the FC were invited to a personal meeting with Vaclav Havel, the legendary president - a most memorable experience for the participants and an act of recognition for FICE.

In 1988 Steen Lasson, from Denmark, was elected President and in 1992 Franz Züsli stepped down as Secretary General and was succeeded by Thomas Mächler, a dynamic, young professional on the staff of the Pestalozzi Foundation. The congresses in Luxembourg in 1992 and in Milwaukee in 1994 drew a number of participants from the new countries who enjoyed their freedom to travel but also the freedom to mingle with colleagues and share ideas and visions.

Interest in FICE grew in what used to be called “the East”. Some of the former elderly government employees disappeared and were replaced by young ambitious people who often saw FICE as a launch pad for an international career. This meant that suddenly there were people in FICE who were not necessarily child care workers but lawyers, psychologists, or others trying to fill the vacuum in a field which after the end of communism needed to completely reinvent itself. They contributed important impulses, e.g. relating to children’s rights following the passing of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. But they soon moved on, realising that FICE couldn’t do for them what they had expected.

What FICE could and did do was to provide know-how and support to colleagues and decision-makers in the newly emerging child care systems. Staff training seminars were held, children and staff exchange programmes launched; some members engaged in direct advice-giving to ministries, others helped with professional literature and by simply ‘being there’. In my eyes this extremely valuable work went largely unreported – people were too busy working and had no time to write or talk about what they were doing.

Much of it took place on the bilateral level and remained something seen as the work of national sections or individual professionals rather than of FICE International. The approach in most cases was to be careful not to superimpose ‘our’ system on ‘theirs’, but to make sure that something new was created in true partnership and cooperation.

In parallel to these developments a new President, Robert Soisson, from Luxembourg, was dedicated to making FICE a truly international, as opposed to European, organisation. ‘Platforms’ were to be established on other continents using the support and networks of the non-European members. FICE-Europe was launched in 1997 as the first of these platforms but despite continuous outreach work on other continents for years FICE today still has only a few, though quite active and reliable, non-European members, e.g. South Africa, Israel, India, or North America.

Another attempt to increase FICE’s visibility on the international scene was the project ‘Educateurs sans frontières’, or ‘care workers without borders’, aiming at developing a global intervention network to help children after natural disasters or armed conflicts. Although the French section in particular invested a lot of energy and know-how in this project, it couldn’t be implemented.

Amidst these efforts to reposition the organisation in a world where residential care was often considered a thing of the past, FICE was suddenly reminded of its roots. It had been founded after the Second World War to help war orphans and children traumatised by war. In the mid-nineties the war in former Yugoslavia, in particular in Bosnia and later in Kosovo, left the rest of Europe overwhelmed with the problems in the aftermath of the fighting. FICE realised that education for tolerance and peace was a crucial factor in caring for these children and giving them a future and that this was something it could provide.

The Swiss und Dutch sections took the lead and first held Peace Camps outside Yugoslavia, but in the following years in different parts of the former Yugoslavia that had meanwhile become independent countries. The peace camps, accompanied by expert seminars, were renamed ‘friendship camps’ and the newly founded sections in south east Europe took over the organisation of these highly successful events. Finally, FICE held its Congress 2006 in Sarajevo; it was devoted to helping children overcome trauma and prepared the ground for professional help for many children in that part of the world.

These years of great professional challenges were paralleled by challenges to FICE as an organisation. The Pestalozzi Foundation withdrew its financial support at two years’ notice and no longer provided the Secretariat. Thomas Mächler left office in 1998 following the 50th anniversary congress in Paris. His successors each stayed in office only briefly, and for several years, under the Presidency of Theo Binnendijk, from the Netherlands, the office of Secretary General was even vacant. This may have been the reason why – at least in my opinion - the team spirit within the organisation faded and activities were often carried out by national sections or individuals rather than by FICE International. Finally, in 2006 a new Secretary General, the Scotsman Andrew Hosie, was found.

In 2003 ANCE-France, which had played a leading role in FICE for decades, unexpectedly left FICE because of grave internal problems. This marked a dramatic change in FICE’s identity. Suddenly a vast treasure of know-how and experience in the residential sector was lost, as were contacts with francophone countries in Africa, and to international organisations headquartered in Paris and Strasbourg. Some of the lost terrain was made up for by members from French-speaking Switzerland, in particular Rolf Widmer, representing FICE at UNESCO and UNICEF meetings and establishing contacts in Africa.

French, the third official language of FICE – as laid down in the Statutes – ceased to be used at meetings and for most documents. The 2008 Congress was the first FICE Congress with only English and German as Conference languages. Delegates from countries such as Romania, Israel or Luxembourg, had often used French for communication. They had to adapt to the new situation, although in particular the Romanian Section still continues to draw attention to the Statutes and the fact that FICE has three official languages.

During the first decade of the new millennium efforts were again made to make FICE more visible and distinct at the international level. David Lane suggested and founded an Editorial Board to help FICE issue professional publications. Residential Child Care and Its Alternatives was published, which met with broad interest internationally, showing that there is a vast professional potential among the members of FICE.

David Lane also arranged for the publication of Families and Care: reflections on the first sixty years of FICE covering the time from FICE’s founding in 1948 up to the 60th anniversary Congress in Helsinki in 2008.

The congress in 2010 in Cape Town opened up many new perspectives to participants, and brought contacts with courageous, inspired colleagues from Africa, and with new networks based on innovative methods and strong beliefs.

In all its efforts, involving projects, publishing or training, FICE appears to be constantly searching for its identity, for its place in the concert of international organisations. When reference is made to children’s homes in the media today it’s tragically almost only with reference to the cases of abuse that have recently become public, the claims for damages, and the search for the culprits. The public image of children’s homes has never been good, but in my eyes it has deteriorated even further over the past few years.

Another factor depreciating the work with children in institutions is the ongoing economic crisis. It’s definitely cheaper for governments to place children with foster families or leave them with their original families and provide some outside support, than to place them in residential homes. Considering the public opinion on the matter, politicians can only win, if on the one hand they save money and on the other save children from a life in residential care.

It will probably take some time for the pendulum to swing back in the other direction and make us realise that traumatised children, survivors of sometimes unimaginable violence and neglect, need help from well-trained, professional care workers if they are to come to terms with their past, no matter how caring and well-meaning some foster parents may be. But, as already mentioned, it’s also a financial question and sadly enough, children in need aren’t society’s highest priority when it comes to spending money.

But FICE is constantly reinventing itself. With new member organisations, recently e.g. from Spain or Kenya, or with a change of generations in long-standing member countries there will always be new impulses and fresh ideas. And the fact that the current Secretary General, Bettina Terp, is from Austria, just as Othmar Roden was, under whom I started my life in the organisation, makes me look into the future of the organisation with a smile, with confidence and with immense personal gratitude for the years that FICE shared with me.

Helga Stefanov has worked as an interpreter for FICE since 1973 and she has therefore had an unparalleled view of the discussions and developments in international child care, but especially in Europe, over nearly forty years. Until her recent retirement she was a Professor in the Department of Social Work at FH Campus Wien - University of Applied Sciences, in Vienna, where she taught on Intercultural Communication, Comparative Social Work, Social Work as a Human Rights Profession and the Language of Social Work (German/English). She was also co-coordinator and evaluator of several European projects.

Courtioux, M., Jones, H.D. et al. (1981). Leben mit andern als Beruf – der Sozialpädagoge in Europa,
FICE-Inter. Vienna.
Courtioux, M., Jones, H.D. et al. (1984). The Socialpedagogue in Europe – Living with others as a profession,
FICE-Inter. Zurich.
ISBN 3-905607-01-8

FICE-Inter. (1988). Children’s Communities – Residential Child Care – Community Care 1948 – 1988. Zurich.
ISBN 3-905607-05-0

Gottesmann, M. (Ed). (1991). Residential Child Care – An International Reader, Whiting & Birch Ltd in association with FICE. London.
ISBN 1-871177-17-0

Peters, F. (Ed). (2007). Residential Child Care and Its Alternatives: International Perspectives, Trentham Books in Partnership with FICE. Stoke-on-Trent.
ISBN 978-1-85856-409-8

Shaw, R. (Ed). (2008). Children, Families and Care: reflections on the first sixty years of FICE, Trentham Books in Partnership with FICE. Stoke-on-Trent.
ISBN 978-1-85856-445-6

Haydn was born on 4 February 1924 in the valleys of South Wales at Penrhiwceiber, near Mountain Ash, now in Rhondda Cynon Taff. His first name reflected the Welsh love of music and their respect for the German composer (though they chose to pronounce it Hay-den). His surname was originally Jones, but there are so many plain Joneses in Wales that he chose to differentiate himself by incorporating his second name and becoming a Davies Jones. He was, however, affectionately known to many people, such as his students, as HDJ.

Wales

Haydn’s love of Wales, Welsh culture, the Welsh language and Welsh music ran as a significant thread through the whole of his life, and even in his final years he spent time studying the language, reading the literature and conversing with his wife Elinor in Welsh (though she speaks North Welsh and he spoke South Welsh). He could recite passages from the Mabinogion in his mellifluous voice.

His early life in the Welsh valleys also affected him throughout his career. Haydn had a natural sympathy with people who had suffered from deprivation, deep-rooted in his childhood and upbringing. As a boy he saw miners coming to his father’s office begging for work in the mines, children with no shoes, and wives struggling to feed their families. His mother Mary ran the home and was known as the person anyone could come to in times of trouble.

Haydn was the eldest of four in a rather spread out, loving family, his younger brother being born when Haydn was at university. Brought up in a close community, school and chapel were important to him. Education was prized, and from his humble terrace emerged a surprising number of graduates and qualified teachers. He learnt that everyone deserved a chance. These were the influences that made the man and shaped his actions throughout his many-faceted career.

Learning for Life

Haydn won a place at Mountain Ash Grammar School and was educated there from 1934 to 1941. From there he obtained a place at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. The University has campuses on several sites scattered around Wales, Aberystwyth being a town on the coast of Cardigan Bay facing onto the Irish Sea.

Haydn attended the University for a year from 1941 to 1942, before joining the Fleet Air Arm as an Observer. He was promoted to the rank of Sub-Lieutenant. After the Second World War he returned to University to complete his studies.

Although he was reading for Honours in History, Haydn’s love of the Welsh language (which he had learnt at school, not in the home) was strengthened. Aberystwyth at that time was a very Welsh university and small enough for students to get to know many of their contemporaries. Singing hymns with great gusto in the Union was the norm. Debates with speakers such as Emlyn Hooson were fiery, while soirées where singers and players showed off their musical prowess proved that Wales really was a land of song.

In this atmosphere it was not surprising that there was a lot of pairing off and eventually in his Honours year this is what happened to Haydn. At the first hop of the year in the old ballroom on the pier (where often you couldn’t hear the band for the sound of the sea) he was persuaded to appear by his ex-service friends. Down the road in the Women’s Hostel Elinor Owen was likewise persuaded by a friend and that is where fate took a hand: came the last waltz, a request for the dance, and they one-two-threed away, anything but in step. The mile walk along the prom to the halls of residence, and it was coffee the next morning, and endless miles while he lectured on the Jacobites, his thesis subject. As Elinor was in her teacher-training year and had plenty of time to listen, having graduated in English the year before, this was not a problem. At the end of the year came the proposal of marriage on Constitution Hill, together with a box of Black Magic chocolates.

Education in the Royal Navy

After obtaining an Honours degree in History and Welsh in 1948, Haydn accepted a five-year commission in the Royal Navy Education Branch, based at the Royal Naval Barracks in Portsmouth, teaching naval history. He was also seconded to the Royal Navy Detention Quarters as Education Officer, where he worked closely with probation and psychiatric services. He was moving by stages towards the main theme of his career.

During this commission Haydn and Elinor were married on 16 April 1949 – a marriage which was to last until his death over sixty-three years later. Haydn and Elinor settled in Portsmouth as a young couple following their respective careers. After a short-term teaching job near Warrington Elinor had moved down to Portsmouth, teaching in a Secondary Modern School for five years.

Haydn was lucky to serve under a compassionate and far-seeing Commander at the Royal Navy Detention Quarters. There he was asked to write a new, more humane version of the rules and regulations for these establishments. Haydn became Editor of Pompey Magazine, distributed widely to the naval personnel. He was also in demand as the announcer for the Command Sports. Once he had to entertain the actress Margaret Lockwood, who was opening the festivities. Other celebrities he encountered were Ludovic Kennedy and his bride-to-be, the ballerina Moira Shearer, when he attended a course at Ashridge on social problems. Leisure time was spent on the Isle of Wight, swimming and playing cricket on the beach with friends, or walking the South Downs.

From 1950 to 1953 Haydn studied externally with London University for Honours LLB, which he obtained in 1953.

Where next? Wellesley

The question was – what should he do next? Should he go back to the Navy for a further five years or grow ground nuts in South Africa, jobs being rather hard to get?

Like so many careers, the crucial turning point for Haydn could be said to have been purely accidental. It was triggered by his involvement with the prisoners at the Royal Detention Quarters and by his friendship with a probation officer. It was he who encouraged Haydn to apply for the grand-sounding post of Commander – or Deputy Head - at Wellesley Nautical Training School.

Wellesley was one of the two remaining nautical training schools (the other being at Portishead near Bristol) from a service which had been at its peak in the nineteenth century when old wooden warships were moored off shore as reformatories for young offenders and industrial training schools to prepare boys for life in the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy or other nautical jobs such as fishing. These hulks had been closed down, and in the case of the TS Wellesley, the old ship, formerly HMS Boscawen, had been gutted by fire where it was anchored at North Shields in Northumberland, and the school had to come ashore.

By the time that Haydn moved there the school had places for 140 boys, and it still ran a strict regime, but it also gave boys valuable life skills, not only in preparing them for work at sea but also offering chances to cope with testing situations, to achieve and to develop self-confidence. A proportion of the boys followed a nautical career, but not all.

At Wellesley some of Haydn’s innovations had a softening influence. He brought in housefathers to work closely with the boys, and he involved his own family. He also created links with the local community as much as possible and emphasised the importance of continuing after-care. He was also a good listener, accessible to the boys.

Other developments were to offer a more stimulating and varied range of activities. He initiated the introduction of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme at the school, culminating in a visit by Prince Philip by helicopter. He led many expeditions - the Pennine Way in winter with twenty boys, the Lyke Wake Walk, and visits to the Capel Curig CCPR Centre in North Wales.

From 1953 to 1955 Haydn was Commander. He was then promoted to the post of Captain - or Head - of Wellesley, a post which he held for six years up to 1961, during which he took an external LLM with London University in 1959. Haydn was therefore well grounded in the difficult task of residential child care, its management and its governance.

Was his way of working successful? It is often hard to tell when investing time in the lives of troubled children and young people. Haydn, though, had the satisfaction long after his retirement of meeting more than a dozen former pupils of Wellesley who had been through the school while he was there. His final link with Wellesley was in 2009 at the rededication of the War Memorial for former Wellesley boys who had died in the two World Wars. This had been rescued when the school was being demolished, and it was re-sited at St Cuthbert’s Church in Blyth, through the hard work of several men formerly at the school.

The Church was packed and among the congregation were fourteen former Wellesley boys. The impression they gave was that life at Wellesley had been hard, but that they had been treated firmly but fairly, they had learnt life skills as well as nautical skills, and their training had provided a valuable basis for adult life. Many had had distinguished careers in the Merchant Navy as Captains. They all held Haydn in high esteem. Haydn was delighted to take part, laying a wreath, and it was an emotional and satisfying experience to round off a long career.

Moulding a Profession

Haydn’s move from Wellesley was sideways step into academia. In 1961 he was appointed Lecturer at the Institute of Education, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was in due course promoted to the post of Senior Lecturer and finally Dean of Education, and he remained with the University until his retirement in 1989.

The course which Haydn took over had originally been set up in 1948 and sited at Durham University at the instigation of John Gittins, a far-sighted educationist who wanted to see residential child care staff professionally trained. Following the move to Newcastle the course was established at post-qualifying course level. It was funded largely by the Home Office for senior staff working with children and young people, mainly in residential care, and it led to the Senior Certificate in the Residential Care of Children and Young People awarded by the Central Training Council in Child Care, and the Diploma in Advanced Educational Studies, awarded by the University.

Although there were similar courses at London and Glasgow Universities, the field was in the main dominated by the Bristol University course under the leadership of the late Chris Beedell and Haydn’s Newcastle course. There is a danger in sweeping generalisations, but in broad terms these two courses reflected the interests of Chris and Haydn, with the Bristol course having a greater emphasis on therapeutic care and Newcastle being more educational.

The students attracted to Haydn’s course were mainly senior staff working in residential child care or those likely to be promoted. There were a dozen or so participants each year, which means that over Haydn’s 28 years running the course well over three hundred heads of schools and homes will have had the benefit of the course, many of them being promoted subsequently to be heads of agencies and local government departments. Indeed several became authors of significant texts on residential child care.

With his own students Haydn made a point of tutoring individually. These sessions were much appreciated, and for those who enjoyed walking they were sometimes conducted at a brisk pace on the hoof. He supervised the work of many PhD students, but never took a Doctorate himself.

He always considered the personal contact more important than the written word, and one unhappy result was that his published oeuvre did not reflect his thinking or his impact on the profession. He edited a text for FICE on the role of the social pedagogue, and published a number of articles and monographs, including the National Children’s Homes Centenary Lecture, which he had given, and a description of social pedagogy for the National Institute for Social Work.

Haydn believed that the ideas and values which underpinned the course should be reflected in its content. Since he was advocating group care as a means of working with children and young people, students on the Newcastle course found themselves at the start of their first term at Capel Curig in North Wales on mountaineering programmes - nuns included, but clad in the right gear. Ostensibly the student group were practising living together, to help them bond as a group, but Haydn’s family used to say, “Pull the other one, Dad; it’s only an excuse to get to the tops”. One of his prized memories was of a group of musical students singing Cwm Rhondda at the Wainstones on the Lyke Wake Walk - with Haydn of course singing in Welsh.

Haydn’s course was also memorable for the activity lectures which students had to attend, the most outstanding being the free drama sessions run by Dorothy Heathcote. Although she left school at fourteen to become a mill worker, her enthusiasm for drama led to a career which included a doctorate and winning the Silver Rose of Montreux. More importantly her students were inspired to apply what they had learnt with children in residential care.

As part of the DAES course students had to write theses, providing a wide range of insights into many aspects of residential care. Unhappily it appears that the University has seen fit to destroy this valuable archive, but a few still survive.

Always in search of new and telling experiences in residential care, Haydn visited students and alumni in their own settings. As a result, he was in command of a unique network with a focus on all aspects of life for children living away from home.

Lecturing, Chairing, Tutoring and Writing

During his university career Haydn lectured widely, on other university courses and at evenings and weekends. He covered the British constitution, the British legal system, sociology and criminology. He spoke at national conferences, such as the National Children’s Homes centenary and a particularly memorable presentation at the Boarding Schools Association.

In particular he had close links with Cumbria where he was deeply involved, having been persuaded to become the neutral Chairman of the Committee dealing with Youth, when the warring factions of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire could not agree. Together with Eric Nixon he ran weekend Youth Officer groups in Cumbria for many years.

Haydn continued to play a part in the justice system. One of Haydn’s important roles was serving on the Parole Board of Durham Prison. Another was lecturing to Magistrates, Probation Officers and lawyers, where his legal knowledge and practical experience in the fields of criminology and delinquency proved invaluable.

Haydn also played a significant role in Working Party Z in the late 1960s. This was a group of tutors for training courses for residential child care workers who wanted to improve the qualifying training system. They formed a powerful and influential group, shaping professional thinking. Subsequently the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work created a new qualifying training framework incorporating residential child care, but Working Party Z had done invaluable groundwork.

International influences

In 1970 Haydn spent three months in Hong Kong, lecturing to police, magistrates and colleges, but it was Europe which had the greater impact on his career. In 1975 he had a sabbatical year in which he toured Europe, with one term in Copenhagen (with visits to Norway), the next in Zurich (visiting Austria and Germany) and the third in Lausanne (visiting France). He worked in various seminaria and colleges, studying social pedagogy and social education with its differing perspectives and training. There he became involved with members of the Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives (FICE).

One of the major influences on Haydn’s professional thinking was his connection with his European friends. He was a member of H.C. Rasmussen’s select group, all involved with the residential care of children. There he heard of the profession of social pedagogue or educateur specialisé.

In broad terms social pedagogy is the term used for child care in northern Europe whereas in southern Europe it is termed social education. The terms have been in use for many years, but it was after the Second World War that the overwhelming childcare problems facing many countries with orphaned and refugee children that prompted radical re-thinking about the needs of children with extreme problems. What emerged was a group of concepts under the title of social pedagogy or social education which have served continental European countries well for the last sixty years – addressing children’s problems holistically, recognising the key importance of child: worker relationships, using activities as a means of building confidence and trust, and so on. How these ideas are applied differs from one country to another, but the United Kingdom had not suffered the breakdown of services experienced in many European countries in the 1940s, and so had carried on with no radical rethink and had patched up its old systems.

From the outset Haydn was hooked on social pedagogy and became a missionary for the cause in the United Kingdom, though for the rest of his career at Newcastle University he was apparently crying in the wilderness.

When the Social Care Association decided it no longer wished to represent the UK as a member of the Federation Internationale des Communautés Educatives (FICE), Professor Heinrich Tuggener of Zurich University, who was the President, invited Haydn to act in a personal capacity to maintain the links between FICE and the UK. In this capacity Haydn edited and contributed to Living with Others as a Profession (Leben mit Andern als Beruf), which was published in English and German. It was the first book on social pedagogy in English, and remains a valuable text.

Haydn fulfilled his FICE role until 1988, but he maintained his professional links. He continued to lecture widely at conferences and was valued for his clarity and fluency, using only notes on cards. After enforced retirement from the University at 65, Haydn was much in demand as a lecturer on the Norwegian course run in the School of Education at Newcastle University, as well as in other European countries and occasionally in the USA at colleges and conferences. This included annual visits to Denmark to lecture to social pedagogy courses, which he only gave up at the age of 80.

Haydn’s international contacts still have fond memories of him, his anecdotes, his concern for others, and his Welshness. Despite his strong national affiliation, Haydn was seen as thinking transnationally, with moral authority, and he was widely respected.

In the UK the concept of social pedagogy is at last being piloted and adopted in several parts of the country, and Haydn’s influence has contributed to this.

Wales and Mountains

Haydn retired from his University post in 1989, which gave him time for other activities. His interest in all things Welsh has already been mentioned, but his other interest lay in hills and mountains. He and Elinor shared many common interests, but particularly Wales and the hills. Many were the arguments as to who had started whom on mountaineering, but Elinor, born in sight of Cader Idris in North Wales and tottering up hill from the age of two, certainly had the better case.

The Welsh hills, the Lakes, Galloway, Torridon and the Cairngorms were all important in his life, together with Northumbria, his home for almost sixty years. He climbed many thousands of feet but the best of all were hut to hut tours in the Austrian Alps, with his wife and then with their children at an early age, and later with his musical grandsons.

Haydn the Man

As a man Haydn had an easy personality and he made lasting friendships with the people who had been in his care, his students, his colleagues and contacts in many countries. He was good company, generous in every way, especially with his time, being always approachable. He was happy to share experiences and little delighted him more than the general discussions which ended and punctuated every lecture. He was a good raconteur, with a fund of anecdotes. To illustrate a point in a lecture he would happily tell stories against himself, although it was apparent to all that he had been a first-class practitioner. To continue the debate he would invite students and colleagues to a local hostelry or, often, to his home where Elinor’s hospitality was appreciated. The outcome was the large number of staff, alumni and colleagues in other countries who stayed in touch with him.

Haydn was also eternally positive in his working relations. It was very difficult to get him to say anything critical as he always chose to value the good points in people. Indeed, when he was criticising a student’s work, the impression created was that one had done good work, but had been shown ways of developing an idea, gaining deeper insights or expanding the subject.

Quality was important to Haydn, whether it was in the choice of wines (which he selected for the University high table) or residential child care, the careful choice of words in a speech or the Alpine vistas when he was on holiday. Haydn valued friendships, and he and Elinor maintained contact with many people in retirement - former students, ex-colleagues, FICE contacts and many others - through letters, shared holidays, or meals at their home in Ponteland.

Haydn was always active, from the early (very early) morning cup of tea which he served to house guests. He played cricket. He climbed. He swam. Former Wellesley boys tell of the time that he wanted to take photographs on an island in a Scottish loch, so he swam out to the island with one arm, while holding the camera above his head to keep it dry with the other. Haydn skied. When the snow was thick and the roads were closed he skied the ten miles to the University from his home in Ponteland down a disused railway track. And, of course, he walked. Even after hip replacements and when seriously ill he still kept up his constitutional walks in the area round his home. Haydn was 88 when he died, having suffered a cruel combination of debilitating illnesses in his final months.

Professionally, without question, the influence Haydn has exerted is immense through the thoughts he instilled, amounting often to a paradigm shift in the minds of his students, to the cascading effect upon the lives of young people in care through the practice he helped develop. During a period in which residential child care has been subject to lack of resources and support, denigration and scandals, Haydn showed both in his practice and his teaching that there could be good residential child care services. His name will retain a lofty position in the pantheon of social educators.

Personally, Haydn was a loyal husband for sixty-three years and a father who liked to take part in the ‘lifespace’ of his children, Geraint and Rhiannon and grandsons Christopher and Andrew, living what he taught as a real social pedagogue.

The introduction is rather long but relevant. It explains why and how drama is essential in the everyday lives of children. Without drama they cannot begin to make sense of their world. Make believe play is vital for sound development of emotional and social awareness as well as the other aspects of learning and discovery that children proceed through towards adulthood.

The question, “Why are story pretending and drama neglected in the classroom?” is key to the lack of such a facility in the majority of educational and care settings. Very few students are shown and taught how to tell a story. They have no repertoire to lean on wherever they find themselves with children. Without the shield of a book, they are speechless. The authors argue that there is an overly keen emphasis on academic work with the casualty being inventiveness, imagination and role play.

The subsequent chapters are full of ideas and suggestions for the set up, the examples and resources that can be collected and used time after time.
There is a story example on glossy pages written in a way that lends itself to drama and role play.

The authors link aspects of dramatisation to the curriculum with ease. Literacy, numeracy, construction and so on are demonstrated within the pages of the book. There are suggestions for different activities based on a story or drama. There is a strong link to individual and group work and even scripted conversations which the practitioner could have with the children.
There are templates for hand puppets and photos of children re-enacting the Billy Goats Gruff story.

I like the idea of having a book like this on the shelves of a primary and nursery school staff room where it becomes part of the resources section so that there are always good ideas and plans for hardworking, overwrought professionals to follow.

Woodard, Carol and Milch, Carri (2012) Make Believe Play and Story-Based Drama in Early Childhood
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 9781849058995

There are different types of step family, divorced and remarried; same gender; widowed and remarried; the list goes on. There is acknowledgement that there may be more than one aspect to a step family. The original extended family may wish to maintain contact. The new family may have its own extended relationships. The booklet identifies and accepts that sometimes having a new adult in the family is not easy and it takes time to work things through.

Adoption within a stepfamily means that the new parent wishes to taken on the responsibilities usually afforded to the birth parent, including being financially willing to support the child as well as take a key role in their upbringing.

I like the fact that the booklet does not try to make the new parent the main figure in the child’s life especially where they may also still have their birth parent. It is a sympathetic and effective read for children and parents facing this situation.

Francis, Jo (2010) Stepfamily Adoption: What it is and what it means – a guide for children and young people
BAAF Adoption and Fostering
ISBN: 9781905664948

- a solid piece of work undertaken by Miguel de Bono about residential child care in Malta;
- publicity for a CCHN conference in Liverpool on 15 October on child migration - the shipping of children to other countries - and what we can learn from it;
- advance notice of the EUSARF conference in Glasgow from 4 September.

Keith White has provided two more excellent In Residence columns - one being on longhouse communities in Sarawak (another international item!) and the other (sent from the Orkneys) on recognising obligations to others.

With a nod to the Olympics we offer Lids for Kids in which Bradley Wiggins calls for compulsory helmets for child cyclists.

On the education front, Herman Stewart argues Why Every Child Needs A Mentor,
and Valerie Jackson writes about what makes teaching worthwhile

We have published three advice columns:

- What to Do if your Child is Burnt by Joanne Atkins;
- Top Tips for Travelling with Children by Dr Lin Day;
- and Dr Lin Day has also provided advice to parents taking children on foreign holidays.

We have three items about residential child care:

- an open letter to Tim Loughton, suggesting a whole system analysis and reform to use children’s homes positively, by Jonathan Stanley;
- a nice success story from Appletree; and
- the contents of Issue 11 of the goodenoughcaring by Charles Sharpe.

We have eight book reviews, six being the work of Valerie Jackson:

- Losing Control by Henrietta Bond about what it’s like being in care;
- Make Believe Play and Story-Based Drama in Early Childhood, a handbook full of ideas for early years workers by Carol Woodard and Carri Milch;
- Stepfamily Adoption - what it is and what it means, a guide for children and young people by Jo Francis;
- A Safe Place for Rufus, helping children to begin to trust, by Jill Seeney;
- Adopting a Brother or Sister, offering answers to the sorts of questions children ask, by Hedi Argent; and
- Communicating with Children, when a parent is at the end of life, by Rachel Fearnley.

David Lane reviews The Copper Tree by Hilary Robinson, helping children come to terms with dying and death.

Susan Pyke reviews Music Therapy in Schools, about the way music therapy has developed and what it can do, edited by Jo Tomlinson, Philippa Derrington and Amelia Oldfield. This coincided with Tuning out dyslexia, describing how three brothers overcome problems through music.

Commentary

The Message from Music Therapy

Both the article and the book review which speak of the power of music to help children make the point that the services of music therapists are being heavily cut. It’s not a statutory requirement to provide music therapy, so, however laudable it is, it is just the sort of service which local authorities take the knife to in hard times. Furthermore, charitable foundations and trusts do not want to be seen as stand-in financiers when local government pulls out. The result is a seriously diminished service.

We are told that there are more cuts to come. The story of music therapy services will be replicated till nothing is provided which is not statutorily required, and even then the quality of services may well diminish. Which means that quality of life will diminish too, especially for the children whose lives are enhanced by the specialist services of this sort. Worth contacting your MP?

Moral Obligations

Keith White’s In Residence column this month raises an interesting question - and one that is very topical. How do we remind ourselves of our moral obligations to others, and retain sensitivity to the individuality of those we serve?

This is a question for many professions. It seems that top bankers have come to live in their own small world of deals and numbers and have lost their awareness that they are not the masters of the universe but just another service industry helping to make the wider community function. If each top banker also had a range of personal customers whose lives they affect, looking them in the eye might temper their decisions.

It is interesting that politicians (even those whose previous party leader said there was no such thing as the community) are now emphasising people’s moral obligations to each other.

At a lower level I have spoken to two people whose success in running small professional businesses has led them to the dilemma - whether to expand and manage others, risking losing the personal touch, or whether to stay small and relate directly to their clients.

Or again, while top surgeons may continue to undertake operations when their workload also includes lecturing, running hospital departments and so on, why do directors of children’s services and other senior managers in local government have no personal caseloads to keep in touch with the nature of the work?

HDJ

As we were writing this column the news reached us that Haydn Davies Jones had died. Known as HDJ to his students, Haydn ran the advanced residential child care course at Newcastle University from 1961 to 1989, after five years as Commander of Wellesley Nautical School. In his teaching role he had a major influence on residential child care services, along with Chris Beedell, who ran the Bristol University course. We shall publish a fuller appreciation of Haydn’s life and contribution in due course.

There are just enough words to tell the story and talk about people’s feelings in the face of illness and death in a way suited to children. Mandy Stanley has done the pictures - lots of them and just right for the story, filling the 32 pages of the book.

The aim is obviously to help young children come to terms with dying and grieving. The book will certainly be of help in such an event, but I hope that teachers and parents will use it with their children when there is no immediate cause for grief too. Death and dying can be treated as an uncomfortable taboo subject, and thankfully we face it much less among young people than a hundred years ago. But this book deals with the subject in a straightforward way, acknowledging people’s feelings while having lighter touches too. We recommend it.

Robinson, Hilary (2012) The Copper Tree
Strauss House Publications
ISBN 978-0-9571245-0-9

Five top tips for parents if your child is burnt

1. Call / shout for help whilst quickly assessing the situation. Approach the child as safely as possible; try not to expose yourself to danger. Move the child away from the injuring agent, to a safe area.

2. Stop the burning process, for example extinguish / smother flames, remove the child’s clothing (unless it is actually stuck to the surface of the skin itself), which will also allow you to see the extent of the injury.

3. Do not delay in providing first aid. Cool the injured area as a matter of urgency.

Remember, heat is retained in the body’s tissue even after direct contact with a hot substance has stopped. This remaining heat continues to damage the skin and tissue, and worsens the injury.

Place the injured area under cool running water as quickly as possible, for between 10-20 minutes. This will directly reduce the remaining heat in the tissue, limiting the severity of the injury and providing useful pain relief.

Try to keep the child warm in general, whilst cooling the injured part. Children can become hypothermic very quickly.

Never apply ice to an injury; this can damage tissue just as effectively as excessive heat.

4. Cover the injured area with a clean, non-stick dressing.

Cling film, readily available in most domestic settings, is an excellent temporary dressing to apply to a burn wound; it relieves pain at the site of injury, does not stick to the wound surface, and allows easy observation of the wound by medical professionals. Cool, damp towels or cool packs can be laid over it for added analgesia and comfort.

5. Seek medical advice in all cases of flame, electrical or chemical injury.

Ask for advice where the wound is too large to be dressed by a standard sticking plaster-sized dressing at home, or if in any doubt about the injury or wound.

For more information about BAPRAS visit: www.bapras.org.uk

The thirteen chapters cover children from pre-schoolers without speech onwards. Each chapter and author have been chosen for diversity, but most of the eighteen writers are connected with Cambridge, lecturing or having studied at Anglia Ruskin University, or working for Cambridgeshire Music.

There are two to five case histories from each writer, which are poignant and moving as the Introduction promises, and there are testimonies to music therapy’s many uses. Examples include a severely ill and disabled three-year-old without facial or vocal expression, five to nine-year-olds risking exclusion from school and teenagers already excluded. The chapter on work in Belfast sets the scene with six pages of the relevant history.

Dr Frankie Williams, appropriately, writes the Foreword. She draws together the threads of music therapy’s development which was fired by the passions and determination of so many excellent people. She herself is part of Cambridgeshire Music’s achievement: fourteen music therapists provided 189 hours’ work at the time of writing. Since then they have been affected by financial cuts.

All over the country alternative funding is being sought for music therapists. Dr Williams ends (in June 2011) with this paragraph:

“It has taken forty years to build up this essential resource of music therapy in schools, local authorities and the Health Service, and it can take a few minutes to demolish this in a government or a council meeting. All those taking these decisions should read this book first.”

Having read this book one should come back to this observation and consider hard what to do with this message. I hope that it may speak to and inform decision-makers, and fuel another generation’s concern and ability to change lives.

From my personal perspective, Professor Odell Miller and Dr Oldfield were the first music therapists I met. Like many others whom I met subsequently, they generously allowed their work to be observed and gave workshops demonstrating the potential of music therapy in education. I was a private teacher, working to support music in special schools, and Dr Williams was also a valued contributor in the early stages of the voluntary group I was asked to set up. At that time I went to workshops and read most of what was available then; I had the privilege of a short course of music therapy myself and did ’supervised play therapy’ with two young children.

So I read this book with fascination and some familiarity with the settings and the sounds of the sessions described. Even years ago I struggled with some of the texts. Despite my fascination, reading psychological jargon was not easy. In recommending this important book with its vital message for these times I must confess that some pages were less easy than others, and if it’s your first foray into reading about psychology you might need perseverance – or to skip bits!

The sounds of the improvised music can be hard to imagine, especially if you’ve never seen or heard the instruments being used. They are listed but not described, and there are several that are new to me. Luckily, if you can manage Google, you can get a demonstration on You Tube. I strongly recommend playing the videos on music therapy charity websites, and they also give good background reading. But in this book there is so much variety on every aspect of the subject and it offers constant wonder and excitement at the potential of music therapy.

Some say our ears are our most important organs, certainly in gestation and early years. The fact that music involves every area of our brain makes it a potentially very powerful healing tool.

Tomlinson, Jo, Derrington, Philippa and Oldfield, Amelia (2011) Music Therapy in Schools
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN 978-1-84905-000-5

Susan Pyke LRAM, ARCM, GRSM is Chair of Music and Special Needs in Norfolk and is contactable on pykesu@gmail.com.

For more information contact the British association of Music Therapy (BAMT). www.bamt.org includes information sheets as follows
Music Therapy and Mental Health
Music Therapy and Autism
Music Therapy and Neuro-Disability
Music Therapy with Adolescents
Music Therapy in the Early Years

There are videos and stories on:-

www.belltree.org.uk
www.keychanges.org
www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk
www.musicspace.org

Herman Stewart is a consultant, author, trainer and speaker in high demand and is a revered role model among young people. Herman believes that there is something missing in the way we educate and support our children at present and he believes it’s mentoring! His recently published book Every Child Needs A Mentor is available on Amazon.

The National Schools Symphony Orchestra, better known as NSSO, is a charitable organisation which brings together young musicians between the ages of nine and eighteen. NSSO aims to help, challenge and encourage those young musicians who already excel in their home environment.
The standard of young musicians within the orchestra is of the highest quality, so securing a place on the course can be a challenge. When three brothers, Luke, 17, Patrick, 15 and Robert Baldwin, 13, all won places on the 2012 NSSO course, it was a great achievement. What was even more remarkable, however, was that all three suffer from dyslexia, which has proven to be a real barrier to channelling their talent.
Music as an outlet

Sasha Baldwin, mother of the three boys, explains, “When they were diagnosed with dyslexia very early on in their school careers, I became aware that music training could offer a valuable outlet for their development. I also knew that learning a musical instrument could aid focus and improve language and literacy skills. I encouraged Luke, Patrick and Robert, from as young as five, to begin learning the piano and they all went on to play other instruments.

“The boys expressed a keen interest in music, but all suffered the same issues with reading music to differing degrees. For example, Robert had to give up the piano after a year as he could not read two lines of music simultaneously and became very frustrated. What really helped the boys was having access to a variety of musical instruments from a young age, and the ability to attend organised music lessons”.

Classes were set up by North Yorkshire Country Council that came to the boys’ primary school and offered music tuition and access to instruments, such as the French horn, which parents would not have been able to provide because of the expense.

Sasha continues, “Having access to music lessons from a young age has helped them overcome issues associated with dyslexia such as co-ordination problems, and has had a positive impact on their reading, writing and spelling.”

Learning music from a young age has enabled two of the brothers to win places as choristers at the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge. Patrick, who faces short term memory problems, writing and reading difficulties as a result of his dyslexia, explains, “Starting music at a young age at primary school gave me an amazing start, and I’m now able to play the trumpet, as well as piano and organ. When I started, I found it difficult to concentrate and keep focused on the music. Learning to read music has also always been a difficulty, especially following the line of music.
But, having a passion for music and learning a variety of instruments from a young age has had a positive impact. I have much more confidence and self-belief and this helps me manage my dyslexia in a better way.”

Turning down the sound

Teresa Bliss is an educational psychologist who works to help children and young people who are experiencing problems in school. She is convinced that music can have an impact on the development of children with dyslexia.

Teresa says, “Dyslexia is usually thought of as being a problem with reading and spelling but in fact, there are often many other additional difficulties with dyslexia. It can affect language, motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation. Children and young people with dyslexia are often easily distracted and lacking in concentration.

“I’m not at all surprised to see the benefits that music has had on Luke, Patrick and Robert with managing their dyslexia. While it is important that a structured approach to teaching reading and spelling is also used, it should be remembered that music offers training in many of the areas where dyslexics typically experience difficulties, such as understanding rhythm, sequencing, organisation, motor co-ordination, memory and concentration.

“It is a great pity that over the last two decades successive governments have reduced the funding for teaching of music in most state schools and increasingly it is only the children whose parents are able to afford it that can experience the life enhancement and confidence that comes from learning to play an instrument.”

Music matters

Alongside the reduction of school funding, music education has also been impacted by recent announcements by local councils who have confirmed that they are pressing ahead with planned cuts of up to ten per cent to their music services budgets .

These cuts come in the face of recent research by the Institute of Education, University of London, which has established that students who learn music over time increase their general IQ by seven points, while learning an instrument improves behaviour, memory and intelligence .

Sasha says, “The planned cuts to local council’s music budgets are really saddening. From my own personal experience, without the tuition that North Yorkshire County Council provided the boys, they would not have been able to overcome their difficulties with dyslexia and effectively express their abilities.”

Rebecca Woodward, NSSO representative, supports this, “These planned cuts, as well as the removal of the £82.5m a year in funding specifically aimed at providing music education, sends out the message that music education is a luxury that children can do without . The experiences of Luke, Patrick and Robert, with the help North Yorkshire Country Council provided them, showcases why this is wrong, and proves exactly why we need quality music education in schools.

“Learning to play an instrument can have a positive impact on young people, as the research by the Institute of Education, and in the cases of Luke, Patrick and Robert has proven. We are delighted to have three such talented young musicians on our 2012 NSSO course, but I fear how many other similarly gifted young musicians we will miss out on when these cuts come into force. Treating music education as a luxury that can be taken away when times are tough is doing the next generation a disservice, and may severely limit their overall development.”

Patrick concludes, “It would be a shame if councils reduce music services, as the North Yorkshire Country Council’s programme really helped develop mine and my brothers’ passion for music. Without it we would not have had the same access to instruments and therefore may not have been in the position to secure places on the 2012 NSSO course.

“My brothers and I are really excited to have won a place on the 2012 NSSO course. We have the opportunity to play Hollywood film score writer Patrick Doyle’s new piece of music called Impressions Of America: A Suite For Orchestra. He has written this music especially for NSSO to perform at a summer festival and we can’t wait to perform it.”

The National Schools Symphony Orchestra
Established in 1994, the National Schools Symphony Orchestra, also known as NSSO, aims to help, challenge and encourage those young musicians who already excel in their home environment, whether in the nation’s outstanding County Youth Orchestras or some of our leading school orchestras.
The step up to the ranks of the National Youth Orchestra or into the world of professional music is significant, and NSSO bridges the gap between county and national orchestra.
NSSO appoints experienced and internationally acclaimed professional conductors, skilled at relating to young people and able to make appropriate demands on them. They have included former ENO musical director Mark Shanahan, Bath Philharmonia principal conductor Jason Thornton and Peter Bridle MBE. Over the years the orchestra has also worked with leading soloists including Peter Donohoe, Ronan O’Hara and Tim Hugh.
The first National Schools Symphony Orchestra course brought together 78 young musicians and since then standards have risen consistently. Now NSSO is looking to expand and solidify its growing reputation for fulfilling a critical place in the panoply of the United Kingdom’s leading youth orchestras.
For more information visit: www.nsso.org

Tags

During the 19th and 20th centuries, about 130,000 children were sent from the UK to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Zimbabwe to give them a fresh start and to boost the population of developing nations. The last ones went as recently as 1970. Some did well, but many were exploited and deceived by those who should have safeguarded them. It is only in recent years that public apologies have led to serious attempts by the British and Australian governments to help those who were mistreated.

DATE: Monday 15 October 2012
VENUE: National Maritime Museum, Liverpool

AIMS
- to share the latest research on the subject,
- to identify what went wrong and how it happened, and
- to examine the lessons for today’s policy making and practice.

SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE:

Professor Roy Parker, who has recently researched emigration to Canada
David Hinchliffe, former MP who, as the Chair of the Health Select Committee, led a parliamentary inquiry into the welfare of Britain’s child migrants
Dr Margaret Humphreys CBE, OAM, International Director, Child Migrants Trust
Jim Hyland, former child care manager and historian
The conference is open to a wide range of professionals and students, people whose relatives were sent abroad, historians, social workers, lawyers or child care workers.

The charge for the day will be £45 to include refreshments and lunch.

Please make cheques payable to “CCHN”.
Applications should be sent to:

CCHN Conference Booking
C/O Planned Environment Therapy Trust
Barns House, Church Lane
Toddington near Cheltenham
Glos. GL54 5DQ

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL and PLEASE CIRCULATE THE ATTACHED FLYER TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE INTERESTED

Tags

Child migration
Australia
Canada
Child Care History Network
Child Migrants Trust

• Avoid packing sugary snacks as this could lead them to become hyper. High protein foods such as slices of fruit, cucumber and cheese are ideal snacks as they keep them fuller for longer.

• Start your trip an hour before your child’s normal nap time and allow them to run about and let off steam before getting in the car. The chances are that they will amuse themselves for the first part of the journey and then fall asleep for the rest of it.

• If you are on the road, frequent stops will make the journey more bearable for your little one. They will enjoy stretching their legs, getting some fresh air and having a change of scenery.

• Comfort is key on a long trip. Clothes made from natural fibres are more comfortable than synthetic ones. Bring a soft blanket for them to snuggle in to or use it as a pillow.

• If your child is potty-training, put a training pad or small towel on the car seat so any accidents will be contained. You may be unable to stop for a toilet break on demand.

• A pull-along suitcase will keep your child entertained and serve as a resting place when they get tired. If you are travelling with a baby put them in a metal-free sling, so that they can sleep without being disturbed during the security check-in.

• Airport regulations permit up to 100ml in the way of milk and drinks, although exceptions may be made for the under-twos. If your baby is bottle-fed, take powdered formula milk and buy bottled water in the secure area. Ask the cabin crew to top it up with boiled water during the flight.

• Changes in air pressure can make little ears pop. Sucking and swallowing helps to relieve air pressure in the middle ear, so keep drinks or pacifiers available for take-offs and landings.

• Strap children in on long-haul flights in case they wander off if you fall asleep. Seat straps will also keep them safe during air turbulence or in the event of an emergency.

• The best travel toys are quiet and compact and don’t break easily. Toys with small, moving parts are bound to end up under the seat. Favourite soft toys and books are essential, but have some new toys to provide interest and excitement. Wrap these up in paper to keep little hands busy.

Different activities for different ages

Babies

• Containers that fit together are fun to play with. They can be stacked, nested or used as hiding places for toys.

• A fabric scarf offers endless play and learning opportunities from hand-eye coordination to peek-a-boo, tickling and texture exploration.

• A rattle is a must, but keep it in reserve for a difficult moment. It could save the day!

• Sophie the Giraffe, a phthalate-free rubber toy that can be gripped, squeezed or mouthed is a popular baby toy.

• A familiar book can be comforting and your baby will enjoy turning the pages to find her favourite characters. Texture books that contain hidden surprises also provide entertainment and amusement.

• If you are on the road, put on a nursery rhyme CD or sing a song. A Baby Sensory baby will be instantly calmed by Say Hello to the Sun.

Toddlers

• A reusable sticker book will keep little hands busy. Stickers can be stuck on the window or the seat without any harm being done.

• A toy catalogue is great fun to look at and toddlers can colour in the things they would like to have. Activity books, which include dot-to-dot, mazes and patterns, will provide entertainment and distraction. If crayons are a problem, try an Etch-A-Sketch. Simply draw on the wipe off mat with the magic pencil and start again without having to change the paper.

• Chunky pipe cleaners that can be transformed into fascinating shapes will provide amusement. Attach them together to make animals, bracelets and necklaces.

• Small strips of masking tape stuck to your toddler’s legs and arms will provide endless fun. It can be removed easily (unlike a plaster) and gives a pleasant sensation.

• An interesting way to entertain your toddler is to provide a straw and a drinking cup filled with ice cubes. The straw can be flicked, bent and twisted in a number of different ways and the melting ice will promote the development of many scientific concepts.

Older children

• Older children may sit quietly listening to their favourite music on an MP3 player with headphones.

• A favourite book will keep them entranced for some time, but avoid books with small print in the car or you could end up with a sick child. Books about the geography, history, customs, animal and plant life of your destination will also keep them busy. A map and compass is great fun for children who want to help navigate the route.

• Classic travel games such as connect the dots, hangman, tic-tac-toe and magnetic games such as checkers, chess and snakes and ladders can make the time fly by.

• Scrabble is an ideal game for two players, but children can invent their own crossword puzzles too.

• Electronic games are very popular, but make sure that they are turned off during take-off and landing or they may interfere with the aircraft’s navigational system.

Try some of these tips on your next trip and you and your family may get to your destination in a more relaxed and happy frame of mind!

Dr Lin Day is the founder of Baby Sensory, which is the only provider of baby development classes designed specifically for babies from birth to 13 months. The classes are run in over 200 locations throughout the UK and in 12 countries including the US, Australia and Spain and has most recently launched in China. The Baby Sensory programmes have been developed in the UK by Dr. Lin Day (PhD Dip. Ed. BSc. PGCE M. Phil), who has worked with babies and young children throughout her career. All activities are excellent for developing physical, social and emotional, and language skills, co-ordination, awareness of the world, a love of music and the concentration needed for further development. The programme is also suitable for babies with physical or learning impairments. See www.babysensory.com

It looks at the dangers of internet social network sites for young children as well as the troubles that violent family members can wreak on unsuspecting carers.
The language is very current, which makes it relevant to the younger generation.
I think the main aspect that is in its favour is the ‘thinking out loud’ strategy which allows the reader to keep up with thoughts and subsequent actions of the lead characters.

It is a very wordy book and there is an expectation that young people are avid readers, but it can be taken and absorbed in sections, especially as the climax builds. Nothing is overly stated but the tension leading to the conclusion is palpable.

I hope young people take the time to read this especially if they have been involved in or are currently in the care system.

Bond, Henrietta (2012) Losing Control
BAAF Fostering and Adoption
ISBN: 9781907585500

Levinas leads others like Claire Elise Katz and Marc Bregman to consider the face of Isaac:

“Abraham is bent over looking down at Isaac, who is lying on his back looking up into heaven. In the next ‘shot’, we see the face of Isaac through the eyes of Abraham. What he sees in his son’s face is so horrific that it causes him to weep to a surrealistic extent and to let out an inhuman cry. Though the end of this midrash has the angel staying Abraham’s hand, I claim that Abraham was changed when he looked into Isaac’s face.”

“The Voice of God and the Face of the Other: Levinas Kierkegaard, and Abraham”, C. Katz, in The Journal of Textual Reasoning, Volume 10, 2001. (http://ettext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/tr/archive/volume10/Katz.html)

To look into the face of an Other is, in the light of this dramatic story, and following this line of argument, to open oneself up, to put oneself at risk of being confronted by “an ought”. There is no longer the option of passivity, neutrality, or of continuing with a course of action that would harm the pleading face.

And it is this that stirred me. I have always found difficulty with statistics (in more ways than one). A particular problem is that they are often presented as a way of inducing feelings and obligations: many children around the world will die of preventable diseases in the next 24 hours, and so on. We are supposed to be horrified, but is there not the risk that we may become immune to the statistics over time, however they are packaged?

In Rolf Hochhuth’s play, The Representative, Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the deaths of countless Jews in the ‘Final Solution’ is asked how he could possibly do it. He replies that the only problem was with the first one, the first time, because he was a real human being, “The rest were statistics”.

The point is that whenever we lose sight of the individual human face, there is a risk that our sense of human obligation wanes. As it happened, I had just been reading the harrowing descriptions of the state-inspired famine in Ukraine in Vassily Grossman’s novel Everything Flows. Unlike Stalin and his henchmen, who orchestrated this unimaginable human tragedy, Grossman describes mothers and children looking at each other face to face. The leaders were fed nothing but statistics: everything was second hand, and at a distance.

With all this (and much more flooding into my mind as I read) it came to me that in child care and children’s services we have to find a way of ensuring that everyone employed to help children is regularly confronted by the actual face of a single child, and given time and space to take in the obligations that come through the encounter.

I am, as I write this piece, coming towards the end of work on a book on Child Theology that I have been trying to get into shape with my friend Professor Haddon Willmer for over ten years. We have taken as our starting point and guide the passage in Matthew’s Gospel (Chapter 18) where he places a little child in the midst of his disciples as a sign of the kingdom of God. He calls the disciples to become humble like the children (that is plural in the text of the gospel), but then goes on to state the following, “Whoever welcomes the least of these little ones in my name, welcomes me and the One who sent me”. This is singular, and well it might be, for genuine reception of a child requires like we open ourselves up to the full implications of the obligations presented by her face.

Is this, I wonder, why I have always sensed that my calling was primarily to relate to a few children in a very particular time and place, rather than to work for the children in the world in general? Perhaps those who do the latter (I think of UNESCO, World Vision, Compassion International and many other organisations) are themselves inspired in what they do by memories of a single child’s face.

When we begin to draw up policies (for example the 1989 UNCRC) is there not the ever-present risk that we will lose sight of individual children and the immediacy of their contexts, situations, gifts and needs? Another way of putting this is to wonder whether such policies, however laudable in their manifest intentions, might actually serve to help us evade the searching gaze of individual children.

It is a sobering thought, and I muse on it not to throw a spotlight on others, but to ponder the reality of my own life and engagement with children. I give thanks that in my daily life I have the opportunity of being open to the faces of individual children and young people, so that as I write and contribute to thinking about how we might respond more effectively to the crying needs of children worldwide, I have unforgettable reminders of my obligations.

What does this mean in practice? It is probably unwise for me to try to say, but I hope that it means at the very least that I do not build a life and career on the basis of seeking to help unnamed thousands of children, or at the cost, albeit indirectly, of the well-being of some of them. What I hope is that I am constantly reminded of my humanity, my mortality, my earthiness, so that I never fly too high, inspired by vaulting ambitions of how I can help them in general. Also, that as I reflect in writing there may be a few working examples of the implications of such an approach in practice.

As it happens, I must wind up this article right now because I will be having a meal with some of those who live at Mill Grove. Of course I know that names of each one, and their life-stories, but I pray that I may be open to the face of the little one sitting across the table. Who knows what that will mean for the rest of the evening, and the obligations that there will be for the coming weekend?!

Rachel Fearnley looks at the different communication methods and whether they are effective. She looks beyond the actual death of the parent to life without them from the child’s perspective.

She sets out some vignettes for the reader to work through and use as points for professional discussion. There are references to legislation and current events as well as a template of behaviours for professionals to follow.

Whilst this topic is not a joyous one, it is a necessary part of the life that a lot of children are living. There is an emphasis on respect for different cultures, the use of stories to explain what is happening and above all, the importance of truth and realism.

Most children will have an inkling of the seriousness of their parent’s condition but may be too frightened of the other adults’ reactions to say anything.

Hospices and hospital must keep a copy of this handy.

Fearnley, Rachel (2012) Communicating with Children –when a parent is at the end of life
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 9781849052344

Rufus the cat had lived in a difficult home when he was a kitten. Sometimes there was no food and people could be cruel to him. When he moved to his new home he was quite aggressive to begin with until he felt more secure and confident. He had flashbacks, which reminded him of his other home. He couldn’t find a place where he felt safe. He tried many places until he found a soft blue cushion and that became his safe place. Eventually he learned to trust people and to diversify his diet.

The book has an explanatory booklet attached to the back page which explains to adults how confusing life must be for children who have only experienced a difficult life and are suddenly thrust into a more open accepting environment.

This is a good resource especially for long term foster carers or parents who adopt an older child.

Seeney, Jill (2012) A Safe Place for Rufus
BAAF Fostering and Adoption
ISBN: 9781907585456

There are child-drawn illustrations throughout the text. There are key words written in different coloured ink from the main text.

The booklet sets out to explain in everyday language how adoption works, as well as the different types of families it works in. There is a story about a girl, Ellie, whose family want to adopt a boy called Franco. Ellie has friends who have adopted children into the family and it helps make the experience more real and natural.

The questions posed are typical of small children. Will I have to share all my toys and get them broken? Will mum and dad love me as much if they adopt more children? What if my new brother or sister doesn’t like me or I don’t like them?

It is a lovely un-intrusive booklet to share with young children before and during the adoption process.

Argent, Hedi (2010) Adopting a Brother or Sister
BAAF Fostering and Adoption
ISBN: 9781907585005

My grandchild had very creatively used her plasticine to make lots of these reptiles and had secreted them in and around the room for me to find. We had fun discovering each one with her shouting, “Look out, Nana, there’s another one!”

The joy of this from my point of view is how her imagination is emerging along with her language. It may not appear such a big deal to outsiders but this is a child of whom we were offered no positive future. “She won’t amount to much I’m afraid,” was the prognosis of an eminent paediatrician. I am so pleased that her mother and I ignored all of this doom-laden advice and allowed her to be whoever and whatever she would.

Children as individuals

This is the thing about any child. They are so unique and individual. There will never be a time when we can forecast confidently how anyone’s life will turn out, especially in the young. The UK Early Years Foundation Stage serves our children well by promoting developmental phases rather than ages and stages, so that each child is able to progress and regress through the milestones and aspects of skills development and improvement and acquisition of knowledge.

1. EYFS :  www.foundationyears.org.uk/early-years-foundation-stage-2012/

2. www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/earlylearningandchildcare

 Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, said:

The first five years of a child’s life, the foundation years, are absolutely critical. We want a system where every child can thrive, regardless of their social background. If we are to tackle the attainment gap and raise life chances, we must start in the earliest years. We know experiences in these first years have the biggest impact on how a child’s brain develops. It’s when children grasp the fundamental skills needed to do well at school and develop as happy, confident individuals. That’s why today I am setting out a much slimmer, easier to understand early years curriculum. It will give professionals more freedom in how they work with children, and will involve parents more in their child’s learning. Fundamentally, it will make sure we are preparing our children for the challenges of school and beyond. This isn’t just about making sure they can hold a pencil - children need the resilience, confidence and personal skills to be able to learn.

The will to learn

Even though her progress has been slow compared with the majority of children within her age group, she has come along tremendously. Home schooling has certainly supported her style of learning and this will continue for the foreseeable future.

The long-standing nature/nurture debate would have a field day with a child such as ours. It is obvious that she will continue to need in-depth support, care and ‘education’ in its many guises from formal classroom stuff through to media, technology, friendship groups and literally watching the world as it goes by.

By making models of snakes she demonstrates how she understands what they look like and how they travel along their terrain. She is aware of the differences between snakes, snails and slugs and can change one thing to another with ease.

At present we are working on the solar system.

Here is her drawing of the earth

It looks like a nice place to live

In case you don’t know anything about them, and you haven’t yet googled them (if you do you will find some superb images) the basics are these.  They are the homes of some of the peoples that live in the forests of what is still known locally as the island of Borneo.  They are usually near rivers, built of wood on stilts, and characterised as their name suggests by their shape.  The reason for this is simple: when a new family is created by marriage, then another part is added on to the existing dwelling. 

All the parts have their own door (they refer to “doors”, not houses or apartments), and are linked by a verandah.  It is this verandah that provides the social space for nearly all the communal life of the longhouse.  A covered area is invaluable, given the amount of rain that falls throughout the year; and the need for shelter from the heat of the sun.

It was early evening when we arrived, and while a group of older men were chatting at a table, and a younger person was tending the wooden fire traditionally used for cooking, there were one or two little children sitting on the laps of their parent or another member of the longhouse.

All the materials of which the longhouses are made, and which are used for crafts, are of course locally available, and bamboo, sugar cane, and coconut trees are prominent among them.

The longhouses are under threat as the forests are cleared, and younger generations are attracted to the urban way of life.  They are now seen by many as a tourist destination or curiosity.  Unlike ancient ruins, they still have residents, but without care, their days will be numbered.

As Children Webmag is an internet magazine and my columns are about contemporary life, and focussing particularly on children, why should longhouses be of any interest?

In short, because they represent a sustainable way of living, tried and tested through many generations and centuries, that manages to keep a delicate balance between individuality and community, family and village, privacy and shared living, young and old.  Whether we know it or not, this is the sort of balance we are all looking for.

But there are two specific reasons for my joy at visiting a longhouse eleven years after hearing about them from the student.  And these may give cause for thought in others.

Longhouses and education

First, a teacher from Sarawak told me how the children, as young as six years old, were taken from the longhouses and placed in boarding houses in towns and cities where there were schools, as part of the government education policy.  I was stunned.  But he really meant it.  Little children were wrenched from their homes, their families, their community, their natural habitat, in order to attend schools where they would be ‘educated’. 

It had unpleasant echoes of the way children were placed in orphanages in the nineteenth century in the UK, places that were orderly and clean, in place of the slums in which they had been born.  My mind was racing as I tried to imagine what it must feel like for such a child to find herself in a completely unfamiliar natural and social environment.  I walked over the little bamboo bridge, watched a little child interact with others on the verandah, saw the carpets being woven out of reeds, and listened to music from locally made instruments, listened to the sounds of the jungle in the night air and under the stars….

What sort of idea of education leads a government to this harsh and insensitive policy, I wondered? What did the parents and residents of the longhouse think and feel, let alone the children?  And sadly and slowly I realised that it is exactly the sort of policies and resolutions pronounced at international gatherings such as the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Here was the child’s “right to education” being observed and implemented to the letter. The child would be sitting in some sort of classroom, with a teacher and a group of other children, and there ‘education’ would begin.  Someone somewhere would get a tick for this, possibly even promotion!

But what philosophy of education is that?  The longhouses are places where children are educated for life, in a community abounding in skills, knowledge and culture.  They could be taken away from all this, and taught by adults who knew nothing of the life and rhythms of the forest and the natural world.  All in the name of a formal system of education that necessitates a school building and classrooms as evidence that the objectives of the policy have been met!

My student did a dissertation on education of children from the longhouses, and in it he came to a radical conclusion, that you may well have guessed already.  Instead of taking the children (there are always likely to be more than one at a time) from the longhouses to send them to boarding schools, why not send teachers to live in the longhouses? 

The longhouses would offer a ‘door’ to the teacher: that is their very essence, and the process of learning in which the children have been engaged from their earliest days would be continued in context.  They would teach the teacher many things, and the teacher would be able to help them with aspects of maths and reading, history and geography in an appropriate way and when the time was right.  And of course others in the long house would be part of the whole process as learners and teachers: in a constant dynamic of shared learning.

I couldn’t help but feel that the teachers would get the best of this deal, given all that the group I was with seemed to learn on a rather short visit! If a philosophy of education is needed, then Froebel and Montessori are tailor-made for such a social setting and physical environment.

As far as I know there are not many teachers who do this, but my hope is that the rest of the world will come to see the tragedy that is unfolding, affecting not only individual children and families, but their very way of life.

Longhouses and Mill Grove

This brings me to the second point.  I have always found it difficult to describe Mill Grove, the place where I live with children and young people.  It isn’t a conventional house or apartment; it isn’t a place where a single biologically-related family lives; it isn’t a boarding school; it isn’t a children’s home; it isn’t a therapeutic residential community…. I could go on. 

But in a flash I saw what it was in its very essence: it was a longhouse!  For 113 years we have lived there as a family, adapting and extending the building as others joined us and the need arose.  The address is a give-away: 8-26 Crescent Road.  There’s a longhouse for you!   And when a friend in Sarawak saw the photos on the Mill Grove website, he exclaimed to me, “It really does look like a longhouse!”

So it was that as the light was fading in Sarawak I found myself feeling strangely at home.  It was almost as if I had come home.  And as one who wonders whether what is called ‘western civilisation’ has entered a cul-de-sac constrained and overshadowed by hyper-individualistic, consumer-based, market-driven, debt-riddled, narcissistic and sex-obsessed pressures and forces, and doomed to come to a halt as most human civilisations do, I could not help thinking that I was witnessing and experiencing life as most of us would wish to live it, in some shape or form.

It was by an accident of birth that I found myself in just such a community at Mill Grove.  And then I remembered that an increasing number of young people are asking to visit or stay with us because they too sense that the way of life they are being offered in the mainstream does not do justice to the way they understand life, community, learning, work, society and spirituality.

It’s not everyday that you find you have discovered something fundamental about your own life and roots, as well as that which links past and future, if only governments local and worldwide are open to see that education is something quite different from a school and formal curriculum.

The shape and purpose of residential child care for some of our most vulnerable children could be set for a generation in forthcoming government announcements, which are in response to a high-profile parliamentary report on runaway children and news reports concerning child sexual exploitation.

The announcements follow some terrible incidents but change should be considered in the calmest possible way in case rushing to judgement makes things worse.

You know the sector well, having shadowed the brief for many years in opposition and having been the Minister for the last two years. You have often gone on record as praising the positive role that residential child care can play.

I have been involved with residential child care over four decades and the new media and political interest in the plight of looked after children is very welcome but we must look at the whole system in the round.

Sadly, there is an inclination to round on children’s homes, most of which are private or voluntary, because local authorities have largely vacated the sector, and social workers, frustrated by the inability to innovate in a municipal system, believed they could do better for looked-after children in independent settings.

Children’s homes are too often asked to perform miracles, following failures elsewhere in the system. For two years providers have been advising Government of these difficulties but have been ignored. You now have a once in a lifetime opportunity to end this disconnect and announce not just an enquiry into children’s homes but also into what is happening in fostering, schools and mental health services. They are interconnected.

We must stop using our children’s homes as a last resort. The reality from official figures is that serial fostering placements lead to young people arriving at a children’s home too late, at 15½, and then staying for seven months. Only one-fifth stay longer than a year.

Most children who are taken away from their birth parents will thrive in fostering or adoption - and the adoption process should be eased. But there is a minority of such children for whom these options are not viable. They are best cared for in a children’s home. If they arrive too late, then the home will have a much harder task in helping turn their lives and prospects around.

Action has been demanded on the number of children who are placed outside their home areas. You have has signalled that you will be issuing instructions to local authorities regarding placing children at distance. However, geography alone cannot include the complexity of a child’s needs. Most looked-after children need relatively ordinary care and will find that a placement in or near their local community suits them well. But creating a universal rule about how locally children should be placed would undermine a key principle of the Children Act which is ensuring the ‘most appropriate’ placement for a child.

Placement needs to be led by social work assessment combined with listening to young people. Young people frequently say that a longer distance allows them to retain their own individual identity, while reassessing what it means for them to be a member of their family. They find they can belong to two places. Some young people need local placements and others more distant ones. What we need therefore is sufficiency and diversity. There may well be a correct or ideal proportion of local placements, but no one knows what that is. It is certainly not 100%.

Children’s homes need to be supported in providing the specialised and intensive resources that are required locally, regionally and nationally. Moving children is sometimes essential. Staying local whatever may mean denying a child specialist care or sufficient psychological safety.

Providers have invested in research reviews (www.icha.org.uk Research Review- Stability, Continuity and felt Security Research Review - Placement at distance from home ) into distance as a factor in placement, and also stability, continuity and ‘felt security.’ These and other views should be part of the evidence base for the Government.

Children’s homes are a small part of the care system. They are the most scrutinised and have vastly improved in the last decade. This is not to deny that there are some problems but they are not the norm, however sensational the headlines may be on occasion.

It doesn’t make sense to focus on this part of the system alone. You could be bold and announce that the whole system needs analysis and reform.

Children’s homes providers are saying that children’s services need to change so that they use children’s homes positively. You could take a leaf out of Scotland’s book where the government has already taken steps in its National Residential Child Care Initiative to make its children’s homes the first and best choice for young people who have high level needs.

Providers can do nothing about this. It is up to local authorities to take on their parenting and child care responsibilities. Legally these are their children.

What parent would not want quality and choice? Why then do local authorities emphasise a procurement market mentality where too often cost overshadows care decisions over where a young person is placed?

You will be remembered for these announcements. You can join the pantheon of names associated with groundbreaking legislation or be another politician young people prefer to forget. We need your leadership, Tim. Developing good homes is a shared responsibility. You need to act now to bring providers, commissioners, councils and government officials together with a common purpose of raising standards across the sector and allowing children’s homes to play a positive role.

Providers stand ready to play our role in developing a decent policy for looked after children, building on its strengths and eliminating its defects.

Jonathan Stanley

Chief Executive Officer, Independent Children’s Homes Association

Sarah, Katie and Appletree’s Registered Manager Cath Banks were amongst a group who were invited to attend a celebration event in London. There were over 300 nominations for ‘star’ carer, Sarah was amongst the group of 13 who were to be presented with the award.

The residential children’s homes’ workers and the children and young people who nominated them as having gone ‘the extra mile’ took part in the event which celebrated the vital work of children’s homes’ carers and the important role that they have played in the lives’ of young people in their care.

Assembling in the Westminster Hall the children and their carers were given a special House of Commons tour, the tour guides showed them some of ‘the best bits’ and gave lots of fun facts. “But we weren’t allowed to sit down”, said Katie.

The party then travelled to the Department for Education’s headquarters in Sanctuary Buildings where they were welcomed by Andrew Sargent. Tim Loughton, Minister for Children, gave a speech and presented certificates to Sarah and the other care workers. The children had the chance to give their views about what made their home a good place to live. Ministers also took the opportunity to review with them what it is that makes their home safe. Katie took the opportunity to present Tim Loughton with a picture she had drawn and to invite him to tea at Appletree.

Evelyn Daniel, Jane Kenny, Siobain Degregorio, Ariola Vishnja Zjarri, Mark Smith and Charles Sharpe

The good ship Issue 11 of the goodenoughcaring journal has docked at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.htmand and brings with it an interesting cargo. Our theme is residential child care which has once again been buffeted by a storm of largely unfair demonisation from the media and politicians following the recent Rochdale court decisions.

More recently local authorities who are placing children in children’s homes a far distance from their local communities have come under fire. This is a matter the BBC made a great deal of on Newsnight on 13 June. Newsnight’s report can still be seen on BBC iplayer. Let’s hope that this issue can counter the inclement weather and allow us to shelter in the lee for a short period, while we take an opportunity for reflection.

In this issue

*           Zufliya Ashurmamadova describes the state of residential child care in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in central Asia;

*           John Burton discusses compliance and defiance in residential child care, and then offers a bonus piece on finance and budgeting in children’s homes;

*           John Cross gives his thoughts on Planned Environment Therapy;

*           Evelyn Daniel writes about private sector and wider residential child care matters in England;

*           Kevin Ellis evaluates his work with a “high impact” child in a residential           school;

*           Claire Cooper reflects on the journey of a keychild/keyworker relationship;

*           Phil Frampton looks back on his experience of residential child care and        espouses the need for more provision;

*           Mark Hardy examines the recording of shifts in residential child care;

*           Jeremy Millar concludes his reflections on Chris Beedell’s Residential LIfe with Children; and

*           John Stein speaks of the power of residential treatment;

*           editorially anchoring us is Mark Smith.

The overriding concern for nine in ten (87 per cent) parents with babies aged below one was the risk of them falling ill. Other reasons cited were worries about how the baby would cope with the heat and the baby being disruptive on the plane.

The survey, which questioned over 400 parents on Facebook, also found that nine in ten parents (86 per cent) fretted about the safety of children of any age left at a hotel kids’ club.

Dr. Lin Day, the founder of Baby Sensory, believes that holidays closer to home can help to keep stress to a minimum for families.

She said, “It’s natural for parents to worry about the safety and well-being of their children, and foreign holidays can present extra concerns in terms of travel logistics and what to do if your child gets ill. However, holidays shouldn’t involve lots of unnecessary stress. Relaxed parents lead to relaxed children and the most important aspect of a family holiday is spending quality time together away from the everyday distractions of work, school and home. Young children don’t mind where they are as long as it’s with you.

“However, if parents do choose to go abroad, they shouldn’t be worried to ask hotels for evidence of recognised child care qualifications and accreditation for holiday kids’ clubs.”

Dr. Lin Day (PhD. M. Phil. PGCE. BSc. Dip. Ed.) has worked with babies and young children throughout her career and has developed the Baby Sensory programmes.

Baby Sensory is the only provider of baby development classes designed specifically for babies from birth to 13 months. The classes are run in over 400 locations throughout the UK and in 12 countries including the US, Australia and Spain and has most recently launched in China. All activities are excellent for developing physical, social and emotional, and language skills, co-ordination, awareness of the world, a love of music and the concentration needed for further development. For more about Baby Sensory – www.babysensory.com.

Ally Dunhill and Dr Richard Burchill of Hull University argue that an emphasis on children’s rights should improve interprofessional collaboration in child safeguarding - and hopefully prevent child deaths.

Jim Hyland contributes his final chapter in his analysis of the history of approved schools in Lessons to be Learnt for Children’s and Society’s Sake

Elaine Forrest has provided a follow-up to the fascinating series about her battles to obtain the right diagnoses and services for her daughter, who has multiple disabilities. Aleesha is getting on remarkably well.

Keith White has written about the long-term nature of real success in evaluating children’s services.

Gudrun Limbrick introduces her new book, The Children of the Homes, about the experience of former children in the care of Birmingham’s cottage homes.

Valerie Jackson reviews Changing Lives, a unique TV project which throws up lots of questions.

Kathleen Lane compares childhood when the Queen was crowned and now in her Jubilee year. There is lots of clever technology - but are things better for children?

In an article provided for us to mark Missing Children’s Day (which was on 25 May).
Esther Rantzen writes graphically about The Invisible Children.

Terry Hoon has written his first contribution for some time, pointing out how services for children and young people have time and again been shaped by the unintended consequences of well-motivated developments.

Dr. Lin Day has provided another advice article for parents - Top Tips for Handling a Teething Baby.

Finally Graham McPheat of CELCIS would like to know what you think about advanced residential child care training. Take a moment to send him your ideas.

This is the one hundred and fiftieth Webmag. Almost without exception, Children Webmag has been published on the first of the month since January 2000. That means that it has been going for twelve and a half years, or half a generation, or an eighth of a century, if you take the long view. In the history of the internet that is a long time.

Thinking of children, the world population has gone up from roughly six billion to roughly seven billion during the lifetime of this magazine, and if one takes account of people who have died, the number of children born since our first edition must be well over a billion. There is clearly still a lot to be done in the field of parenting and child care.

The Future

Till now we have produced monthly issues, partly as a way of organising material for the ease of the Editor and partly so that subscribers receive regular information but, we hope, not so frequently that it is irritating.

The Board has decided to take a different approach from 1 July 2012. Articles received by the Webmag will be processed in the same way, but they will be published as they come in, rather than grouped in monthly issues. This is more in keeping with the immediate nature of the internet, and we hope that dialogue with readers will increase.

The title of this Editorial, All Change?, is not quite correct. The values and principles of the Webmag (laid out in last month’s Editorial) will continue to be upheld. We shall still be publishing. We shall still be wanting people to contribute, and subscribers will continue to be informed from time to time about the latest articles.

It is, however, a significant turning point, and it is therefore appropriate to use the opportunity to thank people.

Thank You

The Webmag Board all work voluntarily and their support has been invaluable. Especial mention should be made of the Chair, Dr Keith White, who has not only chaired and led the Board and the Webmag Operations Team but has also contributed a brilliant regular column. Valerie Jackson, another Board member, has written many book reviews and fascinating articles, especially on early years and education. Mike Jones has acted as Treasurer and together with Gill Wilton they have sought funding for the Webmag. Other Board members in recent years have been Maureen O’Hagan, Charlie Rice, Chris Durkin and Angie Bartoli; thanks are due to all of them for their support.

In the early years of the Webmag Bill Stevenson was the Production Manager, and he helped overcome the teething troubles back in 2000, as well as inserting corny jokes. Jeremy Curtis has overseen the production since 2005, assisted for a while by Chris Cox and more recently by his son, Josh. They have been responsible for occasional design work as well as the ongoing production, and they have done an excellent job on a shoestring.

Major thanks are due to all the contributors. Over the years, several hundred people must have written for the Webmag, and by now we estimate that there must have been about 2,400 articles published, representing a couple of dozen countries. Taking account of the contents of News Views, some thousands of topics will have been mentioned.

Some of our contributors have been regulars, such as A.J. Stone, who wrote a gripping 26-chapter story about a boy in a children’s home, or Jim Hyland, with his recent history of the approved school service (the final and fifteenth chapter being in this issue). There was Robert Shaw’s seventy-five Key Texts. Parents have written series about adoption, or caring for a disabled child. Anton Tobé wrote about his work in the Balkans. Series have also been contributed by the Hesley Foundation, the Frontier Youth Trust and, more recently, by the ICSE. These are only examples.

Some contributors have written occasional articles, such as those by Charles Pragnell, which have often stirred up responses. And a lot of individuals have contributed single articles. The pay-off for being Editor is the chance to read all the new material as it comes in.

Finally, thankyou to the subscribers and the occasional readers who are directed by search engines, especially to those who have written in. Some of the correspondence has been really moving, sharing personal experiences. Where we have been able to respond to issues raised by readers we have done so; apologies to those we could not help.

Please Write

Please keep on writing in; we shall still be publishing the letters and articles you submit, and we look forward to the next twelve and a half years, even if we are no longer numbering the issues.

One child in every classroom is affected by a Specific Language Impairment (SLI), a little recognised condition that affects all aspects of life, prompting a group of leading academics to come together and launch Raising Awareness of Language Impairment (RALLI), a video led campaign to raise awareness. SLI hinders understanding and expressing language, and affects the way children learn, form friendships and develop. Although the condition is common it receives little recognition, and as a result many children and their families miss out on accessing help and support.

The campaign will share video stories based on people’s experiences of SLI and what can be done to help those affected. Professor Dorothy Bishop commented, “Language learning impairment can have a dramatic impact on children. Research shows that two in five children who have the condition say they have difficulties interacting with peers and are twice as likely to be bullied. These issues do not stop as they grow older, in fact, teenagers with language impairment are two and half times more likely to report symptoms of anxiety or depression.”

Becky Clark, RALLI editor and a speech and language therapist, said, “Our ambition is to bring together the leading academics in the field to produce an informed, relevant video that will shine a light on SLI and help those affected. The channel will become a place where people can not only come and get support, but also comment and discuss the issues. We’re really hoping to build a community as well as raising awareness.”

To find out more and watch the launch videos, please go to RALLI’s YouTube page at: http://www.youtube.com/rallicampaign

Research on Epilepsy Stereotypes

Young Epilepsy has published research which shows that young people are stigmatised, and their health and wellbeing are put at risk because many have a poor knowledge and understanding of the condition.

David Ford, Young Epilepsy’s Chief Executive said: “A major shift in awareness and understanding is the only thing that is going to improve this situation. We know that young people with epilepsy are getting a raw deal when it comes to education, employment and social interaction. This research reveals that people’s awareness is woefully low and as a result, they may inadvertently put young people at risk even though they are trying to do the right thing. The message for everyone is that a little understanding can go a long way towards making a difference to young lives with epilepsy.”

Of over 1,000 UK adults who took part in the survey:

• Only 1 in 3 would recognise going limp and dropping to the floor as a symptom of a seizure.
•  7 out of 10 people would recognise dropping to the floor and jerking around as a symptom of a seizure.
•  2 out of 3 people would not know that staring into space could be a sign of a seizure.

When questioned about what they would do if they were with someone having a seizure:

•  1 in 6 people would put something in the person’s mouth – a common misconception which can be dangerous for the person having a seizure.
•  42% would call an ambulance – which is not necessary unless it is the person’s first seizure or the seizure continues after 5 minutes.
•  1 in 10 said they would try and keep the person still – in fact you should not try and restrain the person at all, but you should support their head.
•  1 in 7 said they would not know what to do.
•  1 in 100 said they would throw water over the person.

David Ford said, “Many people try very hard to do the right thing but end up doing the exact opposite. We often hear stories of a young person with epilepsy being excluded from activities such as swimming or attending school trips because of concerns over health and safety. This approach just leads to the individual being isolated and can have a serious impact on their self confidence and mental health. A young person with epilepsy is four times more likely to have a psychological condition such as depression than someone with another common long-term health condition like diabetes and they are 50% more likely to underachieve at school. The truth is these problems can usually be avoided; if a few simple precautions are taken there is no reason why a young person with epilepsy cannot participate in all the usual activities their peers enjoy and this helps no end with their personal development.”

Epilepsy is the most common serious childhood neurological condition and affects around 112,000 people aged 25 and under.

Young Epilepsy has free information available to anyone that needs to know more about epilepsy including handbooks, seizure diaries and online videos. The charity provides training courses across the UK aimed at health, education and social care professionals. It also provides medical services plus operates a specialist school and college at its Surrey headquarters.

Virtual Childminding Café Opens for Business

In April Amanda Beable, a former Leicestershire-based ‘outstanding-graded’ childminder, set up www.thechildmindingcafe.co.uk. The online resource centre provides over 60 downloadable documents that childminders can adapt as necessary for their own settings, covering policies and procedures, leadership and management tools, the Early Years Foundation Stage regulations (EYFS) and finances. Example documents include child record and permission forms, planning and observation, formal assessments and even finance sheets and invoices. All are designed to take the headache out of the administration needed to set up as a childminder, and ensure existing childminders are fully up to date with the paperwork required by Ofsted.

Amanda Beable says, “When I set up there was no de facto place where I could get all of the information I needed. I know from personal experience it can feel quite scary to set up a business, attract customers, be inspected by Ofsted and comply with complex childcare regulations. Many childminders in England find both levels of paperwork and complex childcare regulations a major drawback to childminding. And with a huge 20% increase in the number of registered childminders last year, I hope thechildmindingcafe.co.uk will make the business side of childminding less daunting”.

An annual subscription of £29 gives access to all downloadable documents, a monthly newsletter, EYFS 2012 updates, an interactive coaching Q&A board, regular business inspiration blogs and dedicated telephone support to help members with paperwork.

We are not quite sure what a “de facto place” is, but it is our impression that the National ChildMinding Association could have met Amanda’s needs. Since a very high percentage of childminders are members of the NCMA, which offers a wide range of support services, it will be interesting to see how Amanda fares.

A Call the Faithful to Foster

Mark Molden, Chief Executive of Care for the Family, has circulated the following email:
I am writing to invite you to attend a free consultation event we are holding in London on 28 June 2012, on the topic of adoption and fostering.
There are an estimated 6,800 children waiting to be adopted in the UK, and 8,750 more foster families are needed. Every child in this system has a tale to tell, but it usually involves a lot of pain and uncertainty. We realised that if every church in the UK could find someone to adopt or foster a child, then we’d make a huge difference.
As a first step we are holding some consultation events in association with the Evangelical Alliance, to get people’s views, experiences and stories to help us take this exciting idea forward and make it one that will work. At the event I’ll be sharing more about this opportunity, and you’ll also hear from Krish Kandiah from the Evangelical Alliance. But mainly, we want to hear your thoughts, concerns and ideas.
We’re inviting church leaders, and Christians involved in social work and other relevant professions to join us from 3pm to 5pm. In the evening, from 7.30pm to 9.45pm, we’d like to hear from Christians who are personally involved in adopting or fostering. Please would you help us by forwarding this email on to anyone you know who may be interested?
If church members can be mobilised as Mark is suggesting, the campaign could make a serious dent in the numbers of foster carers and adopters required, but they face a few rocky shoals. Will the black churches respond in helping to meet the needs of black children? What about the needs of children from other faiths? Are their figures correct? (It is our impression that an assumption is often made that all children in care need an alternative home, when residential care is preferable for some.)
From our reading of case files it is our impression that many Christians are already in the field of foster care. We look forward to seeing the impact of this campaign, and wish Mark Molden, Krish Kandiah and their colleagues well. For more information contact www.careforthefamily.org.uk or phone 029 2081 0800.

Rating Books for Children?

The film industry has a rating system to prevent underage individuals from watching movies deemed inappropriate, but a recent study from Brigham Young University in Utah found that many children’s novels that contain high levels of profanity can be purchased and read by any child.
The study set to be published in the May 2012 issue of Mass Communication and Society found that profanity occurred over half of the time in books on the New York Times 40 best-selling adolescent (ages 9-14) novels. Profanity ranged from extremely offensive to mild and then was broken down further into categories such as the Federal Communication Commission’s seven dirty words, sexual words, and words referring to human waste (i.e. crap).
“Some of the books in our sample had extremely high levels of profanity—one book had over 180 instances of the F-word alone. If these were made into movies, then there would be no question that they would be rated R; however, because they are in a book, we are somehow okay with adolescents being exposed to profanity in this degree. This is inconsistent and deserves discussion,” Dr. Sarah Coyne, the article’s author said.
The good news from this research is that the books targeted at the youngest end of the age range studied, those most likely to be read by students in the 4th or 5th grades, were least likely to contain the most offensive kinds of profanity. Many of those books contained no profanity at all.

Jubilee Memories

Kathleen Lane writes this month about watching the Coronation on television in 1953. It was an occasion when many families bought their first TV. My memories are rather different. I was at a prep school and the Headmaster left hiring a TV too late, so we had to listen to Dimbleby Senior commentating on the radio instead and use our imaginations. Weather-wise it was a rather grey and miserable day, with some rain. As a special treat we had been got up early to have a swim in the freezing outdoor pool, and it was during the cold showers afterwards (necessary presumably because of the contents of the swimming pool) that I first heard that Everest had been climbed. We had no classes that day, but we were subjected to a variety of activities such as obstacle races and, of course, listening to the radio.

Running Away

We are publishing an article this month by Esther Rantzen in which she movingly describes the dilemmas facing children who run away and underlining the risks that they face. This is a real problem, and its solution which deserves proper resourcing.

We were concerned, though, about the impression which the statistics in the accompanying email might create. As with a lot of other social issues such global figures cover a lot of different behaviours. They range from children who walk out after a row, but then go home, through to children who run to a big city where they are sexually exploited or even killed. Some run once or twice. A very small number run regularly. Some go to friends or relatives where they are safe. Some are seriously at risk, such as the girl described by Esther Rantzen. It is hard to get a balanced picture.

What I do know is that we conducted a short survey in one authority, and found that only one child had completely disappeared, and another had run away but settled in another authority. Most of our statistics were covered by a relatively small group of regular runners who remained within a few miles of their home. It is more detailed breakdowns of this sort which are necessary to identify the scale of the work which needs to be done. Otherwise it can sound overwhelming.

Safeguarding

There is an interesting contribution in this issue from Hull University. Ally Dunford and Dr Richard Burchill suggest that a focus on the rights of children would enable professionals to collaborate better, and they point out that time and again in inquiry reports lack of communication and lack of co-operation are key factors.

The problems faced by people who are trying to make the system work is that each profession and service has its own priorities, its own language, its own structures and systems and its own angles on children’s problems. It is as if they need interpreters to help them understand each other.

Those attending safeguarding meetings will probably be of differing status in their hierarchies, with varying levels of accountability and widely varying powers to ensure that their service conforms to what is agreed. The police, for example, are relatively structured, while general practitioners are independent.

Until recently this has been approached by trying to impose ever-burgeoning bureaucracy. Munro’s aim is to simplify. Dunford and Burchill are trying to motivate the professionals to want to co-operate by focusing on the children and their rights. It is a laudable aim; we shall have to see whether it can overcome the defensiveness, protection of powers, historical suspicions, rivalries and simple failure to communicate.

News from Mittel Appenzell

We usually hear from our Swiss contact, Herr Niemann, at the beginning of April, but he has been unwell and has retired from politics. He phoned to say that he had taken a holiday and visited England. The visit alarmed him.

“I was always taught at school that England is a place where the Police are respected and the law is observed, but when I visited, this was not so. I read newspaper stories about Chief Constables being in trouble, about riots in the streets and shops being burnt down. I saw for myself lots of rubbish and litter, and little bits of black chewing gum everywhere. What a dirty country, I thought. In Mittel Appenzell, no one needs to pick up litter because no one drops it. And as for chewing gum, no one chews it, so no one drops it, so no one has to clean it up”, he laughed.

” I enjoyed visiting the sights in London, but I saw a lot of Policemen. In Mittel Appenzell we need very few Police because very few people break the law. Sometimes a cow strays and they have to catch it and take it back to the farmer. Then we all laugh at the farmer and he has to buy a stein of beer for the Policemen. If you need so many Police in London, does it mean that you cannot trust each other? London is a very rich city, but it would be much richer if it did not have to pay so many Police. We can leave our doors open and no one steals in Mittel Appenzell. We do not need security guards to take money to the bank, or insurance in case someone steals from our houses, and only two people from our canton went to prison last year - they had a bit too much of the gluhwein when they visited Zurich, and they had to have a rest before they could come home. So, as we trust each other, we can spend our money on other things”.

“I am told that you have thousands of children in prison. I think this is terrible. If we have a bad boy, we make him take the cows up into the mountains and he has time to think about things. When he brings the cows back, we say, ‘Hey, are you going to be good now?’ and he says, ‘Ja’, and that is the end of it.

“I met some mothers outside a school and I asked them, ‘Are you having a demonstration?’ ‘No’, they said, ‘we have come to collect our children’. ‘Why can’t they walk home on their own?’ I asked. They all looked at me as if I was stupid, but in Mittel Appenzell it is safe for children to walk home.

” Sometimes it seems to me that things get worse, not better, for children. I was happy to holiday in England, and I wish your Queen a happy Jubilee, but I am happier now I am back in my valley”.

‘Research’

Did you know that 8% of mothers do not eat breakfast and only about half take more than 10 minutes over breakfast? We found the figures unsurprising, but do we need to live under such pressure? What would happen to schooling and the economy if people got up when they fancied and took as long over breakfast as they wanted? Would the world as we know it collapse?

And did you know that only 7% of mothers trust that baby foods are of good quality? We found this really alarming. Are the other 92% stuffing their babies full of minced up mush that they don’t trust? Unless we’ve misunderstood the statistics, these mothers are prepared to put their children at risk as soon as they’re on solids. The researchers should be required to reveal who their sample were and their kids should all be taken into care forthwith.

From an academic paper

Canning was an appropriate way of dealing swiftly, simply and cheaply with minor juvenile offences.

In the can. Put the lid on. No more trouble.

Of course the reasons for the failings in integrated working practices in particular situations vary immensely due to the complicated landscapes which exist. But clearly there is a need for the creation of a foundational framework for the delivery of integrated services where the focus is first and foremost on the child.
A human rights framework for integrated children services will go a long way in addressing the concerns and criticisms regarding integrated working practices. Most importantly a human rights based approach to integrated working will help to ensure that service delivery is grounded in the actual lived experiences of children. A human rights based approach will ensure children are treated as dignified individuals who possess their own rights which are to be respected by parents and professionals alike and, where appropriate, ensure the child is part of the processes impacting upon them. By structuring integrated working, in both principle and practice, upon the human rights of children, this will bring children to the centre of critical processes impacting upon their lives, compelling service providers to work together more effectively for supporting the child’s future.
Suggesting that human rights should be at the centre of integrated working is not a radical position. Education, health care, social services are all public services concerned with human welfare, and therefore, human concerns are at the centre of practice, or at least they should be. However, as the recent Munro Review discusses, the practical concerns and considerations in the delivery of children services are influenced by varying policy directions, an emphasis on process over substance, and professional considerations overriding the actual needs and desires of the child. Through advocating a human rights approach to integrated working it is hoped that professional priorities and bureaucratisation will take a secondary place to the actual lived experiences of the child.
As it stands, professionals working with children have legal and, one can argue, moral obligations regarding the promotion and protection of the human rights of children. Therefore it is pertinent to ask what sort of added value will the development of theoretical and practical constructs of a human rights approach bring to the current shortcomings in integrated working? We would like to offer three compelling reasons for developing a human rights approach for integrated working involving children.
First and foremost, the emphasis on the human rights of the child works to ensure that services focus on the actual lived experiences of the child. This means it is not just a question of providing a service according to some guidelines based solely on professional opinion, but rather ensuring services focus on how they actually contribute to the child’s development, welfare, and where necessary, physical protection.
Second, a human rights approach gives a common language that professionals can use in their own interactions, in formulating policies for children’s services and engaging in discussions with end users. Rather than professionals sticking to a particular set of definitions or terminology based on their disciplines, the focus through the human rights approach is on the child and the actual conditions of the child that will be used in assessments and discussions.
Third, a human rights foundation for the delivery of integrated services gives a higher moral and legal force to discussions about how public services care for children. By focussing on the actual experiences of the child, human rights provide a tool for critique as well as a vocabulary for discussing and pursuing desired objectives.
It is recognised that a human rights approach will bring with it shortcomings and difficulties, but at the very least, it appears to provide an element of common ground that is about the child which professionals can use when working together. Undoubtedly, by focussing on the actual lived experiences of children through a human rights approach in the delivery of public services, there will be a questioning of preconceived notions leading to the formulation of more effective policies and practices. But as the unfortunate events of children dying due to a lack of effective integrated working make clear, there is a need for substantial changes in how services are delivered.
While it is hoped that the moral argument which demands greater respect for the human rights of children from the state and public authorities is apparent, this can be supplemented by the legal obligations upon all public authorities for respecting the human rights of children. The UK is bound by a number of international human rights treaties (such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights) that require that the human rights of children will be respected and upheld.

With respect to the European Convention, there is a domestic legal framework requiring all public authorities to act in a manner compatible with the Convention rights, and the domestic courts are obliged to interpret legal provisions in a manner that is compatible with the Convention rights. These legal frameworks are not about placing unnecessary burdens upon professionals, preventing them from effectively doing their jobs. Rather the underlying purpose of human rights obligations is to create frameworks that support individuals, of any age, having a dignified life. The Convention on the Rights of the Child does not place obligations restricting the ability of service providers to work with children. Rather the purpose of this legal document is to ensure the Government has in place measures to support the realisation of the human rights contained therein.

It must be recognised that too often talk of human rights brings out images of self-interested and selfish individuals demand a whole range of frivolous things from any one who will listen. In respect of children, talking about human rights has led to images of children suing parents or teachers for seemingly trivial matters. More generally, we hear criticisms of human rights as unduly constraining public authorities, creating risk averse societies, and letting criminals or terrorists make unreasonable demands upon the state.
While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that can be used to support these views, the argument overlooks the protective and transformative force in human rights. Human rights are high level moral claims that individuals require for physical survival and a dignified life. Human rights are about the individual, but human rights are not about letting individuals do whatever they want. Rather human rights are better understood as claims necessary for life and dignity, and a measurement for discussing how we treat individuals in society. In the context of children’s services the human rights approach emphasises the need to take account of children as rights holders, and it also places attention on the various duty-bearers and their obligations to ensure minimum standards are upheld and to justify why certain practices are pursued.
A human rights approach to integrated working involving children gives greater attention to the actual lived experiences of the child. It does not allow for a mere transference of adult views, be it parents or care providers, as to what the child needs. The human rights approach demands the child is respected as a rights holder and is a participant in the processes impacting upon their physical survival and development.
There is at present a range of developments that are influencing and will continue to influence integrated working practices. The current discussion of legislative reform following the Dunford Report, ongoing developments in law and policy regarding the UK’s human rights obligations and the academic and practical interest in finding effective and efficient means for managing and delivering integrated services, all point to the need for some unifying measures. We argue that a foundation for integrated working involving children based on human rights, in both the moral and legal senses, will provide a common ground that governmental structures, front-line professionals, children and families can utilise in order to ensure services are delivered effectively as the focus will now be on the actual lived experiences of children.
At the moment attention to the human rights of children is lacking in policy, law and practice and integrated working is guided too much by what adults believe is best for the well-being of children and not their human rights. For integrated working to be effective for children it must be based on the actual lived experiences of children, and a human rights based approach to integrated working is an appropriate and necessary framework for supporting children.

Ally Dunhill lectures at the Faculty of Education and Dr Richard Burchill at the Law School in the University of Hull.

Reading and Resources

Dunford, John, Review of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, Department of Education, 2010.
Fortin, Jane, Children’s Rights and the Developing Law, 3rd ed., Cambridge, 2009.
Jones, Phil and Sue Welch, Rethinking children’s Rights: Attitudes in Contemporary Society, Continuum, 2010.
Kellett, Mary, Children’s Perspectives on Integrated Services: Every Child Matters in Policy and Practice, Palgrave, 2011.
Munro Review of Child Protection, documents and related material available at http://www.education.gov.uk/munroreview/
UK Children’s Commissioners’ Report to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2008 available at http://www.niccy.org/uploaded_docs/UNCRC_REPORT_FINAL.pdf
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/index.htm

Ill Thought Out Alternatives

The ideal of creating a system, based in local communities, was one of the welcome features of the alternative developments. It must be questioned, however, whether it was wise to make such a policy the main alternative to custodial measures. The ability of the ‘community’ to cope with a ‘care in the community’ strategy at a time when there were so many other pressures on it (e.g. unemployment, single parenthood, an ageing population), would seem to be limited. Little detailed thought was given to the development of alternatives to residential care and to custody at a national level, and only isolated instances of such thought at a local level. The monies saved from the closures of CHEs were only partially redirected to developing these measures. Much of the cash was lost to child care and was used instead to balance hard-pressed local authority budgets. In spite of alternative methods for dealing with juvenile crime and, from the late 1970s the closure, at an ever-increasing rate of the ‘ineffective’ CHEs, crime continued to rise. The arguments over the effectiveness of the various measures now applied to juvenile delinquents tended to centre on the individuals who offended. Little account was taken of the general impact of the new policies on the communities most affected by the activities of young delinquents when, for example, a young offender known to have been apprehended for the third or fourth time for the commission of an offence received a caution yet again! Nor was the impact on mainstream schools and their staff considered when known offenders were being ‘diverted from court’. There is little evidence that the public at large were made aware of the new approaches to delinquency or that their views were taken into account.

Suggestions for Developmental Approach Ignored

Those in positions of responsibility in the main statutory provision for children, mainstream education, did not consider that they were equipped to manage young offenders. This was an issue explored by the Warnock Committee in 1978. It was observed that there was a considerable similarity between the educational needs of children in CHEs and those with emotional or behavioural disorders in special schools. The Report added, somewhat mystifyingly, that, “At the same time we recognise that children who are placed in CHEs require a period of treatment which aims at social readjustment”. Presumably the same is true of children placed in special needs schools. Warnock was on the brink of recommending that CHEs should be integrated into the educational services: We have therefore considered a proposal for a more fundamental change in the community home system, involving the transfer of the management of CHEs to the education service. We have found merit in this proposal; in particular it would have the advantage of making for a wider and more flexible range of special educational provision for children with emotional and. educational disorders. For reasons, which seem very inadequate, Warnock concluded: On balance, however, most of us consider such a radical change would be undesirable at the present time, given that the Child and Young Persons Act 1969 has not yet been fully implemented. The Warnock Report did, however, recommend that, as a first step in improving the quality of educational provision in CHEs and observation and assessment centres, teachers in those establishments should be in the service of local educational authorities. The National Union of Teachers, in its evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Social Services (in Children in Care - the Short Committee, reporting in 1984), were quite clear that the future of CHEs lay with the educational authorities. In their view, despite the need for residential placements for many children, CHEs “have closed down…not as a drop in juvenile crime or delinquency. It is the result, primarily of financial considerations”. The National Union of Teachers affirmed that it believed CHEs should be the responsibility of Local Education Authorities and not Social Services Departments, and that there should be much closer links between teachers in CHEs and those in local schools. It held that the education element of CHEs could be developed to cater for day pupils in greater numbers. They argued that CHEs should not be just for offenders and drew attention to the many children who just “roam the streets”, and suggested that there were many children in residential special schools who would be better served in CHEs. They supported the views of the Warnock Committee on CHEs, who reported that, in evidence to that Committee, it had “strongly pressed for the transfer of management of CHEs to the education service”. When the Short Committee finally published its Report in 1984 it dealt with the role of CHEs in one paragraph. The scant attention given to CHEs by the Committee indicated either its lack of awareness of their significance, or a belief that they were irrelevant to modern child care. The comments on CHEs were somewhat confused with a number of other issues. The Report stated: What is badly needed is a clarification of what they (CHEs) can offer to children, and a review of each and every placement of a child in any CHE to see if they are appropriately placed. It may be that such a review could be undertaken in the context of a more general review of the functions and performance of other local authority boarding schools. At present CHEs still seem uneasily poised between their essentially punitive past and their supposedly therapeutic future. When considering the formal education of children in care, the Report commented on the concerns expressed by the report of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate on CHEs (DES, 1980) and Warnock (1978) about the isolation of teachers in the CHEs from mainstream education. It saw no merit, however, in transferring the management of CHEs, in whole or in part, to Educational Departments. In making these observations there seemed to be a presumption that the CHE system would continue and the Report therefore only addressed the issue of improving the standard of education. This could probably be achieved, it was suggested, by following the example of some local authorities where the teaching staff were employed by the education authority rather than by social services. The Committee was probably right in stating that simply transferring the responsibility for CHEs from Social Services to Education Departments would not solve either the problems of professional isolation or the future viability of the CHEs. Since central government divested itself of responsibility for the Approved Schools and removed the powers of an independent body, the Magistrates, to decide who should be placed in a residential care and education provision the burden for these decisions rested with local authorities. It was highly unlikely that another local authority department, Education, would willingly take on this responsibility, especially during the current upheaval in the management of mainstream education. If at the same time, as appeared likely, juvenile offending continued at its present level, then a growing number of older offenders would be placed in penal or secure establishments.

Separating Welfare and the Treatment of Offenders

The idea of treating or caring for these young offenders seemed to have become foreign to the system and was replaced by a norm of punishment and containment. Indeed the Children Act (1989) specifically removed from the Courts the power to make a Care Order in respect of a child who had committed an offence. This was based on the principle that a child should not enter care because he or she had committed an offence. The Criminal Justice Act 1991 established separate Courts for dealing with offenders, known as Youth Courts. Except for the most serious of crimes, no child or young person under 15 years of age could be made the subject of residential placement as the outcome of a criminal offence. Young offenders aged 15 years and over might be sent to a young offender institution, for a minimum of two months and a maximum of twelve months if the offender was under 18 years of age. With effect from October 1992 no young people under 17 years of age were allowed to be remanded in custody. Local authorities were expected to provide, or have access to, secure accommodation for young people requiring such containment. These two major pieces of legalisation were the logical outcome of the belief in the need to separate the response to welfare requirements and to delinquent behaviour. They also fully reflected the philosophy of preventing children and young people becoming subject to legal proceedings unless this proved unavoidable. For the great majority of children these developments had much to commend them and were the result of enlightened and humane thinking. They failed, however, to take account of the significant minority who are causing considerable concern and distress, both to themselves and others, by their continued delinquent behaviour. There were some reports in the press that gave rise to serious concern about the lack of effective means for managing young delinquents and for curbing their offending. The Times, for example, reported that a boy aged eleven years was sent to secure accommodation following a catalogue of burglaries that included eleven public houses and seventeen other properties. It was not suggested that such behaviour was the norm but there was certainly a level of offending in some communities by young people that should have prompted further thinking about the correct level of response. A strong case remained for an independent body to hear the facts about an alleged offence and, where confirmed that incidents had occurred, assess its seriousness in terms of the age and understanding of the child, and express formally their views on what action, if any, needed to be taken. The Scottish Children’s Panel system (under the terms of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968), seemed to be a model worth considering as a means of responding in the way suggested. Justice and welfare could not, in practice, be eliminated from any civilised system for dealing with young offenders. To rely on one or the other was seen to lead to either an unduly harsh or an unacceptably ineffectual response.

A Role for Residential Care

It was argued that residential care and education should remain an option for a minority of young offenders, both as an opportunity to assist such children in leading a more socially acceptable life and as a reassurance to society at large that where necessary, resources exist both to aid the child and to help preserve good social order. If the residential option were eliminated then a society pushed to desperation in dealing with juvenile delinquency would have little choice other than to take the retrograde step of placing more children in penal or secure institutions, as then happened. The CHE system was an honourable attempt to avoid having residential units for offenders alone, both in an attempt to prevent the labelling of children and to take pre-emptive action prior to a child being formally charged with an offence instead of waiting until they had become habitual delinquents. The new legislation appeared to have accepted that such a goal was unachievable although the low-key approach to petty offending did, however, in practice allow for the opportunity for welfare re considerations to be taken into account and it was felt that a prudent and caring society should take advantage of this. The cost factors in residential care had to be acknowledged. For some children high staffing ratios were needed, both to contain difficult behaviour and to bring about change. For others however, as in the past, it should have been possible to create structured units which offered good levels of care and training but which did not require intensive staffing. Costs had to be kept within reasonable bounds if a residential unit with a capable and caring staff with access to material resources was to offer a valuable contribution to the care, education and containment of appropriately placed children. The general aim should have been to offer a variety of systems and philosophies of residential rare and to place a child in the unit that best met the child’s need Such a service might, in the light of the shortcomings of the CHE system, have seemed to be best overseen by both the Education and Social Services Departments but managed independently, possibly by the voluntary sector.

The Dangers of Bad Care

There was an understandable wariness about the management of residential child care resources in the light of notorious events over the previous decade or more. The Pindown affair in Staffordshire (1991) seemed to have been born of desperation by ill-informed senior management who were attempting to contain children with behavioural problems. They clearly lacked the skill or the knowledge needed to cope in an acceptable way. The cases of serious abuse in a number of other establishments demonstrated the need to be forever vigilant to the prospect of unscrupulous people gaining entrance to a service where, in the guise of caring for children, they could exploit them for their own perverse needs. The rapid closure of a network of specialist residential services inevitably put great pressure on the remaining resources which were, for the most part, established and staffed to deal with children with less complex needs than those for whom they are now caring. The virtual elimination of a resource, in which some people were able to achieve professional advancement within the residential child care service, considerably reduced the pool of experienced and knowledgeable people from which to draw managers for residential child care facilities. This made it more likely that senior managers would lack the necessary skills to cope correctly with the pressures of the work.

A New Constructive Approach Urgently Needed

A new constructive approach, such as the one outlined above, was seen as a way of enabling young delinquents to be managed and contained in a setting other than the penal and secure institutions, when it was necessary to remove them from society for a time. This, broadly, was the concept reluctantly acknowledged in the first instance by the Victorians and then adapted by all subsequent generations until the late 1970s. It was open to question whether such a tradition should have been so rapidly and easily cast aside. John Gittins, who did so much to give the Approved Schools a sense of purpose and who had such high expectations of the effects that would flow from the Children and Young Persons Act 1969, wrote that he believed the 1969 Act was: …one of the noblest pieces of legislation ever devised, but has been so lamentably implemented as to achieve, in some of its most important provisions, the opposite to what was intended (Gittins, 1985). Gittins suggested that, in addition, a number of other factors added to the decline of the CHEs. These were “social work ideology, union rigidity and local authority ignorance of this field”. Even the title Community Home with Education on the Premises, he held, proved to be “so inept as to be lethal”. One might as well call a monastery “a workhouse with religion on the premises”. He concluded that: Meanwhile thousands of children are incarcerated in penal establishments which were never intended for them and for which, please God, they were never intended. These last words could have been written in the early part of the nineteenth century by Mary Carpenter or Matthew Davenport Hill. The main difference is that, in their time, the options were much clearer whereas today they are clouded by often illusory solutions. Some important lessons have to be learnt from what has been cast aside if a truly comprehensive system of managing needy and delinquent children and young people is to be provided.

CHE’s Closed

Approved Schools in 1973 PDF

Approved School List PDF

Jim Hyland based his series of articles on material from Yesterday’s Answers. Copies are still available on request.

Building on ten years’ experience, CELCIS is hoping to widen access to the course and link with colleagues internationally. Possible developments under consideration include the expansion of the curriculum beyond a sole focus on residential child care, an e-learning delivery model which will allow long-distance or international study, and the possible introduction of tuition fees for all students. Currently the MSc is offered free of charge to all Scottish based residential practitioners, and for the cost of tuition fees to students from out with Scotland. The course currently requires students to attend classes at Strathclyde University in Glasgow for a minimum of 39 days over a 2 year period.

We are keen to hear views from across the child care sector. The survey can be accessed at https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8J00EbXxbaN2r6k and should take no more than 5 – 10 minutes to complete.

Thanks

Graham McPheat

Course Development Lead, CELCIS | Course Leader MA/BA Social Work, Glasgow School of Social Work University of Strathclyde, 76 Southbrae Drive, Glasgow G13 1PP CELCIS t: 0141 950 3683 (ext. 3036) | GSSW t: 0141 950 3380 (ext. 3036)

The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SC015263

When I had Aleesha I had no idea just how much impact this tiny new-born would have on our life, but boy did she, from the constant stream of hospital and professional teams that we would see to the overwhelming need to protect and develop her. Some days I had no idea who I was, what I was doing, or where I was meant to be next, but somehow we as a family pulled it all together and got through those first few years, so I just thought that I would give an update as the last three years have proved very remarkable .

Aleesha was eight and things had improved. We had been quite clear from the start that Aleesha would always be treated just like the others. We spoke to her in the same fashion and would take her out of routine often. This appeared to have had a positive effect, as when we needed to take her out of school for appointments and such like it caused no adverse behaviour. I’m not sure that this would work for everyone with a similar condition as autism often requires routine and set boundaries to limit extreme reactions.

She was able to use very simple one-word language and her picture exchanged communication system (PECS) was proving to be a valuable tool, but gesture was still by far the main way that Aleesha got by. Her toileting and social skill were still demanding but again were all on an even keel. As Aleesha was in a special needs school quite a number of the sessions with professionals such as speech therapy, physiotherapy and mobility teams now took place in the school, so I was not under as much pressure to get her to all the hospitals in West Yorkshire, just two or three.

Around this time Dr McFaul, the main Consultant, decided to retire; he had been there since Aleesha had been born so I felt a great sense of loss. The thought of having to build up a new relationship, explaining so that this doctor would understand our journey was daunting. As ever, we knew that this was an inevitable part of a family’s life within the system of care, it does not matter whether it is the medical teams or the social care teams, people move on.

As a family you have to learn to adjust to the ever-changing system, a bit like the needs of your child. Sometimes it’s subtle little things that you haven’t paid as much attention to. Sometimes it’s great big life-changing ones that bowl you over. On this occasion though, I was more affected by Dr McFaul’s departing than Aleesha was and I have felt that ever since, as it was my relationship and rapport with him that made me feel secure. I felt that he took each concern that I had and really listened. He reassured me when it was nothing and delved deeper when he was not sure. I sometimes think that this element of care is missing within the profession today.

At school Aleesha was still continuing to progress. When I said earlier that her progress was remarkable, it was but this was still within the boundaries of her own abilities. As Aleesha made headway towards ten, something was happening: her understanding began to come on in leaps and bounds (well, tiny steps but leaps as far as we were concerned).

Amazingly she also began to say two words together. They were still only meaningful and not in a two-way conversation but it was the beginnings of a whole new understanding of how Aleesha could get what she needed.

The other thing that slowly began to emerge was the want to play with the older children rather than alongside them. She unfortunately didn’t quite have the concept of sharing and playing so this did not always have a good result and the older children could be left feeling frustrated at the constant interruptions from their younger sister, but mostly she made them laugh.

Her eldest sister Laura took up the gauntlet and proved a real inspiration in helping Aleesha’s development along with myself we sat doing colours and numbers and, guess what, she can now count to five, although her colours have proved difficult. We are now beginning to think that this could be that she is colour blind rather than not able to tell us which colours are which, one for me to take up with our consultant in the next routine visit I feel.

We worked hard with Aleesha and one of the most significant things to happen was when she began to use our names. She started to call me mummy and really understand who I was. She also started asking where people had gone, so she was now aware when people had left the room. Her improvements in understanding happened in small bursts as if she had mulled it over and suddenly it all made sense. This, however, has always seemed to happen after Aleesha has had a period of unsettled behaviour. This pattern has continued.

We had been seeing Dr Simmons, her Consultant Ophthalmologist since she had been born but once again a change in doctors was to happen. Aleesha was passed to Dr Long’s team as they were linked to the geneticists. During one of her routine visits the genetics team asked if we would be involved in a nationwide study of children with no true diagnosis. Should they find that Aleesha had one syndrome as earlier professionals had suspected and not several unrelated conditions this might be used in the future. This of course would not alter anything for her as specialised schooling and constant care would still be required regardless of what label she was put under. Aleesha, Alan and I had DNA samples taken; they were sent off, and we now wait to see if anything comes from it, although we had been warned it could take years.
All had been going well but I knew that this could only last so long, as Aleesha (now eleven) had recently changed to her final year at primary school, so had gone into the links class. This was a sensory-based learning group and anyone with a child in their final year at school will know the big changes as they head to high school. A child with significant learning disabilities needs lots of time to take on board what is going to happen, so the process for the high schools comes with the parents’ involvement much earlier, as the school the children change to needs to be carefully chosen to meet their ever-growing needs: not something I was looking forward to.

In the October, Aleesha began to show the first signs of stress. Her continence had gone backwards again: this for Aleesha was always a clear indication that all was not well. Her behaviour was also up and down with uncontrollable crying and hysterical bouts of laughing. Something about this was different. I tried to keep a check on what was happening and I noticed a pattern emerging - oh no, this looked like the very early signs of puberty showing.

Over the course of the past few months Aleesha was now able to name people at school. She would ask where they were and was sometimes aware when they had gone on respite care for an overnight stay because they had their suitcase with them. This was how we had become aware that some of Aleesha’s behaviour was due to a clash of personalities with another child in her group. Aleesha had begun to mention a boy by name more than the others. She had said things like “pulling my hair”. After a couple of weeks I contacted the school and the problem was resolved. Aleesha moved to a calmer class; this proved to be the right decision as her moods began to improve almost immediately. We now had a clearer pattern and other signs to show that I was right: puberty was imminent.

Aleesha was now showing real signs of change across all aspects of her development. With all of our encouragement and the constant input Aleesha began to give us cuddles and kisses without prompt. She also began making independent choices for tea: she will regularly request chicken or mince and another wonderful skill was the development of her imagination, pretending to have cups of tea or have a ‘poorly’ and need a plaster. These are all skills appropriate to a three to five-year-old and Aleesha still needs constant care.

Her toileting and self-care skills are emerging but by far the biggest change is to her speech. She can ask questions and make choices. This still needs to be backed up by PECS and gesture but these are no longer the front runners to her communication but the side lines to promote it. Her sisters have made what I feel to be the biggest difference by allowing Aleesha the room to grow by just letting her be a part of everything they do, giving her the chance to develop and helping promote the ever-changing skills that have galloped to the surface during the past year.

The next phase of development holds all sorts of challenges for us as a family. Teenagers are testing at the best of times, so life with a teenager with complex and challenging needs will, if nothing else, keep us on our toes. Here goes the next five years. We’ve buckled down, we’re holding on and we’re ready for the adventure that is our wonderful daughter Aleesha.

At breakfast we were joined by someone who had lived at Mill Grove as a little girl in the 1930s. She is now a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother living a bus-ride away, and she always comes to be with us for at least two days a week. Having listened to her describe some memories of the way things were over 80 years ago, we discussed (over cereal and toast) how she felt about her life looking back now. She paused for just a moment and then using her hands simply but to great effect, said “Everything has come together”.

A rare privilege of living at Mill Grove is the way it allows me to hear the reflections and stories of those who were here as children long before I was born. And a priceless aspect of this is the chance it affords to see how things have come together in the lives of many of the children who lived here, years, often decades after they moved on. Apart from being noticed by a few specialist historians I guess most of such experiences go unsaid and unrecorded.

We live at a time when ‘outcomes’ and ‘evidence-based practice’ are fashionable terms, and for those children who come into the ‘care system’ the theory is that what happens in their lives is based on solid foundations made up of a combination of these two ingredients (mixed, like cement, three-to-one, I wonder?). But quite apart from the very questionable assumptions that lead people to think such laudatory aims are possible, there is the matter of the time-frame. When in a child’s life do we consider it appropriate to ‘measure’ (another word that sends shivers down my spine) outcomes, and to assess the evidence amassed from the practice base?

Could I suggest that forty years after the intervention or episode(s) might be a basic and conservative minimum (80 years does sound a bit like a hostage to fortune)? This at least gives a chance for a person to see how things work out in a variety of settings and roles in real life (work, family, friendships, interests and so on), and to recollect the past with a modicum of tranquillity.

Even were this so, I hope and long that a proper modesty and humility might characterise the lessons gained from the whole exercise. As I tried to explain in The Growth of Love, we can see and feel love growing, but why and how it does is ultimately a mystery, and it behoves us not to pretend we can ever know. (While on this point it is worth noting that it also behoves us not to restrict ourselves to ‘measurable objectives’, and progress that is ‘evidenced’ by virtue of having been recorded in some way. This is as spurious as it is ethically dubious.)

After breakfast I spent an hour or so in the part of Mill Grove that is devoted to the nurture, care and education of children with cerebral palsy. We were welcomed in the spacious, light and sun-filled room where the Rose Walton Centre has operated for nearly twenty years. There was one child there, and he was working at walking and climbing, using the Peto method, and the specified equipment. He greeted us warmly and despite the need for much concentration and effort to achieve the tasks he set himself, he seemed to have a permanent smile on his face and was thrilled with our encouragement and applause.

There were two educators with him: one was the leader of the centre, as experienced as she is committed and enthusiastic. The other was a young lady that I want to say something more about now in the context of “things coming together”. It would not be appropriate to tell her story in any identifiable way, and so let me put it like this. She had suffered at the hands of her birth family, the care system and an adoption breakdown before she came to live at Mill Grove. She was upset, insecure and disturbed when she came, completely in line with what could be considered as ‘normal’ in such distressing and chronically oppressive circumstances.

A senior member of the local authority that placed her with our family took the exceptional (and in my experience, unique) step of phoning me to say that he feared for the worst. When I prompted him to share with me what “worst” might look like, he told me that he had genuine worries that she might destroy Mill Grove.

That was nearly twenty years ago, and a lot of water has flowed along the River Roding and into the Thames since then. (The Roding runs less than two hundred yards from Mill Grove.) Now the five students and I watched as Moira (as I shall call her) gave her full attention to little Victor (as I shall call him). She encouraged, supported, and where appropriate guided him, all within the framework laid out by Peto in his philosophy of Conductive Education. She worked easily and confidently with the leader of the Centre.

The time came for the session to end. Victor’s father arrived to collect him, and Moira confirmed how well Victor had done. We bade farewell to father and son and reflected together on what we had witnessed, and what had been achieved. The students had some insightful and challenging questions. It was clear that before Victor had come to the Rose Walton Centre he had been able to do very little for himself. Now he was sitting up, standing up (against a wall) and working at ways of walking and climbing using appropriate physical supports, and with carefully considered movements and coordination of hands and feet.

That was when Moira commented, “He’s a star!” And she went on to say, “I know I shouldn’t have favourites, but he is lovely.”

I sat on a little stool in the corner of the room and it was as if the past twenty years of her life all sped before my eyes. I did not think in terms of outcomes or evidence, but of memories in the context of the breakfast chat: it was movingly obvious to me, that although this was just one moment in time, and one aspect in life, this had warmed my heart. Some very important things had come together for Moira, whatever the challenges of other parts of her life, and whatever the future holds.

I thanked the students for allowing me the space to experience all this, and realised it would not be possible to convey to them the subtle and interwoven threads that had combined to make all this possible. It was in fact the networking of Mill Grove that had provided a holding environment (yes, the centre did hold!) for Moira, not only through childhood, but well into adulthood.

As far as I know, this article will be the only place where anyone will ever read of what I witnessed, and I am certain that I have been unable to convey anything but a fraction of what I am trying to say.

That both events (if that is not too strong a word) happened the very same morning is for me evidence (did I write that?!) of the privilege Ruth and I have, of living in a place and environment when from time to time we know deep down that we have seen love grow. And perhaps one way of describing love growing is to say that things come together.

Aston Union built cottage homes in Erdington in 1897, moving the first 70 children in straight from the workhouse next door in 1899.

The Layout of the Homes

The cottage homes were built on an avenue – a kind of early cul-de-sac. With iron gates at the top of the avenue, the porter’s lodge was the first building on the right. The porter’s lodge was where children were initially taken on their arrival at the homes. Former residents remember feeling that they were being assessed and a particularly strong image is taking a bath.

The houses were initially single sex: girls were on the left, boys on the right, with sixteen houses in all initially each having accommodation for 15 – 20 children. Half-way down the avenue was the Superintendent’s House; he was appointed as a couple with his wife who took on the role of Matron. This large house incorporated the only grassed gardens of the Homes and had a tennis court for the staff members. The children’s houses had asphalt yards.

At the end of the avenue was the chapel which incorporated a nursery school, the infirmary (staffed by a nurse and a visiting doctor), a school for infants, a swimming pool and workshops in which older boys received industrial training. The girls were trained in domestic service.

Older children went to Slade Road School, a short walk from the Homes but otherwise the children lived an insular life with their needs being met on site. There were few visits from family members and few regular trips outside the Homes. Insularity was not total, however, and, certainly in the 1910s and 1920s, there were some trips out and visits to the homes of school friends.

After the Homes

The turn of the century saw not only the development of the cottage homes but also what were known as service girls’ homes and boys’ homes – the forerunners of working girls’ and boys’ hostels. Most were started by independent organisations to be taken over by the Guardians of the Poor.

The service girls’ home on Moseley Road , for example, was initially run by a voluntary association and was used by the Board of Guardians to place older girls coming out of the cottage homes in return for a £175 annual fee paid by the Board to the voluntary association. In June 1912, the Board of Guardians took over the home.

The Impact of War

The first period of major change in the cottage homes was brought about by the Second World War. It appears that Erdington Cottage Homes took in more children during the war and in the years immediately following it. The workhouses, for example, were themselves turned into a house for children, as was the former porter’s lodge. Some of the younger children were evacuated to residential nurseries in North Wales.

But the nature of the cottage homes changed in the years following the war. The single live-in foster mothers who took care of each house in the pre-war years were replaced by married couples who were the live-in houseparents, often bringing their own children with them and encouraging all the children to call them mum and dad. Visiting by parents was increased in 1949 to three times a month from the once every three months it had been in the 1930s.

The houses, previously known by what was effectively a street number were given names in an attempt to obviate institutionalisation. Names such as Sunnyside, The Haven and Orchardside were now how the houses were officially known, although former residents were still using the numbers into the late 1950s.

Annual holidays to Wales or the south coast were now part of the routine of the Homes and children were given some freedom to go to the local parks or the High Street.

The memories of children in this time are mixed. Some remember being unfairly taken away from their families and put into a harsh environment of abuse and cruelty. Others feel they were rescued from unhappy home circumstances and found a happy ‘family’ life in the Homes. Did the regime work for some children and fail others? Were there some rogue houseparents, and other staff members, who, left largely to their own devices, chose to mistreat the children in their charge? What is certainly true is that many former residents have been left not understanding their time in care – not knowing why they were taken into care, or why they were separated from siblings. Without the answers to these and other questions it was much harder to come to terms with the whole experience.

A Period of Growth

From the 1950s, the number of children in council-run residential accommodation in Birmingham grew significantly. In 1955, for example, there were 1,308 children in care and 686 of these were in council-run children’s homes. In 1975, the figures were 3,848 and 2,123 respectively. The council had dealt with this massive increase over the two decades both by building new children’s homes and opening homes in other buildings. For example, 27 family group homes were built in the 1950s and 1960s in Birmingham’s new council estates. Several purpose-built working children’s hostels were opened and several homes were opened in large old houses. By the mid-1970s, there were in excess of 100 council-run children’s homes in Birmingham.

Residential nurseries were also opened in the city, several having started life as war-time nurseries offering short-term care for children whose parents were away, injured or working shifts.

The cottage homes were also going through changes of their own. In 1966, the decision was taken to change the structure of the Homes. No longer were the cottage homes to be a single large institution overseen by a Superintendent and Matron. Instead, the houses were each made independent of each other and were managed by their own Houseparents. Spending decisions, placement decisions etc. were now made by the individual homes, and not the cottage homes as a whole. Effectively, the cottage homes became a street of children’s homes called The Gardens. The Lindens and then Ravenhurst became the Reception Centres, placing children not only into homes on The Gardens but in any of the children’s homes in the area.

Some former residents were aware of this change, others were not. Some tell of having less contact with the children of the other homes on The Gardens. Others, when meeting children from the other homes, were keenly aware of the differences between the homes and had a strong sense of whether they were being treated fairly or not in relation to how other children were being treated. In general, it is perhaps fair to say that there was more movement between the homes on The Gardens and the other council-run homes of the city.

The 1970s saw the move away from live-in Houseparents and towards teams of shift-working staff members led by an Officer-in-charge. The numbers of children in each home was reduced down to twelve (having reached a peak of 18 in 1948) in line with the thinking that smaller homes were more appropriate for children.

Finally, in the early 1980s, the homes on The Gardens began to close. The houses were too large, draughty and inflexible (still having dormitory bedrooms for example) for use as modern homes. Most of the homes on The Gardens were closed by the mid-1980s. The former Probationary Home, however, continued in use as a children’s home until the late 1990s.

An Oral History

There is little publicly available about life in Erdington Cottage Homes. The information that does exist, such as the minutes of committee meetings and registers of admission and discharge are generally not available to the public because of concerns about Data Protection and give away little of daily life in the Homes. The Children of the Homes was a one year project to find out the history of the Homes through the memories of people who spent all or part of their childhood in the Homes. People were interviewed in their homes, on the telephone or by email and lively discussions were had on the project’s Facebook site. The result is a book of the history of the Homes, largely in the words of the former residents, a rare insight into how former children in care view their time in the cottage homes and how the changes in residential childcare affected them and their perceptions of their care.

The Children of the Homes: A Century of Erdington Cottage Homes
by Gudrun Limbrick BA Hons Oxon MA Bham
Published June 2012
ISBN 9781903210284

Available from:
www.childrenscottagehomes.org.uk/erdington
gudrun.limbrick@wordworks.org.uk

I have been avidly watching the first reality television programme about a group of children who were selected at age seven to be filmed and followed throughout their lives on a seven-yearly basis. They were selected from different social groups, the working class East London youngsters, the middle-class private school attenders, those who lived a privileged life on the outskirts of a large city such as Liverpool, the rural child who lived on a farm, and children who were raised in large residential homes as they were in the 1950s.

We have seen them through their burgeoning adolescence, moving into young adulthood with their own families, or not as the case may be, to now
when they also have an opportunity to reflect on the life they have lived.

“From the days of the week to the ages of man, seven is mystically the number that seems to mark the epochs of our lives, and that’s the concept, hardwired into our psyches, that Granada Television tapped into when in 1964 it began commissioning the unique documentary series Seven Up!.

Taking as its primary inspiration the remark attributed to the founder of the Jesuit educational system, Ignatius Loyola, ‘Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man’, it started by tracking the lives of 14 seven-year-old British children from a wide variety of social and economic backgrounds. Since then, it has reported back on them at seven-year intervals, with each episode cumulatively presenting extracts from previous programmes, dramatising how far the subjects have travelled in the intervening periods.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9206960/Seven-Up-Now-we-are-56.html

It has been fascinating, looking back to see the innocence and lust for life on the majority of these children’s faces. They did not have to think about who was twittering about whom, or how cyber bullies began their unkind actions. Theirs was a very black and white life. There were few hidden enemies, except life itself. Some of them had unhappy experiences. For example one of the children living in a children’s home considered whether he would have a wife when he got older, but he didn’t think he would as she might make him eat Brussels sprouts.

I used footage from these seven-yearly programmes for a lot of my tutorial input into the education of students who wished to work with children as a profession. There was always much to discover and much to debate.

It has been interesting to see how each individual has made their way in life. Some have done it with dignity and others have struggled, as happens from time to time.
The thing it demonstrates most markedly is that the social system in the UK hasn’t really changed that much over the years. We now have, allegedly, a sub-working class of unemployed and unemployable groups of people. We have a larger immigrant population and issues with regards to economy and opportunity for children to develop and grow.

When I compare these children’s lives with that of my own daughter born in the seventies, I don’t know that she would say things have changed all that much apart from an anticipated standard of living with internal bathrooms and washing facilities. What has made a huge difference is the way we communicate and the acquisitions we now all feel should be ours. Most families own at least one computer, possibly several mobile phones, perhaps an iPod and other accoutrements of modern day living. Does this make their lives easier or more problematic as they now assume they need to have these things?

I hear of more and more families who have made a stand against the invasion of modern technology by banning television, mobile phones and other accessories. Will this make their children appreciate their own imagination of self-reliance when they attain adulthood? Probably not, but there is no harm in trying.

Do we consider that the riots of the Summer of 2011 were directly as a result of people believing that this was the only way to protest about the deprivation facing an increasing number of families due to the economic down-turn? Again, I don’t have the answer to any of these questions, I only know that the majority of parents want to do their best for their children and provide them with at the very least a good standard of health and living in an environment where they can feel confident and not at all fearful of what life may throw in their direction.

As a mirror reflecting how life has altered throughout the intervening years, this is a remarkable, unique piece of television - something that can never be repeated and something that will serve as an historic document when all of us of that generation are long gone. It has been captured with respect and gentleness. There is very little obvious intrusion by the television crew into the lives of these subjects apart from every seven years. Some opted out for a few years and then decided to return. Others left and never came back. I will watch each episode with anticipation and a little nostalgia.

One is the death of King George in February 1952. The main means of mass communication for the vast majority of people in those days was the wireless, which was definitely not WiFi. I was almost 10 years old, but I have a very vivid memory of the Headmaster calling all of us children (Junior Mixed and Infants) together about mid-morning to tell us the King was dead. (Mr. Arnold must have been busily occupied listening to the wireless in his office to get this news.) He then closed the school for the rest of the day and sent us all home!

This gives an insight in a different world. The assumptions were that (a) every child could walk home safely, and (b) all mothers would be at home, or that every child would be given safe haven with a relative or neighbour in the same street.

The next big event was the Coronation in June 1953.The major milestone associated with this was the growth of television ownership which followed it. At the time my aunt was the only family member with a TV. The screen was about 9inches wide and set in a huge wooden cabinet. About 12 of us spent the whole day, mostly with the curtains closed, watching the flickering pageant.

What we could not guess at then was that there had also been an early demonstration of news media manipulation. The news of the conquest of Mount Everest was held back to make a big story on Coronation Day to enhance the jingoistic feelings of heading into a new Elizabethan Age. We did not know and could not guess how this would escalate in the years ahead.

My own children have got tired of me saying that from around the time of the Coronation things got steadily better for ordinary people, until about the 80s when the balance shifted. We moved from families getting improvements in pay and working conditions, greater availability of fresher and more varied foodstuffs, more by way of home comforts, space, heating, lighting and furnishings, less hand-me-downs for clothing etc., no more make do and mend, to a consumer driven throw-away society. Horizons opened up with cheaper travel abroad. Consumer goods became freely available on freely available credit.

But along with the improvements in physical standards by the 80s came a decline in what some would call moral standards. Society seemed to be less safe and dependable, especially for children and young people. Pressures started to be felt, especially following the new media invention ‘teenagers’, so that by 2000 devil-may-care rebellion, aggression, dropping out and consumerism seemed to be their growing norms.

If we thought things were tough for children and young people by 2000 I think they are even worse now. What has happened in the lives of the young since the Webmag started? What are their norms and expectations now? Do our grandchildren feel happier, safer and more optimistic than the Junior Mixed and Infants in 1952, or those in some Key Stage in 2000.

In 1952 my family’s life was lived around a big table, which dominated the only living room. All meals, game playing and conversation took place there. No other room was heated, so no-one went off to pursue personal interests. The main source of information was the one wireless and the most exotic entertainment was Radio Luxembourg or may be the American Forces Network (AFN). Forces Favourites was a Sunday morning ritual and I learned the names of a lot of German cities where troops were stationed by listening in.

We have moved from one TV in the extended family, past more than one TV, radio and CD player in 2000 to a general expectation that all family members have their own (heated) room equipped with TV, DVD player/recorder, the latest laptop, games player etc. The key word in that sentence is ‘latest’, because the development of technology is so swift that electronic equipment HAS to be replaced regularly.

I used to worry about the impact constant use of earphones would have the hearing of the young. Now I worry about the lack of concentration on social interaction when so much time is spent on texting, reading texts and game playing on a mobile phone under the meal table.

Mobile phones, I-Phones, Blackberries, I-Pads, Androids come and go. The news media are now fed by photos taken by mobile phones, so that horrific scenes can be fed directly and unchecked to solitary children, on their own, in their own rooms.

Something that was a useful means of contact in case of emergencies has moved to producing who knows what consequences. One thing which we do know is that e-mails and texting have been used by some children to bully other children and make some lives unbearable. The bullying has sadly been aimed at children who do not meet the norms of their peers – they are too fat, do not have the latest ‘must have’ clothes, the right parental car, the right electronic equipment and so on.

One thing which horrifies me with my love of books, which was nurtured when I was a Mixed Junior, is the use of electronic books, which will of course in time affect the availability of libraries and book shops. But by far the worst experience has been giving my grandson a copy of The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. He said that his class had started to read it English lessons, but then somebody brought in the DVD, so they didn’t need to read anymore.

At nearly 70 years of age I worry about what someone might write in 10 or 60 years time. I try hard to embrace change and welcome and enjoy the many changes I have seen in my life so far, but I have to admit regret that so many changes do not mean improvements.

I have not even touched on the free availability of junk food, the lack of organised exercise at school, the impromptu games playing out of school, 24 hour TV and the total impact on children’s health, but they could be even more fatal than electronic developments.

This time we were not so lucky and were not able to locate a place for her, so she promised she would go home. In fact she slept in a local park overnight. I dread to think what could have happened to her. Happily she survived, rang ChildLine in the morning, and from then on was looked after. Although there were other crises in her life, each time she rang our helpline we were able to empower her and inspire her to move forward. Now she is married, with children of her own and has a thriving career working for a children’s charity. She is a wonderful success story, but how many others end up in our prisons, or addiction units, or dying in A & E with no one to mourn their passing?

It is estimated that 100,000 children run away from their homes, or from care each year in the UK – but nobody really knows the true figure. Railway Children is one of the most effective charities which supports children living on the streets, the children most of us pass by without a glance in their direction. According to Railway Children, two-thirds of runaways will be victims of violence on the streets and few are reported missing by their parents or carers in the first place. It’s not enough to suggest that the police should pick them up and return them home.
When a child runs away there can be a very good reason. And yet they may be too ashamed or fearful to tell the police what that reason is. And what happens if they do tell? One of the most appalling aspects of the recent case of teenage girls abused by gangs of predatory men is that when one did ask for help, and reported the abuse, she was not believed.
It is clear that we urgently need to open our eyes and ears. We need to see and hear the children before the moment when their desperation forces them onto the streets. Many of these children know what they are running from but have no idea what perils they are running towards.

I talked to a girl who was running away to Piccadilly but paused to ring ChildLine. She was in floods of tears so she could hardly find the words to explain what had driven her from home. Eventually she explained that she had just discovered her own adoption papers. Her parents had never revealed to her that she had been adopted. “I realise now that they could never have loved me,” she said. “They never told me the truth.” As I asked more questions she painted a picture of parents who deeply cared about her. I suggested to her idea that parents can make mistakes and that sometimes children need to forgive them. She said she had run away before and met a man who offered to let her work for him in Piccadilly, but another girl had warned her to go home. At the end of our conversation she said she would return home and talk to her mother about the adoption that they had never discussed before. I will never know if she went back. I pray that she did. Otherwise she might have ended up like so many of our invisible children, believing no one knew or cared how she lived or if she lived at all.

If you would like more information about these charities or want to get involved visit www.childline.org.uk or call 0800 1111. www.railwaychildren.org.uk or call 01270 757596.

A

When the limited hour working week was brought in for residential child care workers in local authority homes, it was to stop the exploitation of staff who were often expected to work excessive hours: obviously a laudable aim. Some authorities had to double their staffing, which should have improved things for children, in that staff should have been less tired and turnover should have been reduced.

What they did not think about was the impact on relationships with disturbed children and young people, who need stability and continuity. Foster carers offer 168 hours a week of continuous cover; from the introduction of the fixed working week, residential child care staff did their shifts and came and went. This created problems of continuity, consistency and communication. Many group homes had been virtually large foster homes, and the nature of these homes was utterly changed.

In summary, no real thought was given to the impact on child care methods and the children’s needs in a well intentioned move to improve things for staff.

B

About the same time it was decided that residential child care staff conditions of employment should be changed. They had been living in the children’s homes with the benefit of emoluments, i.e. living free in return for low salaries. It was argued that they needed proper salaries to emphasise their professional status and that they should be charged realistic rents to make their financial situation explicit. This sounds obviously laudable.

Living on the premises was far from popular with the staff; indeed it was the second highest source of grumbles (after lack of training). In consequence, when they had the choice of realistic rents living on the premises and realistic rents living elsewhere, they moved out en masse. In consequence children’s homes stopped being homes for a mixture of adults and children, and the only residents were children.

In summary, what was seen as a tidying measure resulted in a drastic change of caring environment for the children. It was predictable but the anticipated impact on the children was ignored.

C

It was decided to give residential child care workers a boost by linking their training with that of field social workers. There were good grounds for this argument, as much of the knowledge and many of the skills required by the two groups were the same, and the drive was certainly well-intentioned, as the status of the workers did need to be enhanced, and they needed to be more professional.

There was one immediate problem, in that many of the residential child care workers who trained decided that the grass was greener in field social work and switched, leaving the residential child care workforce as underqualified as before.

A more important long-term problem was that the fundamental aims, principles and values of the two groups differed, and the impact on residential services was damaging. Field social workers were trained to assess problems, plan solutions and close cases, focusing on the problems. Residential workers should have been providing stability and consistency, sometimes in the medium or long term, and perhaps answering the child’s problems by providing good care and developing other areas of satisfaction rather than by frontally attacking the problem. Adopting the short-term problem-solving approach of field work undermined these values.

In short, another well-intentioned approach fundamentally undermined a service, and incidentally in the process by stages did away with the specialist training for residential child care workers.

D

When approved schools, remand homes and children’s homes became community homes, it was decided to plan specialist services regionally and Regional Planning Committees were set up to decide which services were going to be provided by the various authorities in each region. Sounds a laudable idea, doesn’t it?

The problem was that (without explaining the detail) a system of finance was set up which drove down the occupancy to help placing authorities make savings, but pushed up the unit price so that providing authorities felt the services were not viable. In consequence (as Jim Hyland has explained in his recent series of articles) many of the institutions were closed despite strong feelings on the part of many professionals that they should be kept open.

In this case it was for the most part not the children’s needs which had driven change but an ineffective financial system.

E

With the closure of the regional facilities, disturbed young offenders had to be placed in local homes. These were the very homes which had, not long before, been long-stay family homes run by resident housemothers who treated the children as their family. With the changes listed above, the same small group homes were being run by non-resident staff who came in for shifts. The young people were often unsuited to living on estates and caused problems.

Moreover, their turnover meant that the resident group was usually unstable, which meant that it was harder to establish a positive and supportive group atmosphere within the home and the pressure fell on staff to relate to individual children, rather than use the group dynamics to support its members. In many areas workers forgot how to work constructively with groups.

In consequence residential child care went through a bad patch when it could not satisfactorily meet the needs of the young people. This was certainly unintended and unplanned, but it caused mayhem in many places.

F

Residential care was seen as out of date and damaging, especially by a substantial number of field social workers and their teachers. Go-ahead voluntary organisations such as Barnardo’s therefore decided to move out of residential care and develop other sorts of service.

There were many people who were happy for voluntary bodies to devise alternative services but who nonetheless wanted them to remain as major providers of residential care. But voluntary providers had often been treated as overspill accommodation by local authorities and it had been difficult to manage them when occupancy varied. The unforeseen consequence of the closures was that the private sector opened up children’s homes.

In short the make-up of the residential sector was not planned, but changed for a combination of financial reasons.

G

Next is an example whose failings have been recently recognised and addressed. The Government issued guidance for agencies involved in child protection under the title Working Together. As this was a complex field and collaboration between the agencies was vital, the idea was laudable. Standardised practice was needed across the country.

As things progressed, the guidance became more detailed, to deal with all the complex nuances of different cases and circumstances. Each clarification was no doubt well intentioned, but the combined effect was the creation of a huge tome of guidance full of nit-picking detail as if applying regulations to the letter will produce high standards, and this required a new industry of specialists to interpret the guidance. Woe betide any authority which did not follow it.

The unfortunate impact was that conformity to the guidance became the criterion by which agencies were judged. It became more important to have held the meetings, minuted them and filled in the tick-boxes on the forms than to meet the needs of the children and young people. In consequence the very system designed to protect them sometimes caused them harm. Following the Munro Review this has been recognised and the bureaucracy is being simplified.

H

There has been a series of reports from Maria Colwell onwards, pointing out the failures of social workers to protect vulnerable children. Quite properly measures have been taken by the powers-that-be to address the problems identified. Another laudable aim.

But the high media profile attached to these reports means that they came to dominate social work with children. Social workers, their immediate managers, senior managers and councillors all wanted to avoid having the finger of blame pointed at them, and so nearly all the casework resources were targeted on child protection.

The immediate consequence was that children and families requiring casework, but without presenting child protection issues, were often ignored or were granted so low a priority that in effect their needs were not met. Indeed, social workers concerned about this often tried to identify some child protection point in the case to get them allocated a bit of caseload time.

A long term consequence is that social work has been equated with child protection in recent years, and this has had consequences. In particular to have as one’s top priority the prevention of harm is a fairly negative objective. What about all the positive things that children need to develop? Wouldn’t it be nice if social workers could organise activities, develop preventive services, and maybe occasionally have fun?

The sorts of aims listed in Every Child Matters were positive, addressing the common needs of all children. To have job satisfaction it would have been nice for social workers to be able to focus on the positives, not the child protection treadmill. Who knows? The provision of positive services might have precluded the need for some of the policing.

No Minister ever told social workers not to provide supportive casework; it was never policy or part of a grand plan. It was just the unintended consequence of the overwhelming focus on child protection.

I

Every time there has been an inquiry, pressure has been put on the social work profession to improve its standards. The media have hounded the services, with the hounding of Sharon Shoesmith in Haringay as a classic case. The difficulties facing social workers then become enormous, not only have to solve complex problems of human behaviour, calculate difficult risks and make judgements on skimpy information, but also facing being pilloried in public if they get it wrong.

Then the media wonder why there are shortfalls in people entering the service, why certain authorities can’t recruit workers, and - eve more alarmingly - why social workers do not stay in post, so that the fund of experience they need is never built up.

Of course, the media never intended to wreck the profession as a conscious plan, nor was it what central or local government wanted, but social work has gone through a really difficult time as a result of media coverage.

J

The creation of Every Child Matters was a planned policy. It was the subject of a lot of consultation; it was positive; it addressed the needs of all children; it met with the support and approval of politicians and professionals: all highly laudable.

An approach of the calibre of Every Child Matters should have underpinned children’s services for the next twenty years. Unfortunately it came up against our parliamentary processes. The new Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, wanted to demonstrate a different approach from that of his Labour predecessors, and so it was quietly swept away.

Social policy development needs to last more than one cycle of Parliament, and the current system whereby changes of party in power and changes of minister, each one trying to prove s/he is having an impact, simply crate unwarranted change, mess systems up and waste resources on a grand scale. Another unintended consequence.

K

Towards the end of the last government a grant was awarded to Tribal which in effect led to the closure of the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care. The new government cancelled the grant and the sector was left without a lead body.

A large group of concerned professionals had battled for some years under the banner Momentum to get NCERCC established, and it had been really satisfying to see it in action, providing support and information to residential child care services, and much appreciated by the sector.

To see it wiped out by a series of unplanned decisions was very galling, and its absence leaves the sector leaderless, unsteered and liable to serious catastrophes.

L

Up to about 40 years ago there were no Secure Units and children and young people were held in Remand Homes (which were mainly large old houses with locked external doors) and Approved Schools (which were open, but had secure rooms for short-term containment). Then in the late 1960s the first Secure Units were built.

In the late 1970s the law changed. It was no longer acceptable to lock children up without Court authorisation, a commendable move in the direction of recognising their rights. Unfortunately, this had two effects, one being fairly immediate and the other being long-term.

First, staff in children’s homes felt that they no longer had the duty to restrain children who were running away. Whereas before it was a primary responsibility of staff to prevent running away or to find runaways and bring them back, they now simply reported absences to the Police and let them bring back any children they apprehended. There was a general deterioration in children’s behaviour and a sense of powerlessness among staff.

Secondly, for the children who were locked up by Court order, it was considered necessary to build specially designed Secure Units. These were well staffed, expensive and funded by local authorities. Young people who were processed through the penal system were paid for by central government in Young Offenders’ Institutions that were run more cheaply. Over time, understandably, the Secure Units have been closed and more of the young people have ended up in the penal system.

By the mid-1980s a large percentage of the former Approved Schools which had become Community Homes with Education had been closed (cf. D above), and so young offenders and the most disturbed young people with whom residential special schools could not cope had to be placed in Secure Units or YOIs. The unsatisfactory alternatives were placements in children’s homes or the use of ASBOs.

In summary, over a forty-year span, we have moved from holding about 9,000 children in semi-secure Remand Homes and open Approved Schools to having about 2,500 young people in YOIs in the penal system, a much smaller number in Secure Units, and a lot of young people on the loose in the community under ASBOs, half of which are breached.

Reformatories were introduced in the mid-nineteenth century to get young people out of prison and Truant Schools were set up because of the numbers of feral children wandering the streets. With the best of intentions, we have gone full circle and lock up more children than we ever did before.
In Conclusion

They never meant to:
- destabilise relationships between children in care and residential childcare workers (A),
- drive staff out of residential homes to be non-resident (B),
- undermine qualifying training for residential workers (C),
- destroy the regional planning of specialist services for children (D),
- make family group homes unworkable (E),
- make the private sector dominant in residential services (F),
- make bureaucracy dominant in child protection (G),
- undermine non-protection casework with children and families (H),
- put undue stress on the social work profession, affecting recruitment and retention (I),
- undermine the stability of services by making major unnecessary changes in social policy (J),
- destroy the leadership of the residential sector (K)
- lock up more children than before (L).

They never did these things as a matter of planned policy, but it was the actions of central and local government, the voluntary sector, the universities and the media which made these unintended changes.

Have I made the point? A lot of the best intentioned measures have not been thought out thoroughly enough or their consequences have not been anticipated. Possibly any measure contains the seeds of its own ultimate failure. The problem, though, in the instances described above is that children’s needs have not had the primacy they should have had.

And the question is: what are we doing now which we will come to regret in the future? That should be a topic for every staff team discussion in the country, as well as for the senior managers, civil servants, politicians, trainers and media.

Babies usually dribble or drool because their swallowing reflex and tongue movements are immature. Some people believe that dribbling and drooling indicates that babies have started teething. However, the only sure sign is when the emerging teeth can be seen or felt through the gums.

Is chewing a sign of teething?

Babies chew with their gums before they have teeth, but when they start to cut their molar teeth between ten and sixteen months of age, true chewing begins. Before then your baby will chew on just about anything before the first teeth start to emerge.

What are the symptoms of teething?

The gums may appear red and swollen before the emergence of the first tooth. Temporarily pain generally subsides after a few days.

Waking up more frequently at night, daytime restlessness, an increase in finger sucking, ear pulling, drooling, irritability, flushed cheeks and sometimes appetite loss may accompany teething. However these symptoms may also indicate a growth spurt or a bacterial infection, which can occur through the use of teething rings and other things that babies chew on.

If your baby has a temperature, see your GP.

Which teeth appear first?

Tooth buds develop before birth. In fact, some babies may have a tooth at birth or as early as three months. Generally, the first tooth appears between six and eight months of age. Premature babies may start teething later than full-term babies.

Evidence suggests that heredity plays a part in teething process. If you were an early or late teether, then your baby could be too.

Teeth generally appear in a certain order. They also tend to make their appearance in pairs (usually one soon after the other), with the bottom two central incisors generally arriving before the upper pair. However, some babies may not have their first tooth until they are one year old.

The first four molars can arrive at any time between twelve to sixteen months.

Can I continue to breast feed when my baby has teeth?

If you are both enjoying breastfeeding, continue for as long as you can. If your baby should clamp down on your breast, put the baby in an upright position.

How can I ease my baby’s teething discomfort?

A clean plastic teething ring that has been chilled in the refrigerator can help to relieve discomfit. However, a teething ring that has been frozen could damage your baby’s gums if it becomes very hard or cold.

A cool drink of water can help to soothe your baby’s gums. A wet flannel placed on your baby’s cheeks can provide comfort and relief from teething.

A gentle gum massage with your index finger or a soft baby toothbrush can provide some relief, but should be discontinued if your baby isn’t enjoying it.

A noisy or musical toy can offer a distraction from the discomfit of teething.

Chewing on soft fruit can ease teething discomfit. Your baby should be sitting upright when eating and fully supervised. Hard foods should be avoided under the age of six months since babies are unable to swallow properly.

How can I look after my baby’s teeth?

Take your baby for the first dental visit when the first tooth arrives and floss any teeth that are touching each other.

A soft baby toothbrush can help to keep your baby’s gums healthy and her teeth clean.

Fluoride can help prevent tooth decay, but it is important to give the right amount. Too much can damage your baby’s developing teeth. Check with your dentist first.

Can I use teething gel?

Teething gels are commonly used to relieve the discomfit of teething, but they may contain harmful substances, which can enter your baby’s bloodstream through the gums. Babies are highly sensitive to toxic chemicals due to the immaturity of their immune systems.

Some teething gels contain the preservative phenoxyethanol, which can damage cell DNA and increase the risk of cancer. Phenoxyethanol is stored in the body and it may take several years for its effects to become apparent.

Most teething gels contain the local anaesthetic, benzocaine. Overuse can impair the gag reflex and increase the risk of choking from reflux. Teething gels can be particularly hazardous if used on the gums at night.

Teething gels, which contain aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), are particularly hazardous. If aspirin is given to babies, it could lead to Reye’s syndrome, a disorder characterised by swelling of the brain and liver.

Teething gel must not be given to babies under five months of age. Medication, even natural remedies, may contain preservatives or parabens, which can lead to a number of health problems in later life.

Safety

Regularly clean teething rings, toys or anything else that your baby chews on to prevent the growth of germs. Use a mild antiseptic solution, or hot water and detergent, and rinse items thoroughly before giving them back to your baby.

Carefully inspect toys every time you give them to your baby. If chewing marks are present, check that the toy is not weak or loose.

If your baby likes to bite, avoid squeaky toys that could become dangerous if damaged.

Celebrate

The emergence of your baby’s first tooth is a cause for celebration. Most parents cannot get enough of those toothy smiles or photographs to share with friends and family.

In a few short years, you will be celebrating the arrival of the Tooth Fairy!

Dr Lin Day founded Baby Sensory, which is the only provider of baby development classes designed specifically for babies from birth to 13 months. The classes are run in over 400 locations throughout the UK and in 12 countries including the US, Australia and Spain and has most recently launched in China. All activities are excellent for developing physical, social and emotional, and language skills, co-ordination, awareness of the world, a love of music and the concentration needed for further development. The programme is also suitable for babies with physical or learning impairments. See www.babysensory.com.

Our Editorial looks at the main ideas which have underpinned the Webmag over the last twelve and a half years, and invites readers to contribute (in the next fortnight) to our one hundred and fiftieth issue.

News Views includes sport for all, great teachers, children’s rights in Wales, paying for truancy, Care.com, transport and family story-telling.

Under the title Being Born Again, Keith White’s In Residence column takes a look at the standard teaching on child development and sees it as something much more complex, affecting adult life, when some people need to reframe their lives.

As a solicitor David Greenwood has seen plenty of evidence of abuse by clergy, and of defensive cover-ups by churches. He argues powerfully for a thorough inquiry.

There is a report by Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation about girls and physical activity; they don’t do enough and the WSFF has an action plan.

The findings of a survey by Baby Sensory show that music through headphones puts unborn babies at risk.

Finally there is a book review by Valerie Jackson concerning Parenting a Child with Dyslexia by Chris Stanway and Lorna Miles.

We think that the HMIs were wrong. Children need some regular exercise every day, and it should be re-instated in schools. By all means offer a variety of activities, so that girls can do something uncompetitive if they want. Which makes us think. What is sauce for the goose…. Why shouldn’t the staff join in as well, as role models? If the whole school community were to participate, it would offer a powerful message. We wonder whether this idea is in the WSFF kit for schools.

Great Teachers

The House of Commons Education Committee has published a report called Great teachers: attracting, training and retaining the best, in which it comments that “the current generation of teachers is the best ever”.

The teachers’ union Voice supports the Committee’s view that “it’s crucial that we have an educational system which celebrates great teachers, keeps more of them in the classroom, supports their development and gives them greater status and reward”, but remarks that unfortunately, the attitude of government ministers and the media towards teaching often seems to be negative.

Perhaps we need an extension of the Leveson Inquiry to look at ways in which the media have skewed our views. Generally, they don’t like good news stories. Young NCB have had a campaign to demonstrate how teenagers are bad-mouthed by the press, to the point that older people are fearful and suspicious of them, unaware of all the positive work undertaken by young people.

As for this generation of teachers being the best ever, if anyone argues to the contrary, remind them of the way the cane used to be wielded in many schools, of the boredom of some of the lessons, and of the regular absenteeism and not infrequent riots that there used to be. If you doubt it, just read the histories of our older schools.

Wales leading the way in the UK for Children’s Rights

Welsh ministers now have a duty to have due regard to the requirements of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This means that ministers must consider the rights of children and young people in all the decisions they make about new legislation, policies and changes to existing policy.

To coincide with the new duty, which came into force on 1 May 2012, Gwenda Thomas, the Deputy Minister for Children visited Big Pit National Coal Museum in Torfaen to meet local school children and talk about how their lives and rights compared to those of previous generations. No more pulling coal tubs underground for the kiddies; no more injuries being crushed by falling rocks.

Now let’s hope that other countries follow suit.

Paying for Truancy

Charlie Taylor, government adviser on school behaviour, is advocating increased fines for parents of persistent truants, and the deduction of the fines from their benefits if they do not pay up. We think that this will be ineffective.

There might be a point to charging well-off parents who take their children out of school for holidays for the cost of the education missed. It would probably irritate them and make the cheaper term-time holidays less attractive. We have been informed by the deVere Group, who describe themselves as the world’s largest independent advisory firm which specialises in expat wealth solutions, that three out of four expatriate parents underestimate the true cost of educating their children privately overseas. We have no idea of the daily cost of state education in the UK. Knowing the investment being made out of taxation in their children might make some people value it more.

But people on benefits have very little in the first place; some of them do not value education, which may well be why their children truant. It is the children, though, who will lose out, and the families will risk being driven to offend in order to survive. Taking money from them is likely to make them more antisocial, conforming grudgingly, rather than valuing education.

What is more important, using stick rather than carrot will only embitter families who do not value education against compulsory schooling. Why not use carrot rather than stick? Ideally the carrot should be the enjoyment of learning and the increased opportunities arising from educational success, but a payment for attendance would at least be a start.

Care.com

We received an email, which looked very official, with the royal coat of arms, only to find that it was a private company from the USA advertising its services. The arms had been added because UK Trade and Investment, a government agency of which we had not previously heard, had encouraged Care.com to set up its European HQ in the UK.

Care.com say that they provide an online forum for UK families and carers to connect with each other, arrange care, and share advice. The company helps families address their unique lifecycle of care needs: childcare, special needs care, care for older people, pet care, and housekeeping. Care.com does not employ, recommend, or endorse any carers or care seekers nor is it a recruitment or other agency. Care.com provides information and tools to help members make informed decisions.

However, members are solely responsible for selecting an appropriate employer or carer for themselves or their family, and employers are solely responsible for obtaining and reviewing any necessary CRB or other identity, verification, background, or reference checks before hiring a carer and for verifying the age of the carer they select, as well as that carer’s eligibility to work in the UK. Care.com UK has a trained and dedicated team reviewing all carer profiles for suspicious and inappropriate content. Care.com also provides secure messaging, reference checking services, and a growing collection of articles and resources on the interviewing and hiring process.

It sounds like a good idea. We had heard of a similar system in the States whereby families with a member with learning disability were given a budget based on an assessment of need and used the internet to select the services of their choice, cutting out all the work which social workers would have done to evaluate possible placements and monitor progress.

Transport - a Priority for Young People

The British Youth Council, supported by the House of Commons, has launched the Youth Select Committee – a new body which mirrors the UK Parliament Select Committee structure and gives young people the opportunity to scrutinise and hold enquiries in to topics they’re interested in.

The group’s first inquiry, in July, will look at public transport – as identified as a priority by members of the British Youth Council and UK Youth Parliament in 2011. The terms of reference for the inquiry are “to inquire into issues and concerns around safe, affordable and accessible transport for young people and make recommendations to decision makers to address them”. This topic is one which Young NCB identified some time ago, and it is good to see pressure being maintained.

Family Story-telling

Blurb have emailed to encourage the sharing of family stories for the benefit of future generations. They point out that a lot of children find their grandparents’ stories boring and there is a real risk of losing a wealth of family information. Although 68% of parents want family stories documented, only 18% of children sit down to listen to their grandparents.

Blurb say they are the world’s leading self-publishing platform, and they are launching www.nationofstorytellers.com where you can submit a short synopsis of your favourite personal story. A judging panel will then select twenty of the most inspiring stories for publication, so they can be preserved forever.

‘Research’

Drinkaware report that 72% of young people aged 10 to 17 would turn to their parents to talk about alcohol. For half of them, their parents had given them their last drink.

Meanwhile, a survey by Dove found that 37% of girls looked to their mother as their role model, with Cheryl Cole coming in second at 8%. Kate Middleton only scored 3%, who were presumably the ones dashing to the shops for the look-alike dresses.

So we can rest assured that children still look up to their parents.

Nothing directly to do with children, but the Sun claims that 48% of Britons are seriously considering leaving the country, though another survey reports that 63% will be travelling abroad for a holiday, spending nearly £1k each.

From an article

The Government was literally throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

We hope that a passer-by from the Big Society was there to catch it.

The eight main ideas described below have underpinned what we have done to date. They have not been formalised as an editorial policy authorised by the Board, but they have influenced the material we have sought and the content of the editorial columns. Do they match up to the profession’s thinking today? Do they offer pointers for the future? Comments and contributions to our thinking for the future will be welcome.

1 Quality child care

It should go without saying that we have wanted to promote high standards of child care, but it is sometimes worth stating the obvious, so that it is explicit. While we have published much material about child care services, we have also emphasised the need for the right principles, values and beliefs as the foundations for high quality services.

2 The Whole of Childhood

We have tended to publish material inclusively, and have covered issues ranging from pregnancy through to young adulthood, as well as general social issues. This is because we have considered that growing up is a continuous process and that, while services for children and young people may need to be organised by age groups, professionals should view their work holistically. “The child is father of the man”, and babies grow up through childhood into adolescence and young adulthood. It is important that professionals working with one age group understand about the needs and potential of other age groups. In practice we have probably focused more on residential child care than other fields and there are some which we have covered inadequately, but that is because we depend upon in part what contributors want to write about and in part on our range of contacts. We have tried to get children and young people to contribute, but have only succeeded intermittently.

3 A Child Care Profession

As an extension of this thinking, we have argued that the child care profession has suffered from being split into specialist silos. Child care professionals tend to see themselves as residential workers, foster carers, nursery nurses, childminders and so on, rather than as members of the larger profession, and this splintering has weakened the profession. We have published a lot of articles to brief professionals about areas of service with which they may not be acquainted.

4 Social Pedagogy

As a conceptual vehicle for bringing child care professionals together under a common banner, we have promoted social pedagogy, and we are pleased to see that more local authorities and child care organisations are piloting and researching social pedagogy. We do not argue that it has the magic answer to every problem, but the concepts underpinning social pedagogy have served continental child care well for sixty years or more, and the holistic thinking is consistent with our approach.

5 International Thinking

In the Webmag’s early days we carried a separate section of articles from countries round the world. Clearly, the bulk of the readership is from the United Kingdom, and many of our articles and news items reflect the UK base, but we have always tried to include material from a wide range of countries, as child care professionals have much to learn from each other. To say the least, it can be eye-opening to realise that workers in other countries may do things quite differently, and it can help us challenge our own assumptions. In particular we have given publicity to the work of FICE and AIEJI.

6 Learning from the Past

Child care workers and managers tend to live in the present, dealing with current challenges, and it is easy to forget that our predecessors faced similar problems decades or even centuries earlier. If we ignore what they learnt we risk repeating their mistakes. Yet governments press on, ‘innovating’ without knowing whether ideas have been tried in the past. Many of the best child care texts were written fifty years ago, and they can be hard to obtain, so we have tried to include retrospective articles about child care in the past and have published the Key Texts series - 75 summaries of the most important books and reports from the past.

7 Encouraging Thinking

Most of the content has been articles - some of them of a standard suitable for professional journals, some of them news items or opinion pieces. The standard of writing has varied, but we have considered it important to encourage the sharing of ideas, and we have wanted contributors to feel able to express themselves. We believe that child care requires sensitivity, awareness and fresh imaginative thinking if individual children’s needs are to be met, and this entails urging readers to think creatively and maybe to challenge accepted ideas.

8 Format

We have published the Webmag monthly, partly as a discipline, partly to be able to organise publication without creating excessive pressures. With all the technological developments, this format may now be considered dated, reflecting the old hard copy magazines which are dying out. However, if professionals are to lay out their ideas and argue their cases at any depth, they need more space than a tweet.

A final thought: how about writing a piece for our one hundred and fiftieth issue?

A new report by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) says that girls in the UK are not getting enough exercise – and that schools hold the key to encouraging girls to get active. The report, based on research carried out by the Institute of Youth Sport at Loughborough University, shows that half of all girls (51%) are put off physical activity by their experiences of school sport and PE.

Official figures show that just 12% of 14 year old girls are reaching the recommended levels of physical activity – half the number of boys at the same age. This is despite three quarters (74%) of girls saying they would like to be more active.

As part of the research, a survey asked 1,500 school children about their attitudes to fitness and sport. It found that:

• Half of all girls (51%) are put off physical activity by their experiences of school sport and PE.
• 45% of girls say “sport is too competitive” and more than half think boys enjoy competitive sport more than girls.
• Over half of all boys and girls agree that “there are more opportunities for boys to succeed in sport than girls.”
• Half of the girls surveyed (48%) say that getting sweaty is “not feminine.”
• Nearly a third of boys think that girls who are sporty are not very feminine.

• Of the least active girls, 46% say that they don’t like the activities they get to do in PE compared to 26% of the most active.
• 43% of girls agree that “there aren’t many sporting role models for girls.”

The report also highlights the gender gap that emerges between girls and boys as they grow up. In Year Four of primary school, girls and boys are doing similar levels of physical activity. However, by Year Six girls are doing considerably less exercise than boys – a gap that widens as girls reach Year Nine of secondary school.

WSFF is writing to every head teacher and head of PE today (over 4,000 teachers), offering them practical guidance on making PE and school sport more appealing to girls, and encouraging all schools to aim for 100% pupil participation. The guidance, developed in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust, recognises that some schools and teachers are already doing this, but what is currently best practise needs to become common practise. WSFF wants every school to help motivate and inspire girls to ‘get active and stay active’ by offering alternative activities, such as dance or martial arts alongside traditional school sports like hockey and netball, to motivate girls to not only enjoy PE and sport in schools, but to adopt a more active lifestyle.

Physical inactivity among girls is associated with a range of outcomes from obesity and low self-esteem to poor educational attainment. The report also highlights the importance of school sport in preventing an obesity crisis in the UK. British women are currently the most obese in Europe and the UK falls behind the OECD average for physical activity among 11-15 year olds.

The report makes a series of recommendations on how to help girls enjoy being active:

• Schools should work with leaders in the field to ensure best practice becomes common practice.
• Performance against the Government’s recommended levels of physical activity for children should be more rigorously monitored within and outside the school environment
• Education authorities and schools should recognise the way in which current provision is failing girls and develop policies and strategies specifically to redress this.
• Choice in physical activity is crucial and schools should seek the views of pupils on which activities they are likely to participate in e.g. single-sex sporting choices or non-competitive classes like dance or martial arts.
• Schools should set their own targets and establish clear and public aspirations for 100% pupil participation.
• Schools should celebrate higher levels of participation as well as success in competitive sports. Initiatives like the Government’s School Games are a great opportunity to encourage young people to enjoy the benefits of playing sport. However, more needs to be done by individual schools to make sure that a range of activities are on offer.

Sue Tibballs, Chief Executive of WSFF, said:

“It is well-known that school children are less active than they should be. This problem is particularly severe for girls. Our research shows that PE and school sport is actually putting the majority of girls off being active, even though three-quarters of girls are keen to do more exercise.

“We need schools and the Government to urgently address this issue, and create policies that will keep our children fit and healthy. The priority needs to be getting all children active not just focusing on the sporty ones.

“We simply cannot afford to keep ignoring the evidence that school sport plays a key role in shaping attitudes to health and fitness. Some schools are leading the way in delivering exciting and inclusive PE lessons, but there is still a great deal to be done. And, with sport front of mind in 2012, now is the ideal time to do it.”

Baroness Sue Campbell, Chair at the Youth Sport Trust said:

“When it comes to PE there are many barriers that can make girls fearful of PE – everything from lacking the confidence to take part through to being extremely body conscious. Schools that deliver PE well recognise these challenges offer a wider variety of sports and physical activity that make girls feel included and encourages them to get involved. We would like to see all schools take this approach.”

On the basis of this report, the WSFF is launching a schools toolkit which provides ideas and solutions for schools.

In the past we have trusted church organisations, but in the same way that we lost trust in the police to regulate themselves (culminating in the creation of the Independent Police Complaints Commission), churches should now be regulated by an independent body.

The Stop Church Child Abuse campaign is an alliance of clergy sexual abuse survivors, support groups, specialist lawyers and interested individuals working in the field of child safeguarding. We have come together to highlight the serious safeguarding failures of church institutions.

The Call for an Independent Inquiry

Clergy and church officials hold important posts and are highly trusted and respected within our society. They have unquestioned access to children and the most vulnerable. We have been aware of increasing numbers allegations of abuse by clergy since the early 1990s.

For 20 years the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Church of England/Wales have repeatedly stated that they will respond appropriately to reports of child sexual abuse, and numerous safeguarding/child protection procedures have been put in place. Despite these assurances and procedures produced, there have been repeated court cases in which clergy and church officials have been convicted of multiple child sexual offences, often dating back and continuing for decades and involving a number of children.

Repeatedly, prosecutions have revealed that church authorities covered up past reports of child abuse and allowed clergy to remain in post despite allegations and in some cases past convictions for child sexual offences. In many reported cases further child abuse took place. The James Robinson case in 2010 involving the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, the recent convictions of monks and priests at Ealing Abbey, Buckfast Abbey, the Cotton and Pritchard case in 2008 and subsequent Church of England Diocese of Chichester Inquiries (2010, 2011 and ongoing 2012) are just the latest examples. It is also concerning that in church-run schools Ofsted inspections have marked some outstanding when either known abusers have been working at the school, or the schools have inadequate child protection policies.

My Findings

• From my research between 542 and 1,776 abusing priests have gone un-prosecuted.

• Church safeguarding procedures allow Bishops to keep allegations away from the police and social services.

• There have been recently discovered cover-ups in which Bishops have protected clergy.

• Bishops can decide for themselves whether to even have a priest risk assessed.

• There are very recent examples of Bishops allowing sex offending priests to work with children.

• The churches allow convicted sex offenders to be ordained.

• The institutional dynamics of the churches prevent effective child protection and are putting children at risk in 2012.

The Catholic Church

It is clear from the ongoing appalling cases coming into our courts that at no time in the twenty years that we have known about clergy perpetrating child sexual abuse in this country have Catholic Church leaders shown themselves capable of conducting an inquiry into the institutional failings to protect children.

The recent church commissioned inquiries into Downside, Buckfast Abbey and Ealing Abbey will not result in any change of hearts or minds or institutional dynamics within the Catholic Church which continue to protect its reputation, resources and the clergy at the cost of the safety of the most vulnerable.

The Church of England and the Church of Wales

Whilst the press and public have to date focused on the failings within the Catholic Church similar events have gone unreported in the Church of England.

The current Church of England safeguarding procedures do not adequately protect children from risk of abuse by those already known to be accused. As with the Catholic safeguarding procedures there is no compulsion to report allegations of abuse. Bishops and other church officials have too much discretion.

Only a public inquiry into the thousands of cases of child abuse perpetrated within Dioceses and Church run institutions will reveal both the extent of the abuse that has been perpetrated and also the institutional dynamics within the Church that enable such abuse to be covered up and to continue for decades, even into the 21st Century.

These two organisations have proved unable to police themselves and we call for a statutory body to regulate their responses to allegations of abuse.

The Campaign

The campaign is calling on the Government to set up an Independent Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy, religious and other church officials within all Dioceses and institutions of the Catholic Church in England & Wales and the Church of England and in Wales.

We recommend that the following changes are enacted into legislation :-

1) Mandatory reporting by church and religious leaders of all allegations of child abuse perpetrated by those in positions of trust and authority within churches and religious institutions.

2) An independent statutory body to receive reports of abuse, to monitor and review safeguarding procedures within the Roman Catholic Church and its religious institutions and the Church of England and in Wales. Such a body should have powers to carry out regular and planned inspections, make recommendations for improvements and enforce compliance, as well as to inspect at no notice where substantive cause for concern arises.

David Greenwood is a Solicitor working for Jordans Solicitors.

Tel: 01924 868911

Fax: 01924 868915

email:david.greenwood@jordanssolicitors.co.uk

web: childabusesolicitor.com

web: jordanssolicitors.co.uk

twitter: @dgreenwoodlaw

Chapter one looks at the definition of dyslexia and how this may affect the individual’s ability. As with any other diagnosed need, dyslexia takes many forms, from the creative to the disabling disorganised person who cannot seem to function in the world.

The second chapter looks at the symptoms and prognosis of the condition and some of the methods for treating the child. There is a telling section for adopters and foster carers when trauma mimics dyslexia. Most children have suffered to some degree by being looked after or adopted into a new family. This can send their reactions into the stratosphere and may even cause concerned adults to wrongly diagnose a condition.

The third chapter advises on questions to ask prior to adopting or fostering a child. The next few chapters look at how this may affect the individual child’s development and what support, educational strategies and further help can be expected.

The second section of the book focuses on the importance and frustration of parenting a child with dyslexia. Lorna Miles shares her own experiences of living with children who have dyslexia. It is a simply told narrative with an emotional yet realistic undercurrent. At the end of this section there are questions to ask oneself.

I found this book to be an ideal addition to the bookshelf, especially for foster and adoptive parents. With any child, there is an element of the unknown and for children who are not born into the family, there may be even more surprises. I liked this short yet informative volume.

Stanway, Chris and Miles, Lorna (2012) Parenting a Child with Dyslexia

BAAF

ISBN 9781907585463

“Parents need to be educated about this issue and practice alternative methods of playing music to their unborn child such as low background music on a stereo or even singing to their bump. Then once welcomed to the world your baby can engage in many fun and educational activities involving music which can help development and intelligence in later life”, advises Dr. Lin Day.

Baby Sensory is the only provider of baby development classes designed specifically for babies from birth to 13 months. The classes are run in over 200 locations throughout the UK and currently one in 55 babies born in the UK attends Baby Sensory classes. Classes are also run in twelve countries, including the USA, Australia and Spain and, most recently, in China. The Baby Sensory programmes have been developed in the UK by Dr. Lin Day (PhD. M. Phil. PGCE. BSc. Dip. Ed), who has worked with babies and young children throughout her career.

Baby Sensory state that all activities are excellent for developing physical, social and emotional, and language skills, co-ordination, awareness of the world, a love of music and the concentration needed for further development. The programme is also suitable for babies with physical or learning impairments. For more information, see www.babysensory.com.

This is how she describes how she now understands what was going on in her personal development:

“I think that if you are going to go on developing as a human being, there will challenges to the self. You can’t simply become habitual, or even know, to yourself – you have to take risks. And I think that the person I was…couldn’t go any further. It’s very odd when you run out of self – it’s like the end of a road…So if you are going to have a second life you probably need to have a second self to go with it, which is a self which has been broken and remade in some fundamental way…”[ii]

The comparison between this sort of experience and religious conversion is one that she herself makes. And she uses the same phrase “born again”.

A person confronted by one or more big issues in their life (including separation, loss, shame, physical traumas and so on) has a range of defensive options available to them, and psychotherapy has charted them exhaustively. As an alternative to suicide, Jeanette Winterson sees them as the attempt to repair the situation/self by adopting a false personality. This involves shutting down the self as a means of escape. This strategy may succeed in preventing suicide, and keeping life ticking over, but it does so at the cost of genuine relationships, intra and inter psychic. The only authentic option she sees is that of putting things back together (redeeming them) in such as way that it is possible to start again. The past is revisited and reinterpreted. (The way Jeanette describes her new understanding of her adoptive father chimes well with the theory of resilience described in that historic book, Out of the Woods.[iii])

With this in mind, the next part of my argument concerns the deep-seated problem that we have both as individual human beings, and as humanity as a whole, in understanding the true nature of things. I do not want to become unduly philosophical here, but rather to make a very simple point. We often look to the wrong people for explanations and interpretations of phenomena: we instinctively turn to those who are assumed to be the experts in a given field. It can make good sense for some things (going to a garage mechanic to fix a car, and to a doctor for a medical ailment, for example), but can often lead us to the very people who by virtue of their familiarity with certain data and situations, cannot see the wood for the trees. Experts by definition will always tend to see and explain phenomena on the basis of their specialist knowledge or theory. That much is surely unexceptional, and need not delay us for long.

Let me give just one practical example: the blue stones at Stonehenge. It is universally accepted that some of these, at least, came from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. The thorny question is how they were transported. There are two main theories: that they were carried by the Ice Age, or by some form of slave or conscripted labour. To an unbiased onlooker these seem to be two sensible options, given that the flow of ice was in roughly the right direction, and that there was the availability in theory at least of the necessary labour. The worrying thing is, however, that geologists all tend to opt for the former, and archaeologists for the latter explanation! How on earth does the unbiased observer begin to assess such specialist information given that there are two such completely distinct paradigms of knowledge?

In my view this sort of difficulty is commonplace in knowledge and theory, and reasonably well attested by the likes of Polanyi,[iv] McIntyre,[v] Illich,[vi] and Kuhn[vii].

So now let’s return to the matter of individual human development, a field dominated by the social sciences, notably psychology and psychotherapy. Is it possible that we have turned to such specialists so often and in such a reflex way, that we, like them, have missed something important? One shouldn’t rule out at this stage that there might be an elephant in the room, or that the Emperor is naked!

I think something very important has been overlooked. And this is the nub of the matter. Development theory (the phrase itself is not an objective or neutral one) is basically framed by the assumption that there are stages of development. A cursory glance at the textbooks and leaders in the field will leave the reader in no doubt. What’s more there are, by definition, “normal stages” of development. And if you are not careful you begin to swallow this camel of a meta-narrative, while trying to strain out the odd gnat as part of your studies. Years of teaching child development and related topics have convinced me beyond reasonable doubt of the attractiveness of stages of development as a framework that students readily understand and even more quickly embrace.

This is hardly surprising given that such development theory is congruent with ideas of the progress of human civilisation, increasingly linked in our day and age to a concept of human evolution. Whether we are thinking about the micro or the macro level, the fundamental paradigm of development and progress is the same.

It follows that there is “normal” personal development, and “normal” societal development, and one of the tasks of the specialists is to identify those whose development is abnormal or retarded, and to recommend ways in which it can be sped up. I mention societal as well as personal development not because we will be exploring it in this column, but because it is vital to see that all of us, whether as individuals or social groups, operate within thought and language permeated by these closely connected paradigms.

If we go back to Jeanette Winterson, we can see how easily she fits the whole pattern: she is one of those who, because of unfortunate childhood experiences, has had her development adversely affected, and therefore she needed help in one form or another in order to get her back on track. In such situations the experts are of course all set to offer help and advice.

The problem I have with these mutually-reinforcing discourses is that they do not do justice to the facts as I have come to understand them. This includes the facts of numerous life-stories encountered in the course of my life and work at Mill Grove, as well as through those stories I have gleaned from case studies, literature, and ordinary social life. And it includes what I have learned of human social history through extensive reading and travel.

My interim conclusion (it would be unwise and unscientific to be dogmatic) is that the basic development paradigm is therefore flawed. Any theory must be open to reconsideration in the light of the facts of individual personal human life, or of the wide span of human “civilisation” (a weasel word if ever there was one, as Mahatma Ghandi observed when referring specifically to the west). Rather than seeing those who are stunted or retarded as abnormal (“challenged” is probably the politically correct word at the moment), I have come to see them as representing much more the true nature of the human condition. In short, both human and societal development are far more patchy, more nuanced, less convincing as stories of progress than the theory would suggest.

Before going any further it is vital to point out that I am neither suggesting that the story of human progress has no substance to it, nor am I venturing an alternative version resembling human regress. On the contrary I am seeking to do justice both to the achievements and glories of human civilisation, and to the darker side that has bedevilled, and continues to bedevil humans and human societies worldwide, of whatever culture, religion or political creed.

And it is a former Professor of Christian Education at Princeton Theological Seminary, James E. Loder, who helped me to see where the fundamental flaw in the whole process might be. And it is to do with early ego development. René Spitz,[viii] who studied the early months of the lives of children in detail, was persuaded that at somewhere around three months (there is, of course, no need for a rigid definition of the time period) a child seeks and responds to the presence of a human face. Loder argues that this interaction over time establishes the child’s sense of personhood, and is a universal prototype of the Divine Presence (that all is, and will be, well). You can choose you preferred vocabulary at this point: the important thing is that we can find a way of proceeding together.

At about six months the child has begun to recognise the mother’s particular face, and becomes aware of her absence. This causes huge anxiety (because so much is at stake given what the face represents), which is exacerbated by the increasing interdictions of significant others by gesture as well as by word “No!” The child is at risk because of an inner absence, and also because of perceived external hostility. The universal way in which children, male and female, go about coping with this is the pivotal point of the whole argument.

The child takes the initiative and begins to set up all relationships (including that with the mother) on her own (negative) terms. Like a reaction formation, the child says “No” in all situations, whether or not it is actually what she means or wants. The point is to take control as a way of coping when the world, within and outside, has proved so unreliable. This is the source of the autonomous ego, no less. And it achieves it primary purposes of repressing hurtful or destructive longings, and bringing some objectivity to negotiations with the world outside and around. The child now begins to function as an agent, rather than as a passive victim. And this is welcomed and reinforced by family and society in many ways.

But the cost is huge and potentially lifelong: the true personality is not centred.

This seizing of the initiative serves a function, but does not change the existential, lonely, vulnerable reality of the child. And this, Loder argues, is at the very heart of human ego development: a misguided attempt to deal with a sense of rejection and cosmic loneliness. From that point on, the theories of development kick in, all seeking to help the ego of the child (whether with motor, cognitive, personal, language skills), and normal stages of development chart and encourage the flawed progress of the ego. Writ large, the whole of human society and the human project is likewise built on this foundation, not least in its western individualistic version where you are encouraged to look after ‘No. 1′.

I venture to guess that not every reader of Children Webmag will be familiar with Karl Barth’s Commentary on Romans, so let me share a brief summary of his conclusion at this point:

“This world has…form and shape; and it possesses a law, a general pressure towards concreteness, to light-created light. This pressure towards enjoyment, possession, success, knowledge, power, rightness; this vigorous movement towards an attainable comprehensible perfection; this pressure…forms the mysterious pivot round which the whole world of human genius revolves…and…genius is…our beloved ego.”[ix]

Here is a case of finding someone who is not so immersed in the trees that they cannot see that the whole wood is in fact destined to die! Barth sees the way in which the world of social relations is an extension of the flawed human ego, and bears the hallmarks of an incomplete and passing age.This is in almost complete contrast to theories of child development that see the individual reaching maturity as an adult. But then what?

Loder draws from a wide range of writers (including Barth) in developing his theory in two books.[x] These writers include Erikson, Freud, Jung, Winnicott and the like. He is writing not to critique what they are saying but to put their work in a new and wider framework of understanding.

If there is a grain of truth in what Loder is saying, and from observation and reflection over a lifetime I think there is, we could see the twin frameworks of human and societal development as conspiring to cover up, or deal with, the existential alienation and loneliness that characterises the human species from birth to death. It is a form of wish-fulfilment that assumes a person who plays his cards correctly will experience untroubled, normal human progress. Likewise that human societies (that are made up of course of individual lonely human beings), if they only get the right system of economics, politics or management, will reach new levels of peace and prosperity.

It follows that those alone who can show us the way are people like Jeanette Winterson who see the flaw in the project of the self, and are willing to go right back to the beginning (suicide is the most complete and dramatic form of this longing) in order to remake the self, in the light of a better and more complete understanding of the facts of the matter.

I have seen this again and again with youngsters who have been let down by their own biological parents and families. What I now realise is that the challenge to be born again is one that confronts every human being. It entails the acceptance of the brokenness of the self, and the need for it to be re-made. And the same is highly likely to be true of human societies: until the west and China, let’s say, acknowledge the truth of their fallibility and brokenness, there can be no genuine human society at any level.

So it is that the little ones, the broken ones of societies and families throughout human history, can lead the way for the rest of us. And as they do so, we need to re-write the theory of human development in the process. It is far too alluring and reassuring for our own good. Perhaps that is why it has lasted and been so popular for so long.

[iii] Out of the Woods: Tales of Resilient Teens, ed. S. Hauser et al (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006)

[iv] Personal Knowledge, Michael Polanyi (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1958)

[v] After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntyre (Notre-Dame: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1981)

[vi] Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich (London: Penguin, 1973)

[vii] The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962)

[viii] The First Year of Life, Rene Spitz (New York: Inter Univ. Press, 1965)

[ix] The Epistle to the Romans, Karl Barth (trans. E Hoskyns) (London: OUP, 1933)

[x] James E. Loder, The Transforming Moment (Colorado Springs: Helmers and Howard, 1989); The Logic of the Spirit (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 1998)

 There are three main groups of contributions this month - articles on child care practice, contributions from or about issues in other countries, and book reviews.

First the practice articles.

-           In his In Residence column, Keith White looks at the way that families       function as a part of wider communities.

-           Michael Greig describes work with a boy in which he applied what he had           learnt about social pedagogy.

-           Delma Hughes describes the progress in developing Siblings Together - despite the recession.

-           Chris Durkin questions what the real impact of social work intervention is.

Next the international articles.

-           Charles Pragnell describes problems with the Family Courts in Australia.

-           Bettina Terp describes FICE - the largest international professional           association for people working with children and young people.

-           FICE’s President, Dashenka Tashkova, draws attention to the plight and             future needs of children in Syria.

-           The Editorial focuses on ways in which child care workers can communicate      and keep in touch internationally, following a cyc.net ‘clan gathering’.

We also have the thirteenth contribution from Jim Hyland about the demise of the approved schools system, and News Views covers truancy, social pedagogy in Ireland, the demise of the CWDC,  church child abuse, Tony Newton, Herb Barnes, parental mileage, tablets, children’s clocks, spring-cleaning and flat panel TVs.

The book reviews, all by Valerie Jackson, all concern books (mainly for professionals) published by Jessica Kingsley Publishing.

-        first an introduction about JKP;

-           101 Things to Do on the Street by Vanessa Rogers about games and        resources for detached, outreach and street-based youth work;

-           Connecting with Kids Through Stories by Denise Lacher and others, about           using narratives to facilitate attachment in adopted children;

-           Friendship and other Weapons by Signe Whitson about group activities to            help young girls aged 15-11 to cope with bullying;

-           Safeguarding Children from Abroad Refugee, Asylum Seeking and Trafficked       Children in the UK, edited by Emma Kelly and Farhat Bokhari;

-           Starving the Anger Gremlin, a cognitive behavioural therapy workbook on             anger management for young people by Kate Collins-Donnelly.

And finally a review of the Asda Kidscam Digital Camera by Bill Stevenson.

Forty years ago, residential child care workers in the UK used their only days off to share their professional problems at meetings of the Residential Child Care Association, and they looked to their monthly copies of Child in Care for their inspiration. Now they can make contact with colleagues, lecturers and others throughout the world by texting, emailing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a host of other systems. Responses can be immediate, and it is not necessary to give up days off.

This sounds like real progress, and as far as the technology is concerned, the options today are light years ahead of the 1970s. But an important question is whether these systems actually lead to more careful thought, more informed discussion and better services for children. After all, whatever system one uses, “Rubbish in; rubbish out” applies, and the quicker the response, the less thought may have been given to the answer. Complex professionals issue require careful thought and use of words; a quick Tweet may simply be a distracting use of time. Developing good communication may not be a matter of reducing concepts to soundbites but of encouraging workers to find settling down to think and study rewarding.

It is not yet clear whether we have further technical developments ahead which will make communication significantly easier, or whether we now have available the main sorts of communication systems which professionals will be using over coming decades. Whether things will change or not, how do we best use the systems we have?

cyc-net

Aficionados of cyc-net have held a ‘clan gathering’ in Glasgow to consider these issues. If you are a reader of Children Webmag, but have not yet looked at cyc-net, we recommend that you do. Its aims and values are very similar to those of the Webmag. It has grown up in the same sort of way, with a Board, a core of volunteers at the centre and a network of contributors and readers.

Although they may feel financially hard-pressed, cyc-net has been better financed than the Webmag, though, and it has been much more successful in developing a wider range of material, for example by having a Learning Zone with training materials. It does a lot of the things which the Webmag would like to do.

The clan gathering was the first of its kind. It was a warm and friendly event, attended by about sixty participants from about a dozen countries, well organised with The Kibble at the heart, with a day conference in which thirty-six quarter-hour papers were given about different aspects of child and youth care. The rest of the time was given over to discussing where cyc-net goes next. It was a debate which reflected on not only cyc-net itself but also the way child care workers communicate world-wide and the global state of services for children and young people.

Five Thoughts

As concerned well-wishers from a parallel venture, we offer five thoughts for the future of cyc-net.

First, what has already been achieved is precious. That does not mean it is something you can preserve like a diamond ring in a box. Its value is that it is a living network, involving thousands of people, who make contact because they want to, without obligation. Clearly cyc-net has to have some form of organisation in the shape of its Board, but it needs to remain lively, accessible, responsive to need, changing format if that meets participants’ needs better, alert to trends in child and youth care and technical changes in communication systems.

Any decisions which create formal structures or fees to access material could risk stifling the creativity of the site. For example, if a membership organisation were set up on the model of FICE and AIEJI, which have both been around for over sixty years, cyc-net would not only be a rival to them but it would inherit the problems they are facing in keeping structures going that do not sit easily with the electronic age.

It should be noted that the success of cyc-net is the result of the personal impact of a number of individuals. At the risk of omitting some key people of influence, we should offer thanks to Brian Gannon, who has been at the heart of the enterprise, to Thom Garfat and Leon Fulcher, and to Graham Bell for the support of the Kibble. It is because these key professionals have contributed not only their time and energies but have provided the right sort of milieu, based on sound professional thinking and the right values, that cyc-net has had such an impact.

We need to recognise the importance of what has been achieved, therefore, and the need to maintain the services and approach offered to date.

In what ways could cyc-net expand? Our second point is that cyc-net is strongest in countries where English is the first language - USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia, for example. This is not only a question of language but of culture and professional approach. The child and youth care model of North America is dominant. This is not to criticise the model, but there are other models such as that of social pedagogy of Europe. A dialogue between proponents of these models would not only introduce workers to new ideas but help them question their own methods.

There are obviously many other languages spoken in child care around the world. There must be hundreds of thousands of people working with children whose main language is Chinese, Arabic, Hindi or Urdu, for example. Where does one start? We suspect that a network on the cyc-net model for the Spanish-speaking world would meet a similar need and be a good starting point. Like cyc-net it would need time to build up, but it could serve much of South America, Central America, some of North America and Spain itself.

Thirdly, we suggest alliances with other organisations such as FICE and AIEJI. They have experience in running congresses and cyc-net could piggy-back on their events, saving on organising time, avoiding rivalries but also having the chance for face-to-face meetings which enable greater depth of discussion and the development of relationships. Such arrangements would also create opportunities for interface between the world of child and youth care and the world of social pedagogy.

Fourthly, one of Children Webmag’s aims has been to unify all workers with children and young people under a common banner, to create a strong profession comparable to the other major professions. In the UK the profession is splintered, with workers too often remaining in silos, with separate professional identities, training, accreditation and registration systems, and often having few contacts with workers in other settings. There is a gulf, for example, between early years workers and those working with adolescents, let alone the wider gap between those working with babies and those with young people in secure settings.

We may be wrong, but we suspect that the bulk of cyc-net material focuses on a section of children and young people - not the whole age band, and there may be scope for broadening the field. After all, it is the same children who live through the different age groups, and the way they are reared when tiny affects what they do as adolescents. We need an integrated approach.

Finally, how about thinking big? Compared with the big industries, child care is a poor relation, and both Children Webmag and cyc-net are run on very tight budgets. There are plenty of millionaires in the electronic communication industry who could easily spare money to expand the services offered by cyc-net. For example, if the child care services of India and Africa could be offered laptops they could access the training materials offered by cyc-net, and a lot more besides. The impact on the quality of services worldwide could be enormous, and it only needs one millionaire to understand the scope of this proposal for things to take off.

We wish cyc-net well as it looks to the future.

Truancy

It is reported that the percentage of children who miss 15% of their lessons has dropped from 6.8% to 6.1%. That is still about 400,000 children. Children are meant to attend school and so any such fall is good news. Children who miss school underachieve and this can affect the rest of their lives.

But, as was commented when the figures were published, there are local communities where truancy is an endemic part of the culture and the children are reflecting what their parents did, and still do in some respects. In areas of high unemployment there are families who for generations have not worked. Why is it compulsory for children to attend school when it is not compulsory for adults to attend a place of work? Shakespeare referred to “the shades of the prison-house” when talking of school, and for young people where the local culture does not value education, leaving school is an escape to freedom to do what they want.

The much more fundamental issue, then, is how we encourage children to enjoy and value education so that they want to learn, not only because of the opportunities it opens up, but because of the inherent interest in discovery and finding out how things work, how we got here, how we can communicate with people in other countries and so on. Until we can crack this one, there is little point forcing children to “creep like snail unwillingly to school”, as without the right motivation they will simply be uninterested, incapable of absorbing ideas and even disruptive. Some of them solve this problem by truanting.

Social Pedagogy in Ireland

The Social Pedagogy Development Network is holding a conference in Sligo, the first on the subject in Ireland, on 25 - 25 May 2012. The evening seminar on Thursday, 24 May (6.00pm – 8.30pm) will provide a more theoretical perspective on aspects of social pedagogy. It is complementary to Friday’s SPDN full-day event (25 May, 10.00am – 4.00pm), which will have a more practice- and action-orientated focus.

Prof. Juha Hämäläinen from the University of Eastern Finland, author of The Concept of Social Pedagogy in the Field of Social Work and Developing Social Pedagogy as an Academic Discipline’ will address the conference, along with several other academics from university colleges across Scandinavia.

For more information, see www.thempra.org.uk/network.htm.

Children’s Workforce Development Council

Jane Haywood, Chief Executive of the CWDC, issued this letter on 16 March 2012:

You will be aware that CWDC will be closing on 31 March. As you would expect this is a sad time for of all of us in CWDC but also a very proud one as we reflect on our achievements.

Since our formation in 2005 we have sought to strengthen the children’s workforce

through improved qualifications and skills, increased support for employers, and wider integrated working. We have helped to transform some of the most challenged sections of our workforce – especially children’s social work and early years. We have supported local authorities to become much more effective in planning for their workforce. We have also set up new systems to allow voluntary and private sector employers to access workforce support.

We have done this in partnership with employers and the workforce. We have worked closely with children and young people to ensure that their needs drive our policy, strategy and delivery. We are deeply grateful for the support and trust that you have given us and we are clear that the sector will continue to give a strong focus to workforce development and integrated working.

We know that professionals and volunteers benefit from working in integrated teams. They remain longer in post, they record greater satisfaction with their job, and they have more opportunities for career development. In turn, employers benefit from the greater flexibility and cost-effectiveness. When professionals work together well, everyone benefits. Evidence shows integrated services keep children and young people safer. Outcomes for children are significantly better – they learn better; and they are healthier and happier.

It is now time for us to move on. In our final year, we have continued to focus on

delivering support to employers while finding secure homes for all of our work,

particularly our core vision of integrated working. In future, other agencies will pick up the baton we have carried, and we wish them well.

The Department for Education’s (DfE) Teaching Agency will continue our work with early years and educational psychologists. Our social work reform programme will transfer to DfE, alongside sector-led development across all other sections of the workforce. Some of the CWDC staff will move with this work which will help the transition of key areas of work.

Finally the leadership of integrated working will be taken up by the Children’s Improvement Board, in partnership with the Department for Education. The attached chart provides more details so that you can maintain and develop your key relationships in the coming months.

Our motivation in CWDC has always been to do what is best for children, young people and families and I know that you have shared this vision. I wish you well and thank you for all that you do.

We have included it in full because it demonstrates the volume of work undertaken by the CWDC and the pragmatic way in which they ensured that their workload was passed on. When the CWDC was set up it seemed that proper recognition was at last being given to the child care workforce, and its closure is yet another loss to the field of child care. We shall watch with interest to see if the Department for Education can provide a comparable lead, and we are sceptical about its likely success, though we shall be pleased to find our fears unfounded.

Stop Church Child Abuse

On Thursday 19 April 2012 at 2.00 pm at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, a campaign will be launched for a public inquiry into church child abuse.

Why do we need a public inquiry? The organisers say that members of church organisations hold influential and highly respected roles within the community and have had unquestioned access to children and the trust of the public.
They are aware of over 68 priests (Roman Catholic and C of E) who have been convicted of serious sexual offences in the recent past. Police investigations are ongoing. Church organisations have persistently ignored and in many cases covered up complaints of abuse. They say that they have seen clear evidence of cover-ups and believe these are the tip of the iceberg, with the culture of denial and cover up deeply embedded in these two churches.

They say that there is now overwhelming evidence that the churches are so compromised by their own failure to police themselves effectively that the only way to address the scandal of sexual abuse in the RC and C of E churches is through a comprehensive public inquiry, and they urge ministers to order this without delay.

Tony Newton

The news came out this week that Lord Newton had died. As a Conservative politician he showed consistent concern on social issues and came over to professionals in the service as conscientious, caring and knowledgeable. Even when seriously ill he was still busy in the House of Lords. CPAG spoke for a lot of people in saying that they felt they had lost a friend.

You can Google to see his obituaries. We have just one small story which won’t be in them. Some time in the early 1980s he was making a ministerial visit to the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work, which was sited near King’s Cross, an area which was fairly insalubrious at the time. Tony Newton swept up in his ministerial car, leapt out and shook the hand of the young lady who, he assumed, constituted his welcoming party. She was somewhat surprised at the unusual greeting, and presumably he was too when he found out that she was actually a professional of another sort, standing in her pitch plying her trade.

Herbert Barnes

On 14 February 2012 Herb Barnes died in Florida, U.S.A., from a massive heart attack which he had experienced a few days before his passing. He was not well known in the UK, but he had contributed considerably to child care on the international scene.

Herb served on the AIEJI Board for a number of years. During this time he was a tireless advocate for bringing the ‘educateur’ philosophy of a holistic child care approach to the U.S. to strengthen services to young people. In this regard he had established the ILEX program a professional exchange between the U.S. and Europe. Numerous professionals from Europe over the years experienced a year or two in child care facilities across the U.S modelling the holistic approach for their American colleagues.

His wife, Liese, wrote about Herb, “His zest for life was infectious and he always was ready to take on a new challenge”. Arlin Ness, former president of AIEJ said Herb Barnes was not only a personal friend but a colleague who enriched you by his friendship and his creative mind. Emmanuel Grupper, Israeli AIEJI board member, wrote, “Herb was a unique and fascinating personality, always so optimistic on the one hand and realistic on the other. We will always remember him as a great humanist and professional and especially a devoted friend to so many who already miss him so much”.

We can echo these tributes from the times we spent with Herb. Child care is fortunate to attract such people, and he will be missed.

‘Research’

We keep getting results from surveys; sometimes they throw interesting sidelights on the human condition; sometimes they underline the obvious.

1 Mileage

Sainsbury’s car insurance have looked at the mileage clocked up by parents in taking children to school and sporting and social events. They reckon it adds up to 230 million miles a week, and that this comes to £32 billion in unpaid fares. While these are big figures, they are unsurprising and knowing them is unlikely to change anyone’s behaviour.

An interesting sidelight, though, is that parents welcome this chore, as it gives them a chance to talk without interruption to their children before they disappear to their computer screens, mobile phones etc.

2 Tablets

69% of parents would be happy if the use of tablets in school were compulsory, according to Magbooks. 66% of parents let their children use their tablets and 54% supervise them closely, but children still use them for 6 hours a week playing computer games.

Maybe the compulsory use of tablets would lure the truants back to school, so that they could play computer games all day. Bread and circuses they called it in Roman Empire times, to keep the populace happy and avoid riots.

3 Children’s Clocks

The Gro Company, makers of Grobag, commissioned research among 2,000 parents of UK children under the age of seven, which showed that three out of five UK parents felt controlled by their child’s sleeping pattern some or all of the time. The study also found 45% of them admitted to relying on their children to wake them up some or all of the time, with a quarter (26%) claiming never to use an alarm clock at all.

So the Gro Company developed the Gro-clock to help the entire family to manage its sleep pattern and aid children’s understanding of day and night. The Gro-clock has a variable, illuminated display that indicates when children should be sleeping and when they can get up, using friendly sun and star graphics. Once set, at night time the display glows blue and begins counting down the stars on the clock face until the sun comes up and the display goes yellow, at the desired time for waking.

Catherine Fairchild at the Gro Company, said, “We know how difficult it can be for children to understand when it is acceptable to get up in the morning. Often, they believe their day starts – and that of the whole family - when they first wake up, whatever time that is. All too often and particularly with lighter mornings that might be five or six a.m. The Gro-clock was created to provide parents with a useful tool to set parameters on sensible rising hours”.

We look forward to hearing what the 2,000 parents think of the Gro-clock in 12 months’ time.

4 Cleaning carpets

Did you know the average family of four sheds up to 3lbs of skin per year? Or that your carpet can hold up to 2lbs of dirt per square foot? Surprisingly, despite these shocking facts over 80 per cent of homeowners have never washed their carpets!

As well as this, 45 per cent of homeowners don’t remove their shoes before walking on their carpets and worryingly, four out of ten people eat food which has been dropped on the floor.

So says the Rug Doctor, advocating the re-introduction of spring-cleaning, and the involvement of children in the work. We were taught that everyone should have their peck of dirt, presumably as a sort of inoculation against lurgies.

Flat Panel TVs

Unless we have checked equipment we do not endorse it, and whether the product advertised solves the problem we do not know, but the advert below identifies a new safety problem which we had not come across before, and we thought readers should know about it.

There are now estimated to be over 30 million flat panel TVs in the UK, with roughly half sitting on a piece of furniture. The UK now has the highest penetration of large flat panel TVs in the world with more than 1 per household₁. With four child deaths in the UK in the last 12 months as a result of falling TVs and over 9,000 accidents last year, TV wall mounting specialist Peerless-AV is calling on owners of large flat panel TVs to safely secure their equipment.

In almost all cases when a TV is placed on a piece of furniture it will remain unsecured and easily toppled by an overactive toddler or household pet. Gordon Dutch MD of Peerless-AV Europe says, “Even with screens becoming slimmer many larger sets still weigh in excess of40kg, which if it was to fall edge first on a child the impact is the same as a hammer or metal pipe blow to the head. The move to put second TVs unsecured in children’s rooms is particularly worrying. Generally there is less space but far more movement, the huge success of the Wii and Connex and interactive family activity games has made physical activity around the TV a regular occurrence. Small children are particularly at risk as they reach for remote controls or pull themselves up and climb using the TV. A recent US study showed that three quarters of TV screen injuries logged happen to children under 7and tip over accidents are up 40%₄. Parents of young children wouldn’t think twice about fitting a stair gate, plug socket covers and a smoke alarm and yet they fail to buy a piece of kit which can anchor the television safely and prevent potentially life threatening accidents”.

The Peerless AV – Stabilis ^TM screen safety kit is an effective universal solution to secure a flat panel TV and protect families in the home. The kit has been manufactured and tested to prevent children pulling large screens forward on to themselves. The universal kit fits all LCD and Plasma screens from 32” to 60” with telescopic height adjustment. The kit rigidly clamps to all types and sizes of furniture and can be used to screw directly into a wall or cabinet. The rotational mounting plate allows screen to swivel while the rigid design also prevents the screen tipping backwards as well as pulled forwards.

From the Case Files

Mother was preparing the baby’s fees.

Charging the Health Visitor and Social Worker for his time when they visited?

And I am sitting at my desk trying to finish this article before heading off to speak at a conference in Kilkenny, Ireland, tomorrow. The combination of the scene outside and the preparations I am making inside help to explain the subject of this piece. I have beside me a volume called Task Force on Child Care Services, Final Report produced for the Minister of Health in Dublin in September 1980 (Prl. 9345). Yes, I know that’s some time ago, but I have been asked to do a reflective, historically informed paper!

There is a phrase near the beginning of this 32-year-old report which caught my attention. The section is headed Fundamental Considerations. Having listed some of the needs of children it continues, “All these needs are subsumed in the general need that every child has for total care. Total care is usually found in a family.” (Page 2)

I think it is reasonably clear what is in the minds of the writers: they are trying to establish some sort of baseline against which they can measure the support and services offered to families that are “incomplete” or “not functioning in an ideal way” (page 2). But it doesn’t require much thought to realise that something strange is going on. It is as though a family makes up the whole (total) world of the child, and that the only time this is not so is when a family is in some way inadequate: then the state steps in to support.

But what on earth has happened to the meaning and significance of the scene I am watching right now? The children are not in their family homes, but in my garden. The adults are not their parents, but carers. They have all been to school earlier in the day, not home-schooled. There is a network of relationships represented connecting generations and cultures (I can see at least one baby right now!). And they have been playing in the Spring sunshine, under a clear blue sky, surrounded by the sounds and smells of nature.

Several years ago I tried to put into words the practical philosophy of Mill Grove, the residential community in which I live, and came up with this sentence:

“We believe that shared living based on God-given rhythms and patterns can provide a therapeutic context in which the deepest personal and social wounds can be healed, and creative growth and expression encouraged.”

If you were to think of a child in a (normal?) family, then “shared living” would encompass this social arrangement, but then we come to “God-given rhythms and patterns”. What did I have in mind? I was thinking of personal bio-rhythms, the oscillation of moods and feelings that make up normal human life. But also day and night, the seven days of a week, with one day set aside for re-creation. Then there are the seasons of the year, which in Europe are usually and memorably characterised as four (with thanks to Vivaldi). And then the seasons of life, which Shakespeare thought of as the ages of man (in As You Like It), which span everything from birth to death. And when we are on holiday in North Wales beside the sea, we are very conscious of the tides and patterns of weather. (When we are not there we still think of them often.)

My point is that families are set within geographical, topographical, social, religious and cultural contexts, and that all children’s needs (that is the term preferred in the document) cannot possibly be met by the family as if it were some sort of total institution: a microcosm or the planet, with its own eco and psycho and socio systems.

But there is something much more important than this at stake: children can only thrive when their families are in some sort of harmony (is that too strong a word, I wonder?) with the rhythms and patterns of the wider world in which they are embedded. Of course we know that healthy attachment, a sine qua non of good human development, almost always (though not invariably) takes place in the heart of the child’s family, with mother or father. But that healthy attachment makes for a secure base, and that base is a springboard for exploration of the world outside the family. It is not a relationship that is possessive or restrictive.

Social work, social care, and allied professions, can easily focus on certain aspects of a child’s life and experience, notably good-enough human relationships, without paying due attention to the pivotal place of what I am witnessing right now. (The same can be true, sadly of education and schools.) What I love about what I see is that all the interactions of the children: with each other, with adults, with the natural world, take place in the context of fun and play where the imagination plays a key role. It is not something they are “working at” or that someone is organising for them like a PE lesson.

And who can say what therapeutic benefits accrue from such spontaneous play? At the weekend one of those who had lived at Mill Grove as a child, popped in to see me out of the blue, for a “serious chat” as he put it. He is now in his mid-twenties and has a lot of experience of parenting and work. His biological family was unable to provide secure attachment for him in his early years, and schools were not places in which he ever felt remotely comfortable. Yet as we talked I was made aware of emotional intelligence that had grown alongside his considerable intellectual capabilities. What might help to explain his maturing? Shared living which included lots of time together working at (or was it playing at) tasks; times spent in the mountains and on the seas of North Wales; camping out in the mountains; fishing; and climbing; not to mention Technic-Lego!

While I have penned this, the youngsters have had their tea and just emerged into the garden again as the shadows lengthen. One is heading up the rope-ladder into the tree house, and he is sure to get a fine view, even if it will be some time before the planet Venus will begin to shine brightly above Jupiter in the western sky.

A family cut off from all this for whatever reason is a sad environment for a growing child, but a family connected to this will itself be nourished and supported. Now how do I get something about all this into my paper in Kilkenny, I wonder?

The young person in question was a 14-year-old boy from family that had been fractured by intervention. The young person (I will call him Billy to protect his identity) and his younger sister were removed into care. Billy’s older sister and little brother were allowed to remain in the parental home. There were significant concerns about the impact of the parents’ drinking. This was impairing their capacity to parent and putting the children at risk.

Billy presented in a very rough and tumble manner and was very much a boy’s boy who liked his sports and had dabbled in boxing and football in the past. There were serious concerns about Billy also in respect to him presenting at the unit under the influence of unknown substances and possibly getting involved in drug dealing in his home community.

Billy presented as a charming and likeable boy who had a great sense of humour and was very playful with staff and young people on a good day. On a bad day or when Billy was let down by his parents or rejected in some other way things were very different. There was a deep resentment present in Billy. He was very angry at having to come into care when his siblings had been allowed to stay at home and was confused about what he had done that was so wrong compared to others. When Billy’s temper got the better of him he would act out in all kinds of hostile ways. This ranged from rampaging around the unit and creating a mess with toiletries, food, etc. – maximum effect for the minimum effort kind of a deal – through to being violent and antagonistic towards other young people and care staff. This led Billy into serious trouble with the police on more than one occasions.

Intervention

From early on in the placement I could recognise the positive qualities in Billy and found I was able to relate to him and build a relationship with ease. On reflection I was clearly subscribing to the Diamond Model that I had learnt about while attending the 10-day session with ThemPra at the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care. I set about with a dual approach of helping to bring the best out in Billy, i.e. uncovering the diamond. I had also learned that helping Billy to see the best in situations or other people was important too.

Initially Billy was wary of my attention and wanted to know why it mattered to me what he thought or how he felt about things. He would tell me that I was only interested because I had to be and was paid to. I worked hard at building an authentic and genuine relationship with Billy as I had been reminded that this was crucial to a helping relationship as underpinned by pedagogical principles.

Billy had returned one evening and had been particularly excited by some rap music he had been listening to. I could relate to the passion he was expressing and feeling about his music. I could see an opportunity for developing a Common Third with Billy. This was a concept that I had learned on the social pedagogy course. By using a Common Third we can build a relationship with others. The Common Third refers to a task or goal that the social pedagogue can work towards with those that they are supporting. It is ultimately better for this task to be something that is new to you both. This way you can grow and learn alongside one another. Ultimately the opportunity for the person being supported to become the teacher would mean the process was at its most effective.

I supported Billy and another young person to create new rap. They spoke eagerly about presenting their material and going on to Britain’s got Talent. I found their rap to be genuinely interesting, as they would express their thoughts and feelings about coming from the poor council estates and having to survive – much like their American rap icons. I made suggestions about laying down beats and they used music on their phones to rap over the top of and keep them in time. We had discussions about style and content, the need to try and keep it clean. For Billy he went on to produce a CD with the help of another agency and was so very proud to bring this back to the unit and play it for me.

The Common Third took another spin with the invention of a rap pad. Billy was escalating in his outbursts and verbal abuse towards those around them. I spent time reflecting with Billy about how upsetting others found this. Billy was also able to appreciate that the behaviour was working against himself and it was counterproductive. I was able to acknowledge that Billy was and could become very angry about his life. I told Billy that I thought this was OK but that he needed to find other ways to express his anger. We spoke about Eminem and how he has used his music to express some of his darker feelings and thoughts about things. Billy and I came up with the idea of a rap pad. This was for Billy’s eyes only and he did go on to treasure this and use this to record his raps and thoughts about things that bothered him.

Reflections

Billy actually ended up moving on to a full-time place at a residential school and as a parting gift the unit provided him with an mp3 player and rap music to focus on when times got tough. The residential school was a very positive outcome for Billy, who soon flourished with their structure, routine and love of sports. Billy and I became quite close during the time he was with us and I believe that the pedagogical approach helped me to promote a healthy attachment with the young person also. This relationship provided a buffer between Billy and some of the other team members, who struggled when he acted out and pushed their buttons over certain issues.

The most important elements to the pedagogical approach for me are to accept the individual for who they are and to be able to see them for the person they can become. To not judge them for how they are presenting but to understand why these things are happening and to help them on the way to their personal healing. Putting the relationship at the heart of everything we do and being creative in how we support the children to grow and learn were also valuable lessons for me.

I was very intrigued by this style of working and continue to raise the profile of social pedagogy in my council. I am looking for the best in everyone now, an exhausting process because it is easier to think that some children are evil or can never change. But also with other adults and parents I need to find the redeemable qualities, to help them feel more positive about themselves and their families. I look forwards to wherever the social pedagogy trek will take me.

If we look closer to home at our own country things don’t seem much better, with ongoing economic difficulties and what seem like many intractable social problems - high levels of unemployment particularly amongst young people which in some areas will add to the growing problems of poverty, poor health and community relations.

I was also disturbed recently by a reality television; it was neither a talent show nor another celebrity programme; this was reality that was raw. There was nothing in this programme that was uplifting or a show for some future talent. It was a show of an isolated family who were struggling with life. The programme focused on the work of a Bristol social work team and shone the spotlight on a young couple who were struggling with the bringing up of their son. Their situation was causing increasing concern to a variety of agencies because of issues of neglect. The boy was developmentally delayed due to speech problems and the house was untidy and dirty. This was what is sometimes described as a ‘typical’ neglect case; yet there is nothing typical about human tragedy.

From what I can remember about the programme the family were living in a very sparsely furnished flat in a rundown estate with few friends and limited contact with other family members. However, what we saw were two parents, particularly a father who was not coping and a mother pregnant with her second child. Later on during the programme the mother was admitted to hospital with pregnancy complications. As the story unfolded you watched as the social worker and her manager became increasingly concerned; concerns were compounded when it was realised that the father was not coping, which finally resulted in the child being admitted into care.

My initial thoughts were why did this family agree to have their rather tragic story shown on television? It also brought back memories of similar cases that I had been involved in when I was a social worker. Neglect cases are often very complex and you have to make difficult decisions about whether to leave a child in a home balanced against the potential harm caused by removal. They are not just tales of people living in a dirty house.

Neglect, unlike any other category of abuse, can be caused by either commission or omission. In the latter case, problems may be alleviated and ultimately solved by support and education. They are cases, however, that can go on for years with families being passed round all members of a team and often seen as a ‘good learning experience’ for a student. Yet the slowly deteriorating state can lead us to a false sense of security, wanting to feel that things are improving when they are slowly deteriorating. As the time progresses we may shift our gaze and lose our focus on the child and his or her relationship. These are fine judgements that have to be made.

Too often a family’s needs may require the involvement of a number of different agencies which may compound the problems leading to confusion, poor communication and passing the buck; ultimately nobody takes responsibility. The Victoria Climbie case showed how easy it is for people to change their focus away from the central issues; for example, in that case much of the time was focused on the housing status and issues of immigration rather than the deteriorating family relations.

I would have forgotten about this programme if it wasn’t for a colleague asking me about it wanting my perspective as an ex-social worker. As I spoke to her my memories came flooding back of some of the difficult families that I had worked with – the anger people felt about the decisions I was making, the threats I received and, on occasions, the kindness I was shown. Although I hoped I had made a difference to some, I had to admit to my colleague that I was not really sure what change I had made in many of these families.

In Australian Family Law such ‘best interests’ are contained in a single sentence – “the child should have a ‘meaningful relationship’ with both parents”. Such a ‘meaningful relationship’ is not defined, nor can it be shown how a law can create, maintain, and enforce such a relationship, especially if one of the parties (usually the child) does not wish to have such a ‘meaningful relationship’. The Family Courts do, however, manage to enforce such relationships by ordering children and young people into contact with, and even the custody of, parents with whom they do not wish to have such a ‘meaningful relationship’. In some circumstances the parent suddenly appears and wants to engage in such a ‘meaningful relationship’ with the child, though the child may be five or six years of age and has never known that parent.

An even greater flaw occurs in the Australian Family Law and its administration when allegations are made of domestic violence (with the inherent abuse of children) and/or the direct abuse of children.

When evidence is submitted of a parent having prior convictions for paedophilia or child sexual abuse or for violent offences, and the accusing parent has taken out Apprehended Violence Orders or Domestic Violence Orders by other Courts, such evidence can be, and frequently is, disregarded or dismissed and the right of the accused parent to a ‘meaningful relationship’ with the child is held to be the paramount consideration.

But there are even greater obstacles in law to a parent who presents to the Court evidence that the other parent has abused the child or has been violent toward the presenting parent. This is because the Family Court takes on a role of a quasi-criminal Court, although the role and purpose of the Court is to determine the future care and welfare of children and is not a trial of anyone on criminal charges, as occurs in similar circumstances in a Children’s Court.

This is done by the Family Court disregarding the common law standard of proof of a ‘balance of probabilities’ and applying a near standard of proof of a criminal Court. Judges are applying the Evidence Act 1995 Section 140 and the Briginshaw Principle (1938) which require that the ‘gravity’ of the alleged offence has to be a major consideration requiring a standard of evidential proof towards the ‘extreme end of the scale’. Yet there is no scale of proof between the civil standard and the criminal standard and this is therefore creating a ‘third’ standard of proof applicable only in Family Law proceedings.

This was best explained by Deputy Chief Justice John Faulks in a speech in Canberra in October 2010 when he stated:

Allegations of family violence and abuse in the context of family law litigation need to be established in accordance with two seemingly contradictory constructs. The first is that whether or not family violence or abuse has occurred needs to be made out on the civil evidentiary standard on the balance of probabilities,[1] not beyond reasonable doubt. In a judgment I recently gave (Kings & Murray[2]) I identified the difficulty inherent in navigating the evidentiary standard of proof (at paragraphs [8] & [9]):

Proof on the balance of probabilities involves, among other things, a consideration of what is more likely to have occurred than not. However, it has been well known for some time (and the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) provides for this[3]) that where what is being sought to be proved is a grave and serious matter, or put in more blunt terms, if what is sought to be proved might be a criminal action, then the Court must apply what has been loosely described in the past as the Briginshaw v Briginshaw[4] standard of proof. In that decision, their Honours (Latham CJ, Rich, Starke, Dixon and McTiernan JJ) considered whether the matter required to be proved (which related to whether adultery on the part of one of the parties had occurred or not) was to be proved on the civil standard of proof or some other standard.

Chief Justice Faulkes is therefore stating that in all such cases of child abuse and domestic violence, which are also criminal offences, that Judges are setting a third standard of proof which is not the generally accepted standard in civil Courts and is a serious departure from a fundamental principle of justice which has been in place for centuries. i.e. that civil Courts make determinations on an evidential standard of a balance of probabilities.

However the practical application of the balance of probabilities was discussed in a different way by Lord Nicholls in Re: H & Ors. His Lordship stated:

Despite their special features, family proceedings remain essentially a form of civil proceedings. Family proceedings often raise various serious issues, but so do other forms of civil proceedings.

The balance of probability standard means that a Court is satisfied an event occurred if the Court considers that, on the evidence, the occurrence of the event is more likely than not. When assessing the probabilities the Court will have in mind as a factor, to whatever extent is appropriate in the particular case, that the more serious the allegation the less likely it is that the event occurred and, hence, the stronger should be the evidence before the Court concludes that the allegation is established on the balance of probability. Fraud is usually less likely than negligence. Deliberate physical injury is usually less likely than accidental physical injury … Built into the preponderance of probability standard is a generous degree of flexibility in respect of the seriousness of the allegation.

Although the result is much the same, this does not mean that where a serious allegation is in issue the standard of proof required is higher. It means only that the inherent probability or improbability of an event is itself a matter to be taken into account when weighing the probabilities and deciding whether, on balance, the event occurred. The more improbable the event, the stronger must be the evidence that it did occur before, on the balance of probability, its occurrence will be established.

Even to the most casual observer, the comments of Lord Nicholls appear to be double-speak and the result is the same, an application of a higher standard of proof. It has therefore to be considered whether judges are being just and reasonable in applying such a third standard of proof in circumstances which determine whether or not a child has suffered abuse, and not to hold trial as to who the alleged abuser may be. That is a matter for the criminal Courts if there is evidence sufficient to satisfy the need to bring criminal proceedings.

However the greater barrier to proving domestic violence and child abuse in an Australian Family Court lies in the Courts’ inability to have such allegations competently investigated. Although it is a legal requirement under the Family Law Act (Section 67Z), that when a parent submits a Form 4 setting out the allegations of domestic violence such matters must be referred to the appropriate State authorities. This rarely occurs so that the investigation of such allegations are at best haphazard and at worst non-existent.

This situation was best summarised by Chief Justice Diane Bryant in a speech in Brisbane in June 2009 when she stated:

[Australian] Family Courts are not forensic bodies. They do not have an independent investigatory capacity or role when violence or abuse is alleged … Family Courts are reliant upon other agencies, particularly child welfare departments and police, to undertake investigations into matters that may be relevant to the proceedings before it. And although the Court can make directions as to the filing of material and can issue subpoenas compelling the production of documents, it cannot order state agencies to undertake inquiries into particular matters. It is hardly an ideal situation but in the absence of the Commonwealth assuming responsibility for child protection from the states, that will continue to be the reality.”

In effect Chief Justice Diane Bryant was stating that Family Courts do not have the powers, expertise, and resources to competently investigate domestic violence and child abuse, nor do they have the powers to order the State Child Protection authorities to investigate such allegations.

Even in the rare instances where the police and/or the State child protection authorities become involved, they are seeking evidence to bring criminal charges or to satisfy the requirements of Children’s Courts, rather than to provide evidence of the child abuse and domestic violence for the Family Court purposes. There have been instances where the State child protection authorities have found child abuse allegations to be ’substantiated’ yet such findings have been dismissed or disregarded by the Family Courts in favour of ensuring that the offending parent has a ‘meaningful relationship’ with the child and that the other parent will facilitate and encourage such a relationship. If that parent does not do so, then there is an almost certainty that the child will be removed from that parent’s care and given into the sole custody of the allegedly abusive parent.

In conclusion, it is small wonder that allegations of domestic violence and child abuse have such a small chance of being proven and why such allegations are frequently claimed to be false, when in fact they are unproven because of the barriers set by the Family Law and the legal system. The consequences for many hundreds of children and young people have been catastrophic.

Charles Pragnell is Chairman of the Australian National Child Protection Alliance

PO Box 345, Mornington Victoria 3931.

http://www.nccps.org.au/eap/charles_pragnell.html

FICE (pronounced: fee-say) is the largest umbrella organisation for professional associations for people working in the field of child and youth care. At the moment there are members in about thirty countries mostly organised in National Sections. Although FICE is (still) a European dominated organisation, there is the intention to be worldwide – after FICE USA, FICE South Africa and FICE India we are proud to welcome FICE Kenya as a new member, and we are working hard on founding FICE Latin America.

Since the General Assembly in December 2010, which took place in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Dashenka Tashkova from Bulgaria has been the President of FICE. The Federal Council is FICE’s governing body and at the last meeting we worked out an updated profile for FICE:

Mission

FICE improves – worldwide - the lives of children in care or in need of care.

Vision

FICE forms a worldwide community to stimulate excellent care for children and their communities through worldwide exchange of professional and academic knowledge with the participation of the children involved.

FICE forms an active community of members, national sections or individual organisations.

FICE contributes to the quality of care for juveniles in FICE countries, according to the Convention of the Rights of the Child. FICE does this by offering directors, professionals and young people in (need of) care the opportunity to look beyond borders:

• by stimulating international exchange within the community,

• by facilitating (digital) exchange of innovative knowledge between organisations.

The priority objective is to gather information and make knowledge accessible for everyone, so that initiatives and campaigns can be expanded and reinforced more easily and more effectively.

Issues and interests cross national boundaries and the development of professionals’ expertise has to be seen in an international perspective. Indeed, globalization and internationalisation has become an essential part of the education task in youth care. This makes cross-border dimensions and encounters not only a need but also a necessity in childcare, both for professionals and young people.

Every three years, one of the National Sections acts as host for an International FICE Congress. The next FICE Congress will take place in Bern, Switzerland, in October 2013. The topic will be: Inclusion – Young persons in life situations in the contradictory contexts of Integration – Separation – Inclusion. More information will be available on the Congress website: www.fice-congress2013.ch

At the beginning of this article, I promised to give my personal view on FICE. So what does FICE mean for me?

First of all, FICE is a network of friendly and very smart people. When I attended my first FICE meeting in 2004 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, I was overwhelmed by the way I was welcomed. I expected a very formal group of experts in the field of child and youth care – and this was what I got. Away from the sessions, a different picture emerged. Projects, exchange of knowledge and campaigns are one aspect of FICE; friendship, love of life and love for our profession is the other.

In my opinion, the love for the profession is the main reason that keeps FICE going - and, needless to say, the focus on the wellbeing of children all around the world.

FICE is not a prosperous organisation. The resources of FICE have always been the people who want to be part of this community. All of us work voluntarily and this is not the best way to keep an organisation going. But the enthusiasm of people involved is infectious and although there are times when it is challenging to juggle daily life, your job, your family and FICE – it is worth it!

One of the most impressing experiences I had through FICE was the last International Congress in South Africa in December 2010. The Congress theme Celebrating the courage to care in a diverse world was literally presented from people all around the world. And you cannot compare a Congress in South Africa to any Congress you ever experienced in Europe! Drums and singers guided us through the day. I am sure that every participant at the Congress left South Africa wiser and in a very good mood.

Since October 2011 I have been the new Secretary General of FICE. My responsibility amongst other things is to take care of the National Sections and the individual members. One of my hopes is that there will be a FICE England in near future. And National Sections on every continent of the world.

If you are interested to join FICE as a National Section or individual member, please go to www.fice-inter.net and apply for membership. You can find more information on the web.

By the way, I discovered an excellent article about FICE, written by David Lane in the archive of the Children Webmag. If you go to February 2008 you will find lots of information about the background and the structure of FICE.

And if you want to learn more about the history of FICE, I would like to recommend the following book warmly to you: Children, Families and Care: reflections on the first sixty years of FICE by Robert Shaw; Trentham Books; ISBN: 9781858564456.

Bettina Terp is the Secretary General of FICE and is based in Vienna.

FICE-International members from all over the world are shocked by the information, published in UN’s 72-page report Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, issued on February 23, 2012, outlining the case that during the Syrian uprising the country’s regime has committed “gross human rights violations” and that “such violations originated from policies and directives issued at the highest levels of the armed forces and the Government.”

The report states that a “number of military commanders and civilian superiors may reasonably be suspected of responsibility for crimes against humanity because of their knowing failure to take all necessary and reasonable measures within their power to prevent or repress the commission of relevant crimes by their subordinates or to submit the matter to the competent authorities.”

A great number of people have been arrested.

• “According to the Violations Documenting Centre, which gathers the names of detainees and the place and date of their arrest from families and local coordination committees [run by opposition groups], more than 18,000 detainees, including more than 200 women and girls and more than 400 boys, remained in detention at 15 February 2012.”

A great number of people have left the country and prefer to live in extremely bad conditions than to stay and die in their own country:

• “According to estimates, 70,000 people have been arbitrarily displaced within the country. More than 20,000 Syrians found themselves in a precarious situation as refugees in other countries.”

Of all of the groups in disadvantage the children are the most unprotected and vulnerable!

• “As the violence intensified, children continued to be the victims. The State authorities made no visible efforts to protect children’s rights. According to a reliable source, more than 500 children have been killed since March 2011, with the highest number of children killed in December 2011 (80 deaths) and January 2012 (72). The largest group was adolescents aged between 16 and 18 years. Snipers and other State forces killed or wounded children, including those aged 10 years and younger. Many children were killed when the army shelled residential areas in Homs and other cities in January and February 2012.”

Is it possible for us to help the children in the country? FICE’s members are professional educators, pedagogues and social workers. Right now it is impossible to go there. At a later point we could set up different activity workshops in the refugee camps.

Can we stop the war in Syria and protect the children? We can’t – we are not an army.

We can tell the world, however, that we absolutely reject the violence against children. We will support the efforts of the international community to improve the situation of Syrian children in all areas of life. We will follow closely the implementation of children’s rights in the crisis regions and warn the international institutions of the need of particular support.

Dear National Sections of FICE-International, if you have any opportunity to help in any way the children of the world – do it – especially for the Syrian refugees in your country!

Dear colleagues, inform us about all difficulties, good or bad outcomes in the support work with children from this region.

All we can do right now for the ones that are still in Syria is give them our moral love and support.

Dashenka Tashkova

President of FICE-International

Campling, in a letter of 7 July 1986, gave a cogent account of how events developed at the Royal Philanthropic. When the former Approved School and Classifying School became a CHE in 1973 the trustees had opted for controlled status with the London Borough of Wandsworth. At the time of the change of status, the campus consisted of a CHE for 60 children, a Regional Assessment Centre for 52 children and a Secure Unit for 30 children. All the provision was for boys only. The CHE and the Assessment Centre were closed in 1982 and the Secure Unit in 1983. In place of these facilities a much smaller service, consisting of 20 places for remand and assessment, 12 long stay places and 8 secure places, was offered.

These facilities had been much in demand during the period from January 1983 to 7 July 1986. During that time some 460 boys had been admitted for varying lengths of stay. (Campling stated in a letter of 3 September 1986 that the Secure Unit in particular remained in great demand and that on one day in August 1986 he received no fewer than 17 enquiries for places.)

The Royal Philanthropic had, in fact, begun selling off the large campus once it ceased to be fully operational in 1982/83. The CHE site with workshops, classrooms and staff housing was sold to a developer in 1984. Subsequently, planning permission was granted for the erection of an ‘Old People’s Village’. The adjoining farm, which had always been a thriving part of the establishment was sold as a going enterprise. The Society had given as its reason for deciding to sell the property a wish to realise the assets tied up in the site and to apply them to other more modern methods of social work intervention in young people’s lives.

Logan-Salton’s correspondence with Norman Fowler, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Security in August 1986 tells of a somewhat belated attempt to stir up opposition to the closure, in view of the facts given above. It is clear that he was unaware that the closure was so advanced. Nonetheless a number of senior politicians were roused into responding to the issues raised, given that there remained a significant remnant of the Royal Philanthropic. Thus Lord Silkin of Dulwich QC in his letter to the Home Secretary, on 22 September 1986 stated that he shared Logan-Salton’s concern that, with the closure of such places as the Royal Philanthropic, there would be a reduction in the number of alternative to custody places for young offenders. He also commented that “No doubt you and Norman Fowler have consulted together to make good these gaps”. In her reply (8 October 1986) to Logan-Salton, the Under Secretary of State, Mrs Currie, observed that “Closure of a number of community homes is, I would suggest, to be expected”.

In a letter received from George Gardiner MP (5 September 1986) it was stated that the Philanthropic Society was not planning to close the CHE. “All it has said is that in 2-3 years time it will cease to provide free-of-charge premises. If the authorities wish to continue the CHE then they can seek to buy or rent the existing premises, and the Society will consider proposals on their merits” - a subtle point, since it would be unlikely that the amount of cash expected for this type of transaction would be available to Wandsworth Council.

Campling and his staff were clearly unhappy with the Society withdrawing from the arrangements with Wandsworth He commented:

The Royal Philanthropic Society was founded in 1788 and pioneered social work with delinquent children. Its innovative work paved the way for much of the eventual legislation introduced during two centuries to ensure that children who offend are dealt with outside the mainstream provision for adult offenders. It does now seem ironical that their present action will almost inevitably result in more children entering the penal system that would otherwise be the case.

This may have been a harsh judgement on the Philanthropic Society since it was largely the lack of referrals by local authorities in earlier years that had greatly reduced the work on the campus and made it less viable.

It was regrettable that the Society planned to withdraw from being involved in any residential provision offering training and education. The new Director of the Society, Donald Coleman, stated that instead it was intended to develop accommodation for young people who had been in care, a good and necessary work but not wholly in line with its previous history of work with young offenders. The society finally closed the remaining provision at Redhill in June 1988.

The Closure of St Peter’s, Gainford, and the Regional Plan

The second account concerns St Peter’s near Darlington, which was one of the two CHEs managed by the agency known as Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Rescue Society. St Peter’s was situated in a rural area just outside the village of Gainford in County Durham, and offered places for 60 boys aged from 11 years. It had opened in 1900 as a Roman Catholic institution for homeless children, and became an Approved School in 1942. St Peter’s was set in 32 acres of land beside the River Tees. The building itself was large, sprawling and barrack-like in appearance. It had a modern classroom block, a gymnasium and sports fields. There were staff flats, bungalows for the Principal and Deputy Principal and a staff house, all on the campus, and staff housing in close proximity.

At the time of closure in 1984, the staffing consisted of the Principal, Deputy Principal, Head of Education, Training Officer, 4 Housewardens, 22 residential care staff, 7 teachers, maintenance men, gardener, 2 administration staff, and cooking and domestic staff- some 56 staff in total. The CHE was owned and managed by the Catholic social work agency for the diocese in which St Peter’s was located and had assisted status with Cleveland County Council.

Efforts by the Region to Manage Closures

The closure of St Peters should be seen in the context of concern in Regional Planning Area No. 1, from 1980 onwards, about the number of CHE places required in the Region. In 1981 the Regional Planning Committee had created a working group of Senior Officers from various Authorities in the Region to review CHEs with special reference to the overprovision of places. This group reported back to the Committee that there were 140 boys places surplus to requirements, out of an existing total of 540. The 150 girls places were considered necessary. Critical remarks were made about two CHEs, the Castle School, Stanhope, and St Peter’s, and it was recommended these should be closed.

Cleveland County Council who managed the Castle School and ‘assisted’ St Peter’s were quite happy with this recommendation, but the Hexham and Newcastle Rescue Society strenuously defended the practice at St Peter’s and the need for the CHE to continue. In the event, the Regional Planning Committee did not pursue the recommendations that facilities should be closed. Instead they left it to individual local authorities to make suggestions as to how to bring about the reduction in numbers. As a result, St Peter’s was not closed at this time. In its place Newcastle upon Tyne sought agreement to its proposal to close Axwell Park CHE at Blaydon. The Castle CHE did, however, close in 1982.

The Region attempted to create a clearer and more specialist structure for its CHE provision and a further working group was given the task of developing these proposals. In 1982 it produced a review of services for difficult children and their families in which it was recommended that there be a concerted attempt to integrate the CHE system into the total provision for children and families. This report laid down an ambitious programme to bring together both local and regional services and was accepted in principle by the Regional Planning Committee in 1982.

Events were, however, overtaking this belated attempt at integration. Individual local authorities began making their own decisions about closures. Although they still formally sought the approval of the Regional Planning Committee to proceed with their plans (and also Regional funding to cover the costs of closure) there was little likelihood that these proposals would be rejected. This was because of the general agreement that such closures would ultimately save all the participant authorities expenditure, and because no one wanted to deny that, in practice, each authority retained the right to exercise its powers over its own establishments.

The Impact of the Health and Social Services Adjudication Act 1983

The change in the law in respect of Regional Planning under the terms of the Health and Social Services Adjudication Act 1983 led the local authority Councillors to resolve to end the pooling arrangements on 31 March 1984 and, in the absence of any agreement on an alternative co-operative grouping, the local authorities’ regional dialogue ceased. It would appear that once finance was removed from the agenda there was little incentive left for the self-sufficient local authorities to consult with their less well endowed neighbours.

The prospect of the removal of the financial cushion of the Regional Pooling arrangement had led the Hexham and Newcastle Rescue Society to write to all local authorities in the Region in October 1983 asking about their projected future use of St Peter’s. Only the assisting authority, Cleveland, saw any likely use of St Peter’s, and this for only seven places. In the light of these responses it seemed prudent to close St Peter’s rather than risk serious losses as a result of low occupancy and additional closure costs. If the Society closed St Peter’s before the end of March 1984 the constituent authorities in the Region, as they had done with the other closures, would meet the costs of this exercise.

The staff had been kept fully informed of these possibilities as soon as they became apparent in October 1983. A further meeting was called in November 1983 to advise staff that the consultation with local authorities had shown that they foresaw no future need for St Peter’s and that it was to be closed on 31 March 1984. At the time of the announcement there were 40 boys in the CHE. Ironically, because of an industrial dispute amongst local authorities and residential workers, a further 12 boys were admitted on a short-term basis up to the period December 1983 when all further admissions were then refused. The boys were all told of the closure plan on the same day as the staff and generally were upset and unsettled by the prospect.

Of the 52 boys discharged from the date of the closure announcement 20 or so (including some of the short-term placements) would, in any event, have returned home over that period; for the remaining 32 boys the closure meant yet a further disruption in their lives. Case conferences were called on every boy to make the best arrangements possible. Twenty-five boys were discharged by Christmas 1983, six by the end of January 1984 and eight by the end of February. The last boy left St Peter’s on 28 March 1984.

When the closure plans were announced to St Peter’s there were 56 full and part time staff in post. The longest serving member of staff had been in post for 33 years. Eight of the teachers and care staff had worked at the CHE for eight more years. Redundancy payments, in line with those when other CHEs in the Region closed, came to just over £70,000. Six of the staff took early retirement. Many staff had difficulty in finding other suitable employment.

The managers of St Peter’s accepted that the Rescue Society had genuinely explored the future viability of the CHE and that they had reluctantly made the only prudent decision. There was some belated outcry from a few members of the public but no concerted effort was made that offered any realistic alternative to closure.

St Peter’s was put on the open market by the owners, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. The building was sold in November/December 1984 to a local consortium. Over £40,000 had had to be spent on wages, heating, rates up to the time of its sale. The building and the land were sold for £130,000. The buyers subsequently sold some of the dwellings and converted one wing into a nursing home for the elderly. The need to repay the DHSS for improvement grants made by the DHSS or Home Office in earlier years added still further to the financial burden for a small voluntary agency after offering a service to the State for so many years.

The Closure of Benton Grange, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Benton Grange was also managed by the Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Rescue Society but was owned by a Roman Catholic Order of nuns.

Benton Grange had originally been opened in 1889 by the nuns. It was a large solid structure with all its living and educational facilities in the one building. It had also a small secure unit for three girls. Located in an urban area, the town centre of Newcastle was 15 minutes distance on public transport. Originally it offered places for 44 girls but this was reduced to 40 in 1978, 34 in 1983 and 22 in 1984. The reductions were an attempt to retain the CHE with a smaller number of girls and staff but, ultimately, the low number was not viable.

The staffing consisted of a Head, 2 Deputies, a Head of Education plus 6 teachers, 22 care staff, a Bursar and an assistant Bursar, half-time nurse, a secretary, two maintenance staff and a cook and domestic staff. The cost per week at the time of closure (1984) was £377 per child per week.

Exploring Options for Survival

Considerable effort had been made by the managing agency to retain Benton Grange as a CHE. In 1983 a managers’ working party and a staff working party had been appointed to explore ways of ensuring its future. In August 1983 a 17-point plan for the future development of Benton Grange was presented, following the exploration of various options. Amongst those explored had been the development of the CHE into a special school for girls. The Secretary of the Northern Council of Educational Committees had responded to this idea by stating that “LEA (Local Education Authority) provision in the Region of the Northern Council of Educational Committees, with particular reference to provisions for disturbed children in need of special education, was likely to be adequate for the near future”. The option of special residential education was not therefore pursued.

There was also little scope for any integration with Newcastle upon Tyne City Education provision. Some way of serving the Catholic network of 22 secondary schools in the Diocese was also explored. The difficulty was that, although a number of Heads of Catholic schools expressed interest in the idea of referring difficult girls to Benton Grange, there was no system for doing this since the schools were located in eight different local authority areas which, on the evidence of the Northern Council, could see no need for additional provision.

The model of provision offered by Barnardo’s at Druids Heath CHE in the Midlands was also explored. This approach involved a small network of residential facilities in the community and a main base, used primarily as an education unit and as a family support provision. Support for this proposal was not forthcoming from the local authorities.

Although the proposals were accepted by the managers and the staff they never came to fruition. There was little enthusiasm from local authorities for the ideas and reluctance by some staff to become part of a more complex resource.

With the collapse of the Regional Planning Committee and the ending of the Regional Pooling arrangements, the future funding of Benton Grange would depend entirely on fees from referrals. However, as the number of girls’ places provided in CHEs in the Region as at 1 April 1984 was likely to fall from 142, with the closure of one girls’ CHE, the probable closure of a second and the conversion of the third into a co-educational CHE, the anticipated eventual number of girls’ places available in the Region would be only 41. Although only four local authorities, one of whom was out of the Region, took up a proposal to buy in a number of places at Benton Grange (10 places in all), it was nevertheless decided at the end of 1983, despite the demise of the Region, to proceed with offering 22 residential and six day places at Benton Grange.

When, by early May 1984, the number of residents dropped in 16, with the prospect of some discharges at the end of the Summer term and virtually no new referrals, it was finally decided that there was no option left other than closure. In a written statement to all staff at Benton Grange on 9 May 1984 the Administrator of The Rescue Society advised them that he had decided, after consultation with the Managers, the assisting local authority (Newcastle), and with the knowledge and agreement of the owners of the property, to announce that Benton Grange would cease to be a CHE with effect from 31 August 1984.

The staff were not particularly surprised by the announcement of the closure. Many had become weary of the worry and uncertainty about the future viability of the CHE and accepted the announcement with some relief. The few girls who would have remained in the CHE had it not been closing were distressed when they heard the news. Case conferences were soon arranged and all were discharged by the end of July 1984.

The Cost of Closure

Benton Grange closed with a running cost deficit of £70,653 and staff redundancy payments of £39,653 and £12,000 in supplementary payments under the superannuation scheme. With central government refunds of £15,000 on the redundancy payments, the Society was left with a deficit of £105,000. All Local Authorities in the Region were asked to assist in clearing this debt on the basis that they had been the main beneficiaries of the use of Benton Grange. Four of the nine authorities agreed to make a contribution totalling £29,000. The Society was therefore left with a debt of £76,000.

The Religious Order who owned the property agreed to the Society running Benton Grange as student accommodation for two years. With some minor building modification, 50 students took up residence in mid September 1984. This arrangement was to allow the Society to explore other possible uses for the CHE. In 1986 the Order decided to sell the whole property, including the adjoining convent. The building stood empty and unused until, in October 1987, it was demolished. There is now an housing estate of executive style properties on the site.

The main reasons for placement had been the serious emotional instability of the girls and the ‘moral danger’ to which they were exposed. In view of the depth and range of disturbance of the girls who were placed at Benton Grange it seems that many girls with similar problems and needs must now be left in the community with very limited support.

The closures of both St Peter’s and Benton Grange illustrate how a voluntary society was forced to relinquish work with disturbed and delinquent young people because of financial pressures and the change of policy of local authorities in respect of the use of residential care. With a substantial financial loss it was difficult for the Society to develop other community based alternatives.

Short Accounts of Twelve Other Closures

The most frequent reason given for closure was finance and the to ensure the best use of resources. This was stated as the main reason in the closures of St Hilda’s, Gosforth, Springhead Park, Sheffield, Danesbury, Hertfordshire, St Camillus, Tadcaster. At St Hilda’s there was clear evidence that the controlling local authority, Newcastle upon Tyne, decided to use the closure to help balance its Social Services budget and to improve some of its other child care services. In it financial year, £230,000 was saved. Of this £100,000 was allocated to improve staffing ratios in children’s homes and to improve resources at the observation and assessment centre. The balance was deducted from Social Services expenditure. (Peter Wright, 1985). At Crouchfield and Danesbury (Hertfordshire), considerable savings were made in Social Services budgets as the result of the closures. The figure given for Danesbury (Gentry, 1986,) was £750,000. Some of the monies from the closures were used to develop intermediate treatment programmes. The rest was lost to child care services.

A major aspect of the cost of maintaining Springhead Park, Sheffield, and of many other CHEs, was that of the employment of large numbers of staff. This raised the weekly fees to a level that deterred many local authorities from using the service. In Springhead Park, a CHE for 30 girls, there were a Principal, two Deputies, a Head of Education, three full-time teachers, two Group Leaders and a team of residential social workers, a field social worker, a bursar, two office staff, a cook, a handyman, a gardener and domestic staff. It is hardly surprising that at the time of its closure in 1986 the weekly charge was £423 per week per girl. Part of the explanation for the policy of providing a high child/ staff ratio was the belief that change in the child could be best achieved through effective interpersonal relationships.

The high charges could only be sustained in a declining market of referrals where Regional Pooling systems operated, which enabled those CHEs with deficits to be reimbursed. Once this collapsed, many CHEs, especially those managed on a voluntary basis, faced financial disaster, as in St Peter’s, Gainford and Benton Grange.

Another example of this was the closure of St Camillus, Tadcaster. At the time of its demise this was a CHE for 45 boys. It had been managed by a voluntary child care agency, the Leeds Catholic Child Welfare Society. There had been no cost pooling arrangements in this instance and as local authorities attempted to sustain their own facilities rather than send the declining number of referrals to a voluntary agency, this typeof CHE quickly became a victim of market forces. It closed in August 1983.

Five other voluntary managed CHEs support the evidence that they were generally more vulnerable to closure in the early years of the decline in the use of CHEs than those managed by local authorities. These were St George’s Freshfield, St Aiden’s Widnes, Greenfield House, St Helen’s and St Joseph’s Marshfield. There was a great deal of anger with the local authorities and the Regional Planning Committee for forcing these closures on the voluntaries.

Some creative thinking on the part of the agencies concerned emerged as a result of these closures. In the case of St Joseph’s, a CHE managed by the Good Shepherd Order, an arrangement was reached with another voluntary agency, Dr Barnardo’s. This involved the Sisters becoming responsible for the staffing and day to day management of a CHE, owned by Dr Barnardo’s, Duncroft, in Staines on a limited contractual basis. As a result of this the Head of St Joseph’s, nine staff and 20 girls transferred to Duncroft.

Alternatives to Closure

In the cases of two of the CHEs managed by Liverpool Catholic Social Services, St George’s and Greenfield, considerable foresight and tenacity was shown in changing their status from CHEs registered with the DHSS to schools for children with special needs, registered with the DES.

Had a similar course of action been advocated in other instances the special residential services for children might have been substantially improved and a number of CHEs could have been enabled to carry on offering a service to children. It emerged that the closures could be more complex and painful where a number of separate but interested parties were involved. This was apparent in considering the closure of the Royal Philanthropic, with the Society and the local authority adopting differing standpoints. It was even more complex in the case of Eton Lodge CHE in Liverpool. This was owned by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Order and managed by Liverpool Catholic Social Services on their behalf, and had assisted status with Liverpool Social Services. The decision to close Eton Lodge was taken by the Good Shepherd Sisters because they no longer had sufficient nuns to manage the CHE. The local authority and the managing agency were not pressing for the CHE to close and were unhappy about the decision but, once it had been made, they decided to accept it. The various reasons and differing circumstances of the closures indicate the general disarray into which the CHE began to fall from the early 1980s onwards.

The Casualties of Closure

The closures had a dramatic impact on the lives of many people, primarily the CHE staff and residents. The follow-up enquiries by Jones of Polebrook House indicated how poorly many of their former residents behaved after what was often a premature discharge from residential care. The St Peter’s data also shows that many children were returned home earlier than would have otherwise been the case. The Springhead Park account drew attention to the increased disturbed behaviour of the girls when they learned of the impending closure.

The fact that Polebrook House staff were the only group to mount a sustained challenge to closure plans indicated the absence of any concerted resistance to the closures. The professional associations did little to resist the changes and there are no records of them aiding any of the CHEs that were closed. The work of the CHEs was not generally known to the public. Many of them had operated with only very limited contact with the community (belying their title) and their going did not arouse much, if any, public interest. The managers of the CHEs did not have the power or the status of their Approved School predecessors and so generally felt unable to resist the closures even where they might wish to do so. Initially the Regional Planning Committees tried to set the pace for the closures. As they were wary of dictating closure decisions to constituent Local Authorities they flexed their muscles on the voluntary agencies.

Thus, St Joseph’s in Wiltshire, St Camillus in Leeds, and St Aiden’s, Lancashire, each of which were in different Regions and all voluntary agency establishments, considered that they had been chosen for closure in preference to a local authority resource. In Region 1 there was evidence of an attempt at an orderly disengagement under the direction of the Regional Planning Committee. This was short-lived, however, and once local authorities began to take unilateral action any thought of Regional needs appeared to have vanished. Once the local authorities started closing their own provision they made no attempt to sustain the remaining voluntary agency CHEs.

Few of those who provided the data for the accounts were satisfied that realistic alternatives for delinquent and emotionally disturbed children were in reality available in the community. It is apparent that the CHE system could only have survived intact where there was a strong belief in its worth. Once that belief collapsed, as it generally did, then there were many arguments readily available to favour its dismantlement. What is perhaps of more concern than the loss of the resources inherited from the past is the general failure to build substantial alternatives for the future.

One of the important changes brought about under the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 was that central government divested itself of direct responsibility for the former Approval Schools - the new CHEs. The only powers retained were to hold a watching brief via the Department of Health and Social Security and a requirement that the Secretary of State had to authorise the CHE coming into being and agree to closure. In the event these powers were used in a largely formal way and thus simply endorsed recommendations of lesser bodies, i.e. Regional Planning Committees and local authorities. With government distanced from CHEs, and with few powerful advocates and with the financial pressures on local authorities their closures were inevitable.

This material is based on Jim Hyland’s account in his book Yesterday’s Answers (1994).

I’ve little to lose and don’t need much to get by; I’m passionate about recycling. Since I’m mainly a volunteer for our charity, my time and skills has been the best investment I could make, and it has brought good results. It’s all worth it. We are managing things incredibly well despite these hard times.

Our work, as you know, is all about fundamental, pure & simple, relationships! There are hundreds of theories about them but few which actively get to work on them.
We can analyse all we want about the what ifs, the fears and doubts, but essentially we’ve found our way to supporting children, to tackle the delicate job of preservation and reconstruction of these fundamental relationships.

It costs nothing to care but does cost to have the place to care at, and we’ve been extremely fortunate to have attracted some incredible staff to work alongside us, and generous people to host our groups, as well as some funding we managed to find.

People truly do sign up to make a long term commitment with us, they get hooked and become part of our family; perhaps that’s part of the modelling. I sometimes
think we are the luckiest charity in the world; it feels like the best job!. There’s much wonderment to being there; seeing those smiles and hearing the laughter of children
as they play and just get on with the profoundly complex and difficult task of being a child with their siblings. Facilitating this is what we do best; yes, it’s often tricky too.

As you know, we ran the very first pilot siblings residential camps and have been continuing for more than five years now. We’re committed to continuing these. However I want to share with you news about our new branches which, I’m very proud to say, have been blossoming in the form of our Monthly Activity Days (MADs), which we first piloted last year in Hackney. Now we are running a new centre in Camden Town; we are already full to capacity! We have siblings joining us just one day a month for a fun day together.

We are currently looking at another new venue for our second MAD in central London for easy access, for the children to have adventures, enough facilities for arts to flourish, and space which offers the much needed tranquillity which the children thrive on … so a garden preferred. We’re visiting the venue next week and I cant wait!

We developed these MADs as a continuation - a sort of stepping stone - from our camps. Most if not all siblings wanted more contact throughout the year so we developed a way to make this happen. Again, it’s never been done before. Using all of the skills of art therapy, social work and youth work combined, a kind of Art Pedagogy approach has leapt forth - if there is such a thing.

A number of our siblings have moved to different placements, yet our MADs continue to be there for them, offering a bridge more than anything else. We’ve become the consistent place with consistent faces, we knew them earlier and we share some of the history for them and have helped make plenty too!

From this excellent work in progress, we have developed an entirely new concept and model of siblings mentoring/befriending, and have been successful in our bid to fund a three-year pilot project. We have chosen a large national voluntary organisation to partner with us for delivery of a large scale programme, working alongside four children’s services, with an extensive and thorough evaluation of this pilot being carried out by one of Britain’s top universities.

We are also running a creative connection programme, the first one being a film week at the Roundhouse Theatre, London, at Easter, with others to follow. We have a sailing holiday donated to our siblings, as well as a barge holiday in the pipeline for this year too. We are arranging a week for young writers in/from care in partnership with the Arvon Foundation, which we are still fund-raising for … and many more on their way!

Delma is the founder of Siblings Together. For more information see www.siblingstogether.co.uk

Here is what they say about themselves:

Jessica Kingsley Publishers is a wholly independent company, committed to publishing books that make a difference. The company was founded in 1987 by Jessica Kingsley and has grown since then to the point where we now publish around 150 books a year, which are available throughout the world. In 2004 we opened our US office, in Philadelphia. We publish books for professional and general readers in a range of subjects. We are well known for our long established lists on the autism spectrum, on social work, and on the arts therapies. More recently we have published extensively in the fields of mental health, counselling, palliative care, and practical theology.

We are independent publishers of accessible books that make a difference. Recognised as the leading publisher on autism and Asperger syndrome, we publish in a range of areas including social work, education and arts therapies. Our books are for parents, professionals, academics and the general reader.

The first section of the book deals with the whys, whats and whos. Why choose street work, what it entails and who are the youth that will come along. She advocates the importance of developing and sustaining partnerships with other community-based groups such as police, health workers (including sexual, mental and addiction), charitable organisations and community leaders. There is a passage about the funding and expectations of each group. Vanessa Rogers remains realistic about the risks, the temporary nature of street work and the hoped-for outcomes.

She talks about a basic kit bag, which should contain amongst other items a mobile phone, ID, personal alarm, paper, cards and a host of other resources.

The book fits well with the national play movement in this country, which has gathered momentum over the past five or six years. The specimen risk assessment agreement allows for some risky play to be developed whilst maintaining the standards of health and safety required.

The activities and tasks recommended cost very little and can be developed within minutes. There are many creative exercises such as quick photos, tie-dye, Halloween lanterns and some more challenging situations and quizzes, for example, how much do you drink, leaving home, exploring attitudes.

The book has different examples of quick evaluations so that the workers can see what works and what does not with their different groups of young people.

This is a book that will be used time and again. I would also recommend this for teachers and counsellors, as some of the exercises are excellent for getting those difficult conversations started.

Rogers, Vanessa (2011) 101 Things to Do on the Street – Games and resources for detached, outreach and street-based youth work

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

ISBN: 9781849051873

Life is full of challenges. If a foundation is stable and secure, individuals face adversity with hope, using whatever skills they have, knowing that they have the support and help of family and friends. When a foundation is shaky, the world seems a dangerous place where survival of the fittest is the rule. In 1995, realising the need to rebuild the foundations of these individuals, we began using stories to challenge mistaken beliefs and restructure the working model in order to help parents and children live a connected life. We called this process Family Attachment Narrative Therapy…From the Introduction to the book.

The stories of the children in this book allow the reader to look at their world prior to adoption or ‘salvation’ when they are taken from a place of danger, vulnerability and cruelty and placed in a secure, stable environment whether to be a permanent family member or a long-term foster child.

The case studies demonstrate the time and care that is required to help build the trust between a bewildered, protected child and their new permanent parents. The story of Robert threads through the book and offers insight into how the adoptive parents discover details about his previous life and how this becomes the text of different narratives designed to allow thinking and feelings to surface gradually with space for regression where necessary.

There are other stories and other methodologies of supporting these damaged children. There are models which help make sense of the chaos that some children are born into and why and how they struggle to attach to anyone. The first demonstrates the link between attachment – or not, life events or trauma and development and how this may be interpreted by a small child as they struggle to survive in a world they cannot control.

It is an effective book for prospective parents of older children - those who have a conscious or unconscious history of living a different life. It demonstrates how exceedingly difficult it is for these children to learn how to become attached in a normal way to other adults when they have been so badly betrayed in the past. The theories of Bowlby* are foremost in the texts when addressing attachment.

The final chapters offer more narratives and stories to help children move over the barriers they have imposed on themselves and their new families.

This is a good book to have on the shelf if you are an adoptive parent of foster carers. It is invaluable for professionals who work with such damaged children especially when they also run out of ideas as they offer support and counselling to the families.

* John Bowlby 1907-1990- looked at attachment and its implications especially for children raised outside of their birth families

Lacher, Denise B., Nichols, Todd, Nichols, Melissa and May, Joanne C. (2012) Connecting with Kids Through Stories – Using Narratives to Facilitate Attachment in Adopted Children

Jessica Kingsley Publishing

ISBN: 9781849058698

The author immediately introduces the reader to the concept of a training manual to support strong positive friendship groups between girls. She identifies the specific bullying methods used by girls and looks at places where this can be challenged as well as perpetuated. She lists the people who may choose to use the book, from educationalists through to group leaders and parents as well as girls themselves.

The book is a step-by-step curriculum, which takes the user through aspects of potential bullying, how this can be addressed. There are exercises and thought provoking prompts for discussions. There is time for reflection and a follow up on the different tasks and stories.

The book is formulated to follow the girls from age 5 up to 11 years when they begin secondary school. The intention is to arm them with strategies and confidence to become autonomous and not follow the crowd.

I like this book a lot. It gives the adults plenty of ideas for next steps and it even has sample letters to send home so that parents understand and can join in at home.

It is an honest, open method to promote individuality and negate bad, biased attitudes.

Well worth having on the school and youth club book shelves.

Whitson, Signe (2011) Friendship and other Weapons – group activities to help young girls aged 15-11 to cope with bullying

Jessica Kingsley Publishing

ISBN: 9781849058759

She uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as a tool in her workshops, therapy sessions and in her written work.The first thing I liked about this book was the fact that the author addresses the intended reader first – the young person who may seek self-help support and who may then wish to share with the adults.

The language is straight-forward and un-patronising. There are questions to answer to see if this is the sort of help the young person is in need of. For example, “Do you frequently feel angry?” “Do you find yourself hitting, punching, kicking, screaming or damaging things when you get angry?” “Do you feel like you have no control over how you feel and how you react when you get angry?”

It explains what CBT is and how there are links between all three aspects. She stresses that it is important to talk to a trusted adult about these things so the help will mean something.

The illustrations are taken from other young people’s perspectives and serve to reassure the reader that everyone reacts in their own unique way, but that may have been influenced by other’s behaviours or attitudes and reactions. The tasks are simple and non-threatening and encourage the reader to see that many people have felt as they do. Throughout the book there is vocabulary that will help express how the anger makes them feel. It looks at personal anger as well as group angry behaviour and how it may differ.

Through the book the reminder is always that whatever feelings we may have as a result of what someone else said or did, the anger and the behaviour are ours and we must own what we choose to do.

It encourages minute analysis of how the anger begins, how it grows and when it feels out of control. The gremlins can be starved and deprived of freedom by the individual thinking first and acting second. It introduces questions such as “Is it worth it?” What might happen if I behave in this way?”

The book is thin but packed with enough challenges and tasks to be a useful addition to the shelves of every school counsellor and youth worker. Whilst I cannot envisage young people going out to buy a copy, there are lots of ways to gain access to such an invaluable book.

The book is mainly geared towards the adolescent market, but I can see a use for this in primary school as well as with some adults. This book comes at a most topical time when films of domestic violence are being shown during the predominantly adolescent viewing times in the early evening to highlight how easy it is to become a victim or a perpetrator. Anger plays a major part in this.

Collins-Donnelly, Kate (2012) Starving the Anger Gremlin - A cognitive behavioural therapy workbook on anger management for young people

Jessica Kingsley Publishing

ISBN: 9781849052863

Back to the office and I telephoned Asda’s head office and spoke to their Customer Services. The young lady I spoke to listened to my explanation of press release, product, etc. then said, “I’ll check on this, Sir; now where did you hear about this?” I explained again that it was a press release from them and I wanted to purchase one to do a review on it. Had to tell her again – twice – that it was a digital camera for children priced at £8.98. “I’ll get the proper department to give you a ring back and they’ll tell you where to get it.”

That was a couple of weeks ago and I’m still waiting for their call.

In the meantime, I happened to be out of town and was passing a huge Asda, so popped in to try my luck again. Searched the toy department and a helpful assistant suggested that I try the photographic counter. Success – there it was!

At home, I set about unpacking it. Nearly ten minutes later, I managed to extricate the bits and pieces from the ‘sealed-with-a-vengeance’ packaging. Contents looked promising, plastic camera, small carrying strap, USB cable, CD and instruction leaflet.

Glanced at the instruction leaflet and searched for a couple of AA batteries since none were supplied. “Slide the battery cover off in the direction of the arrow”, said the instructions. Nearly broke my finger nail trying to do this – it wouldn’t budge. I then saw a really tiny recessed screw in the cover, so, managed to find a tiny spectacles screwdriver, removed the screw and the cover, then slid. It wouldn’t stay closed after the batteries were inserted unless the screw was replaced.

Went into the garden on what was a rare March sunny day. Took a few shots of some greenery and some flower tubs. Installed the software on the computer and transferred the pictures I’d taken.

The dream ended there. Terrible quality. Now I didn’t expect miracles, but the quality was really dreadful with washed out colour and pixelated images. The webcam function made me look less human than usual although to be fair, the (silent) video facility using the webcam function (it has to be attached to the computer by the very short USB lead to take video) wasn’t too bad.

Overall, I would suggest that, although this camera is a cheapo, Asda really shouldn’t have bothered – (could be the reason why they didn’t phone back). Any child receiving this will be so disappointed by the results that it’s liable to be used once then discarded. According to the packaging, it is made in China by Vivitar. I’m surprised they put their name on it. If you want a camera for a child, look on E-Bay where you can buy a ‘real’ camera for around twenty quid.

If you want to see the photo results, go to www.whbs.co.uk/asdapics.

Valerie Jackson continues her account of home education, “weathering the storm”.

Keith White gets to the heart of what residential child care is all about - dealing with the important through the medium of the mundane. Stuart Hannah is also looking at residential child care, and asking where it’s going.

Jim Hyland looks at the problems caused by the closure of CHEs and the interplay between politics and child care thinking.

David Lane makes a plea for greater openness instead of redaction.

We have three lots of straightforward advice for parents with young children. Dr Lin Day writes about Toddler Sense Classes, and there are items on bath-time safety tips, and ideas to keep children busy in school holidays.

There are two book reviews:

-           Talking about Death and Bereavement in School by Ann Chadwick

-               How to Win from the Start on planning careers by David Royston-Lee

Finally News Views includes the heart of residential child care, social pedagogy, a field trip to Germany, a conference in Ireland, HDJ and the Health and Social Care Bill.

The thought that children and young people should choose to harm themselves is appalling. They are at a stage in life when they are growing and developing, and they should be looking after the bodies which they will have for the rest of their lives. Self-harm is contrary to this, and it indicates a high level of unhappiness and disturbance for a child to want to harm him or herself.

There is no easy answer, but we would like to suggest that there should be international studies to identify the cultures and countries where there are low levels of problems such as self harm. Rather than focus entirely on the problem, can we identify the features of the cultures which successfully avoid or minimise the problem?

We do not know what findings such research might reveal - perhaps better parenting or extended family support, or fewer broken homes, or fewer stressful educational pressures, or less peer pressure and bullying, or better job prospects for young people? Or are all these factors irrelevant?

Whatever the causes, we need to be grateful to the four charities for sponsoring National Self-Harm Awareness Day. They merit our support