At the start of a new year I should begin by wishing all the CYC-Net people a happy and healthy new year. May 2004 be good to you all.

esidential child care in the dock again! Perhaps unsurprisingly, I note that the end of the year 2003 sees yet another article in the Irish newspaper of record, The Irish Times, concerning residential child care with a banner headline: "Teenage girls missing more than 200 times". It then goes on to detail three teenagers aged 16, 16 and 13 who were absent without permission on 22, 82 and 100 occasions respectively. Of course, it does not go into any of the details as to the particular circumstances of the staff efforts to contain the girls, or what their tailored programmes were, or if they were on court orders with any bail conditions or the like … All most people will see in the article is the failure of residential care. The reality is far more complex than that.

Indeed, a colleague of mine informed me just before we broke for Christmas that he "no longer believed in residential care" (italics my emphasis). That’s a pretty strong statement, but the guy has over a decade experience working in front line practice so he has not arrived at this with either little thought or lack of experience. So, why would he say this? What is so wrong with residential child care as opposed to other forms of care provision?

I suppose there are many complex answers to this and we know many such as the unsocial hours, the lack of remuneration, the increasingly problematised service users... But, we need to consider what residential child care is all about. Is it for the benefit of the young person or the staff? It’s for the young person, of course, and we must remember this. The thorny question concerning staff retention is always to the fore.

Certainly, residential child care is the least favoured destination for the vast majority of students with whom I regularly converse – and that’s from Certificate to Degree level. Nearly all the students tell me that they "want to work in the community" (i.e. nine to five jobs). I noted in a national report for the Resident Managers’ Association a couple of years ago that residential care is in a state of both evolution and transition and we will have to bunker down and stay in for the long haul. Things don’t change overnight (McElwee, 2000). But let me say this, I believe that residential child care still has a place in the continuum of care.

Humour is the Key
There are literally dozens of areas that I could choose to discuss. Thom Garfat has made the point that it is now standard practice for young people in residential centres in North America to be included in the process of goal-setting with regard to their own intervention plans (Garfat, in press). This is also the case in Ireland now and, in this, staff can achieve a great deal of flexibility and creativity. A good friend of mine, Jack Phelan, known to most CYC-Net readers, jokes about his experiences in residential child care. He talks about stopping a youth in care one day and asking him "Hi, do you know what your goal here is?" and instead of rhyming off the intervention/treatment plan, the youth answers "Yeah, to get the hell out of here" (Phelan, 2003). And this, I’m sure, is echoed throughout the English speaking world.

I must say that in my very limited experience in residential child care practice, humour is probably the quality one requires most. So, my message for the new year to us all is not to take ourselves too seriously. You can be sure, in any case, that others don’t.

References
Garfat, T. (2004). Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies (In press).
Irish Times, 25.26.27/12/2003. ‘Teenage girls missing more than 200 times’ by Eithne Donnellan.
McElwee, CN. (2000). To Travel Hopefully: Views from the Managers of Residential Child Care Units in Ireland. RMA/SocSci Publishing.
Phelan, J. (2003). Workshop with Degree Social Care Students. Athlone Institute of Technology, Ireland. November 2003.