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UK
A conference today will debate what can be done to
improve the life chances of looked after children. Steve Moore says
social workers should be prepared to find some radical solutions
Could we care more?
Why should the state continue to look after children
when all the statistics seem to show that it does it so badly? Young
people in care are less likely to achieve five GCSEs at grade A-C, more
likely to become homeless, more likely to go to prison, more likely to
be unemployed, more likely to have a mental health problem. Surely a
case for selling the whole lot off to some enterprising supermarket
chain. Maybe the discipline of the checkout will counter the
traumatising effects of the sexual and physical abuse, neglect and
family breakdown that is often the prelude to state intervention?
Wait a minute, didn't enterprising children's
charities spend the best part of the 20th century shipping our most
disadvantaged young people off to the colonies and the promise of a
bright future? Didn't it take the courage of social worker Margaret
Humphreys and her Child Migrants' Trust to expose the injustices and
inhumanities that were too often the result of this policy? A lesson
here maybe: whatever the system it is the values of social work -
respect for human worth and individual dignity, a commitment to social
justice, to service and competence that will best ensure that troubled
and troublesome children and young people remain just that - people. Not
commodities or pawns in some ideological war over the public or private
provision of care.
Outcomes are poor for children in care because we
invest least in those that need most. Early disruptive experiences mean
their support needs are extremely high. They may already have had
problems with their school attendance, finding it difficult to cope with
ordinary everyday life.
The act of coming into the care system itself can be
very daunting; some young people may have to leave behind everything and
everyone they know. Perhaps there is a criminal investigation going on;
a court appearance to give evidence against their abuser could be
looming. Some young people themselves say that being a "looked after"
child immediately conveys to them that they are "different" - set apart
from their peers.
Rebuilding lives
A conference today at the University of Central England in
Birmingham, co-organised by the British Association of Social Workers,
will stimulate debate around these challenging questions. Asda is not
expected to be sending along a senior manager to present a radical
solution along the lines suggested above. However, novel ways of setting
out the case for supporting difficult and/or damaged children and young
people within their local communities and encouraging enterprising and
innovative people to invest time, money and energy in the task of
rebuilding the lives of such children are needed.
The role of the child's social worker is central.
Every child and young person needs at least one individual to whom s/he
is "special", who retains responsibility over time, who is involved in
plans and decisions and who has ambitions for the child's achievement
and full development.
The social worker is responsible for watching over the
programme of care for the child, for furthering his or her interests as
a whole and for meeting the child's need for a continual and trusting
relationship.
It is through the role of the child's social worker
that corporate parenting is personalised and given a human face. Whether
the "corporation" concerned is county hall, church, mosque or megastore,
"frequent contact with a social worker who is prepared to listen and
advocate for a young person is seen as a protection from abuse and
harm".
There has been a downgrading of work with looked after
children compared with such specialisms as child protection and
fostering and adoption. A shortage of children's social workers means
that in some authorities the role of supporting looked after children is
allocated to unqualified workers.
Despite a new Children Act spurred on by the Every
Child Matters agenda, there has not been a huge injection of resources
to support the government's ambitions for increasing the achievements of
all children. Social workers, together with looked after children and
young people, need to find the confidence to come out of hiding and
argue for our values to be put into practice. Today's conference is just
the start.
Steve Moore
9 February 2006
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/comment/0,,1705251,00.html
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