and reach thousands of daily visitors
27 NOVEMBER 2009
NO 1519
Staffing
Residential work involves a wide variety of tasks and skills. We have seen that these can include providing support and reassurance; encouraging recreation or relaxation; offering personal, physical care to disabled children; placating a frustrated teacher; and dealing with disorder. Sinclair and Gibbs (1996) have sought to classify these tasks and show that residential staff are most involved in the following: keeping order and general supervision; showing concern for young people; social training; and acting as a keyworker. In carrying out these tasks liaison with other agencies is also necessary and staff are required to interact with a complex network of individuals external to the home (Whitaker 1996).
One of the aims of our research was to find out about those who worked in the children's homes – their biographical characteristics and working experience but also their views on different aspects of residential life. As with the rest of the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to capture these different dimensions of the staff world. A brief questionnaire was designed to collect biographical information including details of position, age, gender, ethnicity, experience and professional and educational qualifications. While we recognise the often important role of ancillary staff such as cooks and cleaners, we confined the questionnaire to those with specific child care responsibility. A hundred and three questionnaires of the potential 148 were returned, giving us a response rate of 70 per cent. Given the larger staff teams, we did not actually meet all employees, which made retrieving the questionnaires more difficult. Only 1 of the 12 homes returned noticeably fewer questionnaires. Heads of homes were also asked for information on the number and organisation of staff working in their unit.
Understanding of the daily duties and experience of residential staff was largely obtained through our participant observation in the homes (see Chapter 5). Indeed, given the absence of young people of all ages during the day, we were probably more able to observe staff than children. We also tried to carry out semi-structured interviews with child care staff. This was not always easy – interviews were frequently interrupted by the telephone ringing or were carried out while helping wash the dishes from the evening meal. In some homes staff were so busy that we were obliged to collate information from general conversations to represent their views. While we do not consider that this necessarily renders the information less valid, account should be taken of the difficulties encountered while collecting these data and future researchers should bear this in mind. It should also be noted that while staff often found it difficult to find time to talk to us individually, the vast majority were keen to tell us about their views. Interviews frequently seemed to perform something of a therapeutic function in providing space within the sometimes stressful environment of the children's home for staff to talk freely about their experience of residential work.
An important dimension of our research with staff was also a lengthy semi-structured interview, usually lasting at least two hours, with the head of home. In addition to the areas covered in the staff interviews, we also asked questions about wider issues such as the referral process, management support, the role of residential care in the child care policy of the local authority and, where relevant, about the relationships between private homes and local authorities.
Each of these methods yielded a considerable amount of information on residential staff, which we have arranged thematically. We have also tried to focus on areas which heads of homes and residential staff identified as most significant. However, comparative information on the nature of the staff group is also important and the chapter begins by considering the characteristics and organisation of the staff working in the 12 homes. This includes the qualifications and training of the staff group, factors which have often been associated with their low status. We then examine the external structures within which each home is embedded, such as links with management and referral processes, which had important implications for the daily experience of residential staff. These had often changed many times since the 1985 study, but of greater interest in this chapter are staff perceptions of the changes which have taken place in the service delivered to young people. In our interviews with staff, two issues emerged as crucial. First, staff were concerned about the nature of the resident group and particularly the control problems which they felt had increased over the years. Second, matters related to status and morale continued to loom large for residential staff.
DAVID BERRIDGE AND ISABELLE BRODIE
Berridge, D. and Brodie, I. (1998). Children's
Homes Revisited. London and Philadelphia. Jessica Kingsley. pp.
119-120.
REFERENCES
Sinclair, I. and Gibbs, I. (1996). Quality of Care in Children's Homes. Report to the Department of Health. York. University of York.
Whitaker , D.; Archer, I. and Hicks, L. (1996). The Prevailing Cultures and Staff Dynamics in Chilren's Homes. York. University of York, Social Work Research and Development Unit.
