Transcript Changing Children’s Services – promoting and supporting

Getting it Right for Every Child Conference,
Glasgow, September 2008
Changing Children’s Services –
promoting and supporting informal
care
Prof. Robbie Gilligan,
School of Social Work and Social Policy,
Trinity College Dublin
‘Fragments’ by Raymond Carver
And did you get what
You wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
Beloved on the earth
Harsh reality
 But many vulnerable young people
may not feel ‘beloved’. There is a real
risk that their future may represent
 ‘an endless tundra of aloneness and
loneliness’
(Brian Friel, Irish playwright)
Isolation of young person who
grew up in care (1)
 Living in bed-sit with girlfriend and
child
 Bitter about the after-effects of life in
care
 Tells researcher he would get married
 ‘But I have no-one to invite to the
wedding’ (Maunders et al)
Relationships and Vulnerability
 Young people may be vulnerable
because (or in large part because ) of
lacking a network of safe, trusting,
supportive enduring relationships
with others
 Such a profile is a striking feature of
many of the most vulnerable
Isolation of young person who
grew up in care (2)
 Young woman who had left care and was
part of study of how such young people
who were doing
 Researcher got a phone call in middle of
night from this woman who felt endangered
by a man at that moment because
researcher was the only person she felt
able to call on (she knew researcher only
very slightly) (Judy Cashmore)
The importance of relationships
 Relationships (and not just formal
interventions or services) are a key
element in helping young people to
escape the risk of social exclusion.
Services and Relationships
 Services do not deliver or guarantee
relationships
 Relationships and enduring
connections more likely to arise in the
natural and informal networks of the
person
 Challenge for services is to work in
ways which nurture and sustain the
emergence of relationships
Relatedness and Relationships for
Children
 Attachment relationships (enduring,
comforting , empowering)
 Primary attachments
 parents,
 replacement carers
 Secondary attachments
 Significant adults




Teachers
Relatives
‘Organic’ Mentors
Peers
The Power of Relationships (1)
 ‘Although education and other societal
services may have a preventive effect
(e.g. Jahnukainen, 2004) it seems ,
interestingly, that much more power lies
in totally non-institutionalised and nonformal factors such as close human
relationships (emphasis added)
(Jahnukainen and Jarvinen, 2005, p.
680)’
The Power of Relationships (2)
 ‘it was those individuals [adult survivors of
childhood maltreatment] with good
relationship experiences across different
domains and across childhood, adolescence
and adulthood who were particularly likely
to demonstrate resilience’
(Collishaw et al , 2007)
Key Message
 Importance of a ‘strong relationship
with an adult’ for vulnerable young people
generally (Luthar, Sawyer and Brown,
2006)
 Need to focus on building relationships,
rather than services, for young people
Strong Relationship with Adult
 Emotional support
 Practical support
 Positive role model
 From relationships with women and
men
Raimon Gaita in Romulus, My
Father
‘On many occasions in my life I have had the
need to say, and thankfully have been able
to say: I know what a good workman is; I
know what an honest man is: I know what
friendship is; I know because I remember
these things in the person of my father, in
the person of his friend Hora, and in the
example of their friendship’ p. 74
Importance of recognising complex and positive
motivation in give and take of support
 Russian Jewish man taught Ian Smith
(Tameside Social Services) as a boy
to play chess. It emerged later that
the man had lost five sons in the
second world war. Ian was then a boy
of their age
Social Support
Social Support
Informal sources
(based on reciprocity,
loyalty etc)
Formal sources
(based on duty,
Relatives,
friends, neighbours
Professionals,
Services etc
role etc)
Sources of Informal Social Support
Sources
of Informal
Support
Inter-generational
(parents,
Grandparents, etc)
Peer
(siblings,
friends, etc)
Importance of Siblings
 Older siblings may play a ‘quasiparental role, providing advice,
guidance and practical support’
(Wade, 2006) as for this care leaver:
 ‘I think (his sister) helps him feel like
he’s got a home, even though he doesn’t
live there. He can go and get his washing
done there and she’s very caring and
accepting of him’ (Leaving care worker
quoted in Wade, 2006)
Informal support for young people under stress – the
importance of siblings?
 ‘[Findings] suggest that sibling affection is protective
(against stressful life events) regardless of the age
gap found between siblings and the gender
composition of the dyad…..and of the quality of the
parent-child relationship…………… the provision of
security and comfort once ascribed mainly to parental
figures may [emphasis in original] also be a role that
siblings can fulfil when children experience stress
caused by life events’ (Gass, Jenkins and Dunn,
2006).
Importance of peers
and informal support
 At the end of the day you only have each
other. The staff are lovely but they’re paid
to be here and there’s no getting out of
that. They can’t be with us every minute
so it’s up to us to make the place
home….make sure it’s the way we want
it………..no one is allowed to get too big for
their boots here….it just spoils it for
everyone. The staff cannae stop that
happening, that’s for us to do. (Bryony,
quoted in Emond 2002)
The power of teachers (1)
 Story 1: ‘Whatever you do, girls, keep
reading books’ (Primary Teacher to
young class, whose words
reverberate down the generations)
The Power of Teachers (2)
 Story 2: ‘You work hard, and you’ll do
alright’ Young teacher of English,
whose words prove turning point in
life of 16 year old
Value of Social Roles
 ‘for women and men of varied educational
status, an increased number of roles was
associated with better quality relations with
others, a greater sense of effectively
managing one’s life and surroundings,
greater purpose in life and greater positive
affect’
 From Ahrens and Ryff (2006) based on data
from the Midlife in the United States Study
(MIDUS)
Socially Valued Roles
 Performing valued social roles offers social
inclusion and relationships: (examples)







student
worker
neighbour
relative
volunteer
faith community member
community citizen
Key Domains in a Person’s Life as a Source of Valued
Social Roles
Recreation
Faith
community
Education
Person
Family
Friends
Work
Multiple players in supporting Education
and Spare Time Activities







Parents
Siblings
Carers
Teachers
Sports Coaches
Other Relatives
Others
Examples of Adults Supporting Progress in Education and
Spare Time Activities
 Supporting involvement in








Rugby club
Mascot of ice hockey club
Synchronised swimming
Dance
Learning to play flute
Tennis
Collecting Tropical Fish
Care of Neighbours’ Horses
Turning Points - Example
 ‘[One] man emphasised that being good at sports in
adolescence changed his life. After being successful in
boxing he was offered an opportunity to join an army
special group for athletics. This was good for his self
esteem. In his own words, being good at boxing was
“kind of like the first time I felt proud of something. I
felt proud of myself”’. (an example from Finland, from
Ronka, Oravala and Pulkinnen, 2002)
Mentors, Turning Points and
Serendipity
 [Man sent as boy to reform school, and
assigned to electrical workshop] ‘ ……he
loved amateur radio. And he got me
interested in radio and electrical stuff and
things of that nature………….He saw the
potentials in me. He saw I enjoyed
electricity. I enjoyed radio and stuff like
that. He took me under his wing. And I
thought an awful lot of this guy in a short
ten months I worked with him. He was a
prince…….I prepared my whole life in ten
months to do something.
Mentors, Turning Points and
Serendipity (continued)
..Think about it. Those ten months were crucial in my
life. Because they turned me around. [Name of
prison] turned me around. Jack turned me around.
Jack was a humanitarian and cared for me as an
individual. Let’s get down to brass tacks. What if Jack
wasn’t there? What if I wasn’t offered the
opportunity?......He treated me right. As a matter of
fact, after I left [name of prison] year after year on a
yearly basis I would take my wife and kids, we’d drive
all the way to [name of prison] to see Jack’ (‘Gilbert’
in Laub and Sampson, 2003, p. 141
Turning Points
 ‘A major turning point has the
potential to open a system the way a
key has the potential to open a
lock……………action is necessary to
complete the turning.’
(Abbott, 1997, 96-97 quoted in Laub
and Sampson, 2003, 282)
Turning Points
 Two sources to assist in ‘completing
the turning’:
 The agency of the young person
 The support of adults
 From social network
 From professional systems
Examples of positive influences in the stories
of delinquent men aged 70 (Laub and
Sampson)
 Marriage
 Parenthood
 Stability in employment
 Positive experiences in institutions
(reform school , prison)
Examples of positive influences in the stories
of delinquent men aged 70 (Laub and
Sampson)(2)
 Conversion to new value systems (Laub and
Sampson, 2003, p. 130-134) (e.g. through
 religious faith,
 Alcoholics Anonymous,
 discipline and meaning acquired in the military
 Relationship with mentors
 Being or becoming an ‘active player’ in
shaping their own future (Laub and
Sampson, 2003, p. 141)
Australian Care Leavers
Judy Cashmore and Marina Paxman (2006)
found three factors to be predictors of good
outcomes for the young people (n=47) in
their four wave study:
 the young person having a sense of ‘felt
security’ (which itself was associated with fewer
moves);
 the young person enjoying social support after
leaving care (most valuable it seems if coming
from family and carers);
 and continuing to live in the same
accommodation after the legal age limit for
leaving care.
US Care Leavers

Courtney et al., (2005) have explored what is associated with
‘connectedness’ (defined in their study as being at work or in full
time education) for young care -leavers?




the young person being still in care at age 19[1] (which more
than doubled the chances for a young person of being
‘connected’ in this sense when compared to those not still in
care );
the young person aspiring to graduate from college;
the young person being close to a family member (which
doubled their chance of being ‘connected’);
and the young person being satisfied with their care
experience when they looked back on it.


[1] Importantly, Courtney and his colleagues considered whether the ‘stayers at 19’ might have been systematically different
from the ‘leavers’. Following their analysis of the data, they are confident that this is not the case especially since one of the
three states (Illinois) on which the data is based actually has a care leaving age for all its care leavers of 19 years.
Points to consider

Vulnerability may be associated particularly with:
 Being a boy (boys/men poorer at accessing informal
support; and having a baby where relevant may help
pull in support for a girl – not a recommendation!)
 Leaving residential care
 Having entered care in teenage years

Doing better may be associated with:
 Continuing to live with foster carers
 Staying on in education

The importance of the passage of time
 Things may get a bit better as the young person gets
older
Vulnerable Youngsters may need
more time and more tolerance
 Real parents would try to help, even if
you were older, and young people
who have been in care might need
more time than others to work things
out and get themselves settled down.
They need to kick back a bit – they
shouldn’t be punished for it forever
(‘Carrie’ quoted in Happer, McCreadie
and Aldgate, 2006, p. 52)
Essential Mindset (1)
 Multiple Forms of Desired Outcomes
(stronger, safer children)
 Multiple Pathways to Desired
Outcomes
 Multiple Players supporting Progress
on these Multiple Pathways
 Value ‘life’s ordinary plenty’ (Patrick
Kavanagh)
Essential Mindset (2)
 Services play only one (key) part
 Need to respect and value what other
players bring
 Need to cultivate valued social roles
for vulnerable young people
Implications for Practice and Policy
- some examples
 Seek to strengthen social networks –
and connections to siblings, other
relatives, friends, neighbourhood etc
 Value family group conferencing and
such approaches
 Value relative / kinship care (which
gets favourable ratings in many
studies)
A final thought
 What do we want / hope for as the
legacy of our intervention when the
child / young person is




16?
22?
30?
A parent?
References












Abbott, A. (1997) ‘On the Concept of Turning Point’ Comparative Social Research 16, 85-105
Ahrens, C. and Ryff, C. (2006) ‘Multiple Roles and Well-being: Socio-demographic and
Psychological Moderators’ Sex Roles 55: 801 - 815
Arber, S. (2004) ‘Gender, marital status and ageing: Linking material, health, and
social resources’ Journal of Aging Studies 18, 91- 108
Brennan, E. (2007) Experience: I was raised by the nuns Weekend Guardian,
February 17 http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2013086,00.html
Cashmore, J. and Paxman, M.(2006) ‘Predicting after-care outcomes: the importance of ‘felt’ security’
Child and Family Social Work 11, 3, 232 – 241.
Laub, J. and Sampson, R. (2003) Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives – Delinquent Boys to Age 70
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press
Laursen, E. and Birmingham, (2003) ‘Caring Relationships as a Protective Factor for At-Risk Youth: An
Ethnographic Study’ Families in Society 84, 2, 240-246
Lewontin, R. (2000) The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment Mass.: Harvard University
Press
Ronka, A., Oravala, S and Pulkinnen, L. (2002) ‘ “ I met this wife of mine and things got onto a better
track” Turning points in risk development’ Journal of Adolescence 25, 47-63
Thoits, P. (1995) ‘Stress, Coping and Social Support Processes: Where Are We? What Next? Journal of
Health and Social Behaviour (extra issue) 53-79
Ungar, M. (2004) Nurturing Hidden Resilience in Troubled Youth Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Velleman, R. and Orford, J., (1999) Risk and Resilience – Adults Who Were the Children of Problem
Drinkers Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers