Why 'Caring' Isn't Enough For Britain's 60,000 Untouched Children

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Caregivers / Homecare;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 09 Sep 2009 - 6:00 PST

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As Chief Executive of Barnardo's Martin Narey calls for society to rethink its efforts at "fixing families that can't be fixed", an important new book from SAGE, Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children in Care, explains how interventions for looked-after children could be reshaped to provide children with the support they need to rebuild their lives.

As things stand, the government itself is a failing corporate parent. A House of Commons report in April warned that 'Far from compensating for their often extremely difficult pre-care experiences, certain features of the care system itself in fact make it harder for young people to succeed: they are moved frequently and often suddenly, miss too much schooling, and are left to fend for themselves at too early an age.'

It doesn't have to be this way. Other countries, notably Denmark, have developed models that provide far better outcomes. Carers qualify as social pedagogues via a three and a half year degree course. They are taught to deal with traumatised children and to give children the warmth and caring they need to develop.

By contrast, the UK system is both lacking in investment and systemically risk-adverse. We live in a world where it is safer not to touch children, particularly those already traumatised by abuse. Sadly, these are the children who need appropriate affection the most. Often, those who care for these children instinctively want to reach out to them, but they dare not.

That's why authors Seán Cameron, a child psychologist and Colin Maginn a residential childcare manager and advisor are advocating 'The Authentic Warmth Dimension of Professional Childcare', a vital initiative to bring genuine caring back into the lives of Britain's untouched children. They believe that such a crucial child-carer relationship should be underpinned by 'good parenting' which values the child's interests and views, sets boundaries, focuses on the child's strengths, skills and qualities and never gives up on the child. This is set out in their eight pillars of parenting, a highly developed model which maps what a child needs to thrive.

Policy makers need to pay attention: not only have Cameron and Maginn developed a model which, if operated in tandem with a robust vetting procedure, opens the door for warmth into children's lives, they have also found an effective and achievable way of making it work. They have developed a system where psychologists can support the development of good parenting skills with a fast and cost-effective intervention. They work together with the carer - rather than the child - to help them to deal with challenging behaviours. Crucially, they also look at the positive dimensions of the child, helping the carer to develop a genuine appreciation of their strengths and potentials.

In the words of Jonathan Stanley, Manager of the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care and Children's Residential Network, National Children's Bureau "Their distinction of 'caring' and 'parenting' is significant. It allows us to see that we have neglected the 'parenting' necessary in the 'caring.' Parenting here is a verb not a noun and is not left on the page but to be taken into daily life."

Their model would produce the step change which is needed, in a matter of months. As Martin Narey highlights the need for a reality check on supporting dysfunctional families, creating a climate where warmth is allowed back into looked-after children's lives could be the solution to our collective mistrust of the care system. In reality, many of the poor outcomes for looked-after children were created by their early experiences rather than by the system, but the system still could clearly be better. This book outlines a cost-effective blueprint for achieving something priceless. It is too late for Baby P, but beyond the headlines are thousands of suffering children who need a real alternative to their birth family. Deciding when to move a child out of its home is a grave dilemma for professionals on the front line, and nothing can make that a decision to be taken lightly. However, if authentic warmth, a universal human need, was built into the care system, it might be easier for them to find the right solution to rebuild these children's lives.

Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children in Care by R J (Seán) Cameron (University College London) and Colin Maginn (The Pillars of Parenting Ltd) is published by SAGE in Association with Pillars of Parenting. For further information visit http://www.sagepub.co.uk

Source:
Mithu Mukherjee
SAGE Publications UK