Jane and Ariola are members of the editorial group of the goodenoughcaring Journal
Themes from the group discussions at the goodenoughcaring conference ‘Love Is Enough : sincerity and professionalism in the care of children and young people.
Compiled by Jane Kenny and Ariola Vishnja
In this record we have gathered into themes the issues arising from the discussions which took place in the group sessions at the goodenoughcaring Conference Love Is Enough : sincerity and professionalism in the care and education of children and young people in London in October. For ease of reading we have had to edit the conversations and we apologise if we have simplified what may have been more complicated and sophisticated discussions. If we have made serious errors or omissions on this we would like firstly to apologise to our fellow delegates but more importantly we would ask delegates to post comments to the site so that we can publish any omissions.
In any case we would like to hear from delegates if in the four months ensuing the conference what they heard and talked about at the event has or has not influenced their thinking and their work in anyway. In either case if we are not to fall foul of the prediction hinted at in the final theme of this report, it would be very important to hear the frank views of delegates and of course all of our readers. Please post us your comments.
Is it possible to be loving and professional ?
The underlying theme of each of the discussion groups seemed to echo the uneasiness with which those who are professionally involved with children and young people deal with notion of love. This is represented by the question asked by a number of delegates. “Is it possible to be loving and professional ?”
What arose from this were questions about whether a worker from the caring and educating disciplines can or should ‘love’ a child who they are offering support to. This issue seemed connected to the questions, “What is love ?” and “Is care love?”
Love is a taboo
Delegates spoke of the taboo which seems to surround the word “love” in the social care, social work and education professions. The teaching and care professions felt defensive about how they might be perceived if they said they ‘loved’ a child. A worrying but generally held stance was identified which seemed to assume there to be no difference between sexual appetite and the love of an adult for a child and this seemed to limit carers’ and teachers’ ability to express helpful supportive emotion towards a child.
The effectiveness of short-term work in building loving relationships
When considering short-term intervention with troubled children concerns were raised about how effective this would be if there wasn’t substantial cooperation from the child and his or her family. If there wasn’t, some argued that it would be difficult to build up a trusting relationship in a short period of time and if love and sincerity were expressed through the actions of a professional how could the latter’s arbitrary ending of the relationship be understood by the child as a loving action ?
The prevalence of the ‘managerial’ approach to social care and social work
The difficulties of breaking away from the ‘managerial’ approach to social care and social work were raised. Procedures and the voluminous required written recording ‘that few people read’ tended to de-humanise the task and put obstacles in the way of workers building relationships with children and young people. As the focus of social work has shifted from direct work with people towards recording and coordinating, so increasingly little time is left to spend with young people.
The training and status of care workers
There was concern that the relative professional, political, and economic powerlessness of care workers led to a poorly trained group of workers who felt unequal to the task of caring for deeply troubled young people. One view expressed was that ‘It was difficult enough to care in these circumstances never mind love’. Given such a working environment it was difficult to recruit staff of good enough quality. Teachers, mentors and counsellors present also expressed a feeling of being under-valued and disempowered within the overall care and education system.
All the groups identified a need to ensure that those who work directly in the life space of children and young people such as residential child care workers and youth mentors should be trained differently – in the way social pedagogues in Europe were - to a level which was equivalent to the training of a social worker.
Hearing the voice of the children and young people
There was a fear that over-stretched, stressed, untrained staff working in a child care system which seemed more interested in fixed prescribed outcomes, had little time and ‘sometimes energy’ to hear the voice and wishes of the young people. One opinion was that young people were not respected enough by those involved in their care.
The lack of family work to support the caring and educational process
There was a feeling that work with young people who are admitted to care was hampered because not enough work was done with the families of these young people. Often this led to the deterioration of a family’s circumstances and worse led to the separation of siblings and the consequent negative emotional impact. Hopes and promises of family re-unification were dashed which inevitably became the source of future problems for the young people involved.
Defensive practice is an obstacle to building trusting relationships
There is a cross-professional culture of keeping safe for fear of allegations of improper practice. The current system made all professionals involved feel insecure about accepting responsibility for, and admitting to, their mistakes which a number of people felt could be an essential expression of parental love. The ‘mind your back’ professional climate of the care system prevents workers from showing love to young people and even simple things like hugs are perceived as inappropriate. Residential child care workers’ feelings of low professional standing are reinforced by procedure and practice guidelines which all imply that they are not to be trusted. The question was asked, “Why should a residential child care worker not be trusted to act appropriately in the way that a foster carer is ?”
There was a consensus that the ability to make and sustain a trusting relationship with a young person in all our fields of work is fundamental.
Care as a life long curriculum
There was a need to see the provision of care as a life long continuum. Each of us requires care and concern at different times in life and caring and concern for everyone should be more evident in our culture. It seems to have been lost in a need to artificially categorise and section off things into disparate parts such as child care, adult services and care for older people.
So what ? Will we do something about what we’ve been discussing ?
A fear was expressed that issues raised during the conference about the place of love in the care and education of children and young people would be put away and forgotten until another event like this was arranged. Was the conference an example of preaching to the converted ?