“And
then there were two”, observed
Janice as Abdul, his social worker and his new foster carer vanished
out of the drive of Bluebrick.
“And
I’ve heard that Gary’s family has been agreed and that
introductory visits begin next week”, added
Leroy.
“It’s
a pity that the social workers weren’t so focused when there
were no closure plans for Bluebrick, and then perhaps Jilly, Dwain,
Nickki and Abdul would not have had to wait around so long for a family.”
“So
are you saying, Janice, that the time those kids spent here was bad
for them?” suggested
Leroy.
“Come
off it, Leroy, you know I’m not. What those kids needed was
a positive experience of group care and we gave it to them. But most
of them were ready to move on a few months ago and their social workers
gave priority to kids not in a residential home but in bad own-family
situations,”
responded Janice.
“So
at least some good has come of the closure plan”.
“It’s
not just the kids, or most of them, who have benefited”.
“Oh,
you mean Vinney and his early retirement package?”
“Yes
and Justin, who despite all his huffing and puffing early on wasted
no time in accepting that social work assistant job at Area Office”.
“Well,
I must admit, I don’t know whether to accept redeployment or
the redundancy offer. The money would come in very handy. Maria and
I haven’t had a decent holiday for years and there would still
be some left to put down on a decent car,”
said Leroy.
“Yes,
but what then, Leroy? And what price residential care? I can see how
easy it was for Henry the Eighth to shut down all the monasteries.
Half the monks were looking forward to getting married and the Kings
pals were looking forward to owning all that valuable land, so to
hell with high-mindedness, and monasteries were a bad thing anyway,
so ‘Yer, let’s shut ‘em all’.”
“Excuse
me, Janice, but we are not monks. What are you on about?” asked
Leroy.
“What
I am trying to say, Leroy, is that I’m amazed how all the fire
and venom that was around when we first heard about the possible closure
of Bluebrick a few months ago has vaporised now we know it is going
to close. Everyone has either been bought off or become too fatalist
to resist the inevitable.”
“Well,
life must go on”.
“There’s
a bit in the Bible that says ‘Your heart is where your treasure
is’”,
mused Janice.
“Oh
heavens, we’re not back to monks again?”
“No
we’re not. What I mean is we all believed in the value of residential
care, even our top bosses, at one time, but now that the Council needs
to save money and most of us can see the benefits of a quieter life
and some short-term extra income, we sit back and watch the service
being dismantled.”
“Gord,
you are in a depressive state, Janice.”
Sarah
came into the kitchen to get herself a cup of tea.
“I
couldn’t help hearing the last bit of your conversation, Janice,
and I think I have to agree with Leroy, you are being unduly pessimistic.”
“How’s
that then, Sarah; have they changed their minds and we are not closing
at the end of next month?” asked
Janice.
“No;
they have not changed their minds, I’m afraid. Bluebrick has
reached the end of the line. But residential care has not. History
shows that the powers that be swing from favouring boarding out, as
fostering used to be called, to ‘putting them in a home’.
It’s lots of factors, cost, family environment versus group
living, abusive regimes and finding staff with stamina and backbone…”
“Cor,
ain’t you lot got nothing to do but sit around nattering?”
asked Angi as she came in fresh-faced from school.
“Cheeky
madam”, laughed
Janice.
“You
should be out there looking for a good home for me and Gary”.
“Don’t
worry, Angi; we’ve told you that we will find you a good place
to go to and that we won’t move you without you seeing the place
and agreeing to it,”
reassured Sarah.
“Yer,
but I don’t want no foster home, right. It’s got to be
somewhere like Bluebrick, a clean and comfortable house, not far from
a bus stop and decent staff, right, not like you shower at Bluebrick”,
grinned Angi.
Postscript.
Bluebrick
closed on January 31st 2004. Like so many homes over the past 20
years the scenes of events that proved the turning point, for good
or ill, in so many young lives will be as nothing in the minds of
the developers as they move in to upgrade the house to a set of
superior flats.
Yet
the young people and their adult carers will muse on them from time
to time and so, dear reader, can you, now that some of them have
been recorded in this column over these past three years.
I
trust you have found them enlightening and at times entertaining
and I can assure you that you have not heard the last of me.
