Children Webmag - Editorial

We visited Coll and Tiree, a couple of islands, after the FICE Congress in Glasgow, bringing the tally of Scottish islands we have visited up to twenty-three. Each is a fascinating microcosm, with its own geography, geology, economy, social structure, history and mix of clans. Because islands are literally cut off from each other, they develop and retain their characteristics in a more defined way than neighbouring towns or counties on the mainland.

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Coll is largely rock and moorland, and only a score of the inhabitants are native Collachs, the rest being incomers escaping mainland life. Although only separated by two or three miles of sea, Tiree, by contrast, is largely flat farmland with a population five times the size of Coll, though the area is about the same, and it has a community life to match its numbers.

What has this got to do with childcare? Countries are often insular, and behave like island communities. Some are aware of their neighbours, have dialogue with them, learn and improve their services. Others are inward-looking and presume that what they are doing must be the best thing as they have made no comparisons with outsiders.

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One factor is the size of the country. Luxembourg has no university, so it has to turn to other countries for qualifying training. Its inhabitants speak French and German as well as the native Luxemburgish, and in consequence they are well aware of what their neighbours do. So are professionals in the Netherlands, who are very outward-looking.

On the other hand, France is large enough not to need external contacts, and so is in many ways self-contained. There are American professionals who travel a lot and have world-wide contacts, but they are greatly outnumbered by their colleagues who have never ventured abroad, and indeed may not have visited childcare services in neighbouring states.

Great Britain suffers the same, partly because it is an island, but partly also because of its self-sufficiency. A survey undertaken some years ago by John Hudson for the late National Institute of Social Work showed that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had better working contacts with foreign countries than England, perhaps reflecting the “small country” factor. England, meanwhile, thought it had all the answers it needed.

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In making the argument that England - and other countries - are insular, there is a risk of over-stating the case. Quite a number of local authorities work with eastern European countries, for example, and some thousands of individuals travel to conferences, visit services, go on exchanges or work as consultants or volunteers abroad.

Nonetheless, there is something of a gulf between England and continental Europe in a number of ways. In continental Europe childcare workers are social educators or social paedagogues; in Britain there is a mixture of specialist roles and no common identity. Countries have different systems of education and social care; on the continent, there is often a more holistic approach, and the current merging of Education and Social Services Departments in England happened over fifty years ago in many other countries.

It is not surprising. We all know about Darwin and the Galapagos Islands, and the way that unique breeds of tortoises and finches evolved as they were isolated and unaffected by outside influences. World-wide, a very high proportion of flightless birds have evolved on islands where they found no predators. With inadequate cross-fertilisation of ideas, the same happens in human endeavours. Without being challenged or having the opportunity to be aware of other people’s ideas, we proceed to adapt to our immediate surroundings, unaware that there may be better ways of doing things.

Check with university research departments, Dartington or the National Children’s Bureau, and note how many projects involve international comparisons. Look at qualifying training curricula and see how many make any mention at all of texts from Europe or of alternative approaches to social work and social care based on ideas from Europe.

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Consider professional associations. The British Association of Social Workers is an active member of the International Federation of Social Workers, and the Association of Directors of Social Services has participated in annual European conferences for some years now. Both of these organisations have some childcare links, but are for particular sections of the workforce. The Social Care Association now has no international links. Caring for Children is now being wound up, so that there will be no English or Welsh National Section in the Federation Internationale des Communautes Educatives. There has never been any substantial English or Welsh representation in AIEJI, the other large international professional association for social educators. Eurochild is being launched again at a conference this month in Brussels, to replace the former European Federation of Child Welfare.

Overall, that is a poor track record, and we need better links. Island life is fine, and we develop in interestingly individual ways, but it is not the best way to develop professional practice. We believe that the challenge of sharing ideas breeds a stronger and more versatile profession.

As for the Scottish Isles, we have still not yet been to Rum, Eigg, Muck and Canna. (Yes, those are real names.) Next summer perhaps.