Opening
Jennifer Davidson welcomed delegates in the grand setting of the
Barony Hall, previously a magnificent church, but now the splendid
ceremonial building of Strathclyde University. The world was not
yet fit for children, she commented, while heart-breaking tragedies
such as the events at Beslan took place, but we should be determined
to improve the context within which children lived. She invited
delegates to become better informed through the Congress, to reflect,
to be challenged and to make friends.
The
Princess Royal
Some
foreign delegates appeared to be bemused that a member of the Royal
Family had been invited to speak at a child care Congress, while
others were concerned about what one should say to royalty. They
need have had no concerns. Once again, Princess Anne showed herself
to be a thorough professional in having prepared well, knowing her
material, saying the right thing and being thoroughly at ease with
everybody.
After
34 years as President of Save the Children Fund, Princess Anne knows
the childcare field well. In 1996 she had spoken at Realities
and Dreams, a conference run by SIRCC’s predecessor,
and she recalled the impact which the conference had had. Taking
the long view, she pointed out that there had been great improvements
over recent years. There were now 3 million fewer child deaths,
for example. Polio among children was down by 88%. However, there
were still issues such as sexual exploitation, the recruitment of
child soldiers and child labour which needed to be addressed internationally
if they were to be solved.
One
of the Princess Royal’s key messages was that children needed
to be respected, especially if they were expected to act responsibly.
They needed to be listened to, involved in devising solutions to
their problems, and still involved in the implementation and monitoring
of solutions. Involvement had to be more than a token gesture.
Princess
Anne noted that HIV/AIDS had had an immense impact on children’s
families and on the professionals such as teachers and doctors who
were meant to help them. The outcome was that large numbers of children
ended up looking after their parents and their siblings, foregoing
the opportunity of education.
The
impact of change was uneven across the world, Princess Anne said,
and we needed to have a dream for all children – a good start
in life, good health, good education, respect for their rights and
being listened to.
The
Congress offered an opportunity, she said, to share ideas, develop
networks and friendships. Princess Anne closed by challenging every
delegate to take at least one idea back to their home country and
to implement it.
“Child
Care is not Rocket Science : It’s Far More Complicated than
That.”
Professor
James Anglin of Victoria University, Canada, gave the introductory
plenary address, and in introducing his theme he quoted David Liederman
(above) and Robert Corti, “Let us build a world in which children
can live”.
Taking
a historical perspective, Jim noted that in 1900 people had looked
forward to the twentieth century as The Century of the Child.
In the event children had suffered in two devastating World Wars
as well as other conflicts. Fifty million people had been killed
in wars, and 80% of them had been women and children – mostly
children. There had also been mass migration. Ten per cent of the
population of Canada was descended from children shipped from the
United Kingdom to a new life across the Atlantic.
The
century had also seen the creation of the social pedagogy profession
and the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child by all but two countries. There was now a recognition
that children were not just potential adults, but that “Even
the youngest person is a real and present person”.
Jim
spoke of his research, using the grounded theory approach, to identify
what made good residential care effective. (For more detail, see
the Webmag review of Jim’s book. Click here.
He noted that the main aims were creating an extra-familial living
environment, responding to pain and pain-based behaviour, and developing
a sense of normality.
All
the children in his research sample had suffered intense emotional
pain, and when care was poor or carers punished children, they added
secondary pain to the children’s primary experiences. Sometimes
staff ignored the pain, and when children looked back on their experiences,
their conclusion was that they had suffered, “Pain, lots of
pain”.
Jim
contrasted reacting to children (with staff behaviour being based
on their own inner motivation) with responding (based on meeting
the child’s welfare needs). Children in care often saw themselves
as “throw-away kids”, but they needed special care to
give them a sense of normality and self-confidence. He quoted Zvi
Levy, “Children need to see themselves as building their own
destinies, not ruled by fate”.
In
developing normality, children needed something that behaved and
felt like a family, not simply something that looked like a family.
In view of the number of failed foster placements and the success
of the placements which Jim had researched, it was clear that no
single type of placement was automatically best.
Jim
spoke of the need for congruence in running children’s homes
and of the staff need for training, including personal development
and apprentissage. He preferred the French term formation
and felt it needed to cover in-forming (within the person), per-forming
(external relations) and trans-forming (interaction).
Korczak
had described a child care worker as a “sculptor of the child’s
soul”. Jim looked more to the child’s context and the
provision of opportunities to enable the children to take control
of their own lives. “Let us create a place for children where
they can make sense of their pain, and create a sense of their own
destiny”, he concluded.
International
Standards
Setting
standards was the theme of a number of sessions. Monika Niederle
and Werner Hilweg of Austria reported on a joint project run by
the International Foster Care Organisation, SOS Children’s
Villages and FICE-Austria to establish international standards for
children’s services.
They
already had representatives in 28 out of 32 countries in the European
Union and were collecting examples of material already produced.
After collation, the material was to be analysed, evaluated and
discussed, with a view to the preparation of draft international
standards and an action plan for their implementation in autumn
2006.
A
key aspect of this work was to view decisions from the point of
view of children, and Monika gave a telling account of a child who
had seemed to be doing well, but who had simply been conforming
and burying her pain. Monika pointed out that decisions needed to
be taken together with children, not by others for them, however
well intentioned or expert the others were. The standards would
therefore be developed jointly and from the children’s point
of view.
The
standards also needed to be devised by those who would be responsible
for implementing them, not by outsiders imposing them.
More
information is available on www.quality4children.info
The
question of standards was also addressed by Nigel Cantwell, a Consultant
working for International Social Services and UNICEF. He spoke of
the need to make the clauses of the UN Convention more explicit
and detailed, but was seeking approval from the United Nations so
that there would be proper backing and a greater chance of implementation.
He had not been involved in the process of drafting standards, but
in trying to get the idea of standards acceptable in the face of
arguments that there was a danger in over-prescription.
Nigel
painted the picture of the need for international standards graphically.
Six hundred thousand children fostered in the USA … 9.5 million
African children orphaned … 13% of Rwandan households headed
by children … 17,000 unaccompanied minors arriving in Western
Europe in 2001: with figures like these there was clearly a massive
need to ensure that children throughout the world receive good treatment
and protection.
Yet
standards varied greatly from one country to another, and children
were taken into care for all sorts of reasons, often wrongfully,
perhaps because of their parents’ poverty. Residential care
was often over-used and under-resourced. Fostercare was overburdened
in some countries and not known in others. Kinship care was increasingly
popular, but had its dangers too. Children often preferred to maintain
their family units, despite the lack of legal recognition for child-headed
families and their vulnerability. Care placements abroad were, said
Nigel, “notoriously unregulated”. In some states, there
was war and political chaos, and children were at risk of injury,
death and abduction. Children were often unaware of why they had
been taken into care.
Existing
standards and regulations were not comprehensive and were insufficiently
detailed, Nigel argued, and there were lots of missions.
It
is to be hoped that these two projects can combine and achieve synergy.
Jonathan
Stanley of the National Children’s Bureau in London picked
up the standards theme as well. There had been a review of inspections,
and by and large staff had found them positive experiences. Where
they had been unsatisfactory, it was because of inconsistent standards
or maverick inspectors. The standards required by inspection put
pressure on managers, but this was not thought to be a bad thing.
A
Forum for Expression for Children in Foster Care
This
session was presented by John McMahon and Lane Cooke, from the Jordan
Institute for families, University of North Carolina, USA. It focused
on a publication called Fostering Perspectives, which is print and
web based and has been in production for eight years in North Carolina
as a newsletter for foster children.
It
arose from observations that child welfare systems often fail to
listen to foster children and their carers. Listening and being
where the client is are essentials for successful collaboration.
Unfortunately clients are often viewed as cases and not families.
Ignoring
the voices of children and their carers can have severe consequences.
•
Children’s ability to grow and heal is impaired if they feel
powerless and ignored.
• Foster carers who feel unsupported may give up fostering,
causing more damage and disruption for children in their care.
• Professionals cannot support foster children and their carers
adequately, without real knowledge of their situations.
Fostering
Perspectives is a free publication in which foster children and
foster carers can write their views and creative offerings. Some
of the contributions were read aloud by Lane Cooke and had a powerful
impact on the group.
Practice
Notes for social workers are also produced twice a year since 1997.
An 11,000 print run covers social workers and all foster carers
in North Carolina. There is also an on-line contact list of 11,000
people.
The
administrative board is made up of representatives of the sponsoring
agencies, foster carers and former foster children. Various techniques
such as writing competitions with small cash prizes are used to
encourage young people to participate.
Members
of the group had numerous questions for the presenters. One referred
back to the opening presentation about individual’s pain.
It was confirmed that social workers and therapists were on hand
to advise on matters revealing pain and disclosures.
After
eight years of publishing it was felt that children whose work is
published receive recognition of their talents, and can feel that
their words are read by those with power over their lives. But children
whose work is not published are also able to feel part of something
much bigger, as they read that there are many other kids in situations
similar to their own.
For
more detail, see www.fosteringperspectives.org
An
Ecological Perspective
Dr
Emmanuel Grupper, President of IRECA – FICE Israel focused
on the creation of stimulating environments for children in residential
care by application of an Israeli ecological model. This was a well
ordered and clear presentation of aspects of caring for children
and young people in Israel.
Emmanuel
demonstrated the application of the theoretical framework developed
by Bronfenbrenner in 1974, based on the concept that children and
young people are not only influenced by close-up daily interactions
(at the micro level ), but also by other interventions at the exo,
meso and macro levels. He showed that ideas being portrayed in theatres
and cinemas, as well as theories of child rearing such as those
promoted by Dr Spock can shape the environment, in which children
grow and develop, without being in contact with individuals on a
daily basis.
One
response to this theory has been to organise a large network of
residential and care settings, which allows for major policy formulation
and implementation while at the same time allowing for a large measure
of autonomy at individual unit level.
There
is a range of provision within the network, which can allow for
individuals to pursue and develop particular talents and interests
and offers a spectrum from elite education to crisis intervention.
| |
Agricultural
Villages |
Sports
Villages |
Residential
Treatment |
|
Elite
Boarding
Schools |
------------------------------------------- |
Residential
Crisis
Intervention |
| |
Marine
Villages |
Artistic
Villages |
Group
Homes |
|
At
present in Israel there are 70,000 children and young people between
the ages of 3 and 18 years in 600 residential institutions of some
kind on this continuum. This represents 4% of the child population
of the state, while the 12-18 year olds in residential provision
represent 11% of the over-all population.
The
Youth Villages can be made heterogeneous and multi-cultural groups
of young people. The residents can exhibit emotional problems, be
school drop-outs and come from poor social contexts. This means
that the task of working towards normalisation and a united ‘youth
society’ can be a very difficult task.
The
villages have their roots in the Israeli Kibbutz community concept,
which aimed to produce a cohesive society, built on the co-operation
of individuals and in the Jewish tradition of Yeshiva schools, which
sets the expectation that it is good to be educated outside the
family. These ideas mean that group care is still preferred to foster
care in Israel.
It
is preferable to regard the villages as residential communities,
rather than institutions, where the whole 24-hour day is used to
offer a well designed environment which acts as a powerful stimulation
for achieving behavioural change. The workers, together with their
families, live alongside the young people with the purpose of creating
a united community - modelling the concept of ‘living with
others as a profession’.
The
primacy of education over treatment is established, with goals of
living a normal life and being empowered to do so. Young people
are engaged in challenging activities, aimed at establishing a heterogeneous
society, fostering as sense of belonging. There is a commitment
that no child is ‘left behind’ and a strong emphasis
on re-connecting with parents and society.
One
challenging thought was that adolescents need to learn by trial
and error without paying the full social price. This is no doubt
easier to achieve in a ‘professional village’ community
than in a small group home embedded in a housing estate.
There
was some discussion about the professionalisation of staff and how
this had forced up the costs of residential care in Israel. Staff
can opt for a University Diploma in Social Paedagogy
Perceptions
of Problem Behaviours in Foster Families
The
material was well ordered and explained clearly in perfect English
by the young Dutch research student Simon Van Oijen of Groningen
University.
The
work presented represented on-going research into perceptions of
problem behaviour as exhibited in foster families in Holland. It
was triggered by research carried out in the USA in 2002, which
showed that according to teachers and foster carers there is a higher
level of perceived problem behaviours by foster children among non-kinship
foster carers than among kinship foster carers. The work will eventually
form a thesis being presented for a PhD at the University of Groningen.
In
Holland there is a preference for welfare agencies to use foster
care over residential care and kinship fostering over non-kinship
placements. This means that 15,000 children are being placed each
year, either for short-term fostering, or for placements which will
last into adulthood. 40% of placements are kinship fostering and
here the term is used to include people such as neighbours and teachers
as well as blood kin. Non-kinship foster carers are used only if
there is no other alternative.
The
advantages of kinship fostering are seen as :
•
providing a familiar environment
• keeping a child’s cultural identity intact
• reducing adjustment problems
• encouraging more parental involvement
• providing acceptable role models for the natural parents.
Some
disadvantages are :
•
there is minimal screening of family members
• there can be perceptions of failure by some members of the
family network
• the parental relationship with the foster family can become
strained, if they appear to succeed with the child.
The
American research had suggested that for the children kinship fostering
produces :
•
less severe behaviours
• less stigmatisation
• less traumatic effects
However,
the fact that children are selected for kinship foster care means
that they have less severe problems at the time of the placement
anyway, and that family members tend not to rate problems so highly
as non-family members.
In
the Dutch sample the researched child population was between 11
and 18 years of age. They had to be expected to remain in placement
for at least two years and be no more than six months into the placement
at the outset of the study. A Child Behaviour Checklist was provided
for the carers and the children were encouraged to self-report also.
To
date the study shows that :
•
the perceptions of difficult behaviours are higher among both kinship
and non-kinship fosterers than for the normal population.
• the non-kinship group results show their perceptions are
slightly higher.
• the self-reporting suggests that children in the kinship
group see themselves as more problematic.
Obviously
the research has yet to be completed and analysed fully, but it
gave an interesting insight into on-going research and its potential
application to direct practice.
Songs,
Stories and Paintings
Sometimes
a Congress of the kind held in Glasgow provides opportunities to
attend sessions which are slightly different. I attended one workshop
which featured three presentations about innovative approaches to
work with children and young people using a variety of spaces and
different media.
The
first one was subtitled Creating Emotional Space for Children
Through Storytelling and was presented by Ruth Kirkpatrick
and Claire McNicol. The scene was set with drapes of beautiful pieces
of material and an aromatic candle. This unfortunately had to be
snuffed out early on because it seemed likely to set off the smoke
alarms, which would have meant emptying the entire John Anderson
Building at Strathclyde University - an unintended outcome!
However,
it played its part in setting the scene and engaging us, because,
as soon as it was suggested, we all burst into song with Coulter’s
Candy, although there was a very slim chance that many of us had
heard it before. Nevertheless the hallowed halls rang to:
and
I certainly found myself humming it for the rest of the day.
This
was the introduction to an enjoyable few minutes in which two very
enthusiastic people modelled story telling with children and young
people. So great was their own sense of fun that it was impossible
to do anything other than respond well, which is presumably a technique
which also engages children.
The
serious side of the message was that What’s the Story is part
of the (Scottish) National Storytelling Development Project, based
in Edinburgh, and is one of three national Children 1st services.
It
was launched in January 2003 and has two part-time workers. Part
of their task is to train others in using storytelling therapeutically
to extend the work as much as possible.
The
work helps children who are vulnerable to express their feelings
and increase their self-esteem and confidence. It supports children
who struggle in traditional education. It supports parents to develop
nurturing relationships with their children. It can help children
recover from the effects of emotional, sexual and physical abuse
and family breakdown.
This
proved to be a highly informative and inspiring experience which,
while being light-hearted, nevertheless had an important message.
The
next in this group of three workshops was entitled
Seeing Beyond Violence : Children as Researchers and was
presented by staff from the SOS Children’s Village and the
Hermann Gemeiner Academy, Austria.
It
is difficult to do any kind of justice to this excellent work because
it consisted mainly of some beautiful photographs taken by children
and young people in places such as Colombia, India, Nicaragua and
Thailand. A total of 40 girls and 31 boys had been given digital
cameras and were asked to depict non-violent situations and good
places for growing up.
The
old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is all too true
here. But the serious thought for any practitioner was how digital
photography could be used with children they work with on a daily
basis.
The
last but by no means least of this trio was The Manchester Art
Gallery Project, presented by Rachel Holmes of Manchester Metropolitan
University.
Again,
there was a great deal of enthusiasm evident in this description
of a multi-professional project with 60 children aged between three
and five years old. They had been drawn from three early years settings
in Manchester, connected to the Sure Start Programme.
The
children had been introduced to Manchester Art Gallery and had enjoyed
a number of new experiences, in exploring the huge spaces in the
gallery, looking at particular paintings, listening to stories and
experimenting within a variety of materials for their own creative
work.
It
would not have been my own preference to have to pick my way over
numerous children lying on the floor in front a picture I wanted
to see, but I decided that this proved I was getting old and lacking
in creative and spontaneous thinking these days.
Soundbites
“The
majority of children in care have conventional aims – to finish
education, to get a job, to have a family”. Ivana Jedjud,
Croatia
Response
to Masai daily greetings : “All the children are well”.
Tim Duffy, United States
“One
day Nelson Mandela had an idea; he decided to free all the 2,500
young people locked up in prison. And we had to find facilities
for every single one of them that day”. Francisco Cornelius,
S. Africa
“Every
generation is responsible for the next seven”. Carol Kelly,
United States, quoting a Native American saying
“An
institution cannot be better than its staff”. Werner Hilweg,
Austria
“The
bricks and mortar of a home are important, but it is the quality
of relationships that matter most”. Adrian Ward, England
“When
they have problems with their children, families often turn to their
family doctors, but they see things medically”. Mary Moran,
United States
Using
and Creating Assets
Tim
Duffy, a Consultant at the Search Institute, gave a plenary address
about their applied research. They had identified forty factors,
some relating to a child’s environment and some to the child
him or herself. The research had shown that there was a direct correlation
with the number of these factors where the child had problems and
their functioning socially and educationally. Where the factors
were positive, they were seen as assets, and the more assets a child
had, the better s/he did. Children with more assets functioned better
academically, thrived and avoided risky activities more. The task
of professionals, therefore, was to compensate, and overcome the
problems which the children faced.
In
the face of increasing isolation and civic disengagement, the Search
Institute placed the child in its community and school. It insisted
on a positive approach. Each child was “a resource to be nurtured,
not a problem to be fixed”. The Search Institute had now signed
up 600 communities to its approach, and was now looking to share
its expertise world-wide.
Keystone
Dennis Felty talking with David Lane
Dennis
Felty introduced Keystone Services, which he had founded in Pennsylvania
in the United States, having become profoundly dissatisfied with
the quality of services in state institutions. After three decades
of development, Keystone now provided comprehensive services for
children and adults in five states, including people with autism,
mental health problems and learning difficulties.
Two
key features of the Keystone philosophy were its use of new technology
to provide high quality communication between projects and experts
providing them with advice, and its emphasis on mutuality of goals,
enabling people to help each other. One example was its recruitment
of workers from Ukraine, Poland and Moldova, offering them training
during their year with Keystone, so that they could return to their
countries with earnings and ideas. Outstanding students had a bonus;
they were given support to become social entrepreneurs and resources
to set up projects in their home countries.
Problems
and Solutions
Francisco
Cornelius gave a graphic account of the desperate problems facing
South Africa : poverty affecting 60% of all children, a culture
of violence, thousands of children in prison, 4 million people with
HIV and 200,000 with AIDS. The statistics carried on, the totals
representing a massive amount of individual suffering.
Yet
against this apparently overwhelming mountain of problems, Francisco
gave a message of hope. In part it was based on traditional African
values such as ubuntu, which encompassed hospitality, giving,
sharing, relating and valuing. Even desperate circumstances were
transformed at times by ubuntu, which gave Africans a sense
of solidarity and belonging in the wider culture, largely lost in
western cultures. Services were at their most effective, therefore,
when community-based, involving schemes such as peer-counselling,
family preservation programmes, street children programmes and life
centres where children were fed and taught basic skills. The successes
sounded like miracles.
The
National Association of Child Care Workers is due to celebrate its
fiftieth anniversary in 2005, and Cornelius urged delegates to take
a trip to Cape Town and join in.
The
Closing Day
Mike
Reid gave an account of the Labour Government’s successes
in the field of social care. The growing economy had enabled the
Chancellor to strengthen the social care workforce. Training, staff
numbers, performance and pay had all improved.
There
followed a Panel, with representatives from India, South Africa,
Scotland, the United States, Finland, Russia and Germany. These
are usually tedious affairs, but this one was not. The contrast
between the countries was massive. In India, with a billion citizens,
50% of the children are malnourished and 50% cannot obtain education;
in Finland with 5.5 million people, everyone has access to education
and health services, though some problems remain.
Wealth
on its own does not mean that children’s rights are observed,
as Wolfgang Treder pointed out, as, for example, social workers
often thought that they knew best and failed to consult children.
Meg
Lindsay highlighted the problem of trying to apply standards inappropriately
in countries which cannot sustain them. A conference held in a hotel
in Romania about children’s rights had opened the young people’s
eyes to the material standards there, and they wept at the end of
the conference at having to return to children’s homes which
could not even afford pillows.
Carol
Kelly concluded by pointing out that meeting children’s needs
was a global problem and it needed global answers. No single country
could answer the problem on its own.
The
Message of the Young People
The
concluding session of the Congress was given over to a delegation
from the parallel young people’s conference, which had been
working on the same theme. They gave their message in drama, videos,
paintings, a fifty-foot graffiti board and rapping. It was all most
impressive, and the message was powerful.
The
young people had come from eighteen countries. They could not all
speak English, but were all accompanied by workers who could, and
when one boy chose to do his rap in German, his support worker had
translated his verse and it was projected so that English-speakers
could understand.
The
key message was, “Don’t forget about us. Listen to us.
It’s our lives.” They wanted identity, equality, freedom,
respect, participation, listening, individuality, love and choice.
“Open your heart, and let the people get inside”, as
an Israeli poem put it. “In life you get back what you give
to others”.
These
compressed quotations do not do justice to the presentations. Here
were young people who had been through the care systems of their
countries, who had travelled thousands of miles (in some cases)
and who were now performing to a hall full of strangers.
It
was a lot to ask of them, and they rose to the occasion, a tribute
both to them and to the people who had worked with them. They all
deserved the standing ovation they received. But they set a standard
for future FICE Congresses. It will be expected from now on that
young people will be involved in Congresses in a significant way.
The
young people had gained much from the conference - the chance to
make friends, sports, touring, dancing, learning about different
cultures, and communicating and laughing together despite the language
barriers.
But
they also pointed out that many countries - and even some continents
- were unrepresented. It is one world, they said, and everyone should
have their say. It was for the adults to make the event global.
Sarajevo
2006
With
these messages ringing in our ears, we saw a video of Sarajevo and
were invited to the next FICE International Congress there in May
2006. Let’s make it a global occasion. See you there.
