BLOG PODS #30 - Children at the Margins #2 - What Practitioners Can Do
INTRODUCTION
To save you some time, last week’s post about this latest report on marginalised children, summarised the content and recommendations.
This week I want to focus on what I think you and I, as practitioners with troubled kids, can do to lend our shoulders to the plough in effecting change.
This, of course, could easily fester into a book all on its own, so I’ve limited myself to things that came to mind as I read the report; those ‘yes, but what about…’ kind of moments. So, as always, it’s not an exhaustive list, but I did enjoy letting the brakes off a bit on these - I hope they encourage you!
Here goes.
3. What Can Practitioners Do to Help Marginalised Children?
Practitioners play a vital role in facilitating meaningful change with kids at the margins. Here are a few associated thoughts, provoked by the report (though not attributable to it) that might help to improve frontline care and support for these children (in no particular order):
1. Build and Maintain Trust:
Trust is foundational when working with marginalised kids.
Practitioners should demonstrate reliability, follow through on promises and show genuine care in their interactions. The idea of consistency, predictability and reliability (what we call ‘CPR’: in our TRM training) is key to this.
Consistency builds trust which gives us the ‘in’ we need to really help kids.The trouble is that lots of services simply don’t allow the time it takes for us to demonstrate consistency, which in turn means the kids don’t get to see us being consistent for long enough to allow trust to develop.
Putting an end to short term and/or time-limited interventions would help with this.
2. Active Listening:
Listening isn’t just about hearing; it’s about making children feel heard, valued and understood.
Create safe, non-judgmental spaces where children feel comfortable sharing their experiences. Making an effort to be proactive and visibly/obviously looking like we’re listening, can massively help with this, too.
One thing I often say when I’m teaching professionals in training on college or university courses is, ‘before you see the child, take a moment to think about what it would be like to see you coming’ - to a meeting, session, home visit, etc. - see yourself through their eyes. Then ask yourself, ‘if I were this child seeing me today, what would I want from me?’
I also think it’s useful to bring to mind briefly what we know about the child’s history so we go into the interaction in the correct mindset.
Getting back to a nationwide, community-based, fully-funded Youth Service would massively help towards this, in my view.
3. Adopt a Trauma-Informed Approach: (my soap-box issue, sorry!)
Understand how trauma shapes child development, fuels negative emotional states which, in turn, often underlie and drive behavioural problems - including crime (to name one of many).
Menu-based, off-the-shelf, manualised, generic, short-term interventions do NOT constitute TiP, in my view. There needs to be a clear and agreed philosophy-a model-that drives policy formation, funding allocation and service provision - our Trauma Recovery Model is one example.
I fear without a clear model to act as a reference point, a theory of change and an axis around which policy and practice can cohere, TiP will degenerate into just another catch-phrase bandwagon without soul or substance.
4. Prioritise Self-Care:
Supporting marginalised children is emotionally demanding. And so is working with them; but other than some of the health-professions (where it’s mandatory), there is no expectation of, or provision for professionals to receive support in the work. Certainly there’s nothing beyond a pastoral element to case management supervision which, though infinitely better than nothing, is not what we’re talking about here. This needs to change and has clear funding implications if/when it does.
In the meantime, practitioners probably need to invest in their own well-being, where necessary to prevent burnout and compassion fatigue wherever they can but, ultimately, this should be part of employers’ obligations and built into the system.
So, be kind to colleagues, look out for each other, opt out of macho working culture wherever you see it and, where you can, advocate for some form of reflective (if not clinical) supervision.
5. Advocate for Change:
Use your voice to highlight systemic barriers and failures. Practitioners are the best people to speak to power about what needs to change and to suggest alternatives, in my view. Data and research have their part to play, of course, but nothing beats getting up close and personal with kids and their families for giving a truly real world perspective.
Collaborate with other professionals to push for policy improvements. Make suggestions and communicate these up the food chain - as far up as you can. Make the arguments for practices that will do a better job for these kids, think creatively, identify good practice, get involved in research and lobby for more innovative practices that constantly improve outcomes.
In my experience, such interventions are nearly as always cheaper in the long run - but unless we make the arguments from a practice perspective things will change only very slowly.
6. Encourage Personal Development in Children:
Help children set realistic goals and develop their sense of agency. Interventions and outcomes that kids are invested in themselves, are far more likely to work. Kids are very good at knowing what they need (with obvious exceptions, of course) so harnessing that insight can really help us to formulate successful plans.
Foster resilience through small, achievable successes; learn to notice little-often minute-changes for the better, and point them out. Incremental changes are more tricky to notice and so often happen without fanfare. But if we can learn to notice these, bring them to the attention of the kids themselves and, where necessary to colleagues, everyone is encouraged. This in turn helps us persevere in the work. More importantly, it can give kids hope that even though change may be slow at times, it is happening!
7. Embrace Relational Practice:
Build authentic relationships as the basis for all interventions. I love this quote from Bruce Perry:
Remember, the major tool you have in helping others to change - is you. Relationships are the currency of change (Bruce Perry, What Happened To You, 2021)
Show consistency and commitment, even when progress feels slow - especially in the early stages of getting know a child when trust-building is everything. Hang in there, don’t give up. Let the kid know you believe in them and their ability-with your help-to push through to better things. Your hope gives them hope - if they know you and believe that you believe in them.
Back to my constantly repeated maxim of what to I try to do when you don’t know what to do: Lean in, empathise and be kind.
8. Provide Creative Outlets:
Use tools like art, music and play to help children process trauma and build confidence. Let them see your incompetence in things, have a laugh, try something new together - all the while using these opportunities to cross the bridge of your relationship to effect change.
Do all this carefully, of course, and stay in your professional lane (i.e. don’t experiment or dive into areas you don’t feel qualified or equipped to deal with) but think outside the box. Think about what the child likes, how they communicate, what kind of learner they are and so on. Then find new, creative and different ways to spend time, build relationship and help them develop.
9. Take Action:
Avoid getting stuck in bureaucracy—prioritise tangible action over endless discussion. I could seriously rant for a few thousand words here, but that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid! Tick the boxes as quickly as you can and get out there with the child and do stuff.
Be proactive in finding solutions, even when challenges seem insurmountable. Push hard when you need the help of others. Make the arguments with managers and funders; basically, wherever possible, focus on the stuff that will move the dial, not on admin, process and talk. Action always speaks louder…
I’m mindful of the quote from Mark Twain used in last week’s post:
‘Actions speak louder than words but not nearly as often.’ (Mark Twain)
These strategies remind us that while systemic change is necessary, individual practitioners have immense power to make a difference in a child’s life.
What’s missing?
Here are three quick things that stood out for me as being missing from the report that, if they were addressed, would go some way to bringing change on these issues (most of these are Wales specific but have currency elsewhere, too):
1. Get on and implement the Youth Justice Blueprint (in Wales)
This was first adopted in 2019 and is still largely caught up in the usual inertia that kills good policy. The blueprint would help bring youth justice further in line with recent science and effective practice for kids with complex trauma histories who find themselves on the wrong end of the law. It would also begin to address the nonsensical lack of appropriate secure accommodation for those kids in Wales who don’t neatly fit into the health, welfare or criminal secure categories - or skip between them without finding real help.
2. Stop messing with the private residential sector!
Local Authorities for years have tried and serially failed (for the most part) to provide long term, effective homes for the most complex children. That’s why they have turned to the voluntary and (more often?) private sector for help. Now the Welsh Government seems hell-bent on undermining this through some outdated, anti-profit idealism that owes more to an anachronistic, quasi-socialist view of the world than it does to modern, creative social policy. Of course, excessive profiteering from public money on the back of troubled kids is a disgrace. But we all know who the main culprits are and what to do to stop them. So don’t throw the good quality residential ‘baby’ out with the profiteering bath water, or there’ll be a lot of very vulnerable kids with nowhere to live.
Instead, listen to the sector - again, we all know who’s doing it right and who’s taking the proverbial - be creative, work out a better way, but do it with those who have expertise in the field.
3. Sort out services for neurodivergent kids
In my area the stated waiting time for children needing an ADHD assessment for example, is 3 years. 3 Years!
Information gathered in 2022 showed there were over 9000 children on the waiting list for an autism assessment. Given that these conditions can undermine a child’s confidence, relationships, ability to engage in education, etc. this is a priority.
Children who are properly assessed, diagnosed where necessary and in receipt of treatment do better - funnily enough! These kids are over represented in those known to have been exploited, notwithstanding the well documented mental health challenges that run alongside. So let’s have a concerted effort to implement some of the good ideas already in the public domain to fix this situation.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
A lot of work has been done-including this new report-to articulate the problems. For me, the job now is to get on and do some fixing!
Final Thoughts
The Children on the Margins report is pretty good, as it highlights the plight of groups of kids who often fall through the gaps. The recommendations have merit, too. But one things kept striking me as I read them - if the recommendations of previous investigations had been implemented-even partially-we wouldn’t need this report at all.
So, until the change we all want to see actually materialises, we have to crack on and do what we can do to effect change. We may be limited by our roles, by budgets, by systems and processes, but we can lean into kids, build relationships, listen to their needs and fight for their rights to have those needs met.
Decades ago when I did my training, that’s what social work was all about. I, for one, haven’t given up yet.
See you in the next one!
More information:
WEB PAGE: Children on the Margins - report download & information page (link)
WEB DOWNLOAD: A No Wrong Door Approach to Neurodiversity - Children’s Commissioner for Wales (link)
BOOK: Working With Troubled Children & Teenagers - my book on the values of good practice (link)
WEB DOWNLOAD: Youth Justice Blueprint for Wales (link)
WEB DOWNLOAD: Waiting Times for Assessment & Support for Autism, ADHD & Other Neurodevelopmental Conditions - England Children’s Commissioner(link)
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