Impressions of a Newly Qualified:

So, it’s been a very long time since I’ve written a blog post about life in social work – which perhaps tells you all you need to know about how busy it is!

I’ve been qualified now just four months, but have been working in a Children in Care team just over 18 months, first as a student, then an unqualified keyworker, and now as a NQSW.

So what are my first impressions…where to even begin..

-          First is to say, I still love it. I love the variety of the work, I love working with children and young people and having the privilege to play such an important role in their lives and I love thinking of new ways to carry out direct work – exploring new resources, going on great training ( have used my AYSE budget to go on 2 days with the Child Centre for Mental Health – would really recommend, although they’re on Saturdays.)

-          I have definitely felt surprised and at times, a little overwhelmed, by how much responsibility you have so quickly. I have probably said this before, but whilst working in advertising, you were always part of a big account team, and everyone knew what was going on and was playing some kind of role in the account. As a social worker, sometimes it can feel a little more isolated, and the responsibility is very much on you as an individual worker, to share information, where you think relevant, with your supervisor, or your wider POD – if you work in that way. I think communication is vital – not just in the way we learn about in training – in terms of sharing with the wider multi-disciplinary team to avoid child protection crises, but for more informal things too. I like to chat regularly to the supervising social workers/link workers about anything that is going on for my children and is having an impact on their foster carers – it also helps me feel part of a wider team.

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      But yes responsibility is a big part and something I take pretty seriously and like to seek guidance wherever possible. I have recently been preparing a child for their transition to adoption – the first one I have done. I have found it has made a huge difference asking a therapist to sit down with me and give me guidance on the best way to handle this transition, discussing the right timing for revealing information to the child and strategies as to how to do this. It has left me feeling so much more empowered and it’s been amazing watching how well the transition has been going (fingers crossed!)

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I    ’ve learnt lots about attachment and its implication for neuroscience – through my training and in turn different techniques to use – including art therapy and play therapy techniques and a greater understanding for why many Looked After Children are constantly drawn to extremes and chaos – for them, a life in the middle is not familiar. It was, my hero – Camila Batmanghelidjh, who discussed this on one of my training days, that helped me to understand one of my teenagers a bit more clearly.

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            I’ve felt blessed that we have such a great bunch of professionals at work – everyone is kind and friendly and this makes a huge difference to day to day life. We do a tough job and one that often be emotionally draining, so being able to laugh and joke in the office can make all the difference

To conclude, I think, in a not particularly philosophical way, that the job is what you make of it. I recently had a student shadow me for a couple of visits and she was asking for some advice (which given my limited experience, was probably not too profound!)  but I talked about the importance of the little things. I’ve just sent out all my cards to my teenagers wishing them luck for their GCSEs. Whereever I can, I try to send birthday cards. I’ve put all their GCSE exams in my diary so I remember to wish them luck – my mum would never forget to wish me luck, and we’re their corporate parent. I did the same as a student for one of my kid’s SATS exams. I think it’s important to text or email just to check in with the young people and see how they’re doing, show you’re holding them in mind. I pushed to get budget to take them for a meal on their 16^th birthday.

My favourite part of the job is advocacy. Advocating to get these kids what they need and deserve and trying where possible to push the limits.

All of this is hard to do inbetween the mound of paperwork and constant deadlines. And without a doubt you can feel hit over the head with emails about targets and data. But we know why we do the job and as long as we can remember that, it’ll be okay (I tell myself!).

On another note, there’ been some amazingly interesting tv shows of late:

From 15,000 kids and counting on Channel 4, to Louis Theroux’s documentary on sex offenders in America, BBC3’s prison programmes – life and death row, life behind bars, death behind bars etc. Love this stuff!

Anyway, that’s all for now!

First thoughts on raising the leaving care age to 21

My amateur thoughts on the legal duty to raise the leaving care age: 

Firstly, what incredible news. It feels like an absolutely massive shift to be able to support young people in their foster family placement until 21, especially as the average age that a young person not in care leaves home is 24 - and probably rising in this economic climate. 

My dissertation explored the emotional support network for care leavers and the number one recommendation was to raise the leaving care age. So, job done?

I have a few initial thoughts about the implementation of this change:

a) the young people I interviewed said that at the time of leaving care, they wanted it. They were excited to live on their own and it was their choice. It was only after they moved that they realised how difficult it was, both practically in terms of financial difficulties and emotionally as this is often the first time they've been on their own with time to reflect on their experiences. (They've also now passed the cut off for access to child and adolescent mental health services but that's a whole separate issue!).

So it's possible that this news won't be as exciting to all young people as it will be to professionals. How can we professionals support young people to make the most informed decision about when to leave care? And will there ever be a time when it's possible for them to have an opportunity to go back after a trial period ( much like many of us 'boomerang population' who went home when we couldn't pay the bills)?

b) many of the teenagers I work with are in private agency placements. Local authorities have pressure to bring them back to live in in-house placements which are cheaper, but in my experience, if they go into the placement in their teens, it might be easier to leave them in their placement as they'll leave care by 18. Now it may be 21, will this change? Will private agency placements be even more disrupted, forcing more placement moves. Which, if I'm cynical, might mean the young person will say they'll just live independently rather than have to move again.

c) similarly, how will foster carers feel about the extension of age? Many I work with will love it and would have been planning to keep their young people anyway through Staying Put arrangements, despite the lesser financial support because they are so committed to the young person. However, some it will be a shift for some and an even greater commitment if you are offering long term foster care. Will foster carers receive extra support from their supervising social workers to think this through? 

d) we already have a 9000 shortage of foster carers in the UK. How is this going to impact that as foster placements are 'full' for longer periods?

e) finally, what about children in residential care who are often the most vulnerable and most likely to have been placed out of borough only to find themselves moving out at 16-18 and brought back to their home borough where their support network might be lacking. How can we support them for longer?

These are just a few initial thoughts and I'm sure they've all been raised and explored by people with far more experience than me and will continue to be!

For now though, this is incredibly welcome news and should send the message that children and young people in care are being taken seriously at all. 

Congratulations to everyone involved in campaigning!

Young people, cyber-bullying and suicide - just a thought

Dear Mr Timpson,

I'm a social worker, working in a local authority children in care team, prior to which I worked in advertising strategy for 5 years.

I have been reading with much sadness about the rising number of young people taking their own life after being bullied online on various social media sites. I realise that this is a complex issue which needs a multi-agency prevention strategy, however as a short-term and simple possibility, I was wondering whether a button could be added to many of these sites which just said something like 'I'm being bullied'. By clicking this button, the young person would immediately be taken through to an existing online support forum - for example NSPCC Childline  or another service that must exist and allow the young person to chat to a mentor/counsellor online or call them if they felt the need. I feel that many young people need help in that instant, which is what social media and indeed the digital age is all about - and expecting young people to reach out to a teacher the following day, or a parent later that evening, or even pick up the phone to call a helpline, is to misunderstand their mindset and the behaviours that have been ingrained, which mean that in that moment they are fully in the digital world.

It's just one thought but I would be interested in your response.

Kind regards,

Few tips from training on giving evidence in court

Check out this link on the revised PLO and how it affects Social Workers and their statements: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Reports/pfd-process-reform-revised-plo-may-2013.pdf

Separate out immediate risks and long terms risks in your statement and drill down to the why eg yea lack of supervision is a problem but why specifically, give examples. 

In court when giving evidence add your analysis when giving evidence in chief, ie to your own counsel to avoid it coming up in cross examination
 

Be ready to give top 5 risk concerns proving kids at immediate risk of harm. Have them prepared 

If you have time to find a research case to back up your evidence then do eg to prove why contact arrangements are the right amount 

Ask your counsel to start by asking whether you have given evidence before, if its your first time as will make judge sympathetic with you 

Meet counsel early before court to give them updates on case  

Be clear on separating fact and opinion and first hand vs second hand account. 

Recognise positives about parents to show you are being balanced. 

Show you have considered the harm of removing child vs harm of keeping them in home.  

Use legal terms like 'good enough parenting'. Don't say we want to improve child's outcomes, that's not the court/state's job, that's social engineering 

If applying for ICO, you really have to show kids at immediate risk of harm now and can't wait til final hearing. Especially difficult in neglect cases.

Raising the Leaving Care Age - Fostering Net's campaign

For those of you are unaware, The  Fostering Network is currently campaigning to increase the leaving care age from 18 to 21. http://www.fostering.net/news/2013/campaign-care-leavers-continues#.UbyWsvnryvw

This is a cause I am particularly passionate about, having recently completed the first draft of my dissertation looking at the emotional support network for care leavers, through direct interviews with young people.

The average age for young people in the UK to leave home is 24 and you might be familiar with the term 'boomerang generation' describing the trend for young people to return home when the going gets tough but yet we seem happy to release our most vulnerable young people out into the world on their own at age 18.

I have been trying to help by writing to my local MP - and encouraging friends and family to do the same.

I was glad to see some responses from a few MPs - below is the letter Lynn Featherstone sent to Children's Minister Ed Timpson and a further response from the Redwood MP.

In addition, my email is nothing special - but if it makes it easier to copy and paste it to your MP or amend it as you want, i've included it below. Please join in the campaign!!

Date: 14 June 2013

Dear Edward,

RE:  Children and Families Bill – Amendment NC4

I am writing on behalf of constituents of mine who have expressed concerns regarding the continuing support structure in place for foster children.

My constituents point out that those in foster care remain vulnerable once they reach the age of 18, and are concerned that from that point their continuing support and care depends upon an individual local authority’s discretion. This is of particular concern given that average age of leaving home in the UK is 24.

My constituents point to evidence which suggests those who stay longer with a foster family are more likely to be successful later on. This has the important consequence of lowering their need for support later on in life.

As amendment NC4 to the Children and Families Bill did not reach a Commons vote, I would be most grateful if you could comment on the specific issues that have been raised. Thank you for your kind attention in this regard and I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Lynne Featherstone MP

Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green

Thank you for your email concerning NC4 to the Children and Families Bill. I will study the arguments carefully before deciding how to vote, should this new clause be put to the House for decision.

Best Wishes,

The Rt Hon John Redwood MP

Member of Parliament for Wokingham

Dear......

I am writing to you to ask you to please support the amendment NC4, Continuing support for former foster children, in the Children and Families Bill, which would give young people the opportunity to stay in foster care until the age of 21, rather than 18. http://www.fostering.net/policy-and-campaigns/campaigns#.UbS4OfnVCSo

I'm very passionate about this cause, as a social worker who works in a Looked After Children team and as someone who has just finished their Social Work MA, and completed a dissertation about the emotional support network for children leaving foster care.

The average age for the general population to leave home is going up and up, and yet young people in care, the most vulnerable young people, get pushed out at 18, even if they are not ready. I've interviewed many care leavers who talk about ending up in debt, not eating for days and struggling to cope with the loneliness and isolation they have had to deal with at such a young age.

Please take action to support this amendment, to ensure our most vulnerable young people have the same opportunities that other young people do. The outcomes for care leavers are well known to be terrible - including underacheiving educationally, teenage pregnancy rate, high rates of homelessness, mental health problems and crime. From an economic point of view, it would clearly save the UK a great deal of money, to give these young people more support to help them make the right choices, with the love and encouragement of a family behind them.

The transition from student to professional: emotional intelligence

I’ve come to another transition in my career as today marks the end of my student placement, my last ever day and in a week’s time, I’ll begin my career as a keyworker pending my registration and then as a social worker, in a LAC team, exactly where I wanted to be.

I should be excited and I am – I’m intrigued to find out which cases I’ll be getting. I’m keeping one teenager who I have worked with for the past 6 months but the rest will all be new. But I’m also quite apprehensive. 

Over the last few months I have absolutely loved what I have been doing, but I have also come to see the emotional impact that the role can have and the importance of good supervision. I have been lucky to have had a very warm and caring supervisor, ready to listen to  me the following day if I messaged her after a tough evening session with a young person. However, it’s hard to know what my new team will hold, and although I can see many positives about the new pod model – particularly the benefits of gaining the perspective of many more professionals to help with decision making, I wonder whether it will allow for the same warmth, or potential for reflection or containment that one on one supervision has the power to do.

I have also already seen a colleague off sick a lot, ‘fatigued’ ,having been pretty new to the team, and I’m aware that there will be a big jump between the protected caseload that I have been holding and the cases that will greet me shortly. In addition, I feel the huge sense of responsibility that comes with this role – as well as the privilege that accompanies it, the privilege of working with some of these young people who inspire me on a regular basis.

I’ve been asking on twitter for tips and strategies that people have used to cope with the emotional element of the role. I’ve been told about the importance of supervision, reflection, work life balance. I’ve been told about the importance of creating a network of other professionals with whom you can be honest about feelings around your cases.  This is a big one for me. I’ve been lucky to have a fellow student and friend working alongside me on this placement, and certainly in my past career in advertising, my colleagues became my friends and we used to sit and discuss all our work, and that didn’t hold the emotional element. I think this is such an important support network for us as social workers.

One tip that my practice educator gave me which I think could be useful if you have the self-discipline to put into practice, is to identify a landmark on your way home from work, and when you hit that landmark, tell yourself to switch off from work from this point.

It will be interesting to see what the future brings but I feel ridiculously lucky, to have managed to change career to be a social worker and to have gained a job in the exact team that I wanted. I absolutely love working with children and young people and I want to make sure that I continue to keep the wishes and feelings of my young people at the heart of everything, and keep advocating for them, regardless of the bureaucratic challenges I may face.

Here’s hoping to a fulfilling and inspiring career, and the hope that I can make a difference, however small, to the lives of many people! 

Community Care Live 2013 conference - key Children and Family highlights...

Child Sexual Exploitation:

Speakers included Peter Davies, CEO of CEOP, Carlene Firmin – lead policy advisor at Office of Children’s Commissioner, Jane Grauberg, UK director of Strategy at Barnardos

I had to leave the session to go to next one before Jane spoke, so missed some.

Key points:

-          we need to understand how online and offline worlds are merged for children and young people

-          CEOP are creating a detailed action plan to train police in the UK to have all the necessary capabilities to work with sex ex by end of March 2014

-          Sex exploitation was defined as ‘vulnerability meets power’

-          Young people are often exploited via social network pages being hijacked and then being manipulated to perform sex acts over webcam

-          All about agencies working together to join the dots ie care homes knowing kids going missing, police knowing those same kids are presenting frequently at night, sex health clinics – knowing that young people keep coming back each month to test for infections or wanting pregnancy tests…

-          Its inaccurate to see this in terms of ethnicity. Often its viewed as Asian men exploiting white girls. Definitely not this simple and often BME girls are less likely to come forward for cultural reasons – promoting this view will just reinforce that they are not worthy of support

Research by Office for Children’s Commisioner:

Link – to interim report here: http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/press_release/content_472

These were the top consistent traits of those who were likely to be sexually exploited:

1. growing up in chaotic households ie DV, PSM, MH problems
2. histories of abuse within the family – could include forced marriage, honour based violence
3. BEREAVEMENT – this one is less known – could be loss of parent or sibling, multiple bereavement experienced through being in a gang, possibly general loss felt through going into care
4. growing up in a gang affected neighbourhood
5. being at a school with victims of sex ex (even if you personally don’t fall into any of the categories above…it’s just being persuaded to go to ‘parties’ by peers.)

Warning signs post abuse:

1. going missing, repeatedly. Not always overnight, sometimes missing in day or during school – less tracked
2. physical injuries – including burning, broken bones, eg fingers
3. alcohol or drug misuse – hence substance misuse agencies need to be trained
4. offending – if part of a gang might be persuaded to carry drugs or firearms, if exploited by group might be persuaded to shoplift- ie alcohol and then drink it before exploitation, or criminal damage
5. repeat presentations at sexual health centres eg for pregnancy testing

very rare for child to come forward as victim

BME children more likely to be found through faith and BME charities, especially outside of London. They are less often reported missing to police.

Important to consider breadth of models of sex ex – not helpful to talk of Rochdale and Oxford as the same – they are very different. Oxford v organised all around country, Rochdale much more local scale.

Muslim Women’s Network is working hard because it’s often described as crimes on white girls, and BME girls need to come forward more.

Disproportionate no. of victims in care, in children’s homes outside of borough. Government bringing in regulations on this and better training for staff

More training needed around issue of consent.

And thinking needs to be done about we manage disclosure – ie how do we protect someone who discloses especially if they are in a gang as they are now a ‘snitch’.

Centre for Mental Health report released yesterday:

http://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/a_need_to_belong.aspx?ID=669

Edward Timpson – Children’s Minister talk:

I personally found this pretty dull – very clichéd and mainly going over policies and reforms we know are happening.

Lots of talk about Frontline

Govnt are developing training modules on fostering and adoption

Child Sex exploitation – this summer will see a comprehensive review of training and career pathways of those working in children’s homes

Talk about speeding up proceedings to 26 weeks in family courts re deciding if children are going into care – C&F bill

Want to see many more children stay LAC til 18 – sign off will soon be needed from Director of Children;s Services for a child to leave care pre 18

Supporting LAs to give care leavers £2000 setting up home allowance

Adoption talk:

CEO of Coram, Head of Fostering and Adoption at Essex County Council, Adopter and author

The focus was on the new ‘passport’ concept given to adopters to allow them to access more services and whether this was possible given the lack of resources at the moment.

Plan is for Passport to articulate clearly for adopters what their entitlements and access are eg priority educational access, parity in parental leave

Looking into possibility of Adoption Support Fund – but question over whether adopters would know how to spend it ie on accredited therapy

Coram offer Webster Stratton module of training for adopters and STOP programme for parents of adolescents as well as music and art therapy

Talked about how there should be fast track referrals for all adopted children ie within health services

Although the Adoption Support Services regulations 2005 show that Las should already provide support and services to adopters, the provision is very patchy. Therapeutic services is a major challenge as attachment and behavioural difficulties are off the agenda.

How can respite be achieved well given children’s previous experiences of multiple placements?

Focus on the legal gap – ie assessment must be carried out but after the assessment it is up to LA discretion as to whether to actually provide services.

Ofsted don’t scrutinise what support is available 5-10 years down the line

Adoptive mother spoke a lot about how the child has missed out on adequate parenting and will often have a negative view of themselves and of their world- leading to feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness. Think how young people will behave through their life trajectory with these views about the world being a hostile and dangerous place. If the world hates me, I’ll hate it back – hence link between care system and prison.

She advocated for adopters and foster carers to be included in the therapy process to show that they recognise the horrendous experience their child has been through but that they love and accept them and are there to support them through it.

She challenged the fact that CAMHS is only available if child is in permanent placement but surely often a barrier to permanency is the child’s mental health issues leading to instability.

Also said we need to address birth parents’ needs and they need independent counselling not from the LA that removed their child!

Single Assessment Tool training:

Importance of looking at histories of parents to look at patterns, strengths and resilience which might help to identify future risks but need to be clear that their history does not dictate that this abuse/neglect will happen again.

Helpful circular questions when working with parents:

-          when you were a child, who was the least/most caring person to you?

-          If you could go back in time, and tell your father how to look after you, what would you tell him?

-          If your mum could see your parenting now, what would they say are the similarities and differences? – this helps to show their level of insight and scripts that might be played out

These questions can help in creating a genogram and developing hypotheses. Also to develop chronologies.

Be curious about the family and think about whose story is being prioritised and whose may be being sidelined, is this the only version of the truth, could there be another story?

Consider plotting it on matrix to show – extent of the consequences and the probability of reoccurrence.

Importance of systemic thinking: it’s not helpful to be blaming one person but should be looking at relationships ‘no-one changes under a negative connotation’ – need to help parent see the possibilities.

As well as risk, look at the exceptions to abuse and neglect, assume the problem is not happening all the time to find strengths and resilience.

Then think about safety plan – what are the desired outcomes, how would we plan, who is responsible, what are the timescales

Changes to LAC and remand:

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012

Prior to the above (LASPOA) 17 year olds were being treated as adults, often sent to prison while on remand as a default option. United Nations Conventions on Rights of a Child were criticising how young people were being treated. Now been a rewrite of the remand provisions for 12-17 year olds. A disproportionate representation of children were being put in custody on remand. However since the cost of this has been transferred to the local authority, it has been reduced.

YP in children’s homes are being accelerated to youth custody for offences that wouldn’t get picked up on if they lived with their families.

There is now the reformed youth remand framework – Dec 2012.

When children are placed on remand in custody they become LAC.

Not allowed to remand children to secure accommodation unless there is a realistic expectation of getting custodial sentence.

19^th April 2013, there was revised care planning regulations.

If the child is LAC:

-          LA may only have short-term relationship with these people as the average remand time is 42 days.

-          LA does not have responsibility for day to day arrangements of children’s care – but need to be satisfied that arrangements meet their needs

-          If child is already on care order and remanded to youth detention accommodation, or if they become LAC through remand, a detention placement plan is required which must be reviewed by an IRO and children’s wishes and feelings must be recorded.

A detention placement plan must include: (this replaces the need for Care plan and placement plan)

-issues around safeguarding

- Contact arrangements

- arrangement for social work visits, contact between visits

- will there be independent visitor

- how YDA staff will meet health and education needs

- child’s personal history, religious, cultural, language needs and how they’ll be met

- how YDA will help meet self-care needs and capacity for independent living

-name and contact details of key professionals eg SW, IRO, IV, Virtual Headteacher

AND arrangements for aftercare…will they have LA accommodation or any other services?

-          if they’ll be homeless, will need to be LAC under Southwark Judgement, Child in Need

-          or will they need s17 support for families?

Issues:

Are complaints made to youth justice board or LAs?

How is information shared?

Do young people have access to advocacy?

More joint training needed

Are there issues of parents feeling negative about child entering care system without court proceedings or s20 style consent.

Can see: National Standards Youth Justice, Secure Training Centre rules, Prison service policy about safeguarding issues – PSI 08/2012